Guide · Setup · For the owner choosing the number
Which phone number can you use for the WhatsApp Business Platform? Meta's rules on mobiles, landlines, toll-free lines, the two-number cap and deleting a number
The first decision in putting a business on WhatsApp properly is which number to use, and it is often made badly: the owner's personal mobile, a landline nobody can receive a text on, or the shop number that has run the WhatsApp app for five years. Meta's phone number page sets out what a number must be able to do, which kinds work well, which do not, how many numbers a new business may have, and what it takes to remove one later. Here is that page for the owner.
Published 1 October 2026
What any number must be able to do
Meta's requirements are short. The business must own the number. It must have a country and area code; short codes are not accepted. And it must be able to receive either a voice call or a text message, because that is how Meta sends the one-time code that proves the business controls it. A number that passes those three tests can be registered; one that fails any of them cannot, whatever its type.
The number that already runs the WhatsApp app
Which kinds of number work
- Mobile
- Meta's recommendation. Both the text and the voice code arrive normally. Meta's only advice is to make sure the SIM can receive international texts and calls, since the code comes from abroad.
- Landline, toll-free, VoIP and inbound-only lines
- Meta rates the text code as not recommended for all of these and the voice code as standard. In other words they work, but ask for the code by phone call. Meta adds the same practical note for each: make sure the line accepts international calls, is ready to answer, and has call forwarding and automated menus switched off during registration.
- Shared-cost, personal and machine numbers
- Meta rates both methods as not recommended. Pager numbers are not supported at all. Treat these as numbers to avoid rather than to troubleshoot.
Toll-free and head-office numbers are usually behind an automated menu, and Meta's page is explicit that its registration call cannot navigate one. Such a number can still be registered if the phone system can allow-list the numbers Meta calls from, or if Meta's support is asked for them and the call is routed to a person or a voicemail box that can capture the code. A menu that cannot do either makes the number unusable for the platform.
How many numbers, and taking one away
- Two to start, twenty later. Meta caps a new business portfolio at two registered numbers. The cap rises automatically to twenty once the business completes Meta's business verification or its messaging limit reaches 2,000 new customers a day, whichever comes first, with a notice in Meta Business Suite when it happens. A group with several branches should plan the first two numbers carefully and get verified early.
- Connected, or nothing. A number sends and receives only while its status in WhatsApp Manager, under Account tools and Phone numbers, reads connected. The status also reflects the number's quality rating and messaging limit, covered in the quality rating guide.
- Deleting a number is deliberately slow. Meta allows only a portfolio admin to delete a number, only in WhatsApp Manager and never through the connected system, only with the two-step PIN, and not at all if the number has sent paid messages in the last 30 days; the panel shows the date of the last paid message and the deletion waits until 30 days after it. A number cannot be removed in anger on the day a provider relationship ends.
- Moving is different from deleting. Meta's page notes that numbers can be migrated from one Messaging account to another, which is how a business changes who manages the number without losing it. The account split guide explains how accounts and numbers relate.
The customer's number, briefly
The same page carries a warning about the numbers a business sends to. Meta recommends that every customer number include the plus sign and country code. If the plus sign is missing, Meta prepends the business's own country code, so a customer saved in a local format from another country can receive nothing while a stranger in the business's country receives the message. A contact list imported from a spreadsheet of mixed formats is the classic way this happens, and the fix is in the data before the first send, not in WhatsApp.
Questions
Can we use our shop landline?
Meta says yes, if it can receive an international voice call for the registration code, with any automated menu and call forwarding switched off while the call comes in. Ask for the code by call, not by text; Meta rates the text code as not recommended for landlines.
Can we use the number that has been on the WhatsApp Business app for years?
Not as a straight registration: Meta's page says a number in use with WhatsApp must be deleted from WhatsApp first, which loses the app on the phone. Whether the business should instead keep the app and add a system beside it is a separate decision worth a conversation before anything is deleted.
We have six branches. Can we register six numbers?
Not on day one. Meta caps a new portfolio at two registered numbers until the business is verified or reaches a messaging limit of 2,000, after which the cap rises to twenty automatically. Start verification at the same time as the first two numbers.
Our provider says they will delete the number for us. Can they?
Not through the connected system; Meta's page says numbers cannot be deleted via the API. Deletion is done in WhatsApp Manager by a portfolio admin with the PIN, and only once 30 days have passed since the last paid message.
Sources
- Meta's developer documentation: phone numbers, read 1 October 2026.
More plain-language notes like this one are on the guides page.
Not sure which number to put on WhatsApp?
We set up a business's WhatsApp number on a proper system, starting with the choice of number: whether the existing one can be registered, whether a landline or a new mobile is the better fit, how the two-number cap affects a multi-branch business, and what deleting or moving a number would involve later. A short call is the easiest way to see whether it fits your business.
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