Sending external payment links through ChatArchitect

Send a link to your external checkout page

ChatArchitect supports sending an ordinary website link where the customer can pay outside WhatsApp. Your payment service creates the checkout page and handles the transaction. ChatArchitect does not provide native WhatsApp payments, UPI or Pix payment flows, gateway onboarding, checkout templates or order-payment APIs.

Prepare the link in your payment service

1. Create the payment request in the service your business uses. Check the intended order, amount, currency and recipient there.
2. Open the resulting checkout URL and confirm that it leads to the intended payment page. Use the service's test or preview option when available; this guide does not require making a real payment.
3. Check the link's expiry and reuse rules with that service. Keep its payment or order reference so you can find the result later.

Choose the WhatsApp message

For an ordinary text reply, check that the customer's 24-hour service window is open. If the business starts the conversation or the window has closed, use an approved template appropriate to the message. Check the template guide and the options available in your connected tool.

Include the ordinary checkout URL in the message text, with enough context for the customer to identify the request. Use the text-message checklist to verify the connected business number, recipient and wording. Native order-details, order-status and checkout formats from Meta's Payments API are unavailable through ChatArchitect.

For example, a text could say: Your order ORDER-123 is ready. You can pay using this link: [your checkout URL]. Replace the example with your actual reference and link. A link preview depends on the sending tool and the destination website; the URL itself is the way to open the payment page.

If your service uses the ChatArchitect API

The API Quick Start documents ordinary text sending with App key and Secret. In an open service window, the following illustrative body uses that same text-message structure. The example hostname is a placeholder; supply your real checkout URL.

{
  "channel": "whatsapp",
  "destination": "<recipient_phone>",
  "payload": {
    "type": "text",
    "message": "Your order ORDER-123 is ready. Pay here: https://payments.example.com/pay/ORDER-123"
  }
}

Use the documented authentication and sending procedure in the Quick Start. This is a text message containing a URL; it does not call a payment API.

Confirm delivery and payment separately

• Check the sending result in your CRM, help desk or API receiver. Submitted, sent, delivered and read describe the WhatsApp message.
• Check the payment or order reference in your payment service for the actual transaction result. A message being read does not confirm payment.
• If your business needs an automatic CRM update, use a supported connection to the payment service and verify its confirmation rules. Sending a checkout link through ChatArchitect does not establish that integration.

The payment-confirmation guide explains this separation. For a sending problem, give support the integration, business number, time, message ID if available and the exact error. For a checkout or transaction problem, identify the payment-service reference and investigate it with that service.