WhatsApp Business Calling: Who Can Switch It On, Who Pays, and How It Works

WhatsApp calling for business is Meta's feature that lets a customer call a business from inside the chat. It is useful, and it is not open to every number. This is a plain summary of the rules, as of October 2026, taken from Meta's calling documentation.

Who can switch it on

Meta requires a daily messaging limit of at least 2,000 people before calling can be enabled on a number. Every new business starts at 250 or 1,000, and Meta raises the limit as you send messages people engage with, and once your display name is approved.

Meta measures this limit across your business portfolio now, not number by number, so a portfolio that has already earned a higher limit applies it to every number in it.

If you try to switch calling on below the limit, WhatsApp answers with error 138015. It means the number isn't eligible yet — nothing is broken.

Where calling is available

Customer-started calls work in most countries, and India is supported in both directions. Meta blocks business-started calling for numbers in the US, Canada, Egypt, Vietnam and Nigeria.

Who pays for the call

• Calls a customer starts: free. Meta states that all user-initiated calls are free.
• Calls a business starts: billed to the business's WhatsApp account, per minute.

On ThinnestAI, calls your customers start cost you your voice rate for the minutes the agent talks — and nothing from Meta.

Can a business call a customer?

Only if the customer has given permission. WhatsApp enforces this, and a call without it is refused with error 138006.

• A customer can grant permission by accepting a permission request from the business.
• A customer who calls the business is also granted a temporary permission, for seven days, when callback permission is switched on.
• Permission can be withdrawn by the customer at any time.
• WhatsApp limits how often a business may ask: one request in 24 hours and two in seven days.
• Four unanswered calls in a row cancel an approved permission.

ThinnestAI answers calls customers start today. Calling customers on WhatsApp, with permission, is not available yet.

Settings you control

• Calls on or off for each number.
• Call hours — up to two time ranges a day, in your time zone.
• Closed days — up to 20 dates.
• Whether the call button shows in the chat.
• Callback permission — whether customers can grant the seven-day permission when they call.

How the call actually works

A WhatsApp call is an internet call, not a phone call. It uses WebRTC, the same technology as video meetings in a browser, and it never touches the phone network. That's why it needs no carrier, no rented number, and costs the customer no talk time.