How to Create a WhatsApp Link (wa.me) Step by Step

A WhatsApp link is a normal web address that opens a chat with your number in one tap. You can paste it in a bio, a website, an email signature or an ad. This guide shows how to build one by hand and how to avoid the errors that break it. If you only want the result, the free link generator builds it in a few seconds.

The format of a wa.me link

The official format is simple:

https://wa.me/34612345678

After wa.me/ goes the full phone number in international format. That is the country code followed by the number, with digits only. Anyone who opens the link lands in a chat with that number, even if they never saved your contact.

Step 1: Write the number in international format

Take your local number and apply four rules:

• Start with the country code, for example 34 for Spain, 1 for the United States, 44 for the United Kingdom.
• Remove the plus sign, spaces, dashes and brackets.
• Remove the leading 0 of the local number if it has one.
• Keep the total under 15 digits, country code included.

Country	Local number	Number in the link
Spain	612 345 678	34612345678
United States	(415) 555-0132	14155550132
United Kingdom	07700 900123	447700900123
Mexico (mobile)	55 1234 5678	525512345678
Argentina (mobile)	11 1234 5678	5491112345678

Some countries add a digit for mobile numbers or keep a trunk prefix, which is why the same rule gives different results. When in doubt, take the number from the contact info of the WhatsApp account itself and test the link.

Step 2: Add a pre-filled message (optional)

A pre-filled message saves your customer from writing the first line and tells you where the chat came from. Add ?text= after the number and then your message:

https://wa.me/34612345678?text=Hello%2C%20I%20would%20like%20a%20quote

Special characters must be encoded:

• A space becomes %20.
• A line break becomes %0A.
• A comma becomes %2C and a question mark %3F.

The text appears in the message box, and the person can edit it. Nothing is sent until they press the send button.

Step 3: Test the link before you share it

Test on a different phone than the one that owns the number, because opening your own number in a chat behaves differently. Check three things:

1. The chat opens with the right contact.
2. The pre-filled message appears complete, with accents and line breaks.
3. It also works on desktop, where the link opens WhatsApp Web or the desktop app.

Common mistakes and how to fix them

• Plus sign in the number. wa.me/+34612345678 can fail. Remove the plus.
• Spaces or dashes. Remove them. Digits only.
• Leading zero. A UK number written as 07700 900123 must become 447700900123.
• Missing country code. Without it, WhatsApp cannot tell which country the number belongs to.
• Message not encoded. A raw space or an ampersand inside the text can cut the message. Encode it or use a generator.
• Number without WhatsApp. If the number has no WhatsApp account, the link shows an error.

Where to use your link

Once it works, put it where customers already look: your Instagram bio, the contact page, the footer of your website, your email signature, Google Business Profile and printed material. For print, turn the link into a QR code with the WhatsApp QR code generator so people can scan it with their phone.

If you use different channels, add a different pre-filled message to each. For example, “Hi, I came from Instagram” and “Hi, I came from the website” lets you see which channel brings chats without any extra tool.

Ready-to-copy examples

Replace the number with yours. Each link below already has the message encoded:

Use case	Message	Link
Quote request	Hello, I would like a quote for a website	https://wa.me/34612345678?text=Hello%2C%20I%20would%20like%20a%20quote%20for%20a%20website
Booking	Hi, I want to book a table for 4 on Friday	https://wa.me/34612345678?text=Hi%2C%20I%20want%20to%20book%20a%20table%20for%204%20on%20Friday
Support	Hi, I need help with my order	https://wa.me/34612345678?text=Hi%2C%20I%20need%20help%20with%20my%20order

For a message with two lines, put %0A where the line break goes: ?text=Hello%21%0AI%20would%20like%20information%20about%20prices. In the message box this shows as “Hello!” on the first line and the rest on the second.

Keep the pre-filled text short. It is a conversation starter, not a form. One or two lines that tell you what the person wants is enough.

Accents, emoji and other special characters

Letters outside the basic alphabet must also be encoded, or the message can arrive garbled. Each character becomes a percent sign and the hexadecimal code of its UTF-8 bytes. For example:

• é becomes %C3%A9
• ñ becomes %C3%B1
• ¡ becomes %C2%A1
• An emoji such as 👋 becomes %F0%9F%91%8B

Writing this by hand is where most people make mistakes. If your message has accents or emoji, let the generator encode it and copy the result, then test it on a phone to see that the text looks right.

Your number is visible in the link

A wa.me link contains the phone number in plain text, so anyone who sees the link can see the number. That is fine for a business line, but think before you put a personal number on a public page. If you do not want to mix customer chats with your private ones, use a separate number for the link, for example one registered in WhatsApp Business. The differences between the apps are in WhatsApp Business vs WhatsApp.

Build it faster with the generator

The generator on this site picks the country code for you, removes the characters that break a link, encodes the message and gives you a copy button, a test button and a QR code you can download. Everything runs in your browser, so the number is not sent to any server. Open the generator and have your link ready in a few seconds.