A Telnyx WhatsApp alternative that links a number as a device

Telnyx is a communications platform best known for voice, SMS and phone numbers, and it also offers WhatsApp as a provider on the official WhatsApp Cloud API. This page is only about WhatsApp: what the Telnyx route involves, when it is the right one, and what changes if you link a number to wuapi as a device instead.

#How WhatsApp works on Telnyx

Telnyx onboards a number through the official platform's embedded signup, in the Telnyx portal, which grants Telnyx the permissions a provider needs. Its docs recommend business verification for production use, and a display name has to be approved before you submit templates. For a standard signup, the number cannot be active in the WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business app.

Telnyx also documents coexistence, the official platform's option to keep a number in the WhatsApp Business app while the Cloud API uses it. It comes with conditions: the Cloud API side is held to 20 messages a second, group chats stay in the app and are not synchronized to the API, and the history sync has to happen within 24 hours of onboarding.

Sending is a POST to https://api.telnyx.com/v2/messages/whatsapp with a bearer key, a from, a to and a whatsapp_message object, which is a template when you are outside the customer's 24 hour window. Templates are created and listed through the API as well. Webhooks are signed with Ed25519, in the telnyx-signature-ed25519 and telnyx-timestamp headers, and Telnyx runs a remote MCP server for its API.

#What it costs

The Telnyx WhatsApp pricing page, on the day we checked, said two things at once. Its headline promises the platform's own rate with no markup and a platform fee of zero, while its rates table lists platform usage at $0.004 per message next to WhatsApp's own messaging fee. Committed volume plans start at $500 a month. Ask Telnyx which figure applies to your account before you model a budget.

WhatsApp's own fee applies on top of whatever Telnyx charges. It is per message, depends on the template category and the recipient's country, and service replies inside the window are free until October 1, 2026. From that date the official platform's pricing docs say service messages are charged at the utility and authentication rate for each market, and utility templates inside the window are charged too. Each business phone number keeps 1,000 free service messages a month, service messages get no volume tiers, and free entry point windows stay free.

#When the Telnyx route is right

• You already run voice and SMS on Telnyx. One provider for numbers, calls, texts and WhatsApp keeps the contracts and the webhooks in one place.
• You send notifications that start with you. Templates are what the official platform uses for reminders, receipts and codes to people outside the window.
• You want coexistence on your terms. If the business needs the app on the phone and the Cloud API at the same number, and can live without groups syncing, Telnyx supports it.
• You need verification and scale. A verified business sender and messaging tiers that grow with quality are only on the official platform.

For those, stay on the official platform. Linked device or Cloud API walks through the whole decision.

#When a linked number fits better

wuapi links a number the way WhatsApp Web does. The number is not registered anywhere new, so it stays a normal WhatsApp account on the phone, and the API reads and sends alongside the app.

• The app and the API, with groups. A linked device sees every chat the phone sees, groups included. It can create groups, add and remove participants, and post.
• No templates and no window. Messages are normal messages, sent when you send them, to people who expect them.
• A price per number, not per message. $6 for the first, $4.50 each from the second to the fiftieth, $3.50 after. Nothing per message.
• A Free plan. 1 number, 2,000 messages a month and 0.5 GB of proxy traffic, no card. See pricing.

What you give up: templates, buttons and list messages, a verified business badge, and the official platform's scaling tiers. A linked number sends at a person's pace, and WhatsApp can restrict it for what it sends, like any account. Keep your number healthy covers how to send.

#A clinic's front desk, both ways

Picture a clinic with one WhatsApp number. Patients write to book, the receptionist answers from the phone, and the booking system sends a reminder the day before each appointment.

On the official platform through Telnyx, the booking system's reminders are templates, approved once and then sent with a fee per message, because most of them go to patients whose last message was days ago. The receptionist can stay in the WhatsApp Business app under coexistence, and the patients' group for the clinic's yoga class lives only in the app, out of the API's reach. From October 2026, every reply the system sends inside a patient's window past the first 1,000 of the month carries a fee too.

With the number linked to wuapi, the receptionist keeps the ordinary app on the phone, and the booking system sends reminders as normal messages through the API, with no approval step. The class group is visible to the API like any other chat. The clinic pays $6 a month for the number. What it has to get right is the pace: reminders to patients who expect them are fine, and a sudden campaign to every number in the database is not, on either model.

Both setups work. The first suits a clinic chain with a compliance team; the second suits a front desk.

#What comes with a wuapi number

A residential exit. Every number connects through a residential proxy with a sticky exit in the country and city you pick, from 134 countries. If the proxy is down the number waits offline and never falls back to a datacenter IP. 0.5 GB of traffic a month is included per paid number, then $0.99 per GB.

Pacing when you want it. A per-minute cap, a lower cap for first contacts and a typing indicator, per number and off by default. We recommend 12 a minute and 5 to new contacts for anything outbound.

Webhooks you can verify. Telnyx signs with Ed25519 and a timestamp, which is a good scheme. wuapi signs with Wuapi-Signature, an HMAC-SHA256 of the timestamp and raw body, and retries a failed delivery at 30s, 2m, 10m, 1h and 6h. Every attempt is in the dashboard for 30 days.

Idempotent sends. An Idempotency-Key on any POST is kept for 24 hours, so a retried send never goes out twice.

Tools for agents. A TypeScript SDK, an OpenAPI 3.1 file, and a local and hosted MCP server.

#Side by side

#Moving from Telnyx

// Telnyx: outside the customer's window, an approved template
await fetch("https://api.telnyx.com/v2/messages/whatsapp", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${TELNYX_API_KEY}`, "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    from: "+15551234567",
    to: "+15557654321",
    whatsapp_message: { type: "template", template: { name: "order_ready", language: { code: "en" } } },
  }),
})

// wuapi
await wuapi.messages.send({ accountId, to: "+15557654321", text: "Your order is ready for pickup." })

Before you move a number:

1. Release it from the official platform, or link a different number. A number registered on the Cloud API has to leave it before it can be linked as a device on a normal WhatsApp account. With coexistence the number is already in the Business app, but the Cloud API connection still has to be removed.
2. Keep templated traffic on the official platform if you have any. Running both is common.
3. Swap the signature check for the one in the docs.

#Questions people ask