What Actually Happens to Your WhatsApp Number When You Change API Providers

Most of the guides on switching WhatsApp Business API providers focus on what you need to do before you sign with a new provider. This one focuses on what happens after — to your phone number, your templates, and your throughput — because that part is almost never explained clearly.

Update — August 2026: Meta is restructuring its WhatsApp Business Account model. Some of the steps below (particularly around account migration) may change once the new account architecture is fully rolled out. Check your provider's documentation for the latest migration flow.

There are three different exits

When you leave a WhatsApp API provider, there isn't one universal process. There are three distinct paths, and which one applies to you depends on what you agreed to when you onboarded:

Exit type	What it means	Who controls it
Migrate	Your phone number moves to a new BSP while staying connected to the same WABA	You (with both BSPs cooperating)
Deregister	Your number is detached from the API entirely; you keep the number	Your current BSP initiates
Delete	Your WABA and number are removed from the WhatsApp Business platform	Meta or BSP on your request

Most legitimate provider switches use the migrate path. The deregister path is used when a BSP is offboarding a client and the client hasn't arranged a destination. The delete path is irreversible and should only happen intentionally.

The 30-day lock

Once you initiate a number migration or deregistration, Meta enforces a 30-day re-registration lock on that phone number.

This is commonly misunderstood. The 30 days starts from the date of the last paid message sent through the API — not from the date you submit the migration request. If you sent a message yesterday, the clock started yesterday.

During those 30 days, the number cannot be registered with a new provider through the standard API flow. This is a platform-level restriction, not a BSP policy.

Practical implication: If you need zero downtime, you have to plan the cutover carefully — typically by keeping the old provider active until the new provider's setup is fully tested, then migrating in a maintenance window.

What happens to your templates

Templates are tied to your WhatsApp Business Account (WABA), not to your provider. When you migrate your phone number to a new BSP, your templates follow the WABA.

However, there's an important nuance around template quality ratings:

Template status before migration	Status after migration
APPROVED + GREEN quality rating	Duplicated to new WABA; quality resets to UNKNOWN
APPROVED + YELLOW or RED	Duplicated; quality resets to UNKNOWN
PENDING or REJECTED	Not carried over

"Quality resets to UNKNOWN" means the new BSP's system has no quality history for that template. The template is live and usable, but it will go through Meta's quality monitoring cycle again based on user feedback signals.

In practice, if your templates have been performing well (low block rates, high read rates), they should re-establish GREEN quality quickly. If you have templates with history of poor engagement, migration is a good time to revise them.

Coexistence, and what it costs

During a migration window, some BSPs support a coexistence period where both the old and new providers are technically active on the same WABA simultaneously.

If this is the case, your messaging throughput is split:

Standard throughput: 80 messages per second (mps)
During coexistence with two active BSPs: 20 mps per BSP

This is not a temporary technical limitation — it's how Meta allocates throughput across concurrent API connections. If you're sending high-volume campaigns during a migration window, you need to account for this throughput reduction in your sending schedule.

Once the migration is complete and the old BSP connection is closed, throughput returns to the standard 80 mps.

One thing you cannot do through the API

You cannot delete a WhatsApp Business Account or phone number through the API. This action is only available through WhatsApp Manager (the web interface at business.facebook.com/wa/manage).

This matters because some clients, after migrating to a new provider, want to cleanly remove their old WABA entry. That requires logging into WhatsApp Manager directly — neither your old nor your new provider can do this on your behalf through API calls alone.

Five questions to ask before you sign

Before committing to a new provider, get clear answers to these:

Do you support direct number migration, or does the old number need to be deregistered first? (Deregistration triggers the 30-day lock; migration may not, depending on the flow)
What is your coexistence window policy? (Some providers require the old connection to be terminated before they can activate; this creates a gap)
Who is responsible for template integrity during migration? (Get this in writing — templates getting stuck in PENDING after a migration is a known failure point)
What throughput can I expect during the transition period?
How do you handle the 30-day lock if it applies to my number? (A good provider will have a documented answer; "we'll figure it out" is not acceptable)

The short version

There are three exit paths from a WhatsApp API provider: migrate, deregister, or delete — and they're not interchangeable
The 30-day lock starts from your last paid message, not from your migration request date
Your templates follow the WABA and survive the migration, but quality ratings reset to UNKNOWN
If two BSPs are simultaneously active on your WABA, throughput drops from 80 mps to 20 mps per BSP
Account deletion can only be done through WhatsApp Manager, not through any API call