The WhatsApp Business API is the official way for a company to send and receive WhatsApp messages through software instead of a phone. HiQBot connects yours through Meta’s own signup flow inside the dashboard, so there is no agency in the middle and no forms emailed back and forth. Coexistence keeps the number your customers already message, so nobody has to reprint a card or start a new thread.
Once the number is live, an AI sales agent answers from the documents you upload, in the language the customer wrote in. Conversations land in the same shared inbox as website chat and Instagram, plus Messenger, Telegram and LINE from Starter up. On Starter and Growth, a person takes over mid-thread with the whole history attached.
Two bills exist and they are separate. HiQBot charges for your plan. Meta charges your own WhatsApp account for conversation usage, at its published rates.
Handoff to your team: Starter and up.
You connect your WhatsApp Business account inside HiQBot, through Meta’s own signup flow. No agency in the middle, no forms emailed back and forth.
Coexistence means the number your customers already message keeps working. You don’t have to retire it, reprint anything, or ask anyone to start over.
Upload your policies, price list, and help articles. The agent replies from those, in whatever language the customer wrote in, and pulls in a person when it should.
Chats get assigned to whoever is free and on shift. The rep who picks it up sees everything said so far, so the customer never explains it twice.
The agent takes the date, time and details inside the conversation and writes the booking against the contact in your dashboard. Connect Google Calendar and the same booking appears on your team’s real calendar.
Customers send a voice note and the agent answers with one of its own. Your team reads the exchange as text in the inbox. The Voice Notes add-on works on every plan. On Growth, when typing stops working, a person on your team can call the customer over WhatsApp from there.
The free WhatsApp Business app runs on one phone. One person holds it, and the conversation history lives on that handset. That works for a shop counter, and it stops working the moment two people need to answer, or the answers have to come from your price list rather than somebody’s memory.
The API is the version built for software. It adds three things the app does not have.
More than one person on the same number, on Starter and Growth. Conversations are assigned to whoever is free and on shift, and the rep who picks one up reads everything said before it.
An AI agent on the number, on every plan. It answers from documents you upload, qualifies the buyer and takes the booking. On Starter and Growth it also pulls in a person when it should.
The number alongside your other channels. Website chat and Instagram queue in the same shared inbox on every plan, and Messenger, Telegram and LINE join them from Starter, so one team works one list instead of five tabs.
What you give up is the phone app’s simplicity. An API number is managed from a dashboard, message templates need Meta’s approval before they go out, and Meta bills conversation usage to your own account. The setup guide walks through the approval in order, including what to do when it stalls.
Meta bills your own WhatsApp Business account for conversation usage. HiQBot does not resell those messages and does not add a margin to them, so the two invoices stay separate and you can check Meta’s against Meta’s published rates yourself.
HiQBot bills the plan. A plan sells message credits, and one AI reply draws credits according to the level the inbox is set to: a Core reply uses one, Balanced uses four, Max uses eight. Depending on the plan, that allowance is 2,500 credits a month on Solo, 6,000 on Starter and 10,000 on Growth. On monthly plans, unused credits from your base allowance carry over for two billing periods. Miss the grace window that follows your renewal date and the whole carried balance is gone; paying late reinstates the plan and its new allowance and nothing else.
Credits are prepaid and there is no overage. When they run out, AI replies pause until the next renewal or an upgrade, and nothing bills on top without you asking for it.
The rate card and worked examples for the Meta side are in the pricing guide, and the calculator prices a month against your own volume.
Getting connected
Start and finish the WhatsApp signup in one window, without leaving HiQBot. Meta reviews the account, then your number is live in the inbox.
Upload what your team already answers from, then decide what the agent handles on its own, when it books, and when it fetches a human.
WhatsApp lands in the same queue as Instagram, Messenger, Telegram, LINE, and your website chat, so one team works one list instead of five tabs.
Looking at Gallabox as well? We wrote up how the two differ.
Voice notes are an add-on on every plan: the customer sends one, the agent answers with one, and your team reads both as text in the inbox. WhatsApp calling is separate and Growth only, and a person places the call.
Meta bills WhatsApp conversation usage to your own account. HiQBot bills your plan, never the messages. Work out that side of the bill with the WhatsApp pricing calculator. New to the API? The WhatsApp Business API setup guide covers what you need, the steps in order, and what to do when approval stalls, and the WhatsApp Business API pricing guide explains what Meta charges. To reach a list rather than answer one person, see WhatsApp broadcasting and its limits.
Connect it in a few minutes, hand the routine questions to an agent, and keep your team for the ones that need them.