Can the WhatsApp API Send Messages to Groups?

Yes, the WhatsApp Cloud API can send messages to a group, but only through Meta’s Groups API: your number creates the group, people join by invite link, and each group holds at most 8 participants. Your business also needs an Official Business Account, and numbers that also run the WhatsApp Business app can’t use it.

So the Groups API is for small, private conversations, such as a client and their account team, not for messaging hundreds of customers at once. This guide covers who can use it, how a group is created and messaged, what it costs, what isn’t supported, and what to use instead when you really want to reach a large audience.

The short answer: yes, with Meta’s Groups API

Until recently, the Cloud API could only message one person at a time. Meta’s Groups API changed that. It lets a business number create groups, share an invite link, and send and receive messages in those groups, all through the same Cloud API you already use.

What it doesn’t do is turn the API into a tool for posting into any group. Meta’s documentation describes groups that your business number creates through the API, with your number added automatically as the creator and admin, and at most one Cloud API business in each group. The docs describe no way to post into a group someone made in the consumer app.

Who can use the Groups API

Meta lists a few requirements in its getting-started guide. Check them before you plan anything around groups:

• An Official Business Account. Meta says your business must be an OBA to qualify. See the WhatsApp verified badge for what that means and how to apply.
• A Cloud API number. Groups aren’t available for numbers onboarded from the WhatsApp Business app, so a number that uses coexistence can’t create groups. Numbers onboarded to Multi-solution Conversations are also excluded.
• Webhooks. Your app needs a Cloud API webhook server, subscribed to the four group webhook fields: group_lifecycle_update, group_participants_update, group_settings_update and group_status_update.
• Permission. Your app needs the whatsapp_business_messaging permission for the number.

How a group is created and how people join

Every group starts on your side and is invite-only. Here’s the order Meta describes:

1. Create the group with a POST to /<BUSINESS_PHONE_NUMBER_ID>/groups. A subject is required (up to 128 characters) and a description is optional (up to 2,048 characters).
2. Wait for the webhook. A group_lifecycle_update webhook arrives with the group’s invite link. Links always start with https://chat.whatsapp.com/.
3. Send the invite. Share the link in a 1:1 chat, or use Meta’s group invite utility template from the Template Library. Meta says to copy it without editing so it stays priced as utility.
4. People choose to join. When someone joins, you get a group_participants_update webhook.
5. Start messaging once at least one person has joined.

You can also make people ask first. Set join_approval_mode to approval_required and you can list, approve or reject each join request. If you leave it out, the default is auto_approve.

Managing the group

• Reset the invite link with a POST to /<GROUP_ID>/invite_link. Every earlier link stops working.
• Remove participants, up to 8 per request. Removed people can’t rejoin through the invite link.
• Update settings such as the subject, description and picture. The picture must be a square JPEG of at least 192 × 192 pixels and no more than 5MB.
• Delete the group, which removes everyone, including your business.

Sending a message to a group

You use the normal send endpoint, POST /<BUSINESS_PHONE_NUMBER_ID>/messages. The only differences from a 1:1 message are two fields: recipient_type is "group" and to is the group ID, not a phone number. A text message looks like this:

{ "messaging_product": "whatsapp", "recipient_type": "group", "to": "<GROUP_ID>", "type": "text", "text": { "body": "Hi all, the revised quote is attached below." } }

Replies from members arrive on the usual messages webhook. Each message includes a group_id, and from tells you which participant wrote it. Delivered and read statuses from several members may arrive together in one webhook with several status objects, but Meta says that isn’t certain, so be ready for one webhook per member.

If a member sends something the API doesn’t support, it arrives with type: "unsupported" and error code 130501. Meta also notes that performance metrics aren’t available for templates used in groups, and suggests making separate templates for groups rather than reusing your 1:1 ones.

Groups API pricing

Groups use the same per-message pricing as 1:1 chats, at the same rates, with one big difference: you’re charged for each member a billable message is delivered to. Meta’s example: a marketing template delivered to all 5 members of a group is 5 billable messages, each at the marketing rate for that member’s country calling code. If it reaches only 4, you pay for 4.

The free tier is the same 1,000 service messages a number gets for 1:1 chats, and groups share it. Each group send uses one unit per delivered member, so one reply to a group of 8 can use 8 units. Meta also says group utility messages aren’t eligible for volume tiers.

The customer service window works differently too. When any member messages the group, a window opens (or refreshes) between you and the whole group. The usual window rules otherwise apply; see the 24-hour window. For the per-country rates themselves, see WhatsApp API pricing.

When a group makes sense, and when it doesn’t

Eight people is a small room. That makes groups a good fit for a handful of people who need to talk to each other and to you, and a poor fit for anything that looks like marketing:

Remember that group members can see each other in the group, and Meta doesn’t support hiding the participant list. Only invite people who expect to be in a group together, and never use a group to send someone’s personal details. More on the consumer options in WhatsApp Channels vs Communities.

Reaching a large audience: broadcast campaigns

When people search for sending a WhatsApp API message “to a group”, they usually mean sending one message to many customers. On the API that’s a broadcast: an approved template sent separately to each opted-in contact. Nobody sees anyone else’s number, each person can reply to you privately, and replies land in your inbox as 1:1 chats.

1. Collect opt-in that names your business. See WhatsApp opt-in.
2. Get a template approved, marketing for offers or utility for updates.
3. Pick the audience from your contact list.
4. Send now or schedule it, within your number’s messaging limit.
5. Watch the results and answer replies.

A sample marketing template for a small business, with demo data:

“Hi {{1}}, our new term timetable is out. Batches start Monday 9 November at our Andheri centre. Tap below to see the times. Reply STOP to opt out.” [See timetable]

Bulk sending has its own rules on limits and quality; our guide to WhatsApp broadcast limits covers them.

Broadcasts in Automate AI

In Automate AI, broadcasts are Campaigns. You send an approved template, with images, video, buttons or a carousel, now or on a schedule, and see sent, delivered, read and button clicks live. See WhatsApp marketing campaigns.

When you choose the audience, you can send to all contacts or whole contact groups, pick a ready-made audience in one click, or tick several groups, statuses and countries. A contact group in Automate AI is a list you keep for organising contacts, such as “Mumbai leads”. It isn’t a WhatsApp group: everyone in it gets their own 1:1 message, and nobody sees who else received it.

Replies come into the shared team inbox, where chats can be assigned to the right person, and an opt-out keyword such as STOP opts a contact out automatically.