WhatsApp Plus Price by Country, Features and Unofficial Apps
WhatsApp Plus is Meta's optional WhatsApp subscription: $2.99 a month in the US, Rs 79 in India and Dh5.99 in the UAE. It adds themes, icons, ringtones, special-effect stickers and room for 20 pinned chats. WhatsApp calls it an optional subscription, and everyday messaging and calls stay free. It is not the unofficial "WhatsApp Plus" app that has circulated outside the app stores for years, which can get your account banned.
What you get
- Pin up to 20 chats. The free limit is three.
- Custom lists. Set alerts, ringtones and themes for each of your chat lists.
- Themes and icons. Exclusive app icon designs and colors.
- Exclusive ringtones for your most important contacts.
- Special-effect stickers that play full-screen effects.
Meta also said on September 15 that WhatsApp Plus will soon test storage for chat and media backups and Focus Schedules, which mute or hide chats on a schedule, in its Meta One announcement. The plan is one of the single-app plans in Meta One, and Meta says rollout is gradual.
Price by country
| Country | WhatsApp Plus per month | Reported |
|---|---|---|
| United States | $2.99 | Meta, Sept 15 |
| Europe | €2.49 | BGR, May 13 (test) |
| India | Rs 79 | Fone Arena, Sept 16 |
| United Arab Emirates | Dh5.99 | Gulf News, Sept 16 |
| Brazil | R$7 | Showmetech, July 30 (test) |
| Mexico | MXN 29 | TechJuice, April (test) |
| Pakistan | Rs 230 | TechJuice, April (test) |
Prices marked "test" were reported while WhatsApp was testing the plan and may have changed since the September launch. Meta says plans and prices vary by region, so the sign-up screen shows your price. The Core plan, which bundles WhatsApp Plus with Instagram Plus, Facebook Plus and more AI use, costs $7.99 a month in the US.
How to subscribe and cancel
- Update WhatsApp on your iPhone or Android phone.
- On iPhone tap You. On Android tap the three dots, then Settings.
- Tap Subscriptions, then WhatsApp Plus.
- Check the benefits and confirm the purchase through the App Store or Google Play.
To cancel, open the same Subscriptions page and tap Cancel Subscription, or cancel in your Apple or Google subscriptions. The benefits last until the end of the period you paid for. The steps are from iDownloadBlog, which also reported that you can subscribe only in the official app on an iPhone or Android phone, not on an iPad, a computer or the web, and that it was not yet in every country. It reported a free first month at launch; Showmetech said Meta had not confirmed whether the offer would stay, so check your sign-up screen.
The real WhatsApp Plus and the unofficial apps
For years, modified copies of WhatsApp called "WhatsApp Plus" and "GB WhatsApp" were shared outside the Google Play Store and the App Store. WhatsApp does not support them. Its help center says an account that shows a "temporarily banned" message is probably using an unsupported version, Business Today reported in 2019, and WhatsApp support still warns that using unofficial apps may lead to a temporary or permanent ban, Showmetech notes.
There is a security risk too. Kaspersky found the Triada trojan in a modified client called YoWhatsApp in 2022, and in FMWhatsApp a year earlier, The Hacker News reported. Meta also sued three developers in China and Taiwan over unofficial WhatsApp apps that, The Hacker News said, led to over a million compromised accounts.
How to tell them apart: the official WhatsApp Plus is bought inside the official WhatsApp app, under Settings or You, then Subscriptions, and billed by Apple or Google. A free download file called "WhatsApp Plus" is not from Meta.
Is it worth it?
BGR argued in May that four of the plan's five launch features are cosmetic and the higher pin limit is the only one that changes how the app works. Whether that is worth the price is up to you, and the free app does not change.
Meta also sells Instagram Plus, which costs $3.99 a month in the US.
