Add and verify your phone number

Test number or real number

Meta gives every new app a test number on the API Setup page. It sends immediately, needs no verification, and is the fastest way to see the platform work end to end.

It is not a number to give customers:

• It can only message phone numbers you have added as test recipients, and Meta caps how many of those you get. Anything else is rejected outright, not queued.
• It is Meta's number, not yours. You cannot keep it, port it, or brand it.

Use it to walk the setup, confirm your bot behaves, and prove inbound delivery reaches your Inbox. Then add your own.

Adding your own number

The number must not currently be registered on WhatsApp — not on WhatsApp Business, not on the consumer app. If it is, delete that account first and wait for it to clear before adding it here. This is the single most common reason a number will not add.

A landline works: choose the voice-call verification option instead of SMS.

A number you add here stops being usable in the WhatsApp app on a phone. It becomes an API number. If it is the number your team currently answers by hand, that is a real change to how your business works, and worth deciding before rather than during.

The phone number ID is not the phone number

On the API Setup page you will see both. We want the Phone number ID — a long numeric id underneath the displayed number. Pasting the actual phone number instead is the most common paste error, and it comes back as an error saying the id was not found on this app (code 100).

Copy the WhatsApp Business Account ID from the same page while you are there. If you skip it we can usually read it back from Meta when you save — but only usually, and without it inbound messages may never arrive (Webhooks).

Business verification, and why to start it now

Until your business portfolio is verified, Meta caps how many numbers you can register and restricts who you can message. Verification happens in your business portfolio's security settings and asks for documents proving the business is real.

It is not instant and it is not on your schedule. Start it the day you decide to use your own number, and use the test number meanwhile — the alternative is discovering the wait when you are ready to launch.

Next: generate a permanent token.