WhatsApp is a real Gorgias channel now. Here's what it does, what it costs, and the one thing it can't do.

• WhatsApp threads land in Gorgias as tickets, with Shopify order context attached. Adding the channel is free on the Gorgias side.
• Meta moved to per-message billing on July 1, 2025. Replies inside the 24-hour window are free; outbound templates are paid and vary by country.
• Built for Founders, COOs, and Heads of CX at $10M-$100M Shopify brands running Gorgias. WhatsApp covers text. It does not pick up your ringing phone.

WhatsApp finally graduated from "thing your customers DM you on a personal number" to a proper channel inside Gorgias. If you run support at a Shopify brand, you can now route WhatsApp into the same queue as email, chat, and Instagram, and the order context shows up next to the ticket. That's genuinely useful. But there's a line nobody in the setup guides draws, and it matters for how you staff your channels.

I set up the WhatsApp channel on a test Gorgias account, then called the same brand's phone line after hours to see which channel actually caught the customer. WhatsApp caught the texters. The phone rolled to voicemail. That gap is the whole reason this post exists.

If you're a Founder, COO, or Head of CX at a $10M-$100M Shopify brand and you're weighing whether WhatsApp closes your after-hours coverage problem, the short answer is "partly." We've launched AI phone agents for 50+ Shopify brands that run Gorgias, and the phone is almost always the channel still leaking. Book a 30-min call and we'll show you what your store is leaving on the table after 6 p.m.

What the Gorgias WhatsApp integration actually is

The Gorgias WhatsApp integration is a native channel. When a customer messages your WhatsApp Business number, that thread becomes a Gorgias ticket, sitting in the same helpdesk as your email, live chat, Instagram DMs, and SMS. Your team replies from one place.

The real win is context. Gorgias matches the phone number the WhatsApp message came from against the phone number on the customer's Shopify profile, so the order history, past tickets, and customer data load right next to the conversation. No tab-switching to figure out who's asking.

It handles text, audio clips, video, images, and PDFs (per the Gorgias WhatsApp docs). WhatsApp has more than two billion users worldwide, so for brands with international customers or younger buyers, it's a channel a real chunk of people prefer over email.

One thing to hold onto, though. This is a text and media channel. It is not your phone line. WISMO ("where's my order") questions are 30-40% of support tickets in normal periods and over 50% at peak (Salesforce), and a lot of those still come in by phone, not text. WhatsApp catches the customers who'd rather type. It does nothing for the ones who pick up the phone.

How to set up WhatsApp in Gorgias, step by step

Setup doesn't need a developer, but it does need a few Meta pieces in place first. You'll need a Meta Business Account, a WhatsApp Business Account (WABA), and an eligible phone number before you start.

The number has to be one you own, with a country and area code, able to receive calls or SMS, not a short code, and not already tied to another WABA or sitting on the native WhatsApp app. If it's on the regular WhatsApp app right now, you have to delete it there first.

Once that's sorted, the flow for a new (non-Gorgias) number looks like this:

1. In Gorgias, go to Settings, then App Store, then All apps, then WhatsApp.
2. Click "Connect WhatsApp Business."
3. Sign into the Facebook account tied to your Meta Business Account.
4. Select or create your Meta Business Account.
5. Create or select your WhatsApp Business Account (you'll set a Display Name, Category, and Business Description).
6. Submit your phone number for verification.
7. Enter the verification code Meta sends by SMS or voice call.

If you want to run WhatsApp on a number you already use for Gorgias voice, you set up a Voice integration first, enable call forwarding, then run the same flow and choose "Phone Call" verification (the code arrives by voicemail).

One limit to plan around: until you complete Meta's Business Verification, you're capped at two phone numbers and 250 business-initiated conversations per 24 hours, per the Gorgias docs. That cap only applies to template (business-initiated) messages. Customers messaging you first is unlimited.

What the integration can and can't do

Once you're live, the integration is solid for day-to-day support. You can receive and respond to WhatsApp messages from the helpdesk, send and receive media, link customer profiles, run Gorgias Macros and Rules on the channel, and connect multiple WhatsApp Business accounts and numbers to one Gorgias account.

For proactive outreach (shipping updates, account alerts), you use pre-approved WhatsApp Message Templates. The 24-hour customer service window is the rule that shapes everything: when a customer messages you, a 24-hour timer starts, and inside it you can reply freely. Outside it, you can only re-open the conversation with an approved template. The window refreshes every time the customer replies.

What it can't do is the part the setup guides skip over. Straight from the Gorgias WhatsApp FAQs, the integration does not support:

• Making or receiving phone calls via WhatsApp. This is a messaging channel, full stop.
• Recording voice messages inside Gorgias. You can attach audio files, but you can't record in-app.
• GIFs, location messages, contact messages, or message reactions. Animated WEBP works in place of GIFs.
• Responding to WhatsApp tickets from the Gorgias Mobile App. Desktop only for now.

None of that is a dealbreaker for text support. But notice the first bullet. The single most common reason a customer reaches for the phone instead of typing is that they want to talk to someone, and WhatsApp's whole design assumes they want to type. The compliment we hear most from our own customers is "you don't sound like AI," which only matters on a channel where there's a voice at all.

"My customers also feel like it's a normal person. They feel like they can communicate if they have questions."
Claudia Droge, TechCraft Studio

What the Gorgias WhatsApp AI agent does (and what it doesn't)

Gorgias sells an AI Agent (you may know it as Sidekick) that can work the WhatsApp channel, and on text it's reasonable. It reads the message, pulls from your knowledge base and macros, and resolves common questions without a human. It helps you keep inside that 24-hour window when volume spikes.

The pricing is usage-based: $0.90 per resolved conversation on most plans, $1 on Starter, and you only pay when the AI fully resolves the conversation on its own, per the Gorgias AI Agent pricing page. Handovers to a human aren't billed as automated. Plans bundle anywhere from 90 to 2,500+ automated interactions a month, with overage running $0.83 to $2.00 depending on tier.

It's a fair model for chat and email. But it's worth being precise about what it is: text automation. The Gorgias AI Agent reads and writes messages. It does not answer a phone call, because WhatsApp inside Gorgias can't carry one. If your goal is "stop missing calls," the WhatsApp AI agent isn't the tool for that job. It's the tool for the typed queue.

What WhatsApp actually costs you in 2025

Two separate bills, and people mix them up constantly.

On the Gorgias side, adding WhatsApp as a support channel is free. Gorgias states that all customers can add WhatsApp at no extra cost, and that Gorgias currently covers WhatsApp's usage fees (with the caveat that this could change as they ship more features). Your replies still count toward your billable Gorgias ticket usage, so it's not literally free, but there's no separate WhatsApp line item from Gorgias today.

On the Meta side, the rules changed on July 1, 2025. Meta moved from per-conversation billing to per-message billing, so every template message you send is billed individually, per the WhatsApp Business Platform pricing updates. There are four message categories: service, utility, authentication, and marketing.

Here's how that nets out:

• Service messages (your replies inside the 24-hour customer service window) are free.
• Utility, authentication, and marketing templates are paid per message, and the rate varies by the recipient's country. For reference, German rates run roughly €0.0456 for a utility template and €0.1131 for a marketing one (hello-charles pricing guide).
• Meta also added volume tiers for utility and authentication, with discounts up to around 20% for high-volume senders.

So for inbound support, where the customer messages first and you reply inside the window, WhatsApp is essentially free to operate right now. The cost shows up when you push proactive marketing or notification templates at scale.

The channel WhatsApp can't cover (and where an AI phone agent fits)

Add up everything above and you get a strong text channel that feeds Gorgias cleanly. What you don't get is the phone. And the phone is where the money quietly leaks.

The numbers on missed calls are brutal. 85% of callers who can't reach a person never call back, and 62% switch to a competitor (PCN 2026). On top of that, businesses answer only 37.8% of inbound calls. Your WhatsApp queue can be spotless and you'll still be losing the customer who called at 8 p.m., got voicemail, and bought elsewhere by morning.

This is the gap Ringly.io fills. Ringly is AI phone support for Shopify brands. The phone shouldn't be a tax on your support team. Instead of staffing a night shift or letting after-hours calls roll to voicemail, the AI phone agent for Shopify answers inbound calls 24/7, finds orders in your Shopify store, checks order status, processes returns, and answers product questions from your knowledge base. The calls that need a human escalate cleanly into Gorgias, so it sits in front of your helpdesk, not on top of it.

Across 50+ brands, the AI resolves 73% of calls on its own at roughly $0.42 per resolved call, versus $7 to $16 a call for a human BPO. WashCo, a Shopify brand we launched, recovered $22,664 in its first 7 days on the phone. That's revenue that was previously hitting voicemail.

The math is the easy part. Take a $50M brand running a 6-rep CS team:

That's roughly 70% of repeatable calls (order status, returns, the same five questions over and over) handled by the AI. The genuinely complex calls still go to your team, who now have time to actually solve them. It's the same playbook the bigger Shopify Plus brands use to keep CS payroll flat while volume climbs. If your phone goes to voicemail after hours and you want to see what that's costing, book a 30-min call and we'll do the math on your real call volume.

To be clear: this is not a Gorgias replacement, and it's not a WhatsApp replacement. WhatsApp handles the texters. Gorgias is your system of record. Ringly handles the phone calls nobody else is picking up. Three channels, one queue.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Gorgias WhatsApp integration free? Adding WhatsApp as a channel in Gorgias is free, and Gorgias currently covers Meta's WhatsApp usage fees. Your replies still count toward your billable Gorgias ticket usage, and Meta charges separately for outbound template messages (marketing, utility, authentication) on a per-message basis.

Can WhatsApp in Gorgias make or receive phone calls? No. Per the Gorgias WhatsApp FAQs, making or receiving phone calls via WhatsApp is not supported. It's a text and media channel. For the voice phone line, you need a separate solution, which is where an AI phone agent like Ringly fits.

How does the 24-hour customer service window work? When a customer messages you, a 24-hour timer starts. Inside that window you can reply freely with no per-message charge. Outside it, you can only re-open contact with a pre-approved WhatsApp Message Template, and the window refreshes whenever the customer replies.

How much does WhatsApp cost on top of Gorgias in 2025? Service replies inside the 24-hour window are free. Since July 1, 2025, Meta bills outbound templates per message, with rates that vary by the recipient's country. For inbound support, your cost is effectively zero today; it climbs when you send proactive marketing or notification templates at volume.

Does the Gorgias AI Agent work on WhatsApp? Yes, on text. The Gorgias AI Agent resolves common WhatsApp questions from your knowledge base at $0.90 per resolved conversation ($1 on Starter), and you only pay for full auto-resolutions. It does not answer phone calls, because the WhatsApp channel can't carry voice.

Can Ringly's AI phone agent work alongside Gorgias and WhatsApp? Yes. Ringly handles your inbound phone calls 24/7 and escalates anything that needs a human into your Gorgias helpdesk, so WhatsApp covers text, Gorgias is your system of record, and Ringly covers the voice channel. You keep your current number, helpdesk, and workflows.

Talk to us

WhatsApp closes one gap. If your phone still rolls to voicemail after 6 p.m., that's the channel WhatsApp was never going to cover. If you run a $10M-$100M Shopify brand on Gorgias and you're losing after-hours calls, a 30-min call is the fastest way to see what you're leaving on the table.

The 3-layer guarantee.

1. Live in 14 days or it's free until launched.
2. 65% resolution in 90 days or we refund the last 3 months of subscription fees.
3. We keep working free until we hit 65%.

Ruben (Ringly co-founder) takes these calls personally.

Book a 30-min call →