Meta Business Agent Platform

Get API key

Updated: Sep 18, 2026
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Meta Business Agent Platform API requests are authenticated as a system user, so every call needs a system user access token. This page covers generating that token.

Prerequisites

  • A Meta app granted both the whatsapp_business_messaging and whatsapp_business_management permissions. The whatsapp_business_messaging permission authenticates your requests. The whatsapp_business_management permission is required to read agent data — without it, read calls return an empty result.
  • A system user with your app and WhatsApp Business account (WABA) assigned to it. If you don’t have one yet, create it and assign the assets first — see Create a system user and Assign the app and WABA.

Generate the token

  1. Go to Meta Business Suite⁠. In the left navigation select Settings, then under Users select System users, and click your system user.
  2. In the upper right, click Generate new token. A dialog opens.
  3. In the dialog, select your app from the dropdown, then click Next.
  4. Select the token expiration setting, then click Next.
  5. Select the checkboxes next to the whatsapp_business_messaging and whatsapp_business_management permissions. A token without whatsapp_business_messaging returns 401. A token that has messaging but not whatsapp_business_management authenticates, but read calls return no data.
  6. Click Generate token and save it somewhere secure. It is shown only once.
The whatsapp_business_messaging permission authenticates your calls, but reading agent data — for example evaluation cases and results — also requires the whatsapp_business_management permission. If a read call succeeds but returns no data, the most common cause is a token that has messaging but not management: add whatsapp_business_management and generate a new token. Receiving data also requires that the Meta Business Agent Terms of Service are accepted for the WABA (see End-to-end setup); if the WABA hasn’t accepted them, calls return 403 rather than empty data. A few endpoints require additional Meta-granted access beyond both permissions — if data is still empty after adding management, contact your Meta representative to confirm your app’s access.

Solution Partners and Tech Providers

If you are calling on behalf of a client’s WhatsApp Business account, use a Business Integration System User (BISU) token instead. A BISU token lets your platform act on behalf of multiple client WABAs under a single credential. See Generate an access token for both options side by side, and the BISU documentation for generating and managing these tokens.

Set the API version header

Note: Use the X-API-Version shown on each endpoint’s reference page. Meta Business Agent Platform endpoints take 2.0.0. Without the header, a request resolves to the oldest version that endpoint supports — 1.0.0 for endpoints that predate these field names — so set 2.0.0 explicitly. Cloud API endpoints differ — Thread Control, for example, takes 1.0.0.

Next steps

  • Quickstart — onboard an agent and send it your first message in three API calls.
  • End-to-end setup — the full path to running an agent in front of WhatsApp users, including billing, app subscription, and webhook fields.