WhatsApp will stop carrying marketing messages on its Cloud API in 2027.
Meta will stop delivering WhatsApp marketing messages sent through the Cloud API on 13 October 2027. Businesses that send promotional templates must move that traffic to its separate Marketing Messages API for WhatsApp before then.
Meta set out the change in a Meta for Developers blog post on 21 October 2026, and its developer documentation repeats the date. Only marketing templates are affected: service, authentication and utility messages, such as order updates and login codes, stay on the Cloud API. The documentation adds an earlier cutoff that the blog post leaves out. Messaging accounts created on or after 13 April 2027 will not be able to send marketing messages through the Cloud API at all. After the sunset, Meta says, such sends will return an error.
Meta lists three migration steps: accept the Marketing Messages API terms, confirm the integration is live on the new endpoint, and handle reclassified traffic. That last step matters most. Meta can move a template from utility to marketing when its content looks promotional, and from then on it must be routed through the new API. Meta puts the work at about two weeks for most integrations. The Marketing Messages API, generally available since November 2025, uses the same billing model as the Cloud API, keeps existing numbers and templates, and adds delivery optimisation, message expiry times and GIFs.
Plenty is still unclear. Meta has published no rates, no adoption figures and no results from its own testing. PPC Land, which reviewed the linked pages, says the optimisation features are not available in the EEA, the UK, Japan, South Korea, Nigeria, South Africa or Thailand, and that Meta does not deliver marketing messages to WhatsApp users in the US.
In Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, WhatsApp is a core CRM channel for retailers, banks, delivery apps and telcos, so this lands on a lot of roadmaps. Brands should ask their messaging provider when it will switch, check which templates are likely to be reclassified, and plan any new accounts around the April 2027 cutoff.
Why it matters
Promotional WhatsApp messaging is a staple of Gulf CRM, and any brand or vendor still on the Cloud API faces a fixed deadline and real integration work.
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