WhatsApp Business Cloud API

Commercial

by Meta

Meta-hosted API for sending and receiving WhatsApp messages at scale, the dominant business messaging channel in Singapore. Supports templates, interactive messages, media and webhooks.

How to authenticate

  1. 1Create a Meta developer account and a Business app at developers.facebook.com.
  2. 2Add the WhatsApp product; you get a test number and temporary token instantly.
  3. 3Verify your business and register your own number to go beyond the 5-recipient test limit.
  4. 4Generate a permanent system-user token with whatsapp_business_messaging permission.
  5. 5Configure a webhook (with verify token) to receive inbound messages.

Example request

Request
curl -X POST 'https://graph.facebook.com/v21.0/PHONE_NUMBER_ID/messages' -H 'Authorization: Bearer TOKEN' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"messaging_product":"whatsapp","to":"65XXXXXXXX","type":"text","text":{"body":"Hello from SG"}}'

Example response

Response (truncated)
{"messaging_product":"whatsapp","contacts":[{"input":"65XXXXXXXX","wa_id":"65XXXXXXXX"}],"messages":[{"id":"wamid.HBg..."}]}

Notes for AI agents

Business-initiated conversations outside the 24-hour window require pre-approved template messages. Per-conversation pricing applies once past the free tier; free-form replies only within 24h of the user's last message.

Machine-readable version: /api/apis/whatsapp-cloud-api

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