WhatsApp ordering for restaurants in India.
A fully free AI agent that takes orders.

Many Indian restaurants already take orders on WhatsApp from regulars. The trouble is peak time: the kitchen is full, the phone is ringing, and a customer who waits ten minutes for a reply orders from an app instead.

An AI agent replies at once, every time, from your own menu. Wapzen links the number you already use as a device, so your phone keeps working and your staff can still reply. It’s fully free, and the AI is included.

It works for restaurants, dhabas, cafés, bakeries, sweet shops, cloud kitchens, tiffin services and caterers. If you want to compare it with WhatsApp’s free catalog and with ordering platforms, read our WhatsApp food ordering system guide.

The commission isn’t the only deduction. Restaurants also complain about discounts they didn’t approve and ad charges. In The Week’s example, a ₹400 dish leaves the restaurant around ₹220 after everything, packaging included.

• July 2026: the BBHA said Bengaluru restaurants would stop taking app orders from 15 August unless commissions, discounts, ad fees and payout deductions were revised.
• August 2026: after Swiggy and Zomato agreed to consent-based discounts, the hotel bodies deferred the boycott to 1 September, according to Angel One.
• The NRAI has an antitrust case at the Competition Commission of India against high commissions, price parity and forced exclusivity.

None of this means leaving the apps. They bring new customers you wouldn’t reach on your own. The point is to take your repeat customers’ orders directly, where you keep the whole bill.

On a ₹400 order at a 25% commission, the commission alone is ₹100, plus ₹18 GST on it. A direct order on WhatsApp has no commission, though you pay for your own delivery and packaging.

Here’s how a chat at a cloud kitchen could go:

If a customer adds a dish a minute after ordering, the agent changes the open order instead of creating a second one, and the alert says it changed. For more on this flow, see the WhatsApp order-taking chatbot guide.

• Two copies of the menu. One the agent reads to answer (text with prices), and one it sends to the customer (the designed PDF or photo).
• Daily specials. Update the information when the special changes. The agent only knows what you gave it.
• Your website or online menu. On the Web Search card, enter your website and the agent reads it to answer. Check that its answers match what’s published.
• Scanned menus can’t be read as information. Use a file with selectable text, or type the dishes and prices in.

• UPI QR as an image. Upload it in Images & Files with the note “send when the customer chooses UPI”.
• Screenshots aren’t proof. The sample prompt forbids the agent from saying a payment was received. Check your bank or UPI app before dispatching prepaid orders.
• Cash on delivery: set a minimum order value in the instructions if you want one, and the agent will apply it.

Write your delivery rules clearly in the information, because the agent will quote them exactly:

• The areas or PIN codes you deliver to, and the charge for each.
• Usual delivery times, and longer ones for peak hours or rain.
• The minimum order value, and whether pickup is available.

To follow up on late orders, each conversation has an AI switch. Turn it off for that customer and reply yourself, then turn it back on.

• Cloud kitchens: put every brand you run in the information, with its own menu, and tell the agent to ask which brand the customer means.
• Tiffin services: list your plans (veg or non-veg, lunch or dinner, monthly price) and update the daily menu each morning. Take Order can note a new subscription with the start date and address.
• Caterers and party orders: have the agent collect the date, venue, number of guests, veg or non-veg and budget, then your team sends the quote.

• A QR code that opens a pre-typed order message. Make one free with our WhatsApp QR code generator.
• A WhatsApp link from our free link generator in your Google listing, Instagram bio and website.
• Regulars first. Office lunch orders, families and nearby residents are the easiest customers to move to WhatsApp.
• Check your contracts. Delivery-app agreements can include rules on pricing and on contacting customers who came through the app. Read yours before putting flyers in app orders or pricing direct orders lower.

• GST: the app collects and pays GST on its orders; a direct WhatsApp order is your own sale. Your CA will tell you what to charge and how to report it.
• FSSAI: FSSAI requires your licence or registration number on receipts, invoices and bills, so customers can identify your business.
• Prices on the bill: the agent quotes the prices in its information. If you add GST or packaging on top, write that in the information too, so the total in the chat matches the bill.

This is general information, not tax or legal advice.

A worked example

Take a cloud kitchen that moves 20 orders a day from regulars to WhatsApp: 600 orders a month at ₹400, with about 8 replies per order, or 4,800 replies.

• Through an app at 25%: ₹100 commission per order, or ₹60,000 a month, plus ₹10,800 GST on the commission.
• On an API platform (AiSensy): ₹1,500 plan + ₹1,350 AI add-on + 3,800 replies × ₹0.145 (₹551) = ₹3,401 + GST, about ₹4,013. The add-on covers 1,000 AI messages, so the rest cost extra.
• On Wapzen: fully free, with no commission and no Meta message charges.

In every direct case, you pay for delivery and packaging yourself. AiSensy’s prices and Meta’s India rates are from 1 October 2026 and change every quarter.

Some customers would rather call than type. When everyone is in the kitchen, the voice agent can answer what’s on the menu, prices, timings and delivery areas. For orders, have it ask the caller to send the order on chat, where it’s confirmed in writing and saved on your Orders page.

1. Sign up free. No card and no API key.
2. Prepare your instructions first. The agent starts replying as soon as the number is linked.
3. Link the number. In WhatsApp: Linked devices → Link a device → Link with phone number instead, and enter the code. On a computer you can scan the QR code.
4. Add your menu and delivery rules as text, PDF or Word, and the menu PDF and UPI QR in Images & Files.
5. Switch on Take Order and add your kitchen manager’s number under Order alerts on WhatsApp.
6. Place a test order from another number, with a voice note and a change of mind, and check it on the Orders page.

These instructions are for a made-up cloud kitchen. Change them to yours:

You are the virtual assistant of Demo Biryani Kitchen, a cloud kitchen in HSR Layout, Bengaluru.
Say in your first message that you are a virtual assistant.
Reply in the customer's language: English, Hinglish, Hindi or Kannada. Use two or three short sentences and ask one question at a time.
Use only the menu, prices, delivery areas, charges and timings you were given. If a dish or area isn't listed, say so. Never invent prices, discounts or delivery times.
To take an order: ask for the items and quantities, the delivery address with landmark, and cash or UPI. Repeat the order with each price, the delivery charge and the total, and ask the customer to confirm. Place the order only after they confirm.
If the customer pays by UPI, share our UPI ID and ask for the screenshot. Never say a payment has been received: say our team will check it and confirm.
Never promise that a dish is free from any allergen. For allergies, say a team member will reply.
For complaints, late or wrong orders and refunds, apologise and say a team member will reply on this chat.
Kitchen hours: 12 noon to 3:30 pm and 7 pm to 11:30 pm, every day.

• Your POS or billing software: if it has a public API, an API tool can send it each order. That needs someone technical. Otherwise, your team enters orders from the Orders page.
• It works on your current number, personal or WhatsApp Business, as a linked device.
• It doesn’t alert you to complaints. Agree who checks the chats during service.
• Wapzen is an independent product, not made by Meta or WhatsApp.