How to get the WhatsApp Business API in India

What you need before you start

• A Facebook login. The signup runs on Meta's own pages, so whoever manages the business logs in with it.
• A phone number you own, with a country and area code, that can receive an SMS or a voice call. Meta recommends a mobile number; a landline works if you choose the voice call for the code.
• A number that is not on WhatsApp — or one that is on the WhatsApp Business app, which you can bring with you.
• The name customers should see on your chats, and your business details: legal name, address and website.
• A debit or credit card for Meta's Billing Hub, so Meta can bill the messages it charges for.

Six steps to your first message

1. 1 Pick the number A new number, or the one already on your WhatsApp Business app. If customers already know your WhatsApp number, keep it.
2. 2 Choose a provider Pick a Meta Solution Partner or Tech Provider whose inbox your team will actually use. Meta's own Cloud API is free to connect to directly, but it is an API, not an inbox: you would need developers to build one.
3. 3 Run the provider's signup Meta calls the provider's signup Embedded Signup. Log in with Facebook and choose or create your business portfolio — Meta's account for your business, once called Business Manager. Then create the WhatsApp account, enter your display name and confirm the number with a code.
4. 4 Add a payment method In Meta's Billing Hub. Without one, Meta stops delivering your replies once the free 1,000 for the month are used.
5. 5 Get your first templates approved To start a conversation, or write to someone after 24 hours of silence, you need a template Meta has approved. Replies inside 24 hours of the customer's message do not.
6. 6 Verify your business A new business can start conversations with 250 people a day. Verifying it with Meta raises that to 2,000. After that Meta raises it on its own — to 10,000, 100,000 and then no limit — as long as your messages are well received and you use at least half of your limit in a week.

Keeping the WhatsApp Business app on the same number

Meta lets a business connect its existing WhatsApp Business app number to the API and keep using the app. Messages sent from either place appear in both. Here is what changes when you connect the app to the API:

• The app has to be version 2.24.17 or later.
• Your last six months of one-to-one chats and your contacts can be brought into the provider's inbox. Groups are not.
• Broadcast lists stop working: existing ones become read-only. Send broadcasts from the provider instead.
• Disappearing messages, view-once and live location are switched off for one-to-one chats.
• Linked devices are signed out once. You can link them again, except WhatsApp for Windows and Wear OS.
• Messages you send from the app stay free. Messages sent through the API are charged at Meta's rates.

What you can send, and to whom

You can message only people who have agreed to hear from you on WhatsApp. That is Meta's rule. Messaging people who did not ask is the quickest way to a poor quality rating, and Meta raises your limit only while quality stays high.

When a customer writes to you, a 24-hour window opens, and each new message from them restarts it. Inside it you can reply freely: text, photos, documents, buttons. Outside it you can only send an approved template.

The 250-a-day limit counts only people you message outside that window, across all your numbers. It has little effect on a business that mostly replies to customers who write first.

Why sign-ups get stuck

1. 1 The number is already on WhatsApp Delete the WhatsApp account on it first. If it is on the WhatsApp Business app, use the option to connect your existing app instead.
2. 2 The code never arrives The number must be able to receive an SMS or a call from abroad. Turn on international SMS and calls with your operator, and for a landline choose the voice call.
3. 3 The app is too old Update the WhatsApp Business app to 2.24.17 or later before connecting it.
4. 4 The number was banned A number banned on WhatsApp has to win its appeal before it can be registered.

What it costs

Signing up is free. After that you pay Meta per message — ₹0.8631 for marketing and ₹0.115 for most other messages in India, with the first 1,000 replies a month free on each number — plus your provider's fee. What a WhatsApp API message costs breaks it down message by message.

Getting the API through Endelir

Endelir is a verified Meta Tech Provider. The signup runs from inside your Endelir dashboard on Meta's own pages, it offers the option to keep your WhatsApp Business app, and we go through it with you on a call.

Endelir gives your whole team a shared WhatsApp inbox, and the AI teammate is included from the Growth plan onwards. See our plans, or talk to us first.

Questions

About the author

Hardik Datanwala is the founder of Endelir, a shared WhatsApp inbox with an AI teammate for businesses in India, built by Mosorb India LLP in Goa. Endelir is a verified Meta Tech Provider: it connects businesses to the WhatsApp Business API through Meta's own signup.

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