The same WhatsApp number can join the official API in two ways. On a dedicated Cloud API number, the number lives only on the API and the app leaves the phone. In coexistence, WhatsApp Business stays on the phone and the API joins the same number. Both are official. The choice is operational, not about which one is “more serious”.

Dedicated Cloud API: the number leaves the app

This is the path for a team that no longer replies from a phone. The customer writes, the team replies in the panel, campaigns go out as templates, and the handset is no longer where the chat lives.

  • There is no Business app on that number to mirror messages.
  • There is no old history to pull, because the chat starts on the API.
  • Sending speed follows the account’s messaging tier, not coexistence’s fixed cap.
  • The app’s groups, status and catalog are not part of this surface.

It fits when the phone became the bottleneck: sessions dropping, two people answering the same chat, campaigns mixed into support.

Coexistence: the app stays

The short definition is in what WhatsApp coexistence is. The comparison comes down to this: Meta keeps the app and the API on the same number, with one-to-one chats on both sides.

  • Sending is capped at 20 messages per second.
  • The phone has to open the app. About 14 idle days disconnects the primary device.
  • Groups stay on the phone. The API does not receive those chats.
  • Up to 6 months of one-to-one history can be shared once, if the business allows it. Declining means the past does not come over.
  • Disappearing messages, view-once and live location are turned off for individual chats. New broadcast lists cannot be created; old ones become read-only.

It fits when someone at the company still needs to talk from the phone — the owner, the on-call person, a customer group — and the team needs a queue, campaigns and flows on the same number.

Side by side

  • Where a person replies: dedicated, only in the panel. Coexistence, in the panel and in the app.
  • The number the customer already saved: both keep the number. The difference is whether the app icon stays on that SIM.
  • Speed: dedicated follows the account tier. Coexistence stops at 20 per second.
  • The past: dedicated does not import app chats. Coexistence can bring 180 days of one-to-one chat, with permission.
  • The phone disappearing with the operation: on dedicated, the phone is already out of the operation. In coexistence, uninstalling the app or leaving the phone idle drops the link.

What GrowHub does on both paths

GrowHub is the panel when the number is on the official API: agents with permissions, departments, campaigns, templates and flows. It is not a second WhatsApp Web.

If the operation still depends on the app, Meta’s path is coexistence, and the panel sits on the API side. If the whole operation already fits the team, the path is a dedicated API number, in the same kind of panel. The platform starts at R$ 147 per month. What Meta charges per API conversation is separate, on both paths.

For the moment of the switch, read how to connect without losing chats.

Source: Meta’s documentation on onboarding a WhatsApp Business app number to Cloud API, read in October 2026.