Understanding Meta Cloud API vs On-Premises Gateways
The Meta WhatsApp Cloud API provides direct cloud hosting managed by Meta infrastructure. It eliminates the operational overhead of managing on-premises Docker instances, simplifies webhook certificate handshakes, and provides automatic tier progression up to unlimited daily messaging.
Tier 1 through Tier 4 Scaling Benchmarks
New phone numbers begin at Tier 1 (1,000 unique business-initiated contacts per 24 hours). Maintaining a High quality rating enables automatic scaling to Tier 2 (10k), Tier 3 (100k), and Tier 4 (unlimited conversations).
