You can move your WhatsApp Business number from one provider to another without losing the number, and Meta supports it officially. Your display name, quality rating, messaging limit and Official Business Account badge come with you, and the number keeps sending and receiving the entire time.
Almost every guide to this is written by a provider explaining how to migrate to them, which is why they all say slightly different things about templates. Two of them are describing different situations and neither says so.
Here is the actual process, and the one fact that decides whether this takes an afternoon or three weeks.
In short
Migration is real and low risk for the number itself. Meta requires your Meta Business Account to be verified, your existing account approved, a payment method attached, two-step verification switched off and your display name approved with no pending change request. Registration on the new account is instant with no messaging gap.
The risk is entirely in the templates. Meta only migrates templates between WhatsApp Business Accounts owned by the same Meta business. If your current provider owns yours, none of your templates can be copied and you resubmit all of them. Find out who owns it before you plan anything else.
What actually decides whether switching is easy
Meta's template migration documentation contains one sentence that governs this whole exercise:
Templates can only be migrated between WABAs owned by the same Meta business.
WABA means WhatsApp Business Account. Read that sentence carefully, because it splits everyone into two very different situations.
If the account is owned by your business, the new provider is simply granted access to an account you already control. Same Meta business on both sides, so your templates are eligible to be copied across. Switching is a configuration change measured in hours.
If the account is owned by your provider, then the destination is a different Meta business by definition. Template migration is not merely slow in this case, it is unavailable. Every template goes back through review as a new submission, and until they are approved you cannot send anything template-based, which is most of what you send.
Who owns the WhatsApp Business Account your number sits in?
Your business owns it
- Both accounts belong to the same Meta business
- Approved templates are eligible to be copied across
- Quality rating and messaging tier follow the number
Realistic timelineAn afternoon
Your provider owns it
- The destination is a different Meta business by definition
- Template migration is not slow, it is unavailable
- Every template is resubmitted for review from scratch
Realistic timelineOne to three weeks
This is the entire reason the vendor guides disagree. The ones promising your templates transfer are describing the first case. The ones telling you to recreate your templates are describing the second. Both are accurate about their own situation.
It is also why whose name the account is in is the question worth asking before you sign with anyone, rather than at the point you want to leave.
How to check who owns your account right now
Do this before anything else, because it changes the plan.
- Open business.facebook.com and go to Business Settings.
- Under Accounts, select WhatsApp Accounts.
- Look for your account.
If it appears and your business is listed as the owner, you own it. You are in the easy case.
If it does not appear at all, your provider owns it and has given you dashboard access rather than account ownership. You are in the harder case.
If it appears but is shared with you rather than owned, the same applies. Shared access is not ownership, and it does not satisfy Meta's same-business requirement for templates.
If you cannot tell, ask your provider directly and in writing: "Is the WhatsApp Business Account for our number owned by our Meta Business Account or by yours?" It is a yes or no question and the answer determines weeks of work.
What you keep
These transfer with the number, per Meta's migration requirements:
| Carries over | Notes |
|---|---|
| Display name | The approved name recipients see |
| Quality rating | Green, yellow or red follows the number |
| Messaging limit | Your tier is preserved, so you do not restart at 250 |
| Official Business Account status | The green badge, if you have it |
| Approved templates | Only if both accounts belong to the same Meta business |
| Uploaded media | Meta states media on the number can continue to be used |
The messaging limit is the one people expect to lose and do not. If you have worked your way up to 10,000 or 100,000 conversations a day, that survives the move. See how the tiers escalate for why that matters more than it sounds.
What you lose
| Does not carry over | Notes |
|---|---|
| Template quality ratings | Migrated templates all start at UNKNOWN and take about 24 hours to be re-rated |
| Templates that are not approved | Only APPROVED templates with a quality score of GREEN or UNKNOWN are eligible |
| Templates rated yellow or red | Ineligible. Resubmit them, ideally rewritten |
| Conversation history | Not part of the migration. Export anything you need first |
| Test numbers | Meta states test business phone numbers it issues cannot be migrated at all |
The yellow and red exclusion is worth pausing on. A template performing badly is exactly the one you cannot bring, so budget for rewriting your worst performers rather than copying them. Why templates get rejected covers what to change on the way through.
What you need before you start
Meta requires all of the following. Any one missing and the migration fails, usually with an unhelpful error.
- Your Meta Business Account must be verified. Not merely created. If yours is not, business verification takes 24 to 48 hours with correct documents and is the longest single item on this list. Start it first.
- Your existing WhatsApp Business Account must be in
approvedstatus. - A valid payment method must be attached to the account.
- Two-step verification must be disabled on the phone number. Providers call this 2FA. If you do not have access to switch it off, your current provider has to do it for you, which means telling them you are leaving. Plan for that conversation.
- Your display name must be approved, with
name_statusreadingAPPROVED. - There must be no pending display name change request. If one is in flight, wait for it to resolve. A pending request blocks the migration outright.
One item that is not on Meta's list and catches people the day after the migration completes: the credentials on the new side are yours to create, and the token you are given first is not the one to keep. If your new provider hands you a token from the App Dashboard, it stops working within about a day, and it will look like the migration failed rather than like a credential problem. Generate a System User token before you send anything real.
Two of these need your current provider's cooperation, so do not leave them until the day you plan to switch.
The steps, in order
The order matters more than the steps do.
- Export what you want to keep. Conversation history does not migrate. Whatever your reporting depends on, pull it now.
- Confirm the account ownership question above. Everything downstream depends on the answer.
- Verify your Meta Business Account if it is not already. Longest lead time, start earliest.
- Disable two-step verification on the number, yourself or through your current provider.
- Migrate the templates, before you move the number. This is the step everyone gets backwards. See below.
- Register the number on the new account through the new provider's signup.
- Attach billing. With a provider this is done by sharing a credit line to the new account. Connected directly to Meta, you attach your own payment method and Meta bills you, with no per-message markup in between.
- Confirm webhooks are subscribed on the new account, or the number will send fine and appear to receive nothing.
Why templates go first
Meta is explicit that template migration is a duplication process that takes time, and that during it:
You will not be able to use affected templates until they are migrated.
Move the number first and you get a working number that cannot send anything. Move the templates first and the gap closes before your traffic depends on it. This one sequencing choice is the difference between a quiet switch and a day of failed sends.
How long does it take, and is there downtime?
Registering the number is instant, and Meta states there is no interruption to messaging. The old account keeps working right up until the number is registered on the new one, so there is no window where you are unreachable.
Realistically, budget by your worst prerequisite, not by the migration:
- Everything already in place, account in your name: an afternoon.
- Business verification still needed: add 24 to 48 hours with correct documents.
- Provider owns the account, so templates restart: one to three weeks, governed entirely by template review.
The migration itself is minutes. The preparation is what takes the time, which is good news, because all of it can happen while your current setup keeps running.
What to check before you commit to the next one
You are already paying the cost of switching once. It is worth not paying it again.
Will the new WhatsApp Business Account be in your name? Ask before signing. If the answer is no, you are choosing to repeat this exact exercise the next time you want to move, templates and all.
What is the per-message markup? Meta's rate is identical whoever you buy through, at roughly ₹0.86 for a marketing message delivered in India. Anything above that is your provider's cut, commonly 10 to 30% and rarely printed on the pricing page. Work out your own number in the pricing calculator or read how the pricing is built.
Can you see delivered, or only sent? A 200 from Meta means the request was accepted, not that anything arrived. See why "sent" means nothing.
How quickly does a new lead get its first message? Ask for a number in seconds. Tools that poll for new leads on a schedule can leave a lead sitting for five or fifteen minutes.
Where Kredoo sits
The account stays in your business's name, so the migration question above never becomes a trap. You connect your own WhatsApp Business Account, Meta bills you directly and there is no per-message markup, because there is no reseller in the middle to take one. If you leave later, you keep the account, the number, the tier and the templates.
We will also do the migration with you rather than hand you a help article. See how it works.
Questions people ask
Can I move my WhatsApp Business number to a different provider?
Yes. Meta officially supports migrating a business phone number from one WhatsApp Business Account to another. You keep the number, your approved display name, your quality rating, your messaging limit and your Official Business Account status. Registration on the new account is instant and Meta states there is no interruption to messaging.
Will I lose my message templates if I switch WhatsApp providers?
It depends entirely on who owns the WhatsApp Business Account. Meta only migrates templates between accounts owned by the same Meta business. If the account is in your own business's name, your approved templates can be copied to the new provider. If your current provider owns the account, template migration is not possible and you must resubmit every template for review as a new submission.
How do I find out who owns my WhatsApp Business Account?
Open business.facebook.com, go to Business Settings, then Accounts, then WhatsApp Accounts. If your account appears there with your business listed as owner, you own it. If it does not appear, or appears as shared with you rather than owned, your provider owns it. You can also simply ask your provider in writing whether the account is owned by your Meta Business Account or theirs.
Do I lose my messaging limit when I migrate to a new BSP?
No. Your template messaging limit transfers with the number, so you do not restart at 250 conversations a day. Your quality rating carries over too. What does reset is the quality rating on individual templates, which all begin at UNKNOWN after migration and take roughly 24 hours to be re-rated.
What do I need before migrating my WhatsApp number to another provider?
Meta requires a verified Meta Business Account, an existing WhatsApp Business Account in approved status, a valid payment method attached to it, two-step verification disabled on the phone number, an approved display name, and no pending display name change request. Test business phone numbers issued by WhatsApp cannot be migrated at all.
How long does WhatsApp BSP migration take?
The migration itself takes minutes and the number keeps working throughout. The timeline is set by your prerequisites. With everything in place and the account in your own name, an afternoon. If business verification is still needed, add 24 to 48 hours. If your provider owns the account and every template must be resubmitted, budget one to three weeks, because template review governs the schedule.
Should I migrate my templates or my phone number first?
Templates first. Meta duplicates templates into the destination account and states you cannot use affected templates until that finishes. If you register the number first, you end up with a working number that cannot send template messages. Starting template migration before registering the number closes that gap before your traffic depends on it.
Is there downtime when switching WhatsApp API providers?
Not for the number. The source account continues sending and receiving until the number is registered on the destination account, and registration is instant. The only functional gap is templates, which are unusable while they are being duplicated, which is why template migration should be started first.
Does my WhatsApp conversation history transfer to the new provider?
No. Conversation history is not part of the migration and does not appear in Meta's list of what is retained. Export anything your reporting or compliance depends on before you begin, because it will not be available in the new dashboard afterwards.
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