Can You Change Your WhatsApp API Number?

No, you can’t edit the phone number on a WhatsApp API account. Under Meta’s account model each WhatsApp account holds one number, so “changing” it means adding a new number, setting it up, and then moving your customers across. Some things come with you, because they belong to your business or your Messaging account. Others belong to the old number and start again.

This guide sets out exactly what carries over, a step-by-step switch, sample messages for telling customers, and what to do with the old number. Every carry-over point was checked on Meta’s pages.

The short answer: you add a number, you don’t edit one

Meta’s 2026 account model calls the WhatsApp account “a container to hold a single business phone number”. The number is the account’s identity, so there’s nothing to edit. To switch, you add a second number to your business portfolio, register it on the Cloud API, and then stop using the first. Meta is rolling this model out in stages from 23 September 2026, so some businesses still see a WhatsApp Business Account (WABA), where templates sit on that WABA.

Meta does let you migrate a number from one WhatsApp account to another, and link or unlink WhatsApp accounts inside the same portfolio, where the number keeps its conversations. That moves the same number around. It doesn’t give you a different number.

What carries over and what doesn’t

The template point needs care. Meta calls templates “Messaging account assets”, not number assets. If you add the new number under a different Messaging account, Meta’s template migration can copy them, but it resets their quality rating and messaging tier for about 2 to 4 weeks. See WhatsApp templates.

On opt-in, Meta says businesses must clearly state the business’s name that a person is opting in to. It doesn’t say a new number needs fresh consent, and it isn’t legal advice to say so. Customers who see an unknown number may block or report it, though, which hurts the new number’s quality rating.

Before you switch: a checklist

• Can the new number take a code? It needs a country code and must receive an SMS or voice call. It mustn’t be active on WhatsApp, unless it’s on the WhatsApp Business app and you connect it through coexistence.
• Do you have room? New portfolios can register 2 numbers; Meta raises this to 20 after business verification or the 2,000 messaging limit.
• Which Messaging account? Adding the new number to the same one keeps your templates in place.
• Who’s an admin? Deleting a number needs a business portfolio admin.
• Who has the old PIN? You need it to delete a Connected number later. If you connected through Automate AI, it set the PIN for you: contact us, or turn off two-step verification in WhatsApp Manager (Meta emails a link to the portfolio’s address).
• What prints the old number? Website, ads, Google profile, invoices, packaging, QR codes and email signatures.

Adding, verifying and registering a number, with the API calls, is covered in phone numbers on the WhatsApp Cloud API, so this guide doesn’t repeat it.

Step by step: moving to a new number

1. Add the new number through your provider’s Connect WhatsApp, or in WhatsApp Manager, and verify it by SMS or call.
2. Enter the display name you used before, following the display name rules.
3. Register it on the Cloud API with a 6-digit two-step PIN. Automate AI does this step, and sets the PIN, for you.
4. Fill in the business profile: description, address, email, website and photo.
5. Check templates show for the new number, and send one to your own phone as a test.
6. Tell customers from the old number (samples below).
7. Update everything public: links, QR codes, ads, website and printed material.
8. Plan for the old number. If your provider connects one number at a time, as Automate AI does, messages to the old number stop reaching it once you switch. Give customers a clear date, and talk to your provider first if you need both running.
9. Retire the old number when traffic has moved (see the last section).

Start gently on the new number. The messaging limit is shared, but blocks and reports count against the new number’s own quality rating, so message people who already know you first.

Telling customers about the new number

Send the notice from the old number, so people see it in a chat they already trust. Outside the 24-hour window that means an approved template; you choose its category, and Meta can change it if it doesn’t fit. These samples use demo data; change them to fit your business:

• “Hi {{1}}, Example Bakery is moving to a new WhatsApp number: +91 98XXX XX123. From 15 November please message us there for orders and support. This number will stop replying after 30 November.”
• “Hello {{1}}, your account updates from Example Clinic will now come from +91 97XXX XX456, the same team with a new number. Save it so our messages reach you.”
• “Hi {{1}}, quick update from Example Motors: we’ve changed our WhatsApp number to +91 99XXX XX789. Tap the button below to start a chat on the new number.”

A button that opens a chat with the new number helps, because the customer’s first message opens the 24-hour window there. Make the link with wa.me links and QR codes. Then send a short welcome from the new number once they’ve written.

Keep the old number or let it go?

Don’t delete the old number on day one. Meta won’t allow it within 30 days of a paid message anyway, and customers will keep writing to it for a while. The steps for deregistering and deleting are in the Cloud API phone number guide.

Changing your number in Automate AI

An Automate AI account connects one WhatsApp number at a time. To switch numbers:

1. Send your “new number” template to customers from the old number, as above, while it’s still connected.
2. Go to Settings › WhatsApp, scroll to Danger Zone and click Delete Integration. Only owners and managers can.
3. Click Connect WhatsApp and choose Connect a new number, or Use my app number to keep the WhatsApp Business app on it.
4. Finish Meta’s window. Automate AI registers the number and sets up its webhooks.
5. Open Templates and click Sync from WhatsApp to load templates from the connected account. They also sync every hour.

As the confirmation says, deleting the integration removes your WhatsApp settings but leaves your contacts and messages unaffected. From then on, messages to the old number no longer arrive in Automate AI. It doesn’t delete the old number from Meta: it stays registered until you deregister or delete it there. If the new number sits in a different WhatsApp account with its own Messaging account, create your templates again.

Want to run the old and new numbers side by side for a while? Contact our team before you start, and we’ll talk through the options for your plan on the pricing page.