WhatsApp Cloud
facebook.com · 2 records in Storage · JSON
Records 2
- fails: quotaWhatsApp Cloud API — Media (upload / media_id)
Storagefree tieridentity institution?card?limit per-object-capevidence reportedstale on 2026-11-05
- fails: quotawhatsapp cloud api media as archive
Storageidentity email?card?evidence reportedstale on 2026-11-05
- Free allowance
- Per-file caps only, no storage quota: documents 100 MB, images 5 MB, video 16 MB, audio 16 MB, stickers 500 KB (as listed on the reference page).
- Verdict
- fails: quotathe free allowance is too small to matter
- Cost
- free tier
- Identity
- institution?placeholder, not evidence; card unknown, phone unknown
- Binding limit
- per-object-capPer-file caps only, no storage quota: documents 100 MB
- Evidence
- reported3 sources; a third party said so
- Freshness
- stale on 2026-11-05checked 2026-10-21 (inherited); stale on 2026-11-05
| Free tier | Per-file caps only, no storage quota: documents 100 MB, images 5 MB, video 16 MB, audio 16 MB, stickers 500 KB (as listed on the reference page). Files persist 30 days. unit MB; metered on stored-bytes |
|---|---|
| Price | none stated |
| Limits |
HARD 30-DAY DELETION — the disqualifier. 'All media files sent through this API are encrypted and persist for 30 days, unless they are deleted earlier.' Media IDs also expire at 30 days (7 days for IDs arriving in webhooks). Media URLs live 5 minutes. |
| Identity | institution (inferred, not read) not published |
| Egress | Download is free of per-GB charge but doubly gated: media URLs EXPIRE AFTER 5 MINUTES and must be re-fetched via the media ID using a Bearer token. There is no public URL at any point. |
| Per-object cap | Per-file caps only, no storage quota: documents 100 MB (100000000 bytes) |
| Retention | 'All media files sent through this API are encrypted and persist for 30 days, unless they are deleted earlier.' Media IDs also expire at 30 days (7 days for IDs arriving in webhooks) (30 days) |
| Interface | rest, graph, rclone rest |
| Tooling | Graph API; official SDKs (facebook-business, whatsapp-cloud-api wrappers). No rclone backend. Wrappers exist but cannot beat the 30-day deletion. |
| Composes with | Does not multiply — retention, not count, is the wall. Unlimited phone numbers x 30 days each is still a 30-day window, i.e. a cache, not storage. |
| Reliability | Deterministic deletion, not a fair-use throttle: on day 31 the bytes are gone and only an error remains. |
| Parsed numbers |
|
Evidence 3
| date | source | what it proved |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-21 | developers.facebook.com/docs/whatsapp/cloud-api/reference/me | read live: 'All media files sent through this API are encrypted and persist for 30 days, unless they are deleted earlier.'; 'Media IDs returned by the API expire after 30 days. Media IDs in webhooks expire after 7 days.'; 'Media URLs expire after 5 minutes' |
| 2026-10-21 | developers.facebook.com/docs/whatsapp/cloud-api/reference/me | read live: size table 'Text .txt text/plain 100 MB', 'AAC .aac 16 MB', etc. |
| 2026-10-21 | graph.facebook.com/v21.0/123456/media | probe: GET -> 400 (anonymous call refused; token mandatory) |
More fields 1
| dead end | {"failure_class": "quota","why": "Per-file caps only, no storage quota: documents 100 MB, images 5 MB, video 16 MB, audio 16 MB, stickers 500 KB (as listed on the reference page). Files persist 30 days.","retry_when": null,"first_recorded": "2026-10-21"} |
|---|
Unknown values 2
- per object cap notes: the field may be stated in a source that was not read
- retention notes: the field may be stated in a source that was not read
- Free allowance
- 30-day hard deletion plus 5-minute media URLs; the bytes are unrecoverable on day 31.
- Verdict
- fails: quotathe free allowance is too small to matter
- Cost
- not stated
- Identity
- email?placeholder, not evidence; card unknown, phone unknown
- Binding limit
- noneno named constraint binds
- Evidence
- reported1 source; a third party said so
- Freshness
- stale on 2026-11-05checked 2026-10-21 (inherited); stale on 2026-11-05
| Free tier | 30-day hard deletion plus 5-minute media URLs; the bytes are unrecoverable on day 31. Any 'WhatsApp as free storage' claim found in the wild is wrong about this. unit none; metered on none |
|---|---|
| Price | none stated |
| Identity | email (placeholder) not published |
| Egress | not recorded |
| Interface | unknown |
| Tooling | not recorded |
Evidence 1
| date | source | what it proved |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-21 | developers.facebook.com/docs/whatsapp/cloud-api/reference/me | the text of Free tier, above |
More fields 1
| dead end | {"failure_class": "quota","why": "30-day hard deletion plus 5-minute media URLs; the bytes are unrecoverable on day 31. Any 'WhatsApp as free storage' claim found in the wild is wrong about this.","retry_when": null,"first_recorded": "2026-10-21"} |
|---|
Unknown values 7
- chaining: no value was recorded for this field
- egress terms: no value was recorded for this field
- interface: the access interface was not established
- per object cap notes: no value was recorded for this field
- per object cap stated: no value was recorded for this field
- retention stated: no value was recorded for this field
- tooling: no value was recorded for this field