What Meta's calling allows
- Customers can call your business from the call button in your WhatsApp chat, and your business can call customers who have agreed to it.
- Your number has to be on the Cloud API, not the WhatsApp Business app, with calling switched on in its settings.
- Meta asks for a daily messaging limit of at least 2,000 unique recipients, which comes with business verification.
- Calls from customers work wherever the Cloud API does. Calls from a business aren't available in some countries, including the United States, Canada, Egypt, Vietnam and Nigeria.
- Calls run over the internet, inside WhatsApp, at no cost to the customer.
What calls cost
| Call | What Meta charges |
|---|---|
| A customer calls you | Free |
| You call a customer | Per 6 seconds, by the customer's country and your monthly volume |
| Asking a customer's permission to call | Charged as a normal message |
A customer's call also opens the 24-hour customer service window, whether or not you answer, so afterwards you can reply with ordinary messages, not just templates. Calls you make need a payment method on your WhatsApp account. Meta: calling pricing
An AI voice agent adds its own cost on top: in HeyKiko, each started minute of a call uses AI credits, and calls that are never answered are refunded.
What an AI voice agent does on a call
- Step 1
Picks up
With your greeting, in the voice you chose.
- Step 2
Listens and answers
From the same knowledge as your chat, in short spoken sentences, and the caller can interrupt it like a person.
- Step 3
Acts during the call
Books an appointment from your open times, or sends the caller details by WhatsApp message while they're still on the line.
- Step 4
Knows when to stop
When a caller asks for a person, it flags the call for your team to follow up on WhatsApp, and it ends calls that go silent.
Every spoken turn is saved in the caller's normal WhatsApp chat, so the call shows up in your inbox, leads and cases like any conversation.
What to know before you switch it on
- There's no live transfer to a person. A caller who asks for someone is flagged for a call-back or a WhatsApp reply.
- Calls you make are started by a person on your team, not the AI. Meta revokes a customer's permission after repeated unanswered business calls, so automated dialling is a bad idea anyway.
- Only so many calls run at once: your plan sets how many. When they're all busy, the caller hears one short line instead of ringing out.
- A number shared with the WhatsApp Business app through coexistence can't take calls on the API: Meta lists voice and video calls among what coexistence doesn't support. See WhatsApp Business app vs API.
Setting it up in HeyKiko
- Step 1
Connect your WhatsApp number
Through Meta's sign-up inside HeyKiko. See how to add an AI agent to WhatsApp Business.
- Step 2
Choose a voice
Play samples from the voice library and pick one, then set the greeting and speaking pace.
- Step 3
Set calling hours
Outside them the call button is hidden, so customers message you instead.
- Step 4
Set the limits
The longest call, and how long a silent call lasts before it ends.
- Step 5
Make a test call
Call your agent from HeyKiko before customers do.
Calls are on plans with voice calls, which also set how many can run at once. Missed calls and callers who asked for a person appear as call-backs in Inbox › Calls.
See the WhatsApp AI voice agent for every setting, or start a free 14-day trial.
Sources
Checked on 5 November 2026. We make HeyKiko, which this guide uses as its example; Meta’s rules apply to every tool.
