Create WhatsApp Groups via API

Open a WhatsApp group from your own backend.

Groups are the part of WhatsApp the official Cloud API never reached: there is no endpoint to create one, administer it or read its members. Wapito drives a linked number instead, so a group is an ordinary REST call.

Last reviewed September 15, 2026

Can the official WhatsApp Cloud API do this?

No. The official API cannot create a WhatsApp group.

Read the full comparison

How it works

Create the group, read it back by id, publish the invite link, and let the participants webhook keep your database in step.

Create the group
Post a subject and the founding participants. The linked number becomes the creator and superadmin, so every later change - settings, admins, icon - is allowed without any extra step. Keep the founding list to people who already expect the group; adding strangers here is the fastest route to a report.
API reference for this step
Read the group back
Fetch the group by the id you just received and store that id as a string. It is longer than a 64-bit integer, so a numeric column or an eager JSON parser will silently corrupt it and every later call will answer 404.
API reference for this step
Share the invite link
Read the invite code and publish the link rather than adding people directly. Joining by link is a deliberate act by the person, which is both better manners and materially safer for the number than pushing unknown participants into a group.
API reference for this step
Confirm membership over the webhook
Each join or leave arrives as its own event with the participant and the action. Key your own records on that event rather than on the create response, because people who join by link never appear in it.

curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.wapito.com/v1/groups \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer wpt_YOUR_TOKEN' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{"subject":"Acme Launch Team","participants":["+15551234567","+15559876543"],"description":"Coordination for the Q3 launch. Keep it on topic."}'

Endpoints

Webhook events

groupsGroup joined, left or updatedonGroups()
groups.participantsGroup membership or role changedonGroupsParticipants()

What you can build with it

A group per order, opened automatically
A furniture retailer opens a group for every large delivery, with the customer, the driver and the fitter in it. The group is created from the order webhook the moment the slot is booked, and archived when the job is signed off, so nobody has to chase three separate threads.
Cohort groups for a course
A training provider creates one group per intake, posts the invite link on the enrolment confirmation page, and lets students join themselves. Because the link is published rather than the students being added, nobody receives an unexpected group invitation from a number they do not recognise.
Incident bridges for an on-call rota
A managed service provider opens a group when a monitoring alert fires, invites the on-call engineer and the account manager, and posts the alert payload as the first message. When the incident closes, the group is left and the transcript is filed against the ticket.

What the official WhatsApp Cloud API does here

Meta's official WhatsApp Cloud API is built for business messaging: templates, customer-service windows and per-conversation pricing. A large part of what WhatsApp itself can do — groups, channels, status, presence, contact lookups — has no endpoint there at all, which is why so many teams end up looking past it. Everything below is checked against Meta's own published reference, with the link and the date we checked it.

Not possible on the Cloud API

No. The official API cannot create a WhatsApp group.

Meta's Cloud API reference documents no endpoint for creating a group, and no way to obtain a group id in the first place. Group creation is a client feature, available in the phone apps and to unofficial APIs that speak the protocol directly, and it is the single most common reason teams look past the official platform.

Paraphrase (not a verbatim quote), checked against the Cloud API reference index: the reference documents sending messages to WhatsApp users and managing message templates; no node or edge for creating or administering a group appears anywhere in it.

Meta's WhatsApp documentation — checked September 15, 2026

The official workaround

There is none that produces a real group. Businesses on the official platform fall back to sending the same message to each recipient individually, which costs per message, loses the shared thread entirely, and is not what a customer asked for when they asked for a group.

Wapito is an independent product. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by or certified by WhatsApp or Meta Platforms, Inc. WhatsApp is a trademark of Meta Platforms, Inc.

Higher ban risk — read this before you automate it

Wapito is an unofficial API. It links a real WhatsApp account rather than going through Meta's Cloud API, and WhatsApp may ban numbers it judges to be automated — this operation is one of the clearest automation signals there is. A young number doing it repeatedly can be timelocked or banned within a day, and nobody, Wapito included, can reverse that for you.

Wapito paces and queues these calls per channel, enforces a warm-up ladder on new numbers, refuses cold sends, and reports a timelock as soon as WhatsApp applies one. Use a number you can afford to lose, keep the volume human, and prefer invitations over pushing people into things.

Creating groups in bulk from a young number is one of the clearest automation signals WhatsApp looks for. Create a handful per day on a warmed-up number, seed each with people who expect it, and grow by invite link rather than by adding strangers. A number that creates dozens of groups in an afternoon can be timelocked or banned, and no provider can appeal that for you.

Read the anti-ban guide

Gotchas

The group id is a long numeric string with a suffix. Store it as text end to end; any language that parses JSON numbers eagerly will round it and every later call will fail with 404.
Participants you name at creation may silently not be added if their privacy settings forbid it. Always read the group back and compare the membership rather than trusting the create response.
The creator is a superadmin and cannot be demoted, so choose the linked number deliberately - a group created by a number you later retire keeps that number as its owner.

Tutorials by language

Automations and integrations

Frequently asked questions

How many groups can I create in a day?

WhatsApp publishes no number, and anyone who quotes you one is guessing. What is observable is that new numbers get restricted far sooner than established ones. Start with a handful a day on a warmed-up number, watch for timelocks, and treat the first restriction as a signal to slow down rather than as a quota to probe.

Can I add people to the group as I create it?

Yes, the create call takes a participant list, but it is the riskiest way to fill a group. Many people have privacy settings that stop strangers adding them, so they will silently not appear, and those who do appear may report the number. Publishing the invite link is slower and much safer.

Does the linked number stay in the group forever?

It stays until it leaves or is removed. Because the creator holds the superadmin role, leaving a group you created hands nothing over automatically, so promote a human admin before the automation departs. Otherwise the group is left without anyone who can change its settings or membership.

What happens to my groups if the number is banned?

The groups continue to exist for their other members, but your number loses access to all of them and there is no export. This is the honest risk of any unofficial API: keep the group ids and your own record of membership in your database, so a replacement number can be invited back into the important ones.

Related features

Errors you may hit

Glossary

Try it on your own number

Create a channel, link a WhatsApp number by QR or pairing code, and call the API in a couple of minutes. The Sandbox plan is free and needs no card.

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