Introduction

On this page, you learn general information about the WhatsApp Business Platform, what it is, how to access it, how much it costs to use it.

What Is WhatsApp Business Platform?

WhatsApp Business Platform is a tool for small businesses to enterprises with moderate to high messaging volume that need advanced communications. It’s not an app you can download on a device and does not have a chat interface (inbox). Instead, it runs entirely in the cloud and consists of three APIs:

WhatsApp Business Platform is a tool for small businesses to enterprises with moderate to high messaging volume that need advanced communications. It’s not an app you can download on a device and does not have a chat interface (inbox). Instead, it runs entirely in the cloud and consists of three APIs:

Only the first two APIs, WhatsApp Business API and WhatsApp Cloud API, are used for customer communications.

What is an API?

An Application Programming Interface (API) is an interface that lets two or more software interact and exchange data with each other without human intervention.

WhatsApp Business API and WhatsApp Cloud API are programming interfaces that let you connect WhatsApp to any other software and tool that can connect with it. This way, you use the features and benefits of the other software in your WhatsApp communications.

Benefits of the WhatsApp Business Platform

The benefits and features you can get with the WhatsApp Business Platform are limitless and depend on any software you can connect to it. For example, if customers can purchase products and services from your website, you can connect your website to WhatsApp and every time a customer places an order, you can automate sending them an order confirmation message. Or let’s say you have a team of customer support agents that need to talk to customers as a team, assign conversations to each other and leave private notes. This can only be done with the WhatsApp Business Platform and an inbox/CRM with these features.

In WhatsApp Business Platform Benefits, we talk about these in more detail.

How to Access the WhatsApp Business Platform?

To access either API, you must create a WhatsApp Business Account (WABA). For WhatsApp Cloud API, you can access it directly from Meta. It takes a few minutes to create your WABA and access the API. Follow the steps in How to Access the WhatsApp Cloud API.

To access WhatsApp Business API, you must create a WABA with Meta’s official business partners, Business Solution Providers (BSPs). A full list of them can be found in Meta’s partner directory. See How to Choose a Business Solution Provider (BSP) for information on selecting the right BSP for your business needs.

How Much Does It Cost to Use the WhatsApp Business Platform?

If you want to use the WhatsApp Business Platform for customer communications, at the very least, there are three costs that you must consider:

  • Business Solution Provider Fee
    and
  • Fee for an inbox and/or a CRM
    and
  • WhatsApp’s conversation-based fee

For detailed information, see WhatsApp Business Platform Cost.

If you want to connect any other tool to your WhatsApp account, you must add that tool’s cost too.

Important Policies to Comply with When Using the WhatsApp Business Platform

WhatsApp Commerce Policy

If you want to use the platform for selling goods and services, you must comply with WhatsApp’s Commerce Policy. If your goods and services don’t comply with WhatsApp’s Commerce Policy, you may still use the platform for messaging but you cannot use it for selling.

WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy

If you want to use the platform for messaging and/or selling goods and services you must comply with WhatsApp’s Business Messaging Policy.