CARRIER RATE UPDATE

RCS pricing changes from September 1, 2026 — new transactional & promotional rates

Carrier-level RCS costs across Jio, Airtel and Vi have moved, and the retail rate card is changing with it. Transactional RCS moves to approximately ₹0.11 per message, promotional RCS to approximately ₹0.30 per message — here's the full new rate card and how to keep RCS spend under control.

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₹0.11indicative transactional rate

₹0.30indicative promotional rate

2clear billing tiers

Time until new rates apply

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Effective 01 Sep 2026, 00:00 IST

THE NEW RATE CARD

A clearer two-tier structure, effective 1 September

RCS billing now splits cleanly by message category instead of a single blended range — this is what determines your rate on every send.

Swipe left/right to see all columns →

Category	Typical use case	New rate (approx, + GST)
Transactional	OTPs, order confirmations, delivery updates, account alerts	₹0.11 / message
Promotional	Offers, campaigns, rich cards, carousels, CTAs	₹0.30 / message
Conversational	Guided support flows, multi-step bot sessions	Quote-based — contact sales

Rates are indicative retail figures and can vary by operator (Jio, Airtel, Vi), message richness (plain vs. rich card vs. carousel) and monthly volume. Your exact billed rate is confirmed on your account dashboard.

HOW WE GOT HERE

RCS in India: from pilot to a priced channel

RCS Business Messaging moved from experimental to production across all three major operators through 2026 — this rate update is the next step in that maturity curve.

2019

Jio launches early RCS

One of the first Indian carriers to support GSMA RCS for peer-to-peer messaging.

FEB 2024

Vi partners with Google

Vi becomes the first Indian operator to formally enable enterprise RCS via Google Jibe Cloud.

MAR 2026

Airtel joins with AI spam filtering

Airtel prices RCS at ~₹0.11/message under an 80:20 revenue-share deal with Google.

2026

All 3 operators fully live

Jio, Airtel and Vi all support RCS Business Messaging at carrier level.

01 SEP 2026

New rate card applies

Retail RCS pricing splits into clear transactional and promotional tiers.

WHY RATES ARE CHANGING

The increase tracks real carrier-level cost

Carrier cost pass-through

Revenue-share pricing

Airtel's RCS agreement with Google runs on a revenue-share model priced near ₹0.11 per message at carrier level — that cost flows into every provider's rate card.

Infrastructure investment

Spam filtering & verification

2026's carrier-level AI spam filters and verified-sender programs across Jio, Airtel and Vi added infrastructure that businesses now pay into.

Delivery complexity

Rich media costs more

Promotional RCS — carousels, images, buttons — consumes materially more delivery bandwidth than a plain transactional message.

Billing clarity

Two tiers, not one range

Replacing a single blended price range with a clear transactional/promotional split makes budgeting more predictable, not less.

CHANNEL COMPARISON

Where RCS sits against SMS and WhatsApp now

All three channels have moved in 2026 — here's the like-for-like picture for planning your blended mix.

Channel	Approx. cost per message (India)	Where it wins
Bulk SMS	Lowest cost per message	Universal reach — works on every phone, every network
RCS — Transactional	~₹0.11 + GST	Verified branding at near-SMS economics
RCS — Promotional	~₹0.30 + GST	Rich media, carousels, higher engagement than SMS
WhatsApp — Utility/Auth	₹0.1150 + GST	24-hr session context, wide consumer familiarity
WhatsApp — Marketing	₹0.8631 + GST	Highest engagement, but requires opt-in

WhatsApp Business API rates shown are Meta's published India rate card. See our WhatsApp API pricing change page for the October 2026 update affecting those rates.

HOW TO CONTROL COSTS

Six steps to keep RCS spend predictable

Run this checklist before your next campaign so every send bills at the category it should.

STEP 1

Split transactional vs promotional sends

Tag every RCS template correctly before sending so it bills at the right rate, not the higher default.

STEP 2

Reserve promotional RCS for high-intent moments

Use carousels and rich cards for cart recovery, upsells and launches; route routine promos to SMS or WhatsApp.

STEP 3

Keep transactional templates lightweight

A plain-card transactional message costs less to deliver than a rich card with images.

STEP 4

Enable automatic SMS fallback

Every RCS send should fall back to SMS instantly on non-RCS devices — never pay an RCS rate for a non-RCS delivery.

STEP 5

Set category-wise budget alerts

Cap monthly promotional RCS spend separately from transactional spend in your CPaaS dashboard.

STEP 6

Re-quote your blended channel mix

Compare RCS, SMS and WhatsApp costs per use case now that all three have moved this year.

WHY SMSGATEWAYHUB FOR RCS

One dashboard, category-aware billing

Multi-operator RCS routing

Direct connections across Jio, Airtel and Vi — no switching providers as coverage grows.

Automatic SMS fallback

Every RCS send reaches the customer on any device, on any network, instantly.

DLT-compliant sender & templates

Verified sender profile and template registration handled end-to-end.

Category-aware billing

Transactional and Promotional RCS billed and reported separately, so cost stays transparent.

Real-time delivery & engagement reports

Track sent, delivered, read and clicked by category as campaigns run.

Blended SMS + RCS + WhatsApp dashboard

Compare and route across all three channels from one panel, one bill.

Go deeper on RCS & multi-channel pricing

This page tracks the September 2026 RCS rate update specifically. For the full platform and channel picture, see the pages below.

RCS Messaging overview → WhatsApp API pricing change (Oct 2026) → Bulk SMS pricing & plans → WhatsApp Business API overview →

FAQ

September 2026 RCS pricing — common questions

What is the new RCS pricing from September 1, 2026? +

From 1 September 2026, RCS message rates move to a clearer two-tier structure: transactional RCS messages (OTPs, order and delivery updates) at approximately ₹0.11 per message, and promotional RCS messages (offers, campaigns, rich cards) at approximately ₹0.30 per message, both plus applicable GST.

Why are RCS prices increasing in 2026? +

The increase largely tracks carrier-level RCS costs — Airtel, for instance, has priced RCS messages at around ₹0.11 per message under its revenue-sharing agreement with Google — plus the added infrastructure cost of carrier-level spam filtering and verified sender programs rolled out across Jio, Airtel and Vi through 2026.

What counts as a transactional RCS message versus a promotional one? +

Transactional RCS covers OTPs, order confirmations, delivery updates and account alerts sent to an existing customer. Promotional RCS covers offers, campaigns, rich cards and carousels used for marketing and engagement — billing treats the two categories differently, similar to SMS and WhatsApp template categories.

Is RCS still cheaper than WhatsApp Business API? +

For OTP and transactional use, RCS at approximately ₹0.11 per message is close to WhatsApp's Authentication/Utility rate of ₹0.1150 per message. For promotional campaigns, RCS at approximately ₹0.30 is meaningfully cheaper than WhatsApp Marketing at ₹0.8631 per message, both plus GST.

Does RCS still fall back to SMS if a device doesn't support it? +

Yes. A correctly configured RCS send automatically falls back to SMS when the recipient's device or network doesn't support RCS, so reach isn't affected by the pricing change — only the per-message cost on RCS-capable deliveries.

How can I reduce my RCS costs after the September 2026 hike? +

Tag every send correctly as Transactional or Promotional so it bills at the right rate, keep transactional templates lightweight rather than rich-card format, reserve promotional RCS for high-intent campaigns, and set category-wise budget alerts in your CPaaS dashboard.

Simply Restart Your SMS Marketing Journey!