Know Your Site Is Down the Moment WhatsApp Buzzes

Why WhatsApp

Email piles up and work chat gets muted after hours. WhatsApp is the app most people check within minutes, which makes it a good place for the one message that really matters: your site is down.

How a WhatsApp alert is triggered

1. Your monitor is checked from 3 probe regions on its interval.
2. When enough regions agree it is down (see how we check), an incident opens.
3. The alert goes to the WhatsApp numbers on your alert channels or escalation policy, naming the monitor and linking to the incident.
4. When the monitor recovers, a recovery message follows, again with the incident link.

What the message says

WhatsApp only allows businesses to start a conversation with an approved message template, so every SutramX alert uses the same short template with two values: the alert title, such as “Checkout API is DOWN” or “Checkout API has RECOVERED”, and a link to the incident in your dashboard, where the failure reason and the incident timeline are. Messages come from the SutramX business number, so you do not need a Meta, WhatsApp Business or Twilio account of your own.

Who receives them

• One connection per numberThe workspace owner adds each WhatsApp number under Integrations & API, in international format (for example +91 followed by the number, without the leading 0). Up to 10 WhatsApp connections.
• Routing per numberEach connection can receive alerts for all monitors, selected monitor groups or selected monitors, so a phone only buzzes for what its owner looks after.
• Down and recovery onlyWhatsApp connections get down and recovery alerts and escalation steps. SSL, domain-expiry and maintenance notices go to your other channels.

How WhatsApp credits work

Every WhatsApp message uses one WhatsApp credit, and each recipient counts separately. Each send uses your plan's monthly allowance first, then any extra credit packs you have bought. The allowance resets on your billing day (monthly windows from your start date on yearly plans) and does not carry over; pack credits never expire. A message the provider never accepts, for example to an invalid number, has its credit returned, and a retried send is never charged twice. The account owner gets an email when 80% of the allowance is used and no pack credits are left, and another if credits run out. Email and chat alerts never use credits, so keep one of them on important monitors as a backstop.

Monthly WhatsApp allowance by plan

Each message sent counts once against the allowance, which resets every month.

How to test it

Use the free WhatsApp alert test to send one sample downtime alert to your own number, with no account needed. Once a number is connected in your workspace, the connection's Send test option sends a real alert in the normal format; it uses one credit, and you can send up to 3 tests per day. If nothing arrives, check that WhatsApp is installed and active on that number and that it can receive messages from international senders.

Good practice for WhatsApp alerts

• Page the person on callUse an escalation policy so the alert reaches whoever is on call, not the whole team.
• Keep chat channels for contextSend the same incident to Slack or Teams so the team can discuss it without crowding WhatsApp.
• Reserve it for productionRoute staging and low-priority monitors to email so a WhatsApp alert always means action.

Frequently asked questions

Full setup steps are in the docs: SMS, WhatsApp and voice alerts and alert credits.

Teams in India: see uptime monitoring for India for rupee pricing and UPI Autopay.