WhatsApp templates

Outside the 24-hour customer service window WhatsApp only delivers approved templates. Use this API to create templates from your own systems, find a template to send with the Messages API, or clean up ones you no longer use. A template you create is submitted to Meta straight away, and Meta decides whether to approve it.

Done in the app

Editing a template, and checking whether Meta has approved it, is done in the app, not the API. Responses don't include Meta's approval status, so check it in the app before you send a template.

Endpoints

GET/v1/whatsapp-templatesList templates POST/v1/whatsapp-templatesCreate a template and submit it to Meta GET/v1/whatsapp-templates/{id}Get a template DEL/v1/whatsapp-templates/{id}Delete a template here and in Meta

The template object

Attributes

idstring

Template id in WhautoChat

templateobject

The template in Meta's format, as it was saved: name, language, category and components

workspaceobject

The workspace the template belongs to.

createdAt, updatedAtstring

ISO 8601 timestamps

The template object
{
  "id": "Tm8kD3wQeR",
  "template": {
    "name": "order_shipped",
    "language": "en_US",
    "category": "UTILITY",
    "components": [
      {
        "type": "BODY",
        "text": "Hi {{1}}, your order {{2}} has shipped and will arrive on {{3}}.",
        "example": { "body_text": [["Maria", "A-10482", "18 October"]] }
      },
      { "type": "FOOTER", "text": "Lopez Dental Studio" },
      {
        "type": "BUTTONS",
        "buttons": [
          { "type": "URL", "text": "Track order", "url": "https://shop.example.com/track" }
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "workspace": {
    "id": "kR4tW9pLxQ",
    "title": "Downtown Clinic"
  },
  "createdAt": "2026-10-14T09:30:12.204Z",
  "updatedAt": "2026-10-14T09:30:12.204Z"
}

List templates

GET/v1/whatsapp-templates

Query parameters

workspaceIdstring

Only templates in this workspace. Without it, templates from all your workspaces are returned.

searchTextstring

Returns templates whose name contains this text. Not case sensitive.

pageintegerdefault 1

Page number, starting at 1

limitintegerdefault 10

Results per page. Max 100; larger values are capped at 100.

200 OK: a JSON array of templates, most recently updated first.

Errors

Status	Body	When
`401`	`{"message":"Unauthorized"}`	The `x-api-key` header is missing, invalid or the key was deleted
`404`	`{"error":"Invalid workspaceId"}`	No workspace with that id in your account
`500`	`{"error":"Could not retrieve WhatsApp Templates"}`	Something went wrong on our side. Retry, and contact support if it continues.

Request
curl "https://api.whauto.chat/v1/whatsapp-templates?workspaceId=kR4tW9pLxQ&searchText=order&limit=50" \
  -H "x-api-key: $WHAUTOCHAT_API_KEY"

Response 200
[
  {
    "id": "Tm8kD3wQeR",
    "template": {
      "name": "order_shipped",
      "language": "en_US",
      "category": "UTILITY",
      "components": [
        { "type": "BODY", "text": "Hi {{1}}, your order {{2}} has shipped and will arrive on {{3}}.", "example": { "body_text": [["Maria", "A-10482", "18 October"]] } },
        { "type": "FOOTER", "text": "Lopez Dental Studio" }
      ]
    },
    "workspace": { "id": "kR4tW9pLxQ", "title": "Downtown Clinic" },
    "createdAt": "2026-10-14T09:30:12.204Z",
    "updatedAt": "2026-10-14T09:30:12.204Z"
  }
]

Create a template

POST/v1/whatsapp-templates

The workspace must have the WhatsApp Cloud API connected. Template names must be unique within a workspace, across all languages.

Body parameters

workspaceIdstringrequired

The workspace to create the template in. You can send workspace: {"id": "..."} instead.

templateobjectrequired

The template in Meta's message template format. It is sent to Meta exactly as you send it.

About the name: WhautoChat trims it and turns spaces into underscores before checking it, and rejects anything other than letters, numbers and underscores. It stores that cleaned name, but the template object goes to Meta unchanged, so send a name that is already valid (for example order_shipped, not Order Shipped).

How submission works:

If your WhatsApp Business account already has a template with the same name and language, WhautoChat links to it instead of submitting a new one.
If Meta rejects the submission (for example, a missing example value or an invalid name), nothing is saved and you get 400 with Meta's reason.

200 OK: the template object.

Errors

Status	Body	When
`400`	`{"error":"template is required"}`	No `template` object
`400`	`{"error":"template must contain name, language, category and components"}`	One of those four fields is missing
`400`	`{"error":"Invalid template name. Only letters, numbers, and underscores are allowed. Spaces will be converted to underscores."}`	The name has other characters
`400`	`{"error":"workspaceId is required"}`	No `workspaceId` or `workspace.id`
`400`	`{"error":"There is an existing template with the same name, Please change the template name."}`	The workspace already has a template with that name
`400`	`{"error": ...}` with Meta's reason	Meta rejected the submission
`401`	`{"message":"Unauthorized"}`	The `x-api-key` header is missing, invalid or the key was deleted
`401`	`{"error":"New templates cannot be created, Please configure your whatsApp Cloud API!"}`	The workspace does not have the WhatsApp Cloud API connected. Connect it in the app.
`404`	`{"error":"Invalid workspaceId"}`	No workspace with that id in your account
`500`	`{"error":"Could not create WhatsApp Template"}`	Something went wrong on our side. Retry, and contact support if it continues.

Request
curl -X POST "https://api.whauto.chat/v1/whatsapp-templates" \
  -H "x-api-key: $WHAUTOCHAT_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "workspaceId": "kR4tW9pLxQ",
    "template": {
      "name": "order_shipped",
      "language": "en_US",
      "category": "UTILITY",
      "components": [
        {
          "type": "BODY",
          "text": "Hi {{1}}, your order {{2}} has shipped and will arrive on {{3}}.",
          "example": {
            "body_text": [["Maria", "A-10482", "18 October"]]
          }
        },
        {
          "type": "FOOTER",
          "text": "Lopez Dental Studio"
        },
        {
          "type": "BUTTONS",
          "buttons": [
            { "type": "URL", "text": "Track order", "url": "https://shop.example.com/track" }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  }'

Response 200
{
  "id": "Tm8kD3wQeR",
  "template": {
    "name": "order_shipped",
    "language": "en_US",
    "category": "UTILITY",
    "components": [
      {
        "type": "BODY",
        "text": "Hi {{1}}, your order {{2}} has shipped and will arrive on {{3}}.",
        "example": { "body_text": [["Maria", "A-10482", "18 October"]] }
      },
      { "type": "FOOTER", "text": "Lopez Dental Studio" },
      {
        "type": "BUTTONS",
        "buttons": [
          { "type": "URL", "text": "Track order", "url": "https://shop.example.com/track" }
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "workspace": {
    "id": "kR4tW9pLxQ",
    "title": "Downtown Clinic"
  },
  "createdAt": "2026-10-14T09:30:12.204Z",
  "updatedAt": "2026-10-14T09:30:12.204Z"
}

Get a template

GET/v1/whatsapp-templates/{id}

Path parameters

idstringrequired

Template id

200 OK: the template object.

Errors

Status	Body	When
`401`	`{"message":"Unauthorized"}`	The `x-api-key` header is missing, invalid or the key was deleted
`404`	`{"error":"WhatsApp Template not found"}`	No template with that id in your account
`500`	`{"error":"Could not retrieve WhatsApp Template"}`	Something went wrong on our side. Retry, and contact support if it continues.

Request
curl "https://api.whauto.chat/v1/whatsapp-templates/Tm8kD3wQeR" \
  -H "x-api-key: $WHAUTOCHAT_API_KEY"

Response 200
{
  "id": "Tm8kD3wQeR",
  "template": {
    "name": "order_shipped",
    "language": "en_US",
    "category": "UTILITY",
    "components": [
      { "type": "BODY", "text": "Hi {{1}}, your order {{2}} has shipped and will arrive on {{3}}.", "example": { "body_text": [["Maria", "A-10482", "18 October"]] } },
      { "type": "FOOTER", "text": "Lopez Dental Studio" }
    ]
  },
  "workspace": { "id": "kR4tW9pLxQ", "title": "Downtown Clinic" },
  "createdAt": "2026-10-14T09:30:12.204Z",
  "updatedAt": "2026-10-14T09:30:12.204Z"
}

Delete a template

DEL/v1/whatsapp-templates/{id}

Deletes the template from WhautoChat and from your WhatsApp Business account in Meta. If Meta refuses the deletion, the template is kept and you get 400 with Meta's reason. You cannot undo this.

Path parameters

idstringrequired

Template id

200 OK: { "success": true }.

Errors

Status	Body	When
`400`	`{"error": ...}` with Meta's reason	Meta refused the deletion
`401`	`{"message":"Unauthorized"}`	The `x-api-key` header is missing, invalid or the key was deleted
`404`	`{"error":"WhatsApp Template not found"}`	No template with that id in your account
`500`	`{"error":"Could not delete WhatsApp Template"}`	Something went wrong on our side. Retry, and contact support if it continues.

Request
curl -X DELETE "https://api.whauto.chat/v1/whatsapp-templates/Tm8kD3wQeR" \
  -H "x-api-key: $WHAUTOCHAT_API_KEY"

Response 200
{ "success": true }

The template object​

List templates​

Create a template​

Get a template​

Delete a template​

The template object

List templates

Create a template

Get a template

Delete a template