Meta business verification for WhatsApp: when you need it and how to pass

Do you need Meta business verification for WhatsApp?

No, not to start. You can connect a number, get templates approved and send messages with an unverified business portfolio. Meta business verification for WhatsApp matters when you need higher limits. Meta lists the WhatsApp Business Platform among the products that may require verification, and its WhatsApp documentation ties these limits to it:

Messaging limits are set for the whole business portfolio and shared by every number in it. You can see your current limit in WhatsApp Manager under Account tools > Messaging limits.

When a Shopify store outgrows the 250-customer limit

A store outgrows the starting limit when it needs to message more than 250 different customers a day who haven’t written to it first. The limit counts unique customers you deliver messages to outside a customer service window in a moving 24-hour period. For a Shopify store that usually means:

• Counted: order confirmations, abandoned checkout reminders, shipping updates and campaigns sent to customers who haven’t messaged you in the last 24 hours.
• Counted once: a customer who gets a confirmation and then a shipping update on the same day counts as one customer.
• Not counted: replies to customers who messaged you in the last 24 hours, including customers who just tapped Confirm Order.

If you take around 250 orders a day, or are about to run a big sale, raise the limit first. Meta offers two ways to reach 2,000: verify your business, or deliver 2,000 template messages with a high quality rating to unique customers, outside customer service windows, within 30 days. At 250 customers a day, the second path takes at least 8 days of sending at your limit, and verification can take up to 14 business days, so start one of them well before you need the higher limit. Either way, Meta then reviews your message quality before it raises the limit.

What to check before you start verification

Meta checks that your details match your legal business exactly, so line up your details before you open Security Center. Meta’s requirements and rejection reasons point to this checklist:

• You have full control of the business portfolio. Full control is the highest permission level.
• Your legal business name, address and phone number are written exactly as they appear on your registration documents.
• Your website loads, uses HTTPS (the address starts with https://) and has no links that lead to an error page.
• You can receive a code on the business phone number or email address, or you can add a meta tag or DNS record to your website’s domain.
• Your documents are current, not expired, and issued by the relevant authority.

Documents Meta accepts for business verification

Meta accepts five types of documents, and together they must prove your legal business name and your official mailing address or phone number:

Cover any personal information Meta doesn’t need before you upload, such as a personal identification number. If you choose to receive the verification code by email, Meta may also ask you to prove you own the website domain.

Documents must be in one of 21 languages Meta supports, which include English, German, French, Spanish, Arabic and Turkish. For any other language, upload an English translation with the official stamp of a translation agency.

How to verify your business for WhatsApp, step by step

You verify your business in Meta Business Suite, not in WhatsApp Manager or in Whapi. These are Meta’s steps for a desktop browser:

1. 1

   Open Security Center in Meta Business Suite

   Use a desktop browser and sign in as someone with full control of the business portfolio. If you can’t open Security Center, you probably don’t have full control.

2. 2

   Click Start verification

   If you see Ineligible for verification instead, you don’t need to complete verification in Security Center. Meta may still ask you to verify through another product by email or notification.

3. 3

   Enter your business details exactly as registered

   Add the legal business name, address, phone number and website. They must match your legal business entity exactly, and the website must load over HTTPS.

4. 4

   Confirm your business, or upload documents

   Pick your business from the matches Meta finds. If none match, choose My business isn’t listed or None of these match, then upload official documents such as a business license or articles of incorporation.

5. 5

   Confirm your connection to the business

   Choose how to receive a code: email, phone call, text message or WhatsApp message, or verify your website domain with a meta tag or DNS record. Enter the code, then click Done.

6. 6

   Wait for Meta’s decision

   Meta says a decision may take up to 14 business days, and you get a notification when the review is complete. If you edit your business details later, you need to verify again.

How long Meta business verification takes

Meta says a decision may take up to 14 business days, and you get a notification when the review is complete. What happens next for WhatsApp:

• Meta reviews your message quality. If it approves the increase, your messaging limit rises to 2,000 straight away and you get an email.
• From 2,000, the limit rises one level within 6 hours whenever you send high-quality messages and have used at least half of your current limit in the last 7 days.
• Your phone number cap rises to 20 and Meta sends a Meta Business Suite notification.
• When you reach a higher messaging limit, Meta also reviews your number’s display name automatically.

Plan around the 14 business days before a big sale. While you wait, you can keep sending within your current limit.

What to do if Meta rejects your business verification

If Meta rejects your verification, check the status in Security Center, or in the product where you started, to see whether you can appeal. Meta lists these reasons for rejection:

• The submission contains, or is suspected to contain, false or misleading information.
• The person submitting is not authorized to represent the business portfolio.
• The submission tries to get around Meta’s verification review.
• The website fails to load, isn’t HTTPS, or contains a link that leads to an error message.

In practice, compare the name, address and phone number you entered with your documents character by character, fix your website, then appeal or submit again. When Meta denies a limit increase, it keeps your messaging limit at its current level, so you can keep sending within it. If Meta won’t let you connect the number at all, see phone number not eligible for the WhatsApp Business Platform.

Business verification vs Meta Verified vs the WhatsApp blue checkmark

These are three different things, and only one of them puts a badge next to your name on WhatsApp:

If Meta denies an Official Business Account request, you have to wait 30 days before you can request it again. Once your account is set up, the next things to get right are your payment method in Meta and templates that pass Meta’s review. The full setup is in the Whapi setup guide.