# OpenWA

> Self-hosted WhatsApp API gateway with multi-session support and dashboard

OpenWA is an open-source WhatsApp API gateway that turns WhatsApp accounts into REST endpoints and webhooks without SaaS message fees. It supports multi-session management, pluggable storage backends, and fine-grained API key scoping to let external bots and integrations interact safely.

Website: https://github.com/rmyndharis/OpenWA

## What it is for

- Run automated WhatsApp bots and transactional messaging without per-message vendor fees
- Scope API access by session or specific chats to safely connect AI agents or external tools
- Deliver incoming WhatsApp messages and status events to webhook endpoints or n8n workflows

## Features

- Multi-session concurrency on a single instance
- Dual engine support (whatsapp-web.js for lower ban risk, Baileys for lower memory)
- Built-in React management dashboard and Swagger API documentation
- Pluggable backends for SQLite, PostgreSQL, Redis cache, and S3 storage
- Granular token permissions (session-scoped and chat-scoped API keys)
- HMAC-signed webhooks with pre-dispatch filtering
- Docker-ready deployment with rootless container execution

## Pricing

Open source. Free and open source under MIT license

## Details

- Type: GitHub repo
- Category: [Development](https://xiry.app/topics/development.md)
- Open source: yes
- Platforms: Self-hosted, API, Web, Linux
- For: Developers and businesses building custom WhatsApp bots, alerts, and workflow automations on self-hosted infrastructure.
- Alternative to: Twilio WhatsApp API, Meta WhatsApp Cloud API
- Tags: whatsapp, api, gateway, automation, nestjs, self hosted, typescript

## Why it was saved

- [@wassimyounes_, 22 May 2026](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYqDCN3gRQW/): Enables businesses and developers to automate WhatsApp messaging, connect webhooks, and run bots across multiple numbers without third-party vendor lock-in or licensing fees.

## Related

- [WAHA (WhatsApp HTTP API)](https://xiry.app/resources/waha-whatsapp-http-api): Self-hosted REST API for WhatsApp automations and integrations (Article or course, Open source)
- [Accessing X Internal API via Session Tokens](https://xiry.app/resources/accessing-x-internal-api-via-session-tokens): Tutorial explaining session token replay for internal X API access (Framework, Free)
- [AI/ML API](https://xiry.app/resources/ai-ml-api): Single API and playground for hundreds of multimodal AI models (Web app, Paid)
- [API Anything](https://xiry.app/resources/api-anything): Turn websites into plain HTTP APIs for AI agents to call directly. (GitHub repo, Open source)
- [Enabling FIRE-1 in the Firecrawl Scrape API](https://xiry.app/resources/enabling-fire-1-in-the-firecrawl-scrape-api): API configuration pattern for Firecrawl's agent-driven web navigation model (Tip, Freemium)
- [n8n](https://xiry.app/resources/n8n): Visual workflow automation platform with custom code and AI agent capabilities. (Web app, Freemium)

Updated 3 October 2026. Page: https://xiry.app/resources/openwa

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