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Connecting a WhatsApp Business number is the step that takes your bot live. It runs through Meta — the company that owns WhatsApp — so most of this page is about Meta’s side of the process: what Meta Business Suite is, how business verification works, why Meta needs a payment method from you, and what you’ll see as you click through Meta’s signup. Paige launches that signup from inside your dashboard and handles the technical wiring (the API token and webhooks) for you, so you never leave Paige and never touch code.
New to the WhatsApp Business Platform? Read Which WhatsApp product, and when first. It explains why the Platform — the programmable version Paige builds on — needs a Meta business account and a dedicated number in the first place. This page assumes you’ve decided the Platform is right for you.

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What you’ll need

  • A Facebook account. Meta uses it to identify you and tie your business assets together. It doesn’t need a Facebook Page or any posts — it’s just the login Meta recognises you by.
  • A phone number for WhatsApp. It can be a mobile or landline number, but it must not already be running as a WhatsApp account — personal or Business App — on a phone. Many businesses use a fresh number to avoid disruption.
  • A few business details — your legal business name, address, website, and (for verification) a document or two that proves the business is real. More on that below.
If the number you want is currently a personal WhatsApp account, delete that account in the WhatsApp app before you register it here. That step can’t be undone — you’ll lose the chat history on it.

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Meta Business Suite, in one minute

The WhatsApp Business Platform isn’t a standalone app you sign up for — it lives inside Meta Business Suite (you may also see it called Meta Business Manager), the same place businesses manage Facebook Pages, Instagram, and ad accounts. Meta groups everything a business owns — including your WhatsApp Business Account, or WABA — under one business portfolio there. Two terms are worth knowing before you start, because they show up throughout signup:
  • Business portfolio — the top-level container for everything your business owns in Meta. You’ll create one during signup if you don’t have one.
  • WhatsApp Business Account (WABA) — the asset inside that portfolio that holds your phone number(s) and messaging settings. One WABA can hold several numbers; each Paige project connects to one number.
You don’t need to set any of this up in advance. Meta’s embedded signup — the flow Paige launches — creates the portfolio and the WABA for you as you go. Knowing the words just makes the screens easier to follow.

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Verifying your business

Meta wants to know a real business is behind a number. Business verification is Meta confirming that your business exists, using documents such as a company registration certificate or a utility bill. You do it in Meta Business Manager, separately from connecting your number. Verification is what lets you publish WhatsApp Flows. Meta only allows verified businesses to publish flows — the interactive forms and menus your bot sends. An unverified business can create and edit flows in Paige and test them on Paige Dev, but those flows won’t go live on your own number. Verification also lifts the tighter limits an unverified number runs under: a lower cap on how many new people you can message a day, and a stricter path to a custom display name. You can connect your number and start messaging before you’re verified. An unverified number sends and receives ordinary messages. So the usual order is: connect your number now, start building and testing, and submit for verification in parallel — well before you need your first flow live.
Verification confirms your business’s legal name, address, and phone number against official records, so what you enter must match your paperwork exactly. The shape of the request is always the same: a document that proves the legal entity exists, and a document that proves its address.Which documents Meta accepts depends on your country and changes over time, so check Meta’s guide to verifying your business for the current list before you submit.
Meta usually takes a few days to review your verification, though it can be faster or slower depending on your documents and region. You submit once and wait for Meta’s decision — there’s nothing to do in Paige while it’s in review.
You can connect your number, build, test your flows on Paige Dev, deploy your code and tables, and message customers within the daily limit of an unverified number. You can’t publish a flow to your own number, raise those limits, or lock in a fully custom display name until verification clears.Nothing you build is wasted. Your flows are saved as drafts on your WhatsApp account while you wait, and they go live the next time you deploy after verification comes through.

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Starting verification from Paige

Paige shows your Business Verification status in Settings → WhatsApp, under your number. When Meta reports that your business isn’t verified, a Get verified button appears next to the status. It opens Meta Business Manager in a new tab, where you start or finish verification. In Meta Business Manager, verification sits under your business portfolio’s Business settings → Security Centre. Meta moves and renames these screens from time to time, so follow what’s on screen rather than this exact path.
If Paige can’t tell whether you’re verified — because Meta didn’t answer, for example — it shows no Get verified button and doesn’t say you’re unverified. A missing button means Paige has nothing to report, not that something is wrong.
Fixed something in Meta? Click Recheck on the WhatsApp tab to refresh the status right away instead of waiting a few minutes.

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When verification holds your flows back

A deploy doesn’t fail because your business isn’t verified. It does everything it can, then tells you what it couldn’t:
  • Your code and tables go live as normal.
  • Each flow is still saved as a draft on your WhatsApp account. Paige skips the publish step and tells you verification is the reason, rather than failing with a confusing error.
  • A flow that was already live stays on its current live version. Nothing is taken off the air.
  • You get one warning — “flows waiting on business verification” — listing the flows it held back. It stays on screen until you close it, and its Get verified button takes you to Settings → WhatsApp.
  • It still counts as your first deploy in the getting-started checklist, because the rest of the deploy did go live.
Clicking Publish on a flow in the Flows tab tells you the same thing.
There is one exception to “nothing is taken off the air”. If Paige couldn’t confirm your verification status when you deployed, it sends the update to a live flow, and if Meta then refuses to publish it the flow is left as a draft. The warning then says the flow was taken offline, and customers can’t open it until you’re verified and deploy again. See Flows waiting on business verification.
Deploying again won’t change the result until verification is done. Finish business verification in Meta Business Manager, then click Deploy again — Paige doesn’t publish for you the moment verification comes through. In the meantime you can keep testing your flows on the Paige Dev number, which isn’t affected.

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Adding a payment method on Meta

Meta charges for some conversations: broadcasts, and other messages your business starts. Those messages fail to send if no payment method is attached to your business in Meta. The charges are Meta’s, billed against your own connected number — they’re separate from what you pay for Paige, and nothing comes out of your Paige credits. See Billing for the Paige side. You add the payment method in Meta Business Suite, under your WhatsApp Business Account’s payment settings. Paige gives you a short cut: Settings → WhatsApp shows a payment-method reminder with a Check payment method button that opens your Meta payment settings in a new tab.
Seeing that reminder doesn’t mean anything is wrong. Meta gives Paige no reliable way to check whether a card is on file, so rather than guess, Paige shows the reminder either way. It’s there so you can confirm it yourself.

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Your business info: display name and category

Two pieces of business info shape how you appear to customers, and both have downstream effects worth understanding before you pick them. Display name — the name customers see at the top of the chat. Meta reviews every display name against your verified business and its own display name guidelines, so it should be your real brand name, not a generic word like “Support.” A name that doesn’t match your verified business is the most common rejection. Until verification and name approval complete, your number can still send — it just shows a less-polished name. Category — the industry that best describes your business (retail, hospitality, professional services, and so on). It sets how your business is classified in Meta’s systems and appears on your business profile. Pick the closest honest match; a wildly off category can slow verification.
You set your final display name, profile photo, and business profile details inside Paige after connecting — see Update your business profile below. During signup, just give Meta a sensible business name to start with.

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Connect your number

You connect WhatsApp from inside your project. Open your project, go to Settings, and select the WhatsApp tab in the sidebar — that’s /projects/<your-project-id>?tab=settings&section=whatsapp if you want to link straight to it. Everything below happens on that one screen. (If your bot isn’t connected yet, you’ll also see a Connect button in the project header that jumps you here.)
1

Open the WhatsApp tab in your project

In your project, go to Settings → WhatsApp. When no number is connected, the tab shows a Connect your WhatsApp number panel: “Before we hand off to Meta’s setup, confirm you have both of these ready.” Tick both boxes:
  • I have a Meta Business Suite account.
  • I have a phone number that can receive an OTP. An OTP is the one-time code Meta sends to prove you control the number.
The Connect WhatsApp button appears only once both boxes are ticked. Until then it isn’t greyed out — it isn’t on the screen at all. Helper text under it reads “You’ll be guided through Meta’s setup to connect your WhatsApp Business account.”
2

Start Meta embedded signup

Click Connect WhatsApp. The button reads Connecting… while Paige hands off, and a Meta popup opens on top of the Paige dashboard. Log in to Facebook if you’re prompted.
This popup is served by Meta, not Paige. You’re signing in to Meta directly — Paige never sees your Facebook password. Paige only receives the result of the signup (your WABA ID, phone number ID, and an access token) once you finish.
3

Work through Meta's screens

Everything inside the popup belongs to Meta, and Meta changes the order, wording, and button labels of these screens from time to time. So read what follows as what you’ll be asked for, not the order you’ll be asked in.Your business portfolio. Meta asks which business portfolio this WhatsApp account belongs to. Pick an existing portfolio if your business already has one, or create a new one from your business name and details.Your WhatsApp Business Account. You choose an existing WhatsApp Business Account (WABA) or create a new one and confirm the business name attached to it. A single WABA can hold several phone numbers, but each Paige project connects to one number at a time.Your business profile details. Meta collects the basics for your WhatsApp business profile — business name, and often a website or description. These populate your profile and feed into verification, so use your real business details.Your phone number. Enter the number you want to register, then prove you control it with the verification code Meta sends.
Paige doesn’t control which verification methods Meta offers you — it sends Meta no verification-method configuration at all. Whether you’re offered SMS, a voice call, or a message you send from the number is Meta’s decision for that number and region, so follow whichever options appear on screen.
4

Finish and return to Paige

Once verification succeeds, close the Meta popup. Paige takes over: it exchanges the signup result for an access token, subscribes to Meta’s webhooks, registers your phone number, and stores the credentials securely. You’ll see a short Setting up WhatsApp… progress sequence, then WhatsApp Connected! The WhatsApp tab then shows your live number and its details. You never touch tokens or webhooks by hand.

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You’ll get a confirmation email

The first time a number is connected to a project, Paige emails the project owner — or the workspace owner, for a workspace project — to confirm the connection and to flag the two things on Meta’s side that can hold you up later.
  • If Meta reports your business isn’t verified yet, the email tells you to start business verification, because Meta won’t let you publish flows until it’s done and it usually takes a few days.
  • If your business is already verified, the email says so.
  • If Paige couldn’t check, the email explains that flows need verification and where to look.
  • Either way, it reminds you to make sure a payment method is attached to your WhatsApp Business Account, because Meta charges for broadcasts.
Every link in the email takes you to Settings → WhatsApp.
You only get this email once per number. Disconnect a number and connect the same one again and no second copy arrives — but connecting a different number sends a new one.
Connecting a WhatsApp number is available during your free trial and after it ends — you can finish setup whenever you’re ready. Once a number is connected, your bot runs on it while you have an active subscription or an unexpired trial. See Billing for what the trial includes.

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Understanding the connection details

Once connected, the WhatsApp tab shows what Meta reports about your account. Under WhatsApp Business Account you’ll see:
  • Account Name — the name on your WhatsApp Business Account.
  • Status — the account’s standing with Meta.
  • Business Verification — whether Meta has verified your business. Your flows only publish to this number once it says verified (see Verifying your business).
  • Currency and Timezone — the account’s billing currency and time zone, set from your Meta business settings.
The technical identifiers behind the scenes — your WABA ID, phone number ID, and access token — are handled by Paige and kept securely on the server. You don’t need them for day-to-day use, and Paige manages token storage and refresh automatically.

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Update your business profile

After connecting, Settings → WhatsApp is where you shape what customers see when they open a chat with you. It’s laid out in two columns.

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On the left: your number and its health

  • Profile photo — your logo, via Upload Photo. JPEG or PNG.
  • Phone number — the connected number. Read-only.
  • Display name — the name customers see. Edit it and click Request Change; Meta has to approve it before it takes effect. A Status badge under the field tracks where the request stands, and reads PENDING while Meta reviews. See Display name approval below.
Below those, four numbers Meta reports about your number. They’re worth glancing at now and then, because they’re how you find out you’re in trouble before your customers do:
A yellow or red quality rating is a signal to slow down and look at what you’re sending. Ratings fall when people block or report you — usually after a broadcast to an audience that didn’t expect it. Left alone, it costs you your messaging limit and eventually your ability to send.
Underneath those four, you’ll also see a payment-method reminder with a Check payment method button. It appears whether or not a card is on file, so it isn’t a fault report — see Adding a payment method on Meta.

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On the right: your business profile

Six fields, all under Business Profile:
  • About — a short line on your profile, up to 139 characters.
  • Description — a fuller description, up to 512 characters.
  • Address
  • Email
  • Websites — up to two.
  • Industry — pick the closest match from Meta’s list.
Click Save Profile when you’re done. These take effect immediately — only the display name needs review.

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Display name approval

When you request a display name change, Meta reviews the new name against your business verification status and brand guidelines. This process can take from a few hours to several days.
During review, your existing display name remains active. Users won’t see the new name until Meta approves it. You’ll receive an update in the Paige dashboard once the review is complete.
Common reasons Meta rejects display name requests:
  • The name doesn’t match the verified business name on your WABA
  • The name uses a generic term without a brand identifier (for example, “Support” on its own)
  • The name implies an official relationship with Meta or WhatsApp
If your request is rejected, you can update your business verification details in Meta Business Manager and submit a revised name.

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Claim a WhatsApp username

WhatsApp lets a business claim a username — an @handle customers can find you by without knowing your number. It’s in the Username field in Settings → WhatsApp. Type the handle you want and click Claim. If you already have one, the button reads Change instead, and Remove gives it up. Your username has a status:
  • reserved — it’s yours, waiting on Meta.
  • approved — live.
Usernames are globally unique across all of WhatsApp, and a number can hold one at a time. Meta decides who gets what — Paige just passes your request along, so a name can be refused for reasons outside Paige’s control.
If you haven’t claimed one, Paige suggests handles based on your brand — click one to claim it directly. If the handle you want is already on another of your own numbers, you’ll be told so and offered Transfer & claim, which moves it across. It comes off the other number in the process.

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Share your number

The Share Your WhatsApp card — under Settings → Project — gives customers a way in that isn’t typing a phone number:
  • A QR code they scan to open a chat. On your own connected number, Download PNG saves it for a poster, a receipt, or a shop window.
  • A wa.me link to put on your website or in an email signature. Copy it.
  • A Pre-filled Message so the chat opens with text already typed — “Hi, I’d like to book a table” — which gives your bot something to work with from the first message.
  • Share buttons for WhatsApp, LinkedIn, and Instagram, again on your own connected number only. Instagram has no share API, so that one copies the link for you to paste.
Once you have your own number connected, the card gets Connected and Paige Dev tabs so you can switch between the two. If you haven’t connected a number yet, it shows the Paige Dev test number on its own, so you can still scan and try your bot.
Download PNG and the Share row are hidden on the Paige Dev tab — they only appear for your own connected number. The QR code, the wa.me link, and the pre-filled message all still work there. That Paige Dev QR is for testing only; don’t put it in front of customers.
Scanning the code with a phone camera opens WhatsApp on a chat with your number, with the pre-filled message already sitting in the compose box — unsent, so the customer still chooses to send it. That’s worth trying yourself before you print the code: scan it from your own phone and check the text reads the way you want it to.

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Changing your WhatsApp number

Connected the wrong number, or want to move your bot to a different one? You can disconnect the number on a project and connect another one straight away. You need to be the project owner or a workspace admin to do it.
1

Open the Danger Zone

Go to Settings → WhatsApp and scroll to the Danger Zone at the bottom of the section.
2

Click Disconnect and type the confirmation phrase

Click Disconnect. A confirm dialog opens and asks you to type a confirmation phrase before the button becomes available — it’s there so a disconnect is never one stray click. Read the dialog before you type it: this is where Paige shows you your two-step verification PIN.
3

Connect a different number

Once the number is off the project, the WhatsApp tab goes back to its not-connected state. Click Connect WhatsApp and run Meta’s embedded signup again, exactly as on a new project — see Connect your number.
Save the PIN Paige shows you. Before you confirm, Paige displays your number’s six-digit two-step verification PIN and emails you a copy. This is the only time you’ll see it in Paige. WhatsApp has no way to switch two-step verification off automatically, so if you ever want to use that number again — on Paige or anywhere else — you’ll need this PIN to turn two-step verification off yourself in WhatsApp Manager (Account tools → Phone numbers → the gear icon → Turn off two-step verification). Keep the email. If you’re finished with the number, you can ignore it.

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What disconnecting does and doesn’t do

  • Does — remove the number from your project and deregister it with Meta, so it can be used elsewhere.
  • Doesn’t — delete the number from your WhatsApp Business Account, and doesn’t free it up for personal WhatsApp. Deleting it entirely is done in WhatsApp Manager.
  • Keeps — all your conversations, contacts, messages, and code.
  • Resets — your scheduled tasks are paused. Re-enable them in Tools → Scheduled Tasks once a new number is connected. Your flows and uploaded media are re-published to the new number the next time you deploy.

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What will stop you disconnecting

  • A broadcast is still running or scheduled. Wait for it to finish, or cancel it in the Broadcasts tab, then try again.
  • Meta refuses the request. You’ll see the reason Meta gave. It’s usually a rate limit: WhatsApp allows only 10 register/deregister requests per number in any 72-hour window. You can wait it out, or confirm a second time to Disconnect anyway, which removes the number from Paige even though it stays registered with Meta.
Disconnect anyway leaves the number registered on Meta’s side. Until that registration is cleared, connecting the same number to another Paige project — or to anything else — will fail. Use it when you want the project free now and you’ll deal with Meta later.

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Troubleshooting

The Meta popup closes without completing — This usually means a browser extension (such as an ad blocker or popup blocker) interrupted the flow. Disable extensions for the Paige domain and try again. My phone number verification code isn’t arriving — Make sure the number can actually receive whichever method Meta offered you, and that it isn’t already registered as a WhatsApp personal account. If you’ve requested multiple codes, wait at least 10 minutes before requesting another. Signup ended in an error — A red banner appears above the checkbox card showing Meta’s error, or “Something went wrong. Please try again.” when no detail came back. The card stays on screen with your ticks intact, so retrying is just clicking Connect WhatsApp again — there’s no separate retry or re-register control on this tab. If it keeps failing, contact Paige support with your project ID. The tab says “Could not load account details” — In full: “Could not load account details. Check that the WhatsApp Business Account is properly configured.” Your number is connected — Paige just couldn’t read the WhatsApp Business Account details back from Meta. Check in Meta Business Suite that the WABA is fully set up, then reload the tab.