How to create a paid WhatsApp group

If you search WhatsApp's settings for a way to charge people to join a group, you will not find one. What WhatsApp has added is paid subscriptions for channels.

Meta announced channel subscriptions in June 2025 as a way for followers to get exclusive updates from a channel for a monthly fee, and said it would roll them out slowly over several months. WhatsApp's channel subscription terms describe an automatically recurring monthly subscription that the channel owner prices, bought through WhatsApp or through an app store such as the Apple App Store or Google Play. The terms cover channels only. They say nothing about groups.

A channel and a group are different spaces, and that difference decides which one you can sell.

So which should you use? If you only broadcast, your fans pay with cards or app store balances, and subscriptions are open to your channel, a paid WhatsApp channel is the simpler route and you should try it. If your value is the conversation, the Q&A and members talking to you and each other, you need a group. And if your fans pay with mobile money, you need to collect the money yourself anyway.

The rest of this guide is about running a paid group.

Create a new group for paying fans only. Keep it separate from any free group you already run, so nobody ends up in the paid space by accident.

1. Give it a clear name and picture. Fans should know at a glance that they are in the right place.
2. Turn on Approve new members. WhatsApp's help centre explains that this setting lives in Group permissions and is off by default. With it off, anyone who requests to join gets in. With it on, a person who opens your invite link sees Request to join and waits until an admin approves them from Pending requests on the Group info screen.
3. Limit who can add members. In Group permissions, check whether members are allowed to add other people, and keep that power with admins where your version of WhatsApp lets you. Otherwise one paying fan can add five friends who never paid.
4. Keep your invite link private. Never post it in a public bio or a free group. Send it only to fans who have paid, and approve only the numbers you expect.
5. Choose your admins carefully. Every admin can approve requests and add people. Make only people you trust admins.

Because WhatsApp will not take the money for a group, you have to. There are three common ways to do it.

Option A: Take payments by hand

Most paid groups start here. You post your mobile money number, a fan sends money and a screenshot, and you add them. It costs nothing, and it works for your first ten fans. After that, the same problems keep coming back:

• Edited screenshots. A fake receipt takes a minute to make, and checking each one against your statement takes longer.
• Forgotten end dates. You have to remember when every fan paid. Most creators lose track, and expired fans stay in the group for free.
• Money talk from your own number. You end up asking fans to pay from your personal WhatsApp, which feels awkward for both of you.

Option B: Use a payment provider's links

Providers such as Paystack or Flutterwave let a business create payment links. That stops fake screenshots, because you see the payment arrive. Check the provider's rules on what you can sell before you start. You still have to match each payment to a WhatsApp number, track the end date and remove people yourself.

Option C: VIPpass

Fans open your VIPpass link, confirm they are 18 or older, choose a plan, pay and type the WhatsApp number they want to be added with. They do not need an account. You only get an add task once the payment provider has confirmed the money, so there is no screenshot to check. The paid WhatsApp groups page shows exactly who does what.

A paid group only stays paid if people leave when their time is up. That means writing down, for every fan, when their access ends.

If you run it yourself, keep one sheet with a row per payment:

• Name and WhatsApp number, exactly as it appears in the group.
• Plan, such as 7, 30 or 90 days.
• Date paid and date it ends. Work out the end date when you add the fan, not later.
• Payment reference, so you can answer a fan who says they paid twice.

Sort the sheet by end date and look at it on the same day every week, or every day once you have more than a few dozen fans. Message fans a few days before their plan ends, so they can renew before they lose access.

Offer more than one plan. A short plan lets a new fan try you with little risk, and a longer plan means fewer renewals for both of you. For help setting prices, read how much to charge for a VIP group.

With VIPpass, plans can be 7, 30 or 90 days, or lifetime, priced in your own currency. VIPpass tracks every end date for you and sends fans renewal reminders by SMS or a WhatsApp message link 3 days and 1 day before their plan ends, and on the day. Mobile money is never charged automatically: fans renew from the reminder link, so nobody is charged by surprise.

This is the step most creators skip, and it is where most of the money leaks out. If expired fans stay in the group, the fans who renewed are paying for everyone else.

• Remove on a fixed schedule. Pick a time each day or each week and remove everyone whose plan has ended.
• Give a short grace period, then stick to it. One day is fair. A week becomes a habit.
• Say it up front. Pin a message explaining that access ends with the plan, and how to renew. Then removing someone is just following the rules everyone agreed to.
• Re-add renewals quickly. A fan who renews after being removed should be back in the group the same day.

On VIPpass, each plan that ends creates a remove task on your list. It stays there, and in your daily digest, until you mark it done. When you add a fan, VIPpass asks them to confirm they got in. If they do not confirm within 24 hours, our support team checks.

Once you have fifty fans, adding and removing people by hand starts to feel slow, and you will find tools that promise to do it for you: bots that add members in bulk, send automatic messages or run your WhatsApp account from a server.

Read WhatsApp's terms of service before you try one. They forbid sending communications such as bulk messaging, auto-messaging and auto-dialing, and forbid using WhatsApp through automated or other means in ways that are not allowed. The same terms say WhatsApp may take action on your account, including disabling or suspending it, if you break them.

For a paid group, that risk is bigger than it looks. If your number is banned, you lose the group, every fan in it and your way of reaching them, all at once. Your paying fans lose what they paid for, and you are left refunding people with no group to show them.

That is why VIPpass never uses unofficial bots, browser automation or bulk-add tools on WhatsApp, and never touches your WhatsApp account at all. VIPpass handles everything around the group instead: payments, end dates, reminders and the task list. Tapping add and remove yourself takes a minute a day, and your number stays safe.

If you would rather have members added and removed for you automatically, Telegram is the better fit: its official bot platform lets the VIPpass Bot do both. See how to set up a paid Telegram channel.

Fans rarely pay for a group they have never seen. Show them a sample first.

• Run a free preview. A free WhatsApp channel is a good fit here: it is one-way, anyone can follow it, and you can post a taste of what paying fans get, with your payment link pinned. On VIPpass you can link a free WhatsApp group or channel to your paid space, and fans can open it before they pay.
• Share one link everywhere. Your bio, your status updates, your other socials and your free preview should all point to the same place to pay.
• Open with a launch offer. A lower first-week price gives fans a reason to join now.
• Keep the paid group worth it. Post on a schedule, answer questions and make members feel the group is where things happen first. Fans renew for a group they would miss.

Count the fees before you set your price. VIPpass is free to start and takes a 5% service fee on each payment, which already includes payment provider costs. On a $10 plan, you either add the fee so the fan pays $10.50, or take it from your earnings so you receive $9.50. Pro costs $18.99 a month for unlimited spaces and a 4% fee. See pricing. For the full funnel, read the free-to-VIP funnel.