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Guide · AI on WhatsApp · For the owner being sold an AI assistant

Can you put ChatGPT on your WhatsApp business number? Meta's AI Providers rule, for the owner

Since 15 January 2026, WhatsApp's terms have restricted one kind of AI on the business platform: the general-purpose assistant, the chatbot people message to ask anything. Meta's page on what it calls AI Providers sets out who that is, the few countries where it is still allowed, and how Meta charges for it there. It also says, plainly, that nothing changes for any other business. The difference matters to an owner being sold an AI assistant for their WhatsApp number, because the same technology sits on both sides of the line.

Published 3 October 2026 · Updated 6 October 2026

What Meta's rule says

Who an AI Provider is
Meta's page quotes the definition from WhatsApp's terms as updated on 15 January 2026: providers and developers of artificial intelligence or machine learning technologies, such as large language models, generative AI platforms and general-purpose AI assistants, who provide services on the WhatsApp Business Platform.
What they may do
From 15 January 2026, AI Providers may offer general-purpose AI assistants on the platform only in countries where Meta is legally required to permit it. Everywhere else, that use is not allowed.
Where it is allowed, and charged
From 16 February 2026 Meta charges AI Providers for every non-template message delivered to people in those countries. Meta's list, last updated in May 2026, names Brazil from 11 March 2026. Italy and a list of European countries were on it earlier in the year; Meta's page says it stopped charging there from 13 May 2026. Neither the United Arab Emirates nor Pakistan has appeared on the list.
Every reply counts
Meta's own example: a person sends one question, the assistant answers in three messages over five minutes, and that is three charges. Meta publishes these rates separately from its ordinary price list.

What the page says does not change

Meta is explicit that the page does not change how or what it charges any other business on the platform, and does not change how the customer service window works. An ordinary business pays as the pricing guide describes, including the service message charges that began on 1 October 2026, set out in the October 2026 charges guide.

Where the line falls for an ordinary business

The rule is written about companies whose product is the assistant: a chatbot that people message to ask about anything at all. A shop, clinic or agency that uses AI to answer its own customers about its own products, bookings and orders is the other business on Meta's page, the one it says nothing changes for. Meta's own product sits on that side: its Business Agent answers a business's customers on the business's own number. The test the definition points at is what customers are messaging: a business answering about itself, or a general-purpose assistant that happens to live on a business number. Where a case is unclear, WhatsApp's terms decide it, not a provider's assurance and not this guide.

  1. Ask what it will answer. An assistant set up to answer about your business, and to say so when asked about something else, is a business using AI. One sold as "ask it anything" is the use the rule restricts, whoever's number it runs on.
  2. Watch the label Meta puts on the traffic. Meta tags AI Provider messages with their own category: AI_BOT in its pricing analytics and general_purpose_ai in the status notices a system receives. A provider can show you which category your messages carry; an ordinary business's replies should not carry these.
  3. Keep a person in reach. Meta's WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy requires it: a business may automate its replies, but must also offer a prompt, clear and direct way to escalate, such as a transfer to a person in the chat, a phone number, an email address, support on the website, a store visit or a support form. Whatever answers first, a customer who needs a person should reach one without starting over. How a conversation is handed from an AI to a person on the same number is in the routing guide.

WhatsApp has also published terms, last updated on 25 August 2026, for a different route: WhatsApp users themselves connecting outside AI agents to their account, up to five at a time, through what WhatsApp calls its third-party agent platform. Those terms say WhatsApp does not build, run, endorse or verify these agents; the company behind each one is solely responsible for its answers, the actions it takes, anything sold through it and how it handles data; and conversations with these agents are not end-to-end encrypted. That route is chosen by the user, not set up on a business number, and the terms do not say in which countries it is offered.

Questions

Can we connect ChatGPT or a similar model to our WhatsApp business number?

Using a language model to answer your own customers about your own business is the ordinary case Meta's page says nothing changes for, and it is how Meta's own Business Agent works. What WhatsApp's terms restrict is a general-purpose assistant offered to the public, the kind people message to ask anything.

Is a general-purpose AI assistant on WhatsApp allowed in the UAE or Pakistan?

Meta's page permits it only where Meta is legally required to, and neither country has appeared on Meta's list. Brazil is the country the page names.

Can our customers connect their own AI assistant to WhatsApp?

WhatsApp's terms for third-party agents, last updated 25 August 2026, describe a route for users to connect up to five outside AI agents. The company behind each agent is responsible for what it says and does, and those chats are not end-to-end encrypted. The terms do not list the countries where the route is offered.

Do AI-written replies cost an ordinary business more?

Not according to Meta's page. A business answering its own customers pays the same as any business, whether a person or a model wrote the reply. The separate per-message charge applies to AI Providers in the listed countries.

How would we know if Meta treats our messages as an AI Provider's?

Meta labels that traffic with its own pricing category, AI_BOT in pricing analytics and general_purpose_ai in status notices. Ask your provider to show you the category your messages carry.

Sources

More plain-language notes like this one are on the guides page.

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