Receive WhatsApp Payments via Payment Links

The Payments API feature is available only for Indian businesses using the 360dialog WhatsApp Business API with phone numbers only from India. Review WhatsApp Business Compliance for India.

This feature is now available to all Indian businesses. If the account is in high or medium tiers, admins or finance editors users will have direct access to the Payment Gateway page and can manage payment settings in Meta Business Manager. If you have any trouble using this feature, please reach out to our Support Team.

Currently, customers browse business catalogs, add products to cart, and send orders with Meta's set of commerce messaging solutions, which includes Single Product Message, Multi Product Message, and Product Detail Page. With the Payments API, businesses can send customers a bill, so the customer can complete their order by paying the business without having to leave WhatsApp.

How it Works

The business must send an order_details message for the consumer to initiate payment. This type of message is a new type of interactive message, which always contains the same 4 main components: header, body, footer, and action. Inside the action component, the business includes all the information needed for the customer to complete their payment.

Each order_details message contains a unique reference_id provided by the business, and that unique number is used throughout the flow to track the order. This reference_id is used to generate the payment link from Payment Gateway.

Once the message is sent, the business waits for a payment or transaction status updates directly from Payment Gateway. Upon receiving a payment signal for an order, business should relay this payment signal to the consumer client through interactive order status(order_status) message.

Please note that neither 360dialog nor WhatsApp supports payment reconciliations.

You must reconcile the payment with the business payment service provider using the respective order reference_id.

Purchase Flow in App

In the WhatsApp customer app, the purchase flow has the following steps:

1. Customer sends an order with selected products to the business or business identifies the products that the customer has shown interest to purchase.

2. After receiving the order or identifying the product, if a business accepts payment methods other than UPI, such as credit cards and payment wallets, etc. then business will send a message to the user to get their preferred payment method for the order.

3. When consumers want to pay using other payment method option, the business should generate the payment link by calling Payment Gateway by providing the unique "reference-id" and other information like amount, validity etc, then business can use the generated payment link to construct the order details message and send to the consumer.

4. When the consumer taps the Pay now/continue button, consumer will be redirected to the payment link within specially designed In-App browser to present with the list of supported payment options such as credit card, debit card, wallet or UPI apps. Consumers can choose any one of the payment option to pay for the order.

The following is a sample payment link redirect within In-App Browser accepting various payment methods like credit, debit, wallet and UPI apps.

5. Once the payment is complete, the business will receive a notification from Payment Gateway and the business needs to send order status updates to the consumer client notifying consumers about the progress on their order, this will update the order details message CTAs, Order details screen and Order status. The order status should contain the matching "reference-id" of order details.

Integration Steps

The steps outlined below assume that the business is about to send order details message to consumer client.

The following sequence diagram demonstrates the typical integration flow for WA Payments API:

Step 1: Get Payment Link from Payment Gateway

Once the consumer has expressed their interest to purchase an item using payment link. Business needs to call payment gateway with necessary information like reference-id, amount and validity to generate the payment link. Following is a sample payment link:

https://rzp.io/i/rNiAagU8y

Business needs to use the same reference-id, amount and expiration in invoice(order_details) interactive message.

Step 2: Assemble the Interactive Object

To send an order_details message, businesses must assemble an interactive object of type order_details with the following components:

Object	Description
status string	Required. Only supported value in the order_details message is pending. In an order_status message, status can be: pending, captured, or failed.
items object	Required. An object with the list of items for this order, containing the following fields: retailer_id string Required. Unique identifier for an item in the order. name string Required. The item’s name to be displayed to the user. Cannot exceed 60 characters amount amount object with value and offset -- refer total amount field above Required. The price per item sale_amount amount object Optional. The discounted price per item. This should be less than the original amount. If included, this field is used to calculate the subtotal amount quantity integer Required. The number of items in this order, this field cannot be decimal has to be integer. country_of_origin string Required if catalog_id is not present. The country of origin of the product importer_name string Required if catalog_id is not present. Name of the importer company importer_adress string Required if catalog_id is not present. Address of importer company
subtotal object	Required. The value must be equal to sum of order.amount.value * order.amount.quantity. Refer to total_amount description for explanation of offset and value fields The following fields are part of the subtotal object: offset integer Required. Must be 100 for INR value integer Required. Positive integer representing the amount value multiplied by offset. For example, ₹12.34 has value 1234
tax object	Required. The tax information for this order which contains the following fields: offset integer Required. Must be 100 for INR value integer Required. Positive integer representing the amount value multiplied by offset. For example, ₹12.34 has value 1234 description string Optional. Max character limit is 60 characters
shipping object	Optional. The shipping cost of the order. The object contains the following fields: offset integer Required. Must be 100 for INR value integer Required. Positive integer representing the amount value multiplied by offset. For example, ₹12.34 has value 1234 description string Optional. Max character limit is 60 characters
discount object	Optional. The discount for the order. The object contains the following fields: offset integer Required. Must be 100 for INR value integer Required. Positive integer representing the amount value multiplied by offset. For example, ₹12.34 has value 1234 description string Optional. Max character limit is 60 characters discount_program_name string Optional. Text used for defining incentivised orders. If order is incentivised, the merchant needs to define this information. Max character limit is 60 characters
catalog_id object	Optional. Unique identifier of the Facebook catalog being used by the business. If you do not provide this field, you must provide the following fields inside the items object: country_of_origin, importer_name, and importer_address
expiration object	Optional. Expiration for that order. Business must define the following fields inside this object: timestamp string – UTC timestamp in seconds of time when order should expire. Minimum threshold is 300 seconds description string – Text explanation for expiration. Max character limit is 120 characters

By the end, the interactive object should look something like this for a catalog-based integration:

{
  "interactive": {
    "type": "order_details",
    "header": {
      "type": "image",
      "image": {
        "link": "http(s)://the-url",
        "provider": {
          "name": "provider-name"
        }
      }
    },
    "body": {
      "text": "your-text-body-content"
    },
    "footer": {
      "text": "your-text-footer-content"
    },
    "action": {
      "name": "review_and_pay",
      "parameters": {
        "reference_id": "reference-id-value",
        "type": "digital-goods",
        "payment_type": "upi",
        "payment_settings": [
          {
            "type": "payment_link",
            "payment_link": {
              "uri": "https://the-payment-link"
            }
          }
        ],
        "currency": "INR",
        "total_amount": {
          "value": 21000,
          "offset": 100
        },
        "order": {
          "status": "pending",
          "catalog_id": "the-catalog_id",
          "expiration": {
            "timestamp": "utc_timestamp_in_seconds",
            "description": "cancellation-explanation"
          },
          "items": [
            {
              "retailer_id": "1234567",
              "name": "Product name, for example bread",
              "amount": {
                "value": 10000,
                "offset": 100
              },
              "quantity": 1,
              "sale_amount": {
                "value": 100,
                "offset": 100
              }
            }
          ],
          "subtotal": {
            "value": 20000,
            "offset": 100
          },
          "tax": {
            "value": 1000,
            "offset": 100,
            "description": "optional_text"
          },
          "shipping": {
            "value": 1000,
            "offset": 100,
            "description": "optional_text"
          },
          "discount": {
            "value": 1000,
            "offset": 100,
            "description": "optional_text",
            "discount_program_name": "optional_text"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

For a non-catalog based integration i.e. when catalog-id is not present, an example payload looks as follows:

{
  "interactive": {
    "type": "order_details",
    "header": {
      "type": "image",
      "image": {
        "id": "your-media-id"
      }
    },
    "body": {
      "text": "your-text-body-content"
    },
    "footer": {
      "text": "your-text-footer-content"
    },
    "action": {
      "name": "review_and_pay",
      "parameters": {
        "reference_id": "reference-id-value",
        "type": "digital-goods",
        "payment_type": "upi",
        "payment_settings": [
          {
            "type": "payment_link",
            "payment_link": {
              "uri": "https://the-payment-link"
            }
          }
        ],
        "currency": "INR",
        "total_amount": {
          "value": 21000,
          "offset": 100
        },
        "order": {
          "status": "pending",
          "expiration": {
            "timestamp": "utc_timestamp_in_seconds",
            "description": "cancellation-explanation"
          },
          "items": [
            {
              "retailer_id": "1234567",
              "name": "Product name, for example bread",
              "amount": {
                "value": 10000,
                "offset": 100
              },
              "quantity": 1,
              "sale_amount": {
                "value": 100,
                "offset": 100
              },
              "country_of_origin": "country-of-origin",
              "importer_name": "name-of-importer-business",
              "importer_address": {
                "address_line1": "B8/733 nand nagri",
                "address_line2": "police station",
                "city": "East Delhi",
                "zone_code": "DL",
                "postal_code": "110093",
                "country_code": "IN"
              }
            },
            {
              "retailer_id": "14325",
              "name": "Product name, for example bread",
              "amount": {
                "value": 10000,
                "offset": 100
              },
              "quantity": 1,
              "sale_amount": {
                "value": 100,
                "offset": 100
              },
              "country_of_origin": "country-of-origin",
              "importer_name": "name-of-importer-business",
              "importer_address": {
                "address_line1": "B8/733 nand nagri",
                "address_line2": "police station",
                "city": "East Delhi",
                "zone_code": "DL",
                "postal_code": "110093",
                "country_code": "IN"
              }
            }
          ],
          "subtotal": {
            "value": 20000,
            "offset": 100
          },
          "tax": {
            "value": 1000,
            "offset": 100,
            "description": "optional_text"
          },
          "shipping": {
            "value": 1000,
            "offset": 100,
            "description": "optional_text"
          },
          "discount": {
            "value": 1000,
            "offset": 100,
            "description": "optional_text",
            "discount_program_name": "optional_text"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Step 3: Add Common Message Parameters

Once the interactive object is complete, append the other parameters that make a message: recipient_type, to, and type. Remember to set the type to interactive.

{
   "messaging_product": "whatsapp",
   "recipient_type": "individual",
   "to": "PHONE_NUMBER",
   "type": "interactive",
   "interactive": {
     // interactive object here     
   }
 }

Step 4: Make a POST Call to Messages Endpoint

Make a POST call to the /messages endpoint with the JSON object you have assembled. If your message is sent successfully, you get the following response:

{
  "messaging_product": "whatsapp",
  "contacts": [ {
      "input": "[PHONE_NUMBER_ID]",
      "wa_id": "[PHONE-NUMBER_ID]"
  } ],
  "messages": [ {
      "id": "wamid.HBgLMTY1MDUwNzY1MjAVAgARGBI5QTNDQTVCM0Q0Q0Q2RTY3RTcA"
  } ]
}

Step 5: Consumer Pays for the Order

Consumers can pay using WhatsApp payment method or using any UPI supported app that is installed on the device.

Step 6: Get Notified About Transaction Status Updates from payment gateway

Businesses receive updates to the invoice via payment gateway webhooks, when the status of the user-initiated transaction changes. The unique identifier reference-id passed in order_details message can be used to map the transaction to the consumer invoice or interactive order details message.

Step 7: Update order status

Upon receiving transaction signals from payment gateway through webhook, the business must update the order status to keep the user up to date. Currently we support the following order status values:

Value	Description
pending	User has not successfully paid yet
processing	User payment authorized, merchant/partner is fulfilling the order, performing service, etc.
partially-shipped	A portion of the products in the order have been shipped by the merchant
shipped	All the products in the order have been shipped by the merchant
completed	The order is completed and no further action is expected from the user or the partner/merchant
canceled	The partner/merchant would like to cancel the order_details message for the order/invoice. The status update will fail if there is already a successful or pending payment for this order_details message

Typically businesses update the order_status using either the WhatsApp payment status change notifications or their own internal processes. To update order_status, the partner sends an order_status message to the user.

{
  "recipient_type": "individual",
  "to": "whatsapp-id",
  "type": "interactive",
  "interactive": {
    "type": "order_status",
    "body": {
      "text": "your-text-body-content"
    },
    "action": {
      "name": "review_order",
      "parameters": {
        "reference_id": "reference-id-value",
        "order": {
          "status": "processing | partially_shipped | shipped | completed | canceled",
          "description": "optional-text"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

The following table describes the returned values:

Value	Description
reference_id	The ID provided by the partner in the order_details message
status	The new order status
description	Optional text for sharing status related information in order_details. Could be useful while sending cancellation. Max character limit is 120 characters

Step 8: Reconcile Payments

Please note that neither 360dialog nor WhatsApp supports payment reconciliations. Businesses should use their bank statements to reconcile the payments using the reference_id provided in the order_details messages.