WhatsApp error 133010 (account not registered): register your number on the Cloud API

WhatsApp error 133010 means the business phone number you are sending from is not registered on the Cloud API. Meta's error reference describes it as "Phone number not registered on the WhatsApp Business Platform" and gives one fix: register the phone number before trying again. The number may already be in your WhatsApp Business account, verified and showing a display name, and still fail, because adding and verifying a number are separate steps from registering it for the Cloud API.

The three steps Meta requires

Meta's registration guide lists three steps to get a number ready for the Cloud API:

1. Add the business phone number to your WhatsApp account in WhatsApp Manager.
2. Verify ownership of the number with the code WhatsApp sends.
3. Register the number by calling the registration endpoint.

Step 3 is the one that is missed. Meta is explicit that you can only register a number via the API, not through WhatsApp Manager or the App Dashboard. If a number was added by hand in WhatsApp Manager, it will return 133010 on every send until someone makes the API call.

When 133010 appears

• A new number added outside your onboarding flow. Someone added a second number in WhatsApp Manager and started sending without registering it.
• Registration failed silently. Your onboarding code called /register, got an error (for example a wrong PIN), logged it and carried on.
• The number was deregistered. Meta's guide says deregistering makes a number unusable with the Cloud API until you register it again.
• A display name change. Meta says that after a new display name is approved you re-register the number, and that re-registering before approval has no effect.
• Migration. A number moved from the retired On-Premises API, or between accounts, needs the extra steps in Meta's migration guide before it is registered on the Cloud API.
• The wrong phone number ID. Your code sends from an old or test phone number ID that was never registered.

131045 ("Message failed to send due to a phone number registration error") is a close relative with the same fix, register the number, and you may see either code depending on where the send fails.

What the error looks like

Values illustrative:

{
  "error": {
    "message": "(#133010) Account not registered",
    "type": "OAuthException",
    "code": 133010,
    "error_data": {
      "messaging_product": "whatsapp",
      "details": "Phone number not registered on the WhatsApp Business Platform."
    },
    "fbtrace_id": "AHm3Zq0Vr8TkLp2Nf6YbWxs"
  }
}

Step-by-step fix

1. Confirm the phone number ID. Copy it from WhatsApp Manager or from the phone numbers list of your WhatsApp Business account, and make sure it is the ID your code sends from.
2. Find the two-step verification PIN. If the number already has two-step verification, you need its 6-digit PIN. If it does not, the PIN you send now becomes its PIN, so store it safely.
3. Call the register endpoint with a token that has the whatsapp_business_management and whatsapp_business_messaging permissions:

curl 'https://graph.facebook.com/v24.0/<PHONE_NUMBER_ID>/register' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  -d '{ "messaging_product": "whatsapp", "pin": "482913" }'

4. Check for {"success": true}. Anything else is an error you must read (see the table below) before you try again.
5. Send a test message to your own phone, then resume normal traffic.

Meta's register endpoint also takes an optional data_localization_region (for example IN) for local storage of data at rest. Leave it out unless you have decided to use local storage, because changing it later means deregistering and registering again.

Errors you may hit while registering

The last row is the expensive one. Meta allows 10 register requests per business number in a 72-hour moving window, and the same limit for deregister. A script that loops on /register with a wrong PIN can lock the number out of registration for three days. Never retry registration automatically; stop on the first error and read it.

A worked example

Sunrise Clinic in Pune adds a second number for appointment reminders. Priya, who manages the clinic's WhatsApp account, adds it in WhatsApp Manager, verifies it by SMS and gets the display name approved. The developer points the reminder service at the new phone number ID, and every reminder fails with 133010.

The number was never registered. The developer calls /register with a new 6-digit PIN, gets {"success": true}, sends a test reminder to Priya's phone and switches the service back on. He then saves the PIN in the clinic's password manager, because the next display name change, or a future migration, will need it.

Preventing 133010

• Make registration part of onboarding, not a manual step, and treat a failed register call as a failed onboarding.
• Store the two-step PIN for every number where your team can find it. A lost PIN turns a two-minute fix into a reset.
• Re-register after display name approvals, not before. Subscribe to the phone_number_name_update webhook to know when approval happens.
• Check the number's status in WhatsApp Manager under the phone numbers panel before sending from a newly added number; a phone number status other than connected needs attention first.
• Do not deregister casually. It makes the number unusable until it is registered again and counts toward the same 10-in-72-hours limit.

Coexistence numbers

Numbers that stay on the WhatsApp Business app through coexistence are registered by the app during onboarding. Meta's guide notes that you cannot use the deregister endpoint on a number that is in use with both the Cloud API and the WhatsApp Business app. If a coexistence number returns 133010, check first whether it has been disconnected from the app side (for example after the phone was inactive for a long time) and reconnect it through onboarding, rather than calling /register yourself.

How Broadchat handles registration

When you connect an ordinary number through Embedded Signup in Channels → All Channels, Broadchat registers it on the Cloud API with a two-step PIN as part of the connection. Coexistence numbers are not registered again, because the WhatsApp Business app has already done it. If Meta reports the number as pending or unverified, the channel shows a message asking you to finish registration before sending.

If a send fails with 133010, Broadchat treats the channel as unusable: a running campaign stops instead of failing message after message, and the channel's health is re-checked so its status reflects what Meta reports. Developers can call the register endpoint through the channel API, using the API URL and token from the channel's Access Token window, with the same body as above; then use Refresh status on the channel. For background on the platform, see the plain-English guide to the WhatsApp Business API, and for the step-by-step connection, connect a WhatsApp number.