The name everyone searches for, the names Meta actually uses, and what you get when you sign up for it.
“WhatsApp Business API” is the common name for the way businesses send WhatsApp messages through software instead of a phone. Meta's official name for it is the WhatsApp Business Platform, and the part that sends the messages is the Cloud API. Since October 2025 the Cloud API is the only version there is — so today all three names point at the same thing.
The product was renamed, and the old name stuck.
| What it is | Today | |
|---|---|---|
| WhatsApp Business API | The original name, from 2018. Businesses or their providers had to run the API on their own servers. | That self-hosted version was shut down on October 23, 2025. The name lives on as everyday shorthand. |
| WhatsApp Business Platform | Meta's name, since 2022, for the whole business side of WhatsApp: the APIs, the accounts and the rules. | The official name. |
| Cloud API | The same API, hosted by Meta. Opened to every business on May 19, 2022. | The only way to send. |
So when a product says it runs on “the official WhatsApp Business API”, it means the Cloud API. There is nothing else left to mean. For the pieces inside the platform, see what the WhatsApp Business Platform is.
The app is for conversations. The API is for sending at scale.
| WhatsApp Business app | WhatsApp Business API | |
|---|---|---|
| Made for | Answering customers by hand | Sending through software |
| Reach | Broadcasts to up to 256 people who saved your number | Anyone who opted in, within your daily limit |
| What you send | Any message | Templates Meta approved in advance |
| Cost | Free | Meta charges per delivered message |
You don't have to give up the app. Meta lets one number stay in the app and be used by the API at the same time.
Four things the app can't.
The rules are part of the product.
Access is free. Meta charges for messages.
There is no licence fee and no charge to connect. Meta charges per delivered message, at a rate set by the message's category and the recipient's country. Marketing messages are always charged, from the first one. A delivered marketing message costs from $0.0109 in Turkey to $0.1597 in the Netherlands ().
Software on top is priced separately, and differently by every provider: some add a markup to each message, some charge a fixed fee. The calculator on our pricing page shows Meta's part for your own countries.
There is no waiting list, and nothing to apply for.
Any business can start. You either build on the API yourself, which takes developers, or you connect your business to a product that is already built on it. Connecting happens through a signup window from Meta, where you pick or create your business and your WhatsApp Business Account.
What you need before the first message — a phone number, a payment method, approved templates, people who opted in — is laid out in how to prepare your business.
Three that come up every time.
Access is. Messages aren't: Meta charges for every delivered marketing message, from the very first one.
Only if you build on the API yourself. Products built on it exist so that a marketing team can send without writing code.
Yes. One number can be used in the app and by the API at the same time, so your team keeps answering on the phone.
Rapio is WhatsApp marketing software built on the Cloud API. You connect your own WhatsApp Business Account through Meta's signup window, Meta bills the messages to your card at its list price, and Rapio charges a fixed monthly fee for the software — no markup on messages.
Meta bills the messages at its list price. We charge a fixed fee for the software.