What you need before you start
- A phone number you own that can receive a text or a voice call. Mobile numbers work best; a landline works with voice verification. Short codes don't. Meta: phone numbers
- A Meta business account (a business portfolio), which you sign in to with Facebook during setup.
- A display name for your business, which Meta reviews before it shows on your profile.
- A payment method on your WhatsApp Business account, because Meta now bills some replies as well as template messages (see what it costs).
- Your content: your website, FAQs, price lists, menus or policies. The agent can only answer from what you give it.
- A tool that runs the AI agent on Meta's official Cloud API. Unofficial tools that automate the WhatsApp app risk getting your number banned.
The WhatsApp Business app or the API?
The free WhatsApp Business app is built for one person on one phone. An AI agent needs the WhatsApp Business Platform, through Meta's Cloud API, which is what lets software read and answer messages and lets several people share one number.
| Business app | Cloud API | |
|---|---|---|
| Who answers | You, on your phone and linked devices | Software and your whole team |
| AI agent | Not through official means | Yes, through a tool |
| Messages | Free | Meta charges per message for templates, and for replies beyond the free 1,000 a month |
| Broadcasts | Broadcast lists, to people who saved your number | Template campaigns to people who opted in |
You can keep the app on the same number
Meta's coexistence option connects a number that's already on the WhatsApp Business app to the Cloud API without giving the app up. Your one-to-one chats from the last six months come across; group chats don't. A number used on both is capped at 20 messages a second, messages you send from the app stay free, and WhatsApp calling may not work on it. Meta: coexistence
If you don't use coexistence, a number that's already on WhatsApp has to be deleted from the app before it can be registered on the Cloud API. Back up the chats you need first.
Is AI allowed on WhatsApp in 2026?
Yes, for a business answering its own customers. Section 4.7 of Meta's terms for the WhatsApp Business Platform bars AI providers from using it when AI is the primary thing they offer, which is what ended ChatGPT and Perplexity on WhatsApp from 15 January 2026. AI that's incidental to a business's service, such as answering customers, booking appointments or taking orders, is outside that ban. Meta: terms, section 4.7
The same section stops WhatsApp messages from being used to train or improve AI models, apart from fine-tuning a model for your own exclusive use. Check that the tool you choose doesn't train on your customers' chats.
Meta also offers its own agent, Meta Business Agent, which launched for WhatsApp Business globally in June 2026 and is billed by Meta per token. Tools like HeyKiko are the other route: one agent across WhatsApp and your other channels, trained on your own content, with your team's inbox around it.
How to set it up, step by step
The steps are the same in most tools; we use HeyKiko as the example.
- Step 1
Decide what the agent should do
Which questions it answers, whether it books appointments or takes leads, and what it must never do, such as quote a price you haven't given it. Write down when a person should take over.
- Step 2
Gather your content
Your website address, plus the documents customers ask about: prices, opening hours, policies, menus. Out-of-date pages produce out-of-date answers, so fix them first.
- Step 3
Create the agent and teach it
In HeyKiko, paste your website address and upload your files; Kiko reads them and shows what it learned, and you add notes for anything missing.
- Step 4
Connect your WhatsApp number
Use Meta's own sign-up inside the tool (Channels › WhatsApp in HeyKiko). Sign in with Facebook, choose or create your business portfolio, add the number and verify it with a code. If the number is on the WhatsApp Business app, choose to keep the app on it.
- Step 5
Set hand-off and alerts
Choose the message customers see when a person takes over, who gets those chats, and how your team is alerted. See how hand-off works.
- Step 6
Test with real questions
Ask the twenty questions customers ask most, in the playground, and fix the answers by adding to the agent's knowledge, not by hoping.
- Step 7
Go live and tell customers
Put a wa.me link or QR code on your website, receipts and social profiles. Every conversation then appears in your shared inbox.
What it costs in 2026
There are two bills: the tool that runs the agent, and Meta's charges for messages, which Meta bills to your WhatsApp Business account.
Meta's charges
- Meta has charged per message since 1 July 2025, and only for messages your business sends.
- Template messages, which you need to start a conversation or reach someone after 24 hours, are charged by category (marketing, utility, authentication) and by the customer's country.
- Replies inside the 24-hour window (service messages) were free until 30 September 2026. Since 1 October 2026, each number gets 1,000 free service messages a month, and Meta charges from the 1,001st.
- Without a payment method on file, Meta warns that service messages may stop being delivered once they're chargeable. Your agent's replies are service messages.
- When a customer messages you from a Click to WhatsApp ad, Meta doesn't charge for messages in the window that opens, for up to 7 days.
The tool
Tools charge by plan, by AI message or conversation, or by resolution. HeyKiko's plans start at $29 a month, with WhatsApp, Telegram and your website included and a 14-day free trial with no card. See pricing
The 24-hour window and messaging limits
When a customer messages you, a 24-hour customer service window opens, and your agent and team can reply freely. After it closes, only an approved template message can reach them. The 24-hour window, explained · Meta: customer service windows
Messaging limits cap how many different people you can message outside that window in 24 hours. A new business portfolio starts at 250; verifying your business raises it to 2,000, and Meta raises it further, to 10,000, 100,000 and then unlimited, when your messages are high quality and you use at least half your limit. Answering people who messaged you isn't held back by this limit. Meta: messaging limits
Mistakes to avoid
- Moving a number off the WhatsApp Business app without backing up chats, when coexistence would have kept them.
- Leaving no payment method on your WhatsApp account now that replies beyond 1,000 a month are charged.
- Letting the agent guess. Give it your real content, and have it hand off when your knowledge doesn't cover a question.
- Sending marketing templates to people who didn't opt in. Low-quality messages lower your limits and can get the number restricted.
- Building a general-purpose assistant. Keep the agent about your business, which is what Meta's terms allow.
Sources
Checked on 5 November 2026. We make HeyKiko, which this guide uses as its example; Meta’s rules apply to every tool.
- Meta: WhatsApp Business Platform pricing
- Meta: terms for the WhatsApp Business Platform, section 4.7
- Meta: messaging limits
- Meta: business phone numbers
- Meta: onboarding WhatsApp Business app users (coexistence)
- Meta: customer service windows
- TechCrunch: WhatsApp bars general-purpose chatbots (October 2025)
- TechCrunch: Meta's AI agent for WhatsApp Business available globally (June 2026)
