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WhatsApp Business API

The official Meta API: templates, the 24-hour window and usage.

Connect or migrate through Meta

The WhatsApp Business API (WABA) is the official, Meta-hosted way to run WhatsApp for business. Connect a new number through the Meta sign-in flow from Channel, or migrate a number you already run through another provider. Manage templates and usage in the WhatsApp API console.

Importing history

Connecting through the official API can bring in up to 6 months of your existing chat history, so switching to Chatz does not mean starting every conversation from scratch.

Templates and store templates

Once connected, a WhatsApp API row appears in the sidebar with its own tabs. Under Templates, create, refresh and delete the message templates Meta requires for outbound messages sent outside the customer service window. Store templates holds the ready-made templates for order, invoice and payment reminder messages, so your Store can message customers on a WABA channel without you writing those templates by hand.

My templates lists what your account already holds. Each row has a menu: Preview shows the message the way WhatsApp draws it, with the template's own sample values filled in, plus the fill-ins and buttons it carries. Rename gives it a readable name.

Rename names it here, not on WhatsApp
Meta fixes a template's name when you submit it and never changes it after, soRename sets a name Chatz shows and keeps the WhatsApp name beside it. That matters most for a number moved over from another tool, which arrives full of names likebot_96ff27ef093b7df0_act_mszr20011rximj94: the message is yours, only the name is the old tool's. The WhatsApp name is what a flow, a broadcast or an API call sends, so it keeps working exactly as before. Leave the field empty to go back to it.

The 24-hour window

WhatsApp only allows free-form replies within 24 hours of the last message a customer sent. Once that window closes, you can only send an approved template, not an ordinary message. The inbox shows a banner on a closed conversation and offers Send a template right there, so an agent does not need to leave the chat to reopen it. The 24-hour windows tab in the WhatsApp API console shows which conversations are open or closed at a glance.

Why this exists
The window is a WhatsApp policy, not a Chatz limit: it exists so businesses cannot message someone indefinitely after one reply.

What Meta charges for

Meta bills your WhatsApp Business account directly, per delivered message. Chatz adds nothing on top. What is charged depends on the kind of message and when it was sent:

  • Marketing and authentication templates are always charged, at a rate set by the customer's country.
  • Replies inside the 24-hour window were free until 30 September 2026. From 1 October 2026 each number gets 1,000 free replies a calendar month, and every reply after that is charged at the utility rate. Utility templates sent inside the window are charged from the same date.
  • A customer who arrives from a Click-to-WhatsApp ad, and gets a reply from you within 24 hours, opens a free window of up to 7 days from that reply. Everything you send them inside it is free, templates included, and it does not use up the 1,000.
Free is not the same as allowed
The 7-day ad window changes the price, not the rules. Free-form text still needs the 24-hour window; after it closes, only a template goes out, and on an ad lead that template is free. The chat banner says so, for example Templates free for 5d 12h · ad lead, 24h window closed, and the button reads Send a template (free).

Usage and spend

The Usage & spend tab in the WhatsApp API console shows what your WABA channel is costing and how much you are sending, so you can track conversation volume against the charges Meta bills you.

  • Templates: create, preview, rename, refresh and delete message templates.
  • Store templates: order, invoice and payment reminder templates.
  • 24-hour windows: which conversations are still open to a free-form reply.
  • Usage & spend: message volume and cost, plus how many of each number's 1,000 free replies this month has used.
Chatz Docs - WhatsApp Business API