WhatsApp Number Checker

A comprehensive wrapper for the RapidAPI WhatsApp Data API featuring advanced dual rate limiting, automatic retries, and bulk number verification with intelligent queue management.

Features

• ✅ Dual Rate Limiting: Supports both window and monthly rate limits automatically extracted from API headers
• ✅ Automatic Retries: Intelligent rate limit error handling with exponential backoff
• ✅ Bulk Verification: Process multiple numbers with progress tracking and advanced options
• ✅ Real-time Monitoring: Track API usage through response headers analysis
• ✅ Required API Key: Mandatory API key validation in constructor
• ✅ TypeScript: Fully typed for enhanced developer experience
• ✅ Smart Queue: Automatic request management with dynamic adaptation
• ✅ Phone Validation: Built-in phone number validation using google-libphonenumber

Installation

npm install whatsapp-number-checker

Setup

First, obtain an API key from RapidAPI WhatsApp Data.

⚠️ Important: The API key is required in the constructor and mandatory for accessing all methods.

Basic Usage

import { WhatsAppChecker } from 'whatsapp-number-checker';

const checker = new WhatsAppChecker({
  apiKey: 'YOUR_RAPIDAPI_KEY_HERE', // REQUIRED
  throwOnLimit: false, // Don't throw error after retries
  timeout: 15000, // 15 second timeout
  maxRetries: 3, // Retry up to 3 times on rate limit
  retryDelay: 1000 // Base delay between retries
});

// Check a single number (with automatic retries)
const result = await checker.checkNumber('+1234567890');
console.log(result);

Dual Rate Limiting System

The system automatically handles two types of rate limits extracted from API headers:

Window Rate Limit (Short-term)

• Limit: 5 requests per window
• Headers: x-ratelimit-limit, x-ratelimit-remaining, x-ratelimit-reset

Monthly Rate Limit (Long-term)

• Limit: 5000 requests per month
• Headers: x-ratelimit-requests-limit, x-ratelimit-requests-remaining, x-ratelimit-requests-reset

const checker = new WhatsAppChecker({ apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY' });

// Monitor current status for both limits
const rateLimitInfo = checker.getRateLimitInfo();
if (rateLimitInfo) {
  console.log('Window Rate Limit:');
  console.log(`  Used: ${rateLimitInfo.used}/${rateLimitInfo.limit}`);
  console.log(`  Remaining: ${rateLimitInfo.remaining}`);
  
  console.log('Monthly Rate Limit:');
  console.log(`  Used: ${rateLimitInfo.monthlyUsed}/${rateLimitInfo.monthlyLimit}`);
  console.log(`  Remaining: ${rateLimitInfo.monthlyRemaining}`);
}

// View current interval between requests (adapts automatically)
console.log(`Current interval: ${checker.getCurrentRateInterval()}ms`);

Bulk Verification with Advanced Options

const numbers = ['+1234567890', '+0987654321', '+1122334455'];

const bulkResult = await checker.checkBulk(numbers, {
  onProgress: (completed, total, current) => {
    console.log(`Progress: ${completed}/${total}`);
    
    if (current.data && !('error' in current.data)) {
      const data = current.data as any;
      console.log(`✅ ${current.number}: WhatsApp Contact: ${data.isWAContact}`);
    } else {
      console.log(`❌ ${current.number}: Error`);
    }
  },
  onRateLimit: (rateLimitInfo) => {
    console.log('Rate limit detected:');
    console.log(`  Window: ${rateLimitInfo.used}/${rateLimitInfo.limit}`);
    console.log(`  Monthly: ${rateLimitInfo.monthlyUsed}/${rateLimitInfo.monthlyLimit}`);
  },
  stopOnError: false
});

console.log('Summary:', bulkResult.summary);

Advanced Configuration

const checker = new WhatsAppChecker({
  apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY', // REQUIRED
  throwOnLimit: true, // Throw RateLimitError after all retries
  timeout: 15000,
  maxRetries: 5, // Up to 5 retries on rate limit
  retryDelay: 2000, // 2 second base delay (with exponential backoff)
  baseURL: 'https://whatsapp-data1.p.rapidapi.com' // Custom URL
});

try {
  const result = await checker.checkNumber('+1234567890');
} catch (error) {
  if (error.name === 'RateLimitError') {
    console.log('Rate limit exhausted after retries:', error.rateLimitInfo);
  }
}

API Reference

WhatsAppChecker

Constructor

new WhatsAppChecker(config: WhatsAppCheckerConfig)

Configuration

interface WhatsAppCheckerConfig {
  apiKey: string;              // Your RapidAPI key (REQUIRED)
  baseURL?: string;            // API base URL
  throwOnLimit?: boolean;      // Throw error after retries (default: false)
  timeout?: number;            // Timeout in ms (default: 10000)
  maxRetries?: number;         // Max retries on rate limit (default: 3)
  retryDelay?: number;         // Base delay between retries in ms (default: 1000)
}

Methods

checkNumber(number: string): Promise<CheckResult>

Verifies a single WhatsApp number with automatic retries and phone validation.

checkBulk(numbers: string[], options?: BulkCheckOptions): Promise<BulkCheckResult>

Verifies multiple numbers with advanced options and progress tracking.

getRateLimitInfo(): RateLimitInfo | null

Gets current rate limit information extracted from API headers (both window and monthly).

getCurrentRateInterval(): number

Gets current interval between requests (adapts dynamically based on rate limits).

getQueueLength(): number

Gets number of pending requests in queue.

clearQueue(): void

Clears pending request queue.

getLastResponseHeaders(): any

Gets the last response headers for debugging purposes.

Response Types

CheckResult

interface CheckResult {
  number: string;
  data: WhatsappPersonResponse | WhatsappBusinessResponse | { error: string; success: null } | null;
  error?: string;
  rateLimitInfo?: RateLimitInfo;
}

RateLimitInfo (Dual Rate Limits)

interface RateLimitInfo {
  // Window rate limit (short-term)
  remaining: number;           // From x-ratelimit-remaining
  limit: number;              // From x-ratelimit-limit
  reset: number;              // From x-ratelimit-reset (timestamp)
  used: number;               // Calculated: limit - remaining
  
  // Monthly rate limit (long-term)
  monthlyRemaining: number;    // From x-ratelimit-requests-remaining
  monthlyLimit: number;        // From x-ratelimit-requests-limit
  monthlyReset: number;        // From x-ratelimit-requests-reset (timestamp)
  monthlyUsed: number;         // Calculated: monthlyLimit - monthlyRemaining
}

WhatsApp API Response Types

Personal Account Response

interface WhatsappPersonResponse {
  _id: string;
  number: string;
  about: string;
  countryCode: string;
  isBlocked: boolean;
  isBusiness: boolean;
  isEnterprise: boolean;
  isGroup: boolean;
  isMe: boolean;
  isMyContact: boolean;
  isUser: boolean;
  isWAContact: boolean;       // Main indicator: Has WhatsApp
  name: string;
  phone: string;
  profilePic: string;
  pushname: string;
  shortName: string;
  type: string;
  // ... other fields
}

Business Account Response

interface WhatsappBusinessResponse {
  number: string;
  isBusiness: boolean;
  isEnterprise: boolean;
  isUser: boolean;
  isWAContact: boolean;       // Main indicator: Has WhatsApp
  name: string;
  shortName: string;
  verifiedLevel: number;
  verifiedName: string;
  countryCode: string;
  phone: string;
  businessProfile: BusinessProfile;
  // ... other fields
}

BulkCheckOptions

interface BulkCheckOptions {
  onProgress?: (completed: number, total: number, current: CheckResult) => void;
  onRateLimit?: (info: RateLimitInfo) => void;
  stopOnError?: boolean;
  maxRetries?: number;
}

BulkCheckResult

interface BulkCheckResult {
  results: CheckResult[];
  summary: {
    total: number;
    successful: number;
    failed: number;
    rateLimited: number;
  };
  rateLimitInfo?: RateLimitInfo;
}

Error Handling and Retries

RateLimitError with Automatic Retries

const checker = new WhatsAppChecker({
  apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY',
  maxRetries: 3,
  throwOnLimit: true
});

try {
  const result = await checker.checkNumber('+1234567890');
} catch (error) {
  if (error instanceof RateLimitError) {
    console.log('Rate limit exhausted after 3 retries');
    console.log('Limit info:', error.rateLimitInfo);
    console.log('Window reset:', new Date(error.rateLimitInfo.reset * 1000));
    console.log('Monthly reset:', new Date(error.rateLimitInfo.monthlyReset * 1000));
  }
}

Retry Strategy

1. First attempt: Normal request
2. Rate limit detected: Extract info from headers
3. Calculate delay: Use reset time or exponential backoff
4. Retry: Up to maxRetries times
5. Fail or continue: Based on throwOnLimit setting

Window vs Monthly Handling:

• Window limit hit: Short retry delays, waits for window reset
• Monthly limit hit: Longer exponential backoff, doesn't wait for monthly reset

Best Practices

1. API Key: Always provide a valid API key
2. Rate Limiting: Trust the dynamic system, don't configure manual limits
3. Retries: Configure maxRetries based on your needs (3-5 recommended)
4. Monitoring: Use getRateLimitInfo() to monitor status
5. Bulk Operations: Use progress callbacks for user interfaces
6. Phone Format: Numbers can be with or without + prefix, the library handles formatting
7. Error Handling: Check for both API errors and request failures

Migration from Previous Version

If you were using the previous version with manual rateLimit:

// BEFORE (v1.0.0)
const checker = new WhatsAppChecker({
  apiKey: 'key',
  rateLimit: 2 // Manual configuration
});

// NOW (v1.1.0+)
const checker = new WhatsAppChecker({
  apiKey: 'key', // REQUIRED
  maxRetries: 3, // New: automatic retries
  retryDelay: 1000 // New: delay between retries
  // rateLimit is now extracted automatically from headers
  // Supports both window and monthly limits
});

Testing

Test Scripts

The library includes test scripts to validate functionality:

Single Number Test

# Test a single number
npm run test-api <API_KEY> <PHONE_NUMBER> [--verbose]

# Examples
npm run test-api "8ecfc15d5dmsh..." "+1234567890"
npm run test-api "8ecfc15d5dmsh..." "+59898297150" --verbose

Bulk Test (Multiple Numbers)

# Test multiple numbers
npm run test-bulk <API_KEY> <PHONE_1> [PHONE_2] [...] [--verbose] [--stop-on-error]

# Examples
npm run test-bulk "8ecfc15d5dmsh..." "+1234567890" "+0987654321" "+1122334455"
npm run test-bulk "8ecfc15d5dmsh..." "+1234567890" "+0987654321" --verbose
npm run test-bulk "8ecfc15d5dmsh..." "+1234567890" "+0987654321" --stop-on-error --verbose

Available flags:

• --verbose, -v: Shows detailed information including rate limit headers
• --stop-on-error: Stops processing on first error

Bulk test displays:

• ✅ Real-time progress for each number
• 📊 Detailed rate limit information (window and monthly)
• 📈 Final success/error statistics
• ⏱️ Total duration and request intervals
• 🚨 Rate limit alerts

Complete Examples

See:

• examples.ts - Basic and advanced examples
• example-env.ts - Usage with environment variables

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Add tests for new functionality
4. Submit a pull request

License

MIT