Overview

Gupshup brings AI agents, campaign journeys, and human escalation together. Agents can use conversational context to take actions such as booking appointments, cancelling tickets, or making EMI payments. Teams can set engagement rules, connect business tools, apply guardrails, and establish a trusted source of truth. That control suits action-oriented workflows better than simple FAQ automation, while human handoff provides a route for cases automation cannot resolve.

Campaign tools support trigger campaigns and drip journeys, with metrics for measuring their performance. Gupshup says it serves more than 50,000 businesses in 130+ countries and powers 120 billion conversations annually. That stated scale is relevant to large messaging programs, though it does not determine whether a particular workflow or budget fits.

Key features

Agent building and control: A visual flow builder, AI bot generation, knowledge-base answers, and lead qualification support both guided interactions and agent-led conversations. Rules, tools, guardrails, and a trusted source of truth give teams ways to shape behavior; organizations that need tightly governed automation may value that combination.
Human escalation and routing: Conversation routing and human handoff let teams move complex cases to support staff instead of forcing every interaction through automation.
Campaigns and channels: Trigger campaigns, drip journeys, and performance metrics support ongoing outreach. Channels include WhatsApp, Instagram, SMS, web and app, RCS, and voice, giving teams a broad set of customer touchpoints to coordinate.
Integrations: Gupshup lists Salesforce Marketing Cloud, MoEngage, CleverTap, Oracle Responsys, WebEngage, Bloomreach, and Braze, alongside more than 500 plug-and-play integrations across support, payments, CRM, and commerce. It also describes custom integrations with any platform. This breadth is useful for teams connecting messaging to existing operations, though the specific fit depends on their systems.
Security: Its security program displays ISOQAR, AICPA, RBI, GDPR, CCPA, and LGPD certification or compliance marks and is described as periodically reviewed.

Pricing

Gupshup's pricing model is paid, with a free plan and self-serve WhatsApp pricing starting at $0.00. The $0.00 monthly Gupshup messaging-fee plan still charges a standard 0.001 USD per message for all messages; WhatsApp fees are billed at actuals. The WhatsApp API Self Serve plan is $0.00 per contact and charges $0.001 per message, with template and session messages each priced at $0.001. Media over 64KB is free, while WhatsApp fees vary by message type and country.

The zero-dollar plan figures are not an all-in free messaging allowance: message fees remain, and WhatsApp charges are separate. Teams should estimate message mix and volume before choosing self-serve; enterprise pricing is custom pricing and requires contacting Gupshup. The listed plans do not provide a basis for comparing seat allowances or trial terms.

Platforms

Gupshup runs on web and through an API, with multichannel deployment. That combination suits teams integrating conversational capabilities into their systems or managing messaging through a web interface; it is not presented as a standalone native mobile app.

Who it's for

Gupshup is aimed at marketing, performance marketing, commerce and growth, and customer support and CX teams. It is a good fit when a business needs context-aware agents, campaign journeys, multiple channels, and human escalation in one program. A team seeking a simple, low-volume chatbot with predictable all-in pricing may find the per-message model and separate WhatsApp charges less appealing.

Pros and cons

Pro: Agents can take business actions using conversational context, extending automation beyond answers to practical workflows.
Pro: Human escalation, routing, and campaign tools complement the agent capabilities for teams handling both outreach and support.
Pro: Broad channel and integration coverage can reduce the need to separate messaging programs by platform.
Con: The $0.001 per-message fee applies to all messages, with WhatsApp fees billed separately at actuals, so message volume and country mix affect cost.
Con: Enterprise pricing requires a sales conversation, making it less straightforward to budget than a fully priced self-serve service.

Alternatives

For a conventional meeting and collaboration app rather than a conversational automation platform, Webex App has a free plan with unlimited meetings up to 40 minutes and 100 attendees. Yellow.ai is worth considering for teams that want a freemium AI agent platform: its free plan includes one AI agent, 500 per month, a two-agent limit, 1,000 records, and one active campaign. Kore.ai may suit buyers seeking a customized project quote and a platform available through API, web, or self-hosting.

Ada, Zowie, Hey Support, Teneo, and boost.ai are other paid or freemium options in the conversational automation space. For category browsing, see Customer Service Automation Software, RCS Business Messaging Software, RCS Messaging Platforms, Communications Platforms as a Service, Conversational Marketing Software, and WhatsApp Business API Providers.

Verdict

Choose Gupshup if your marketing, commerce, or CX operation needs context-aware agents, campaigns, and human handoff across several messaging channels. Its strongest case is the breadth of automation and integration in one platform; its main drawback is that per-message pricing plus actual WhatsApp fees makes total cost dependent on usage. Teams with modest volumes or a need for simpler price certainty should compare alternatives before committing.

	Gupshup	Hay.chat
Free plan	Yes	No
Paid from	Free	€50/mo
Platforms	api, Web	Web
Free plan	No	No
Deployment channels	multichannel	multichannel
Visual flow builder	Yes	No
AI bot generation	Yes
Knowledge-base answers	Yes	Yes
Human handoff	Yes	Yes
Lead qualification	Yes
Conversation routing	Yes
Marketing journeys	Yes
Supported channels	omnichannel
Included conversations		500 /mo

Gupshup vs Hay.chat

Gupshup

Hay.chat