Business Phone Numbers

A WhatsApp Business Account (WABA) needs a valid, dedicated business phone number. This guide explains how to select a business phone number, add it to your account, and how to delete a phone number from your account.

Requirements

The phone number for your business must be a valid phone number which meets the following criteria:

• Owned by you
• Has a country and area code, such as landline and cell numbers
• Able to receive voice calls or SMS
• Not a short code
• Not previously used with the WhatsApp Business Platform

If you want use a phone number already registered with WhatsApp or the WhatsApp Business App, refer to our migration guides:

• Migrate customer app phone number to the WhatsApp Business Platform
• Migrate phone number to a different WABA

You can still use this number for everyday purposes, such as calling and receiving messages after registering it on the WhatsApp Business Platform.

1-800 and Toll Free Numbers

Businesses may want to register a 1-800 or other toll free number on the platform. These numbers are usually behind an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system, however, which a WhatsApp registration call cannot navigate. Phone numbers behind an IVR system can be registered, but must be able to accept calls from international numbers and be able to redirect our SMS message or voice call to a real person.

To register a phone number that is behind an IVR system:

1. WhatsApp shares with you 1 or 2 phone numbers that the registration call will come from.
2. Create an allow list for these numbers. If you are unable to create an allow list for these numbers, add the phone number to your WABA and open a Direct Support ticket asking for the registration call phone numbers and include the phone number you are trying to register in the ticket.
3. Redirect the registration call to an employee or a mailbox to capture the registration code.

Phone numbers behind an IVR system that are unable to receive registration calls are not supported.

Manage WABA Phone Numbers

Add Phone Number to a WABA

Once you have chosen your business's phone number(s), you need to add them to your WABA.

If a phone number is banned by WhatsApp it cannot be added to a WABA. If you believe the phone number was banned in error, please contact support.

Delete Phone Number from a WABA

Requirements

• Only a business admin for the WhatsApp Business Account can delete a phone number.
• A number can not be deleted if the business has sent paid messages within the last 30 days using that number.
  • If the business has sent paid messages in the past 30 days, you will be redirected to the Insights page showing the date of the last paid message. You will be able to delete the phone number 30 days after this date.

To delete a phone number, complete the following steps:

1. In the Business Manager, go to your Business Settings page.
2. Go to Settings > Business Settings > WhatsApp Accounts > WhatsApp Manager > Phone Numbers.
3. From the WhatsApp Manager, find the phone number that you wish to delete. Click on the trash icon under Delete in the upper right.

4. You may be asked to provide the password for your Facebook account connected to the WABA if the phone number had the status “Connected” previously.

Display Names

A business phone number display name is the name that appears in WhatsApp Manager. Having a business phone number with an approved display name is one requirement for your business to become an Official Business Account.

You can set a display name when you add a business phone number in the App Dashboard > WhatsApp > API Setup panel, or in the WhatsApp Manager > Account tools > Phone numbers panel, if you haven't reached your phone number limit.

If you submit your business for business verification and it becomes verified, we will either:

• approve your display name
• reject your display name
• ask you to message more

In each case, we will notify you by phone_number_name_update webhook and Meta Business Suite notification.

If approved, we will set your business phone number's name_status to APPROVED.

If rejected, we will set your business phone number's name_status to DECLINED. We recommend that you re-review our display name guidelines, edit your display name accordingly, and file an appeal via Developer Support or Enterprise Developer Support.

If asked to message more, we don't have enough API usage data to determine if your number warrants a display name. Continue using the API, monitor phone number and message quality and take appropriate actions to improve your quality scores, and we will automatically re-review your display name at a future date.

Phone Number Limits

Business phone numbers can only be registered for use with one API at a time: Cloud API or On-Premises API.

Business accounts are initially limited to 2 registered business phone numbers, but this limit can be increased to up to 20.

If your business has been verified, or if you open 1,000 or more business-initiated conversations in a 30-day moving period using templates with a high quality rating, we will determine if your API usage warrants a phone number limit increase.

If we determine an increase is warranted, we will automatically increase your limit and notify you by business_capability_update webhook and Meta Business Suite notification of your new limit.

If we determine that an increase is not warranted, we will keep your limit at 2. If more than a week has passed since your business has been verified and your limit is still 2, ensure that you are monitoring phone number and message quality and take appropriate actions to improve your quality scores. After improving your quality scores, if we determine that your business warrants an increase, we will automatically increase your limit and notify you by webhook and Meta Business Suite notification of the new limit.

If you have access to Enterprise Support and need your limit increased beyond 20, open a Direct Support Ticket with the following selections and explain why your need more than 20 numbers:

WABiz: Account & WABA > Request type > Increase Phone Number Limits

Phone Number Status

Business phone numbers have a status, which is a reflection of the number's quality rating and current messaging limit usage (when a business phone number reaches its messaging limit, its status changes).

Your business phone number's status is displayed under the Status field in WhatsApp Manager > Account tools > Phone numbers). You can also get its status by requesting the status field using the GET /<WHATSAPP_BUSINESS_PHONE_NUMBER_ID> endpoint.

See our About your WhatsApp Business phone number’s quality rating help center article to learn more about quality ratings and statuses.

Migrate Phone Numbers

• Migrate an Existing WhatsApp Number to a Business Account
• Migrate Phone Number to a Different WABA