Connect WhatsApp: sandbox vs your own number

WhatsApp is Zapito’s headline channel, and there are two ways onto it:

	Sandbox	Your own number
Available	Now	Request access in-app (Embedded Signup rollout)
Number	Shared Meta test number	A number your business owns
Good for	Trying your agent from a real phone	Production customer traffic
Requirements	None	Meta business prerequisites (below)

Sandbox (available now)

The sandbox uses a shared Meta test number so you can try your agent on a real phone before any business setup:

1. Add (or click) the WhatsApp Trigger node in your flow.
2. Click Enable sandbox number.
3. Open the Deploy modal for a wa.me QR code — scan it and send hi from your phone.

Your messages run the same flow engine as Test chat; replies arrive in your WhatsApp. The number is shared between Zapito workspaces and is clearly labeled a test number — don’t point customers at it.

Your own number — how it will work

Production WhatsApp uses Meta Embedded Signup with Zapito as a Tech Provider. When your access is ready, you’ll complete a Meta popup (about five minutes) that creates everything under your Meta business:

• a WhatsApp Business Account (WABA) owned by you,
• your phone number, registered to that WABA,
• customer-scoped tokens that let Zapito deliver messages — and nothing more.

You own the assets. If you ever leave Zapito, the WABA and number go with you, and Meta bills any template messages directly to your payment method. Zapito never pools customers under its own account, so another customer’s ban can never touch your number.

Until your workspace’s access is ready, the WhatsApp Trigger → Your own number → Connect your own number stepper in the app collects your business details and puts you in the real rollout queue — you’ll get an email when you can connect.

What Meta requires from your business

Work through these before your access email arrives and connecting will take minutes, not weeks:

1. Create a Meta Business Portfolio (free) at business.facebook.com, using a work email on your own domain. Fill Business settings → Business info completely: legal name, address, phone, website.
2. Have a live website that matches your business. Meta sanity-checks it. A one-page site is fine; a parked domain is not.
3. Pick the phone number your bot will own. It must be able to receive an SMS or voice call for verification, and must not be active on the personal WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business app. (An existing WhatsApp number can be migrated during signup, but a fresh number is simpler.)
4. Optional but recommended — Business Verification. In Business settings → Security Centre, submit your registration document and proof of address. Unverified businesses can message up to 250 unique customers per day; verification lifts the limits (1K → 10K → 100K tiers) and unlocks a display name.
5. Enable two-factor authentication on the Meta account that owns the portfolio — required for API access changes.

What WhatsApp costs

• Replies are free. Free-form messages inside Meta’s 24-hour customer-service window (opened whenever a customer messages you) cost nothing — a reply-driven support agent incurs zero Meta fees.
• Templates are billed by Meta, to your own WABA payment method, only for business-initiated messages outside the 24-hour window (utility templates inside an open window are also free).
• Meta’s 2026 “AI Providers” pricing applies to general-purpose consumer assistants (ChatGPT-style bots on WhatsApp), not to businesses running AI support on their own number.

Combined with BYOK model keys, the total cost of a reply-driven support agent is your model provider’s token bill plus your Zapito plan — nothing else.