Supported file types and limits
WhatsApp Business API supports: images (JPEG, PNG, GIF - max 5MB), video (MP4 - max 16MB), audio (max 16MB), documents (PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint - max 100MB), and stickers (WebP - max 100KB).
PDFs are the most sent business file type via WhatsApp: invoices, quotes, contracts, manuals, catalogs.
Technical implementation via API
To send a file via WhatsApp Business API, you have two options: pass the file URL (file must be publicly accessible via HTTPS) or upload the file via WhatsApp's media upload API and use the returned media_id.
The recommended method for frequently sent files is media upload: upload once, get the media_id and reuse for all sends.
Files in templates with image header
WhatsApp templates can have an image, video or document type header. At template send time, you can specify the media_id of the file to use as the header, allowing personalizing the same template structure with different files.
Best practices for business file sending
For legal or commercial documents, ensure the PDF includes all necessary data and is readable on mobile. For marketing images, optimize for the mobile format.
