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Accept Payments via Payment Links

Updated: Nov 14, 2025 This feature is not publicly available yet. Please reach out to [email protected] to know more. Your businesses can enable customers to pay for their orders by bringing in all the payment methods supported on your platform to WhatsApp. Businesses can send customers invoice(order_details) messages, then get notified about payment status updates via webhook notifications from Payment Gateway.

Overview

Currently, customers browse business catalogs, add products to cart, and send orders in with our set of commerce messaging solutions, which includes Single Product Message, Multi Product Message, and Product Detail Page. With the WhatsApp Messaging API, businesses can send customers a bill to complete the order with one of the supported payment instrument.

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 payment signal for an order, business should relay this payment signal to consumer client through interactive order status(order_status) message. Updating user about the payment signal is important as this message updates the order details message and order details view for the consumer reflecting the order confirmation from merchant. This is shown with an example in subsequent sections.

Purchase Flow in App

In the WhatsApp customer app, the purchase flow has the following steps: Customer sends an order with selected products to the business or business identifies the products that the customer has shown interest to purchase. 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. Image 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. ImageImage 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. ImageImage 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. ImageImage

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: Image 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:
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:

Parameters Object

Payment Setting Object

Order Object

Item Image Object

The parameters value is a stringified JSON object. By the end, the interactive object should look something like this for a catalog-based integration:
The parameters value is a stringified JSON object. For a non-catalog based integration i.e. when catalog-id is not present, an example payload looks as follows:

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.
These are parameters common to all message types.

Step 4:Make a POST Call to Messages Endpoint

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

Errors

WhatsApp Payments Terms of Service Acceptance Pending
If you see the following error, accept the WhatsApp Payments terms of service using the link provided in the error message before trying again.
For all other errors that can be returned and guidance on how to handle them, see WhatsApp Cloud API, Error Codes.

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: Image 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.
The following table describes the returned values: Merchant should always post this order-status message to consumer after receiving transaction updates for an order. As the order_details message and order details screen experience is tied to to the order status updates.

Step 8: Reconcile Payments

Businesses should use their bank statements to reconcile the payments using the reference_id provided in the order_details messages.

Checklist for Integrated Merchants

Ensure that order_status message is send to consumer informing them about updates to an order after receiving transaction updates for an order. Ensure the merchant is verified and WABA contact is marked with a verified check. Verify the WABA is mapped to appropriate merchant initiated messaging tier(1k, 10k and 100k per day) Merchant should list the customer support information in the profile screen incase consumer wants to report any issues. Did you find this page helpful? Thumbs up icon Thumbs down icon ON THIS PAGE Overview How It Works Purchase Flow in App Integration Steps Step 1: Get Payment Link from Payment Gateway Step 2: Assemble the Interactive Object Parameters Object Payment Setting Object Payment Link Object Order Object Item Image Object Step 3: Add Common Message Parameters Step 4:Make a POST Call to Messages Endpoint Errors Step 5: Consumer Pays for the Order Step 6: Get Notified About Transaction Status Updates from payment gateway Step 7: Update order status Step 8: Reconcile Payments Checklist for Integrated Merchants