Guide · Calls on WhatsApp · For the owner whose customers already try to call the number

WhatsApp Business Calling: letting customers call your business number, and what Meta charges when you call them

A WhatsApp business number on the Business Platform can take voice calls from customers and, with their permission, place calls to them, over the internet, inside the same chat thread as the messages. Every call a customer places is free for them and for you. Calls your business places are charged by the second, by country, with a monthly volume discount. The number needs a messaging limit of at least 2,000 before calling can be switched on, and the switch is off by default.

Published 1 October 2026 · Updated 7 October 2026

What it is

Meta's page describes voice calls over the internet between a WhatsApp user and a business number that runs on the Cloud API, which is the platform behind a proper system rather than the WhatsApp Business app on a phone. The call sits in the same thread as the conversation: a customer can chat while on the call, a voicemail plays inside the chat, and the history of calls and messages is one record.

Customer calls you: Available everywhere the Cloud API is. The customer taps the call icon on your profile or in the chat, or a call button you sent them. Free for both sides.
You call the customer: Available everywhere the Cloud API is except for business numbers from the United States, Canada, Egypt, Vietnam and Nigeria. Needs the customer's permission first, and is charged.
Video and screen sharing: Listed on Meta's page as planned or in development. Not something to promise a customer today.

A call opens the 24-hour window

Meta's pricing page says the customer service window now starts or refreshes when a customer calls you, whether or not you answer, and when a customer accepts a call from you. After a missed call, your team can message them back without a template. The 24-hour window guide has the rest.

What you need before the call icon appears

The number on the platform, not the app. Meta's page says the business number must be in use with the Cloud API. A number living only in the WhatsApp Business app does not qualify.
A messaging limit of at least 2,000. Reached by business verification or by volume, as the messaging limits guide explains. A brand-new number cannot take calls yet.
Calling enabled on the number. It is off by default. Whoever runs your system switches it on and sets the call settings below.
A valid payment method. Meta's pricing page requires one before the business can place calls.

The settings that decide how calling behaves

Inbound call control: Whether customers can place calls from your profile at all. The icon can be hidden entirely, or shown only to customers in the countries you choose.
Business call hours: When your team answers. Outside those hours Meta directs the customer to message instead, so a closed shop does not collect missed calls.
Callback requests: Lets a customer ask to be called back when nobody picks up or the line is closed. The request lands with your team as something to act on.
Voicemail: Off unless you switch it on. When it is on, Meta answers a customer's call that your team rejects, or that rings unanswered for a wait you choose of up to 30 seconds, plays your recorded greeting of under a minute, records the caller's message and delivers it to your system as a voice note in the same chat. Calling must be switched on for it to work, and Meta's settings page says to turn business call hours off when voicemail is on, because customers cannot place calls outside call hours at all.
Call buttons and links: A template can carry a button that starts a call, and a link on your website can open one. Both can carry a tag your system reads, so you know which page or campaign produced the call.
How long a call button lasts: Meta's call button page says the button's label can be up to 20 characters, Call Now unless you change it. A template sets how long the button stays live, between 1 and 30 days, and each send can change that, from 1 minute to 30 days, 7 days if nothing is set. Inside a customer's open window the business can also send a call button in an ordinary message.
Call links: A WhatsApp call link works like a chat link but starts a call. Meta suggests it for a website, an app or a QR code, notes that it does not work in WhatsApp on a computer, and says a link can point to a different business number that has calling switched on.

Three answers from Meta's calling questions page

A machine may answer: Meta's questions page, updated in late September 2026, says an automated voice agent, including an AI one, may take WhatsApp calls; Meta hands over the raw audio and leaves what happens to it to the business, within its Business Solution Terms. A business that already uses a voice assistant on its phone line can point it at WhatsApp calls too. The recordings and transcripts such a system might keep are covered in the call recording guide.
Chat with one provider, calls with another: Under the two-account model, Meta says one provider's system can handle the messages and a second provider's system the calls, on the same number. A business happy with its chat system but wanting a proper call centre does not have to move everything.
Verification no, credit line yes: Business verification is not required for calling, Meta says, though it is one route to the messaging limit calling needs. A credit line, meaning a payment arrangement on the Messaging account, is required before calls can be placed. The page also confirms there is no limit on how long a call may last, and that messages can be exchanged while a call is in progress.

Keeping a record of a call, with the announcement Meta plays first, is explained in the call recording guide.

Calling a customer: permission first

A business cannot ring a customer out of the blue. Meta's page describes a call permission the customer grants through a message you send, and it polices how that permission is asked for and used.

Temporary or permanent, the customer's choice: Since November 2025 Meta's permissions page lets the customer answer a request with either a temporary permission, which lasts seven days from the moment they approve, or a permanent one, which lasts until they withdraw it. The customer can review and change either at any time from the business's profile in their WhatsApp. The business has no say in which is granted. A customer who rings the business first can also grant a temporary permission automatically, if the number's callback setting is switched on.
How often you may ask: One permission request per customer per day, and two per week, counted across both forms of request: a plain message inside the customer's 24-hour window, or a template outside it. Either is charged as a message. The counters reset whenever a call connects in either direction, and an unanswered request expires after seven days or as soon as a newer one is answered.
Unanswered calls cost the permission: Two consecutive calls a customer does not answer trigger a message asking them to reconsider the permission. Four consecutive unanswered calls revoke it automatically.
Volume per customer: Meta's changelog raised the business-initiated call limit per customer to 100 a day in December 2025. The permission rules above make that a ceiling nobody should approach.
Behaviour-based restrictions: Meta's page records restrictions for low call pickup rates since September 2025 and for negative user feedback since January 2026. A number whose calls customers do not answer, or report, loses the ability to place them.

What Meta charges

Meta's pricing page separates the two directions cleanly, and the rate cards are its own to publish. The guide to how Meta charges covers messages; this is calls.

Every call a customer places: Free. Meta's page opens with that sentence.
Calls the business places: Charged by duration, counted in six-second pulses with a part pulse counted as a whole one, by the country code of the number called, and by a monthly volume tier that lowers the rate as minutes accumulate. A call that crosses into a cheaper tier is priced at the cheaper rate throughout.
Recording and transcription: Currently free on top of the call, in Meta's words. Whether local law lets you record a customer is a separate question the page does not answer.
When prices can move: Meta's calendar allows changes only on the first day of a quarter. On 1 October 2026 nine markets, including Kuwait and Oman, became standalone on the calling rate cards; Meta's page says calling rates themselves did not change that day.

Questions

Our customers already call the WhatsApp number and nothing happens. Why?

Either the number is in the WhatsApp Business app, where calls work on the phone but not on the platform, or it is on the platform with calling switched off, which is the default. Calling needs the number on the Cloud API, a messaging limit of at least 2,000, and the setting enabled by whoever runs your system.

Is it free?

Calls customers place are free for them and for you. Calls your business places are charged by duration and destination country, and the permission request you send first is a charged template message. Recording and transcription are free at the moment.

Can we call a customer who messaged us?

Only after they grant call permission through the request message, and Meta allows one request a day and two a week per customer. If they stop answering, the permission goes: two unanswered calls prompt them to reconsider, four revoke it.

Can customers call us on WhatsApp from a link on our website?

Yes. Meta describes a WhatsApp call link for websites, apps and QR codes. It does not work in WhatsApp on a computer, so a customer browsing on a laptop needs the phone.

Can we take calls only during opening hours?

Yes. Business call hours is one of the call settings; outside them Meta steers the customer to message you instead, and callback requests let them ask you to ring back. If you would rather take a voice message out of hours, Meta's settings page says to turn call hours off and let voicemail answer instead.

Sources

Meta's developer documentation: Cloud API Calling, read 1 October 2026.
Meta's developer documentation: Calling API Pricing, read 1 October 2026.
Meta's developer documentation: User call permissions, read 3 October 2026.
Meta's developer documentation: Calling FAQ, read 3 October 2026.
Meta's developer documentation: Configure call settings, read 4 October 2026.
Meta's developer documentation: Send WhatsApp Call Button Messages and Deep Links, read 7 October 2026.

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

Want calls and chats on one number, answered by the right person?

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