Put Meta's AI agent on your WhatsApp. Skip the surprises.

What Meta Business Agent is

Meta Business Agent (MBA) is Meta's own AI agent for WhatsApp business numbers. Once it's on, it becomes the first responder. It answers from the information you give it, calls your systems through connectors, and hands conversations to your team when it decides it should. Meta made it available globally in June 2026.

It's cheap to run, at roughly 4 to 5 US cents a message on Meta's published pricing. It's also less configurable than most people expect. Read our full guide to what it can and can't do.

What we do differently

• We check it fits before you spend anything. Business category, account standing, the Business Platform number, Meta's terms and the credit line. If any of those fail, the rest doesn't matter, so we check them first.
• We design for the limits Meta documents. For example, every setting belongs to a single number, the agent hands over on only three built-in signals, and knowledge sources have no ranking when they disagree.
• We test the gaps Meta doesn't document. What does your customer see when your order system is slow? What happens if a request is sent twice? We find out on a test number before launch, not from a complaint.
• We test it against your real customer questions. We build a set of the questions your customers actually ask, agree with you what a good answer looks like, and re-run it when Meta changes the product.
• We measure outcomes, not messages. We look at what the agent resolves, what it hands over, and the cost per conversation, compared with how WhatsApp is handled today.

Good first uses

What usually goes wrong

• No credit line on the Business Agent account. Since August 2026, messages aren't delivered without one. It fails silently.
• Escalation rules the product can't do. "Hand over complaints" or "escalate big orders" have to be built in your systems. The agent only hands over when it isn't confident, spots an integrity problem, or the customer asks for a person.
• Thousands of FAQs, or the same answer in three places. Retrieval gets worse beyond a few hundred FAQs, and nothing decides which source wins.
• Systems behind a staff login. The agent can only connect using an API key, OAuth client credentials, or no authentication.
• Planning 20 branches as one set-up. Each WhatsApp number is set up separately, and messaging limits are shared across the whole business portfolio.

Where to start

• Workshop, from £1,500. A half day with your customer service team: what the agent can and can't do for your real conversations.
• Proof Sprint, £3,500 fixed, around three weeks. One WhatsApp number, live with a pilot group of real customers, measured. If the eligibility check or your set-up says no, we stop at the go/no-go gate (£1,200) and give you the evidence.
• Build, typically £7,500 to £45,000 fixed. Connectors to your order and booking systems, handover into your helpdesk, and rollout across more numbers.

Meta, or your WhatsApp provider, bills you for WhatsApp and agent usage. Our fees are separate and fixed.

See engagements & pricing →

An honest word on experience

Meta Business Agent launched in June 2026, so nobody has years of experience with it. We've mapped Meta's documentation in detail, including where it's silent, and we test those gaps before we promise anything.

Who this is for

UK businesses that already handle customer conversations on WhatsApp, or want to. Your number needs to be on the WhatsApp Business Platform (or be ready to move), and you shouldn't be in one of Meta's excluded sectors: finance, government, health, alcohol, gambling, over-the-counter drugs or matrimony services.