How to Get the WhatsApp Green Tick (Official Business Account)
The green tick is the most requested thing in WhatsApp business messaging and the least controllable. It is not a setting, a paid tier or something a provider can arrange — it is a discretionary Meta decision about whether your brand is notable enough to be marked as official.
Meta's criteria and application flow change periodically. Confirm the current requirements in Meta Business Help before you apply.
What the badge actually is
Official Business Account status is granted to a WhatsApp Business Account (WABA) and surfaces as a badge beside the business name in chat lists, the chat header and the profile. Historically the badge was green; Meta has since aligned it with its wider verification design, so you will see it referred to as a green tick, a blue tick and simply "verified" depending on where you read. They are the same status.
Two things follow from it living on the WABA. First, it is not a property of the phone number, the provider or the plan you are on. Second, whoever owns the WABA owns the status — which is why holding your own Meta Business Manager assets matters more than any single vendor relationship.
What Meta weighs
- Notability. The core test. Meta looks for evidence that your brand is well known — substantive coverage in independent, credible news sources. Your own website, press releases, paid articles and sponsored content do not count.
- Authenticity. The account genuinely represents the business, person or entity it claims to.
- Completeness. A finished profile — description, website, address where relevant, logo.
- Account standing. Verified business in Meta Business Manager, approved display name, no policy violations, and a quality rating that has not been dragged down by blocks.
Message volume, spend and tenure are not the criteria. Plenty of high-volume senders never receive the badge, and small but widely covered brands sometimes do.
How to apply, step by step
- Complete Meta business verification. In Meta Business Manager, submit your legal entity documents and finish verification. Nothing else proceeds until this clears.
- Get your sender live with an approved display name. Register the number and pass display-name review — see registering a WhatsApp sender.
- Fill the profile out properly. Logo, description, website and category, consistent with the brand as it appears elsewhere.
- Build the evidence file. Gather links to independent press coverage of the brand — national or well-known trade outlets, dated, not authored by you.
- Submit the Official Business Account request from the WhatsApp Manager section of Business Manager, against the WABA rather than the number.
- Wait, then reapply if refused. Decisions typically take a few weeks. A refusal is not permanent — reapply once you have materially stronger coverage rather than immediately resubmitting the same file.
If you are rejected
Assume the reason is notability, because it almost always is. Resubmitting the same evidence a week later does not change the assessment. What changes it is genuine third-party coverage accumulating over months — so treat the badge as an output of brand-building rather than an admin task, and in the meantime lean on the signals you do control: an approved display name that matches the brand, a complete profile, and a quality rating kept high by messaging people who asked to hear from you.
Be sceptical of anyone selling guaranteed verification. Meta does not delegate this decision to providers, and agencies promising it are either charging for the free application or describing display-name approval.
Changing provider without losing it
Because the status sits on the WABA in your own Business Manager, moving your number to another Business Solution Provider keeps it — as long as the WABA and display name persist and you are not being migrated into a provider-owned account that requires a fresh WABA. The mechanics, and the mistakes that do cost people the badge, are in changing BSP and keeping the green tick.
Is it worth chasing?
It helps recipients trust an unknown number, which lifts response rates a little. It does not affect deliverability, pricing, messaging limits or template approval — those follow from your quality rating and account standing. If you are deciding between the Business app and the API, that choice matters far more day to day: see WhatsApp Business app vs API.
FAQ
What is the WhatsApp green tick?
It is the badge shown next to a business name in WhatsApp, indicating Official Business Account status granted by Meta. It means Meta considers the account to be an authentic, notable brand. It is attached to the WhatsApp Business Account rather than to a provider, and it is awarded at Meta's discretion — no Business Solution Provider can sell it or guarantee it.
How do I qualify?
Meta weighs notability: whether your brand has a substantial, verifiable public presence, evidenced mainly by coverage in independent, credible news sources rather than by your own website, press releases or paid placements. Business verification in Meta Business Manager, an approved display name, a complete profile and a healthy quality rating are prerequisites, but meeting them does not on its own earn the badge.
Is it the same as display-name approval?
No, and this is the most common confusion. Display-name approval is a policy check on the name shown on your sender — most businesses pass it, and it is required before you can message at all. The green tick is a separate, discretionary notability decision. You can have an approved display name for years and never receive Official Business Account status.
Do I keep it if I change providers?
Yes in the normal case. The status belongs to the WhatsApp Business Account in your own Meta Business Manager, so moving the number between Business Solution Providers does not revoke it — provided the WABA and the display name stay the same and you own the assets rather than sitting inside a provider's account. Migrating in a way that creates a new WABA is where businesses actually lose it.
Apply this to your own deployment
This guide describes decisions we make on live instances. Tell us your channels, systems and region and we will map it to an architecture outline, a provisioning plan and an indicative commercial model — usually within one business day.