Frequently asked.
20 questions, grouped. If yours is not here, the documentation is more detailed and a human reads [email protected].
Before you sign up
Do I need to move my number?
No. The number stays registered where it is, and coexistence attaches the Cloud API to it. There is no port, no new number and no re-registration step.
Can I keep using WhatsApp on my phone?
Yes — that is what coexistence means. The WhatsApp Business app keeps working on the same number at the same time. Messages your team sends from the phone are mirrored into the inbox, and messages sent through the API appear in the app.
What does Meta charge?
Meta’s own per-message rates for your customer’s country, billed by Meta directly to your WhatsApp Business Account. We add nothing to it and never see it.
What happens when I hit the AI cap?
AI replies stop until the next billing period or an upgrade. Your inbox, your API, your webhook routing and your transactional sends keep working — the cap bounds the metered part and nothing else.
Can I export my data?
Yes. Export and deletion are API endpoints rather than a support request, and the commitment is in the Data Processing Addendum.
Is my message content stored?
By default yes — that is what makes the inbox, the history and the automations possible, and the retention period is set by your plan. Direct-delivery mode stores no message content at all: events go to your endpoint and we keep no copy. It is a per-connection setting and it is free on every plan.
What if I cancel?
Your plan runs to the end of the period you paid for and then stops renewing. Data is retained for 30 days after that and then deleted. Export before or during that window.
Coexistence
What is WhatsApp Coexistence?
One phone number registered to the WhatsApp Business app and to Meta’s Cloud API at the same time. It is an official Meta capability rather than a workaround, and it is what lets a business add an API without taking the number off the phone its team already answers.
Do my existing chats come across?
Up to 180 days of history imports during onboarding. It runs once, and it must finish within 24 hours of the connection being made — there is no second attempt later. Groups are excluded, because Meta does not sync them.
What can the API not do on a coexistence number?
Groups, catalog messages, calls, broadcast lists, view-once and disappearing messages are not available through the API. Name the surface, because it matters: your catalog and business profile keep working in the app. The API cannot send catalog messages on a coexistence number.
How fast can I send?
Twenty messages per second on a coexistence number. That ceiling is Meta’s, it is fixed, and it cannot be raised — beyond it, sends queue rather than fail.
Does anything change in the app itself?
One thing does, and it is the biggest real objection to coexistence: the app’s own messaging tools — quick replies, away messages, greeting messages and label automations — stop working once the number is connected. Cosend reimplements greeting, away and quick replies on the free tier, because onboarding that removes features is not onboarding. Everything else on the phone behaves as it did.
For developers
How hard is migrating from Meta direct or from another provider?
Two lines: the hostname and the bearer token. Paths, payloads, error envelopes and your version pin are unchanged, because the Runtime API forwards the version segment you send.
Which parts of the Graph API do you support?
An allowlist, published path by path, with a stated reason for every refusal. An unlisted path returns a 404 in Meta’s own envelope rather than a surprise. "Everything" is a lie every proxy tells once, so we publish the list instead.
Do webhooks pass through Cosend?
By default yes — we terminate the webhook, verify the signature and keep the record, which is what makes the inbox, the history and the automations possible. You can also have both, or have Meta’s raw payloads forwarded with nothing stored. Three modes, one per-connection setting.
Is the API really on the free plan?
Yes. One connection, the Runtime API, webhook routing and the shared inbox, capped at 1,000 routed messages a month. It is not a sandbox and it is not a trial.
Data and privacy
Where is my data held?
The database and the API both run in Frankfurt, Germany. One jurisdiction, and the sub-processor list names every other party and what it receives.
Do the AI providers see my messages?
Only when you enable AI. A business using Cosend for routing, the API and the inbox has no AI sub-processor at all — that is a property of the architecture rather than a setting we promise to honour.
Can I take my number and leave?
Yes, and nothing about it is ours to hold. The WhatsApp Business Account, the number and the templates are yours and stay registered to you. Disconnecting happens in the WhatsApp Business app’s own settings — Meta’s screen, not ours — and the app keeps working afterwards.
How long is message content kept?
Your plan sets the default and it is a ceiling rather than a starting point: you can configure retention down, never up. Deletion is deletion of the row and the stored file, not a flag.
Still the fastest way to find out is to connect a number.
Free for one, including the API. No card, no trial clock.