WhatsApp groups API explained: who can use it and its limits
Meta's WhatsApp Groups API: Official Business Account numbers only, invite-only groups of up to 8 participants, and how groups on a linked number differ.
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Meta's Groups API lets a business create and run WhatsApp groups from its Cloud API number. As of November 2026 it is open to Official Business Account numbers only, and every group is invite-only, with at most 8 participants and one Cloud API business. It cannot reach the groups your team already runs from its phones.
This explainer covers what the Groups API does, who can use it, its limits as Meta documents them, and how it differs from running groups on a number linked from its phone.
What is the WhatsApp Groups API?
It is part of the Cloud API on the WhatsApp Business Platform. A business number with access can do two kinds of work through it:
- Run groups: create and delete them, turn on join requests, get or reset the invite link, send the invite link as a pre-approved message, remove participants, read a group's details and list active groups, and change group settings.
- Message in them: send and receive group messages, pin and unpin messages, and mark group messages as read.
Who can use the Groups API?
Businesses with an Official Business Account (OBA). Meta grants that status to a number on the Business Platform: among its conditions, the number must have been on the Platform for at least 30 days, its business portfolio must have passed Business Verification, and its display name must be approved. The Groups API is not available for WhatsApp Business app numbers, or for numbers onboarded to Multi-solution Conversations.
What are the Groups API's limits?
| Limit | As Meta documents it |
|---|---|
| Participants per group | At most 8 |
| Groups per business number | At most 10,000 |
| Cloud API businesses per group | One |
| How people join | Invite-only, through a group invite link the business sends |
| What can be sent | Text, media, and Meta's pre-approved formats in text or media |
| What can't | Calls, disappearing and view-once messages, commerce messages, interactive messages, and editing or deleting a message |
| Cost | Per message, as on the rest of the Cloud API |
Meta also notes that it reports no performance figures for its pre-approved formats when they are used in groups, and suggests making separate ones for group use.
How is it different from groups on a linked number?
Most business groups were started on a phone: a dealer group, a batch group, a customer group of a few hundred people. The Groups API does not reach those. Under Meta's co-existence feature, which lets a Business app number join the Cloud API, group chats are not synchronised either.
| Question | Groups API (Cloud API) | Groups on a linked number |
|---|---|---|
| Which groups | Only groups the business creates through the API | Any group the number already belongs to |
| Group size | Up to 8 participants | WhatsApp's usual group limits |
| How the number connects | A Cloud API number with Official Business Account status | Linked from the phone's Linked devices screen, like WhatsApp Web |
| How people join | Invite link only | However the group's admins allow on WhatsApp |
| Cost of a message | Charged per message by Meta | No per-message charge from WhatsApp |
Which route fits which kind of group?
- Small, private groups your own system creates, such as a group per order or per account with a few staff and the customer: the Groups API, if your number qualifies.
- Existing groups with dozens or hundreds of members, started on a phone: a tool that works through the numbers already in them.
- Both kinds: a Cloud API number for the first, and the numbers people already know for the second.
Where does WavesFlo fit?
WavesFlo works with groups on the second route. Each number links from its own phone through WhatsApp's Linked devices, so the phone keeps working, and the groups it already belongs to arrive in one shared inbox beside direct chats, each answered from its own number. Posts into many groups are paced per number, and each group has its own reports.
Groups are joined on the phone, and WavesFlo never adds people to groups. See WhatsApp groups on WavesFlo, or how to manage multiple WhatsApp groups for the routine behind it.
Questions
Is there a WhatsApp API for groups?
Yes. Meta's Groups API, part of the Cloud API, lets Official Business Account numbers create invite-only groups of up to 8 participants and message in them, as of November 2026.
How many people can join a group made with the Groups API?
At most 8 participants per group, and a business number can run up to 10,000 such groups, per Meta's documentation on 7 November 2026.
Can the Cloud API send messages to my existing WhatsApp groups?
No. The Groups API covers only groups a business creates through it, and co-existence does not synchronise group chats. Existing groups are reached from a number that belongs to them.
Can a WhatsApp Business app number use the Groups API?
No. Meta's documentation says groups are not available for WhatsApp Business app phone numbers.
What is an Official Business Account on WhatsApp?
A status Meta grants to a Business Platform number whose business has passed Business Verification, among other conditions. It shows a blue checkmark beside the name, and it is what the Groups API requires.