Your WABA ID and Phone Number ID are on one screen.

Open Meta's app dashboard at developers.facebook.com/apps, choose your app, then WhatsApp → API Setup. Both IDs are on that page. The full click path, the other two values we ask for, and what to do when a label is missing are all below.

Open your dashboard Get a permanent token

The short answer

Four values, two screens

Phone number ID

App dashboard → your app → WhatsApp → API Setup. It sits under From, next to your business number.

This is not the phone number. It is a long string of digits, roughly 15 to 16 of them.

WhatsApp Business Account ID (WABA ID)

Same screen — WhatsApp → API Setup, labelled WhatsApp Business Account ID. It is also shown in WhatsApp Manager → Settings.

Digits only, and a different number from the Phone number ID.

App ID

App dashboard → Settings → Basic → App ID. It is also in the address bar while you are looking at your app.

App secret

App dashboard → Settings → Basic → App Secret → Show. Meta asks for your password again.

Treat it like a password. We use it to check the signature on every incoming WhatsApp message, so nobody can push fake messages into your inbox.

Step by step

If you have never opened these screens

Open Meta's app dashboard

Go to developers.facebook.com/apps and sign in with the Facebook account that manages your business. You will see the apps you can administer.

No apps listed? Either you are signed in as the wrong person, or nobody has created the app yet. Both are common — ask whoever set up your Facebook business page.

Open your app and look for WhatsApp in the left menu

If WhatsApp is not there, add it: Add product → WhatsApp → Set up. Adding the product also creates your WhatsApp Business Account.

If Meta refuses to add WhatsApp, the app was created as the wrong type. Only a Business app can take the WhatsApp product, and the type cannot be changed afterwards — create a new Business app instead.

WhatsApp → API Setup: read both IDs

The From selector shows your business number with the Phone number ID beneath it. The WhatsApp Business Account ID is on the same page. Copy both somewhere safe.

Ignore the temporary access token offered on this screen. It stops working in 24 hours — see System User token.

Settings → Basic: App ID and App secret

Still inside the app, open Settings → Basic. The App ID is on the page; the App secret is behind a Show button.

What we ask for

You usually do not need the WABA ID at all

The connect form asks for three values and finds the rest itself.

In your dashboard at app.orcalinq.com, open Channels → WhatsApp and choose to connect your own WhatsApp Business account. The form asks for a System User access token, your App ID and your App secret. With those three we read your Meta account and list your WhatsApp Business Accounts, every number on them, and whether each number is ready to send. Nothing is saved at that point — the first step only reads.

The fourth box, and the part that confuses everyone

There is a fourth box: WhatsApp Business Account ID (optional), with the placeholder "Leave blank — we'll detect it". Leave it blank the first time.

Fill it in only if the next screen says it couldn't find a WhatsApp Business Account. That message is usually not a mistake on your side. When your WhatsApp Business Account is owned by your business rather than shared to the System User, Meta's "list the WhatsApp accounts this token can reach" call comes back empty — even though the very same token can read that account perfectly well once you name it. So pasting the ID here is not a workaround. For a business-owned account it is the normal path.

Digits only. Spaces or punctuation are rejected with "expected a numeric WhatsApp Business Account ID".

Easy to mix up

Four numbers that look alike

Phone number vs Phone number ID. The number your customers dial is not an ID. The ID is the long digits-only value under From.
WABA ID vs App ID. Both are long numbers on nearby screens. The WABA ID names your WhatsApp account; the App ID names the app that talks to it.
WABA ID vs business portfolio ID. Your business portfolio is the container that holds the WhatsApp account. Its ID is not accepted where a WABA ID is asked for.
Test number IDs are real IDs. Meta gives every new app a free test number, and its Phone number ID works here. It can only exchange messages with up to five numbers you add by hand, and real customers cannot reach it — good for a demo, not for business.

Later on

Reading your IDs back after you have connected

You do not have to go hunting a second time. In Channels → WhatsApp, the panel headed"Messages not arriving?" has a Run check button. Its last line names the values in use:"Checked phone number ID … · WhatsApp account …". Running the check changes nothing, so it is safe at any time.

During the connect flow itself, each WhatsApp account we find is shown as a card with its WABA ID printed under the account name, and each number carries its Phone number ID.

Your access token and app secret are stored encrypted and are never shown back to you. If you lose them, generate them again in Meta.

If that did not work

When the screen does not match this page

No "WhatsApp" in the left menu. Use Add product → WhatsApp → Set up. If that option is absent, the app is the wrong type; create a new Business app.
No "API Setup" item. Meta renames these screens from time to time. Look for any page under the WhatsApp product that shows a From phone-number selector and offers a temporary token — that is the same screen under a different name.
Only a test number appears. Your real number has not been added yet. On the same screen use Add phone number; Meta sends a one-time code to that number, and only you can enter it.
No "Settings → Basic". Only administrators and developers on the app see it. Ask the person who created the app to add you, or to read the two values out to you.
The number is live on the WhatsApp Business app today. Stop before you go further. Putting that number on the API means deleting its WhatsApp account first, which destroys its chat history permanently and ends any use of the phone app on it. A spare number is the safe choice.
Still stuck. Email support@orcalinq.com with your App ID and the exact wording on screen. Never send your access token or app secret by email — we do not need them, and we cannot use them.

Got the three values?

Paste them into Channels → WhatsApp and we will find your account, point the webhook at your inbox and register the number.