Social media management charges in India (2026): what ₹10,000, ₹25,000 and ₹50,000 a month buy

"Social media handling" is one of the vaguest things a business can buy. HivePulse's ₹7,999 plan is 12 Instagram posts with basic replies to comments; Index Solutions' ₹8,999 plan is 10 pieces of content with no community management at all. Quotes are hard to compare because they count different things.

We run social media for clients and publish our own prices, so we read the packages Indian agencies publish and lined them up. Every price below comes from the provider's own page, checked on 12 October 2026, and is shown exactly as published.

What published social media packages cost in India

Several agencies publish "starting at" prices instead: Socio Labs in South Extension starts at ₹15,000, ₹35,000 and ₹60,000 a month for its first three tiers (its Enterprise plan is custom, from ₹1 lakh), and PageTraffic's entry plan starts from ₹25,000 plus GST (its page was last updated in 2024). Modulation Digital discounts longer terms, so its ₹25,000 plan works out at ₹17,500 a month on a 12-month contract.

What ₹10,000 a month buys

At this level you're paying for consistent, on-brand posting on one or two accounts. The published plans give 10 to 17 posts a month. Reels, if any, are few and usually edited from footage you supply. Replies to comments and DMs are basic or an add-on: Index Solutions charges ₹2,999 a month extra for community management on its ₹8,999 plan.

In our view, this is a sensible budget for a local business that needs an active, trustworthy profile more than reach. It's rarely enough to grow an account quickly: Instagram's head, Adam Mosseri, has said watch time, likes and sends matter most for ranking reels, and plans at this price include few reels.

What ₹25,000 a month buys

The middle tier is where most plans add the things that move numbers: more reels, a third platform such as LinkedIn, someone handling comments and DMs, and sometimes a managed ad campaign. Hyphiin's ₹21,000 Expert plan includes 10 to 14 reels; Index Solutions' ₹19,999 plan includes 6 reels and a monthly shoot in the Mumbai area; Modulation Digital's ₹25,000 plan includes one paid social campaign.

Look closely at who makes the video. UV Soft's ₹22,000 plan posts six times a week per account but expects you to supply the video. A plan with a shoot day included is a different product from one that edits your phone clips.

What ₹50,000 a month buys

Around ₹40,000 to ₹60,000 you get volume across more platforms (25 to 40 or more posts on up to six), more video, and in several plans the management of paid campaigns: Modulation Digital includes two, Socio Labs' Performance tier includes Meta and LinkedIn ads management, and HivePulse's ₹59,999 plan includes ads management with ad spend extra.

At this budget, ask whether you need more posts or better ones. Ten reels that people watch to the end usually do more than forty posts nobody stops for.

What's usually not included

• Ad spend. Every provider that mentions it says the ad budget is paid separately. Some plans include managing a campaign; none include the money it spends.
• Shoots. Lower tiers usually edit footage you supply. Index Solutions charges ₹4,999 for an extra two-hour shoot; its included shoots cover Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Kalyan and Dombivli, and travel may be charged elsewhere.
• Community management. Replying to comments and DMs is often a separate line or a higher tier.
• Reel editing beyond the plan. Index Solutions lists extra reels from ₹999 each for a basic edit.
• Influencer fees, paid music and stock footage. My Digital Sevak, which advises agencies on pricing, lists these among the costs agencies bill separately.
• Guarantees. Index Solutions states plainly that it doesn't guarantee followers, reach or likes. Be wary of anyone who does.

Agency, freelancer or in-house?

The alternative to a package is hiring someone. Salary data for India, as published:

₹3.6 lakh a year is about ₹30,000 a month in salary alone, for one person who has to plan, design, shoot, edit, write and reply. An agency spreads those skills across a team. In-house makes sense once there's enough daily work to keep someone busy and a person in the business to direct them.

Whoever does the work, the core tools are free. Meta Business Suite, which creates, schedules and manages posts and stories for a Facebook Page and Instagram account, is a free app. Instagram's own scheduler lets a public account schedule up to 25 posts a day, up to 30 days ahead, and Facebook Pages can schedule posts from 20 minutes to 29 days ahead.

Why rate-card articles disagree

Many of the cost articles you'll find are an agency's estimate of the market, not a list of its own prices, and they don't agree with each other. upGrowth publishes a basic tier of ₹15,000 to ₹35,000 in one guide and ₹5,000 to ₹15,000 in another. Treat published packages as the evidence and rate-card ranges as opinion.

Red flags, checked against the platforms' own rules

• Followers as a deliverable. Meta's spam policy prohibits buying, selling or exchanging engagement such as likes, follows and views. One plan we read lists "Targeted Instagram Followers" as included without saying what that means. Ask.
• Growth apps that need your password. Instagram began removing likes, follows and comments generated by third-party apps in 2018, and said those apps break its terms.
• Giveaways that require shares or tags. Meta's rules for Pages say a promotion must not require or incentivise people to share, repost or tag others.
• Too many hashtags. Instagram now allows up to 5 hashtags on a post. A plan that promises 20 or 30 hashtags a post is selling something Instagram won't post.
• Unlabelled creator posts. If the plan includes influencer collaborations, ASCI's guidelines require a clear label such as Ad, Sponsored or Collaboration, and hold the brand and creator jointly responsible.

GST on social media management

Most pages don't say. Of the providers above, only Index Solutions, UV Soft and PageTraffic say GST is extra, and only UV Soft gives the rate: 18%. CBIC's classification lists advertising services under SAC 998361, and secondary tax sources put it at 18%. Which code applies to an organic social media retainer is a question for your CA. Ask every agency whether its price includes GST before you compare.

Questions to ask before you sign

1. How many posts, reels and stories a month, on which platforms?
2. Who shoots the video: you, or the agency? How many shoot days?
3. Who replies to comments and DMs, and within what hours?
4. Is ads management included? Ad spend never is, so how is it billed?
5. Do I approve a content calendar before anything is posted?
6. How many revisions per post?
7. Who owns the designs, videos and the accounts themselves?
8. What's the minimum term, and what happens if I stop?
9. What does the monthly report show: reach, or enquiries?
10. Is GST included in the price?

What we charge for social media management

Our plans are public. We don't run shoots: each premium video uses an AI avatar with a real voice, or 2D animation, and runs up to 2 minutes. The "Bought piece by piece" column shows what the same work costs at our single-item prices: a premium video is ₹15,500, a premium carousel of up to 10 slides is ₹2,000, and community management (replies, automation and Facebook posting) is ₹6,000 a month.

If you film your own videos, Creator Reels edits 4 reels a month from your footage for ₹10,000. See the social media management page for how we work, or our guide to reel production costs if reels are what you need most. If you already have a quote, send it over and we'll tell you what it includes and what it leaves out.