What is a WhatsApp Business account (WABA)?

The definition in two minutes

WABA stands for WhatsApp Business Account. It is the Meta account a business needs to send and receive messages through the WhatsApp Business API, directly or through software.

This account sits in your Meta business portfolio, which brings your accounts together. An account belongs to one portfolio only.

One account becomes two

In the old model, a single WABA held everything: the numbers, the message templates and the billing. Meta is splitting it into two accounts.

The WhatsApp account

It represents the business’s presence on WhatsApp. It holds one business phone number and the business profile. Several WhatsApp accounts can be linked to manage a group of numbers.

The Messaging account

It holds the message templates and the billing details, including payment methods. Each partner you work with has its own Messaging account.

You need both to send and receive messages and to create templates. The term WABA is still widely used: in its terms of service, Meta still calls the WhatsApp account a “WhatsApp Business Account”, and the WABA ID that software shows now identifies the Messaging account. It does not change.

Meta explains the split like this: with a single account, working with several partners meant having one number per partner, and customers saw several contacts for one business. With two accounts, one number can serve several partners, each with its own templates and billing.

Meta has been rolling this change out since 23 September 2026 and expects to reach every business by mid-October 2026, in stages and without a new sign-up: numbers, templates and payment methods are carried over automatically. Until your business is migrated, Meta Business Suite still shows the old single account; afterwards it shows two tabs, “WhatsApp accounts” and “Messaging accounts”.

The business portfolio and its verification

The business portfolio is the container for your WhatsApp accounts and Messaging accounts. You need one to use the platform.

Meta can verify it, through business verification. A verified portfolio unlocks features: higher throughput, Official Business Account status and more templates per Messaging account.

What it means for a small business

The account and the number are yours, not your software’s. When you connect through Embedded Signup, the business owns all of its WhatsApp accounts, and Meta has ended the “on behalf of” model, where the partner created the account in place of its client.

• One number can serve several partners. Switching software no longer means migrating the number: according to Meta, you share your WhatsApp account with the new partner, and ongoing conversations continue.
• Message templates stay in the Messaging account where they were created. They do not move from one account to another on their own: the new partner has to recreate or copy them, and their quality rating starts again from the baseline.
• Meta’s billing is settled on the Messaging account, with the payment method you add to it. Each partner has its own, so one partner’s billing is not mixed with another’s.
• To see your accounts, open Meta Business Suite, then Settings, then Accounts.

• Connect your number with WYP.chat →
• What is free and what is paid →

Example

Illustrative case: a caterer switches its WhatsApp messaging software. Its number does not move: it shares its WhatsApp account with the new partner, and its conversations continue. Its message templates, however, sit in the old Messaging account: the new partner recreates or copies them into its own.

Frequently asked questions