Your own WhatsApp bot platform, built in one command
For builders and agencies: a WhatsApp bot product under your name, in a React app you own. Chatfuel runs the Business API underneath.
Everything a WhatsApp AI agent product needs, as modules
WhatsApp AI agents are what your customers come for; the inbox, the record, the calendar, the broadcasts and the ad events are what they expect around one. Each is a module the wizard writes into your app as source, and each reads the same Chatfuel bot.
The AI agent answers on the number
From the knowledge base, always or only outside working hours. It hands over on a rule in your words, qualifies the lead into the contact’s attributes, books the appointment and follows up once when the person goes quiet.
The inbox takes the hand-off
A conversation the WhatsApp AI chat bot is running shows as Automated; take over, and the bot stops answering. WhatsApp’s 24-hour window is checked before you type, and an approved template is the way back in.
Contacts and deals keep the lead
A WhatsApp contact carries the phone number as a field of its own and what the agent captured in its attributes. A deal is a contact with a sales stage — six stages, a board, a table and a forecast — and WhatsApp is the one channel where a contact can be created before it writes.
Bookings on the number
Five levels of autonomy, from noting what the person wants to booking the slot on its own. Only a WhatsApp contact can be booked, and the confirmation and the reminders go out from the bot’s own number.
Broadcasts from the flow builder
A one-time broadcast — an approved template to a segment, Send behind a confirm — and a scheduled message that repeats on weekdays, every N days or on certain dates. The AI itself does not broadcast.
Ads learn what the chat was worth
The conversation a click-to-WhatsApp ad started reports back to Meta under fourteen of Meta’s own names or one you invent, on seven triggers, over the Conversions API — while the number carries the permission.
No Meta review
The channel is connected through Chatfuel — an official Meta partner and WhatsApp Business Solution Provider. You ship an app, not a submission: the number is connected from inside your app, and the app never holds a Meta app of its own or goes through App Review. Three of the seventeen entry points are WhatsApp’s — a direct message, a click-to-WhatsApp ad, a click from a post — and each carries settings of its own.
Your customers sign up to you
Add the accounts module and the app is multi-tenant: anyone can sign up, their account gets a bot of its own created by your server with your token, and every bot of every account comes out of your workspace’s allowance. The token never leaves the server, and the plan is the ceiling on how many customers the platform holds.
Your name, your code, your domain
The name and the logo go in at install. The design system, the API client and the proxy are copied into the project as source under MIT, the deploy script inside the app pushes it to Vercel with no dashboard, and the skills your coding agent needs to keep building it land beside the code.
One bill, no per-number fee
No seat, no per-app fee and no licence key: the workspace plan sets how many bots it holds and puts a balance in it, and the AI is spent from that balance. From 1 October 2026 Chatfuel attaches its credit line to the number, settles with Meta on your behalf and takes Meta’s rate plus 10% from the same balance.
Build a WhatsApp bot platform in four moves
From the command to a chat bot for WhatsApp your customers sign up to. The second move is the one a WhatsApp chat bot usually stalls on, and here it happens inside your app rather than in a Meta submission.
- 01
Run the command with your name on it
npx @chatfuel/wizard --modules automations,knowledge-base,livechat,contacts,deals,ads-optimization,auth, with --app-name and --logo for the name and the mark the app carries. Anything a pick requires comes along and is named on screen, the modules you did not pick are removed before the app is written, and auth is the pick that turns the app into a product people sign up to.
- 02
Connect the number in your app
The WhatsApp number joins the bot from inside the app you deployed: Meta’s signup runs there with Chatfuel as the solution provider, so there is no Meta app of your own to submit. What the app holds is a token and a bot, and the token stays on the server behind the proxy the wizard wrote.
- 03
Write what the agent knows, and when it hands over
The business profile and the hours, the FAQ in the order the agent reads it, the products with prices and photos. Then, per source and in words: what the person has to ask for, what the agent says as it hands over, and which teammates get the conversation.
- 04
Deploy under your domain, open the inbox
The deploy script inside the app pushes it to Vercel — no GitHub repo, no dashboard — and the secrets stay write-only there. Conversations land in the inbox as they arrive, one event set with no ad list covers every click-to-WhatsApp ad, and the workspace needs a plan before the AI answers; the wizard offers the trial on the way.
WhatsApp automation, by module
The WhatsApp automation tools in the app, and the module each one lives in. The AI answers and follows up, the flow builder sends, the ads module reports. Nothing here is a campaign product, and the AI does not broadcast.
| Name | What goes out | Module |
|---|---|---|
| AI reply on a direct message | When a contact messages you: the agent answers from the knowledge base, always or only outside working hours. | AI Agent |
| AI reply on a click-to-WhatsApp ad | When a contact taps an ad that opens WhatsApp — a source of its own, with rules that narrow to the ads you list. | AI Agent |
| AI reply on a click from a post | When a contact comes from a post that opens WhatsApp. | AI Agent |
| Follow-up | One nudge when the person goes quiet, inside the window. | AI Agent |
| Booking confirmation and reminders | The confirmation and the two-hour and 24-hour notices, from the bot’s own WhatsApp number. | Bookings |
| Template from the composer | An approved template, filled in from a form — the way back into a closed 24-hour window. | Inbox |
| One-time broadcast | An approved template to a segment of contacts. Send is live-fire, behind a confirm, and only from a draft. | Flow Builder |
| Scheduled message | Once, on weekdays, every N days or on certain dates. | Flow Builder |
| Conversion event | To Meta, over the Conversions API, when a trigger you set fires in a conversation an ad started. | Ads Optimization |
What the platform costs you
Two meters, a workspace plan they draw from, and Meta’s per-message bill settled through Chatfuel. What you charge your customers on top is yours to set. The inbox, the contacts, the deals, the bookings and the flows are part of the plan, whichever plan; the SDK and the app are free. The AI does not answer until the workspace has a plan.
| Name | What it is | Price |
|---|---|---|
| The meters | What comes out of the balance. | |
| AI input | Everything the agent reads on a message: the knowledge base record and the conversation so far. | $2.75 per 1M tokens |
| AI cached input | Input the model has already read once. | $0.275 per 1M tokens |
| AI output | What it writes back. | $16.50 per 1M tokens |
| Conversion event reported to Meta | When an event set fires in a conversation a click-to-WhatsApp ad started. | $0.01 per event |
| Meta’s bill | Per delivered message, by category and by the country of the number. | |
| Marketing, utility, authentication and service messages | Meta’s rate card, by market. From 1 October 2026 it is settled through Chatfuel’s credit line and taken from the same balance as the meters; the pricing post linked below carries the card by country. | Meta’s rate + 10% |
| Part of the plan | ||
| Inbox, contacts, deals, bookings, flows | Every module and every channel, on any plan. | Free |
| The SDK and the app it generates | MIT, copied into your project as source. | Free |
| The workspace | Where the bots live and where the balance comes from. | |
| Business | One business, one bot, your own app. $20 of credits a month for the meters to draw from. | $20 a month |
| Agency S | Client bots, all on one balance. $100 of credits a month, shared by every bot in it. | $100 a month |
FAQs
No. The number is connected through Chatfuel, an official Meta partner and WhatsApp Business Solution Provider, so the integration is already approved. Your app talks to the Chatfuel API — it is not a Meta app and never goes through app review. The linked post walks through what a Meta app of your own would take: the Cloud API, App Review, business verification and the messaging limits.
WhatsApp Business API for developersOne command, and the WhatsApp bot platform is yours
Your name on it, your customers in it, Chatfuel’s WhatsApp infrastructure under it.
npx @chatfuel/wizard