Who owns what when an agency runs your WhatsApp API?
Meta splits a WhatsApp API setup into layers, each with its own owner. Your business portfolio holds your Meta assets and your business verification. Inside it sit a WhatsApp account, which holds the phone number, and a Messaging account, which holds the templates and the payment method. Outside Meta, the CRM holds your contacts and deals.
| Piece | Who holds it | What the documentation says |
|---|---|---|
| Business portfolio, with your business verification | Your business | Meta says it must belong to the end business, not to an agency or third party. Whoever has full access can add or remove people and assets, or delete it. |
| WhatsApp account: number, display name, business profile | Your business | Meta says it is always owned by the client or a direct developer, and can be shared with several providers. A business onboarded through Meta’s signup flow keeps full access to WhatsApp Manager; no provider can restrict it. |
| Messaging account: templates and payment method | You or the provider | Meta says either can own it. It holds one payment method, and one carrying a provider’s payment method can’t be shared with another provider. |
| Message templates | Whoever owns the Messaging account they sit in | They belong to the account they were created in. Meta’s copy tool works only between accounts owned by the same Meta business. |
| Chat history | Whatever system saved it | Meta keeps Cloud API message data for 30 days at most, so the lasting record is in the inbox or CRM that received the chats. |
| Contacts and deals | Whoever owns the CRM account | In HighLevel, only admins can export contacts, and a cancelled account’s data is deleted after 90 days. |
| Ad accounts | The portfolio that owns them | A partner with full control still can’t share an asset with another business. Only the owner can. |
Two points settle most disputes. Meta says it has retired the older “on-behalf-of” model, where a provider owned the account for you; those accounts were due to reach their clients by 1 October 2025. And a Messaging account can’t move from one business to another, nor a number to another business portfolio. So the accounts created on day one are the ones you keep in year three. Check whose they are before you sign.
Can you switch WhatsApp API provider and keep your number?
Yes, and under Meta’s current account model it is not a migration. Meta says every account was due to move to this model between 23 September and 15 October 2026; if Meta Business Suite shows separate WhatsApp accounts and Messaging accounts tabs, yours has. You share your WhatsApp account, which holds the number, with the new provider. The number does not move and conversations carry on; Meta describes onboarding a client this way as needing no migration, no new number and no downtime. Sharing is additive: you decide whether the old provider stays or is removed later.
A switch, step by step:
- Export your contacts and deals from the old CRM, and ask for your template list: names, text and status.
- In Meta Business Suite, open Settings, Accounts, WhatsApp accounts, select the account, click Assign partner and enter the new provider’s business portfolio ID.
- Share a Messaging account with the new provider too: Meta says messaging does not work unless it has both. Meta’s signup flow creates a new one for each provider, so its templates start empty.
- Test sending and receiving before you remove anyone.
- Remove the old provider from the Messaging account, then from the WhatsApp account (Manage, Remove access). Meta says you can do this at any time.
Templates do not move. They belong to the Messaging account they were created in. Meta’s copy tool recreates approved templates rather than moving them, and Meta says copied templates have their quality ratings and messaging tier reset to baseline, with about 2 to 4 weeks to ramp up. If the Messaging account is yours and carries no provider’s payment method, you should be able to keep it, templates included: Meta’s help centre says to remove the old provider from it before assigning a new one.
Then the PIN. Meta is retiring the 6-digit two-step verification PIN for eligible numbers, in stages. If WhatsApp Manager still shows a Two-step verification tab, the PIN exists, and Meta says you need it to delete a connected number. Ask who holds it. Meta also notes that any provider with access can deregister a number, so keep the provider list short.
If your business has not moved yet, Meta’s old number-migration pages no longer list their steps, so get the new provider to confirm the path in writing.
What if your number is on the WhatsApp Business app today?
Meta gives two routes. Delete the app account and register the number on the API, and your message history is lost; you also can’t use the number in the app again unless you deregister it. Or onboard through a provider that supports business app numbers: you keep the app next to the provider’s software, and your history is kept. That provider can also sync your contacts and the last 6 months of chats if you agree on your phone, once, at onboarding. Back up the app’s chats first.
What happens to your chat history, contacts and deals?
Meta keeps message content on its Cloud API for 30 days at most. So the lasting record of a lead’s chats is whatever your inbox or CRM saved, and leaving an agency is hard at the CRM, not at the number.
If your CRM is HighLevel, its help centre gives the exports. Contacts: Contacts, Smart Lists, select, More, Export. The CSV holds the columns you choose, such as names, emails, phone numbers and tags, and waits in Contacts, Bulk Actions for 30 days. Deals: Opportunities, the three-dot menu, Export Opportunities. Two limits apply:
- Only admins can export contacts, and a login held by the agency may be the only one.
- Contact exports leave out automation history such as past emails and SMS logs, so ask how chats are exported.
If the account is your agency’s and the agency cancels, HighLevel says its sub-accounts lose access to contacts and conversations at once, the data is kept 90 days, then deleted with no backup. Export first and keep the file.
What should you ask your agency before you sign?
Put these eight questions to any agency, us included, and keep the answers in writing.
| Ask | A good answer |
|---|---|
| Whose business portfolio holds the WhatsApp account, and who has full access? | Yours, with your own admin login. The agency is a partner you can remove. |
| Who owns the WhatsApp account and the Messaging account? | The WhatsApp account is yours. So is the Messaging account, or you know why not. |
| Whose payment method does Meta charge? | One you can see in your own Meta billing. Meta’s charges are separate from the agency’s fee. |
| Can I see my templates and their status myself? | Yes, in WhatsApp Manager, and I get the text of each template on request. |
| How do I export contacts, deals and chats, and who can run it? | My own admin login, a CSV for contacts and deals, and a stated route for chats, any time. |
| Whose CRM account holds my data, and what happens if the agency stops? | My own account, or a written handover with an export date and a deletion date. |
| Who owns the ad accounts? | Me, in my portfolio, with the agency as a partner. Ad spend goes to the platform directly. |
| What happens on cancellation, step by step? | Written steps with a date each: remove the agency from both Meta accounts, hand over admin access, export the data. |
Meta’s message charges are separate from any agency fee: see what the WhatsApp Business API costs in the UAE in 2026. How the CRM keeps deals and chats together is on our WhatsApp CRM page; the HighLevel side is under GoHighLevel agency.