C++ templates are not expanded before type checking. Template instantiation is type driven. In fact you can even conditionally expand a template on whether an arbitrary expression typechecks. You wouldn't be able to do it if templates were a different phase.

Only early extremely non conforming compilers had macro-like template expansion.

Edit: although calling templates type level macros wouldn't be completely wrong.

Edit2: a better definition is that templates are type level functions: they take compile time values, types and other type functions and return values, types and type level functions.