Create a WeChat Official Account: setup guide (2026)

Want customers in China, or Chinese-speaking customers elsewhere, to message your business on WeChat? You need to create a WeChat Official Account.

For a company outside mainland China, there is one account type on offer, plus a verification step that needs documents and a fee. Registering is only the first job.

Once the account is live, customers can message you at any hour, so plan who answers and how fast.

This guide takes you from choosing the account type to registering, verifying and connecting it. Tencent can change its rules, so each rule below says where it comes from.

What is a WeChat Official Account?

A WeChat Official Account is a business account inside WeChat. A company uses it to publish content, message followers and connect its own tools. Customers follow the account, read what it publishes and can message it. Brands manage it on the WeChat Official Accounts Platform.

Why use WeChat for business?

Tencent reported 1.439 billion combined monthly active users for Weixin and WeChat at 30 Jun 2026, up 2% on a year earlier. If your customers are in China, or are Chinese-speaking customers elsewhere, many of them will already use it.

What is the difference between Weixin and WeChat?

WeChat's privacy policy (updated 6 Aug 2026) names WeChat International Pte. Ltd., a Singapore company, as the data controller for WeChat users outside the EEA, UK, Switzerland and mainland China. Weixin users fall under separate Weixin terms.

Types of WeChat Official Accounts

There are two account types for brands. Subscription Accounts are built for publishing often. Service Accounts (服务号) are built for customer service and sales. Tencent's help pages say accounts registered outside mainland China currently support only the Service Account type.

Tencent's developer docs set the mass-message limits. On the registration page, Tencent labels the Subscription type "Official Accounts" and describes it as best suited to media and individual publishers.

Subscription Account

A Subscription Account suits frequent publishing. Tencent's docs give a general Subscription Account one mass message a day from the platform website. SleekFlow cannot connect to it. Pick this type only if publishing content is your main goal.

Service Account

A Service Account is built for customer service and sales. Tencent's docs say it can send four mass messages a calendar month, and each user can receive at most four a month.

What is WeCom?

WeCom (企业微信) is Tencent's work app, where staff can add customers' WeChat accounts as contacts and chat with them one to one or in groups, according to Tencent's WeCom help page. SleekFlow's Help Center says Enterprise WeChat isn't supported, so you can't connect it.

Which WeChat Official Account should you choose?

If your business is registered outside mainland China, choose a Service Account. Tencent offers overseas entities only that type, and SleekFlow's Help Center says SleekFlow connects to Service Accounts only. A Subscription Account suits a business that mainly wants to publish content, but SleekFlow cannot connect to it.

Get started with a verified WeChat Official Account

Creating and verifying a WeChat Official Account takes business documents and a verification fee. Tencent changes its screens often, so follow the platform's own prompts at each step below.

Step 1. Create the account

Go to the WeChat Official Accounts Platform, click Sign Up in the top right corner, and choose Service Account as the type. Then select the region where your business is registered. Tencent supports select regions only, so if yours is not listed, check back later.

Next, enter an avatar, an account name, a short description of what the account does, and the region you operate in. One overseas entity can register one Service Account, whether it is a company, sole proprietorship, school, government agency or other organization.

Step 2. Verify the account

After you register, you must verify the account, because it works normally only once Tencent approves it. Tencent's overseas verification FAQ lists a US$99 fee per application and 7 to 15 working days for review after you pay and submit complete documents.

In the platform, go to Official Account Settings, then Weixin Verification, then Enable. Tencent then walks you through 5 steps:

1. Agree to the agreement.

2. Give your company and contact details.

3. Confirm the account name, based on a custom name or a trademark name.

4. Confirm the invoice.

5. Pay the fee.

You can pay by WeChat Pay or by card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, JCB, Diners Club or UnionPay). The fee applies whether or not verification succeeds.

After you pay, the platform names the review agency and its phone number in the notification center. Keep the contact person's phone available, because the reviewer calls to confirm details.

Verification renews every year. Tencent says the yearly review costs US$99 each time, and the full company name cannot change at renewal unless the same company was renamed and you send proof.

What documents does Tencent ask for?

Tencent asks overseas entities for business registration, the contact person's ID, an application letter, an operation authorization letter, a phone or bank statement, and trademark proof if you name the account after a trademark. Each item has its own rules.

• Business registration: a company registration certificate or business license, as a photo or scan. Other entity types use their own founding or registration papers.

• Contact person ID: a color scan of both sides.

• Application letter: available in English, simplified Chinese or traditional Chinese.

• Operation authorization letter: available in the same three languages.

• Contact person phone bill: if you cannot provide one, use a stamped company office phone statement or a bank statement.

• Trademark proof: only if you name the account after a trademark.

Step 3. Connect WeChat to SleekFlow

To connect a verified Service Account, add the SleekFlow IP address for your data center to your WeChat IP whitelist, copy your App ID and App Secret from the WeChat Developers Platform, and add WeChat as a channel in SleekFlow.

1. On WeChat's Basic Configuration page, add the SleekFlow IP address for your data center to the IP whitelist.

2. On the WeChat Developers Platform, open the Service account page and copy your App ID and App Secret.

3. In SleekFlow, add WeChat as a channel and enter those details.

Follow the connection guide for the exact steps. It warns that your WeChat custom menu can become inaccessible on the platform after you connect, so finish the menu first.

Your WeChat conversations then arrive in the same shared inbox as your other channels.

The WeChat channel overview in the Help Center lists the limits that matter before you plan replies:

• One Service Account: you can connect one Service Account to a SleekFlow account.

• Customer first: businesses cannot start conversations, and you can send at most 5 messages in a 48-hour window after the customer's last message.

• Message types: you can send text, voice notes with a 16MB file limit, product messages, emojis and payment links (the payment feature must be on).

• What you can receive: text, voice notes and emojis. Location, contact messages, stickers and published articles aren't supported.

• Delivery ticks: one-to-one messages show a double tick once WeChat confirms delivery, and broadcasts show a single tick once sent, with no status for each recipient.

Flow Builder's send message action lists WeChat with a text message body, and the Help Center lists no AI replies for WeChat. It also says a feature it doesn't list isn't supported.

What should you read next?

Once your account is live, read our WeChat marketing guide for what to do with it. To see what an Official Account can do, read the top 5 WeChat Official Account features.

Let SleekFlow help with your WeChat Official Account application

If the forms and documents sound like more admin than you have time for, SleekFlow offers a one-stop WeChat application service. Ask the team what it covers, how long it takes and what it costs before you plan around it.

Want help with your WeChat Official Account? Talk to SleekFlow.

Want to outcompete your peers with SleekFlow's help?

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Tencent figure from its Q2 2026 results (30 Jun 2026). Registration, verification fee, review time and documents from Tencent Customer Service help pages, read 22 and 23 Oct 2026. Mass-message limits from Tencent's developer docs. Weixin and WeChat details from WeChat's privacy policy, updated 6 Aug 2026. Product limits from the SleekFlow Help Center WeChat articles, updated 13 Aug and 15 Oct 2026, and the Flow Builder article, updated 26 Aug 2026.

This article is for general information and is not legal advice. Registration rules, fees and requirements change and differ by market, so check Tencent's current guidance and ask local counsel before you act.