Messaging limits determine how many unique WhatsApp contacts can be reached by your business per day. This includes new and existing contacts. The messaging limit does not limit the number of messages your business can send, just the number of contacts you are trying to reach. It also does not apply to messages sent in response to a contact-initiated message within a 24-hour period.
💡 Before sending mass messages or broadcasting, make sure your sending limit corresponds to the number of contacts you want to message.
There are four messaging tiers:
- Tier 1: Messages can be sent to 1,000 unique contacts within 24 hours.
- Tier 2: Messages can be sent to 10,000 unique contacts within 24 hours.
- Tier 3: Messages can be sent to 100,000 unique contacts within 24 hours.
- Tier 4: Messages can be sent to an unlimited number of unique contacts within 24 hours.
Your Messaging Limit can be viewed in Business Manager → Business Settings → WhatsApp Accounts → Settings → WhatsApp Manager → Phone Numbers. Here, you'll find the Messaging Limit listed for each phone number:
How to upgrade sending limits
You are automatically upgraded to a higher tier based on the volume and quality of the messages you send.
A business’s phone number is upgraded to the next tier if:
- It maintains a quality rating above 'low',
- It reaches its current messaging limit with unique contacts within a 7-day period.
Once these criteria are met, the business may be moved to the next tier. This upgrade typically occurs after consistent performance against these benchmarks.
Quality rating
Each phone number connected to the WhatsApp Business API is assigned its own quality rating. The quality rating for your WhatsApp business phone number is determined based on the most recent messages sent over the past seven days. This rating is influenced by feedback from your contacts, including instances where your number has been blocked or reported for issues during that period.
Your Quality Rating can be viewed in Business Manager → Business Settings → WhatsApp Accounts → Settings → WhatsApp Manager → Phone Numbers. Here, you will see the Quality Rating for each registered phone number:
There are three quality states for phone numbers using WhatsApp Business API:
- Green: High quality
- Yellow: Medium quality
- Red: Low quality
If your quality rating drops to a low state or your phone number's status changes, you will receive a notification in the Business Manager and possibly an email as a warning. Subsequently, your status may change to either Flagged or Restricted.
Status
Your phone number's status can be viewed in Business Manager → Business Settings → WhatsApp Accounts → Settings → WhatsApp Manager → Phone Numbers. Here, you will see the Status for each registered phone number:
- Flagged status: This occurs if your quality rating is low. You cannot upgrade your messaging limit tiers while in this state. If your message quality improves to a high or medium state and is maintained for seven days, your status will revert to Connected.
- Restricted status: This happens when you reach your messaging limit. In this phase, you cannot send any new messages until the 24-hour window resets, although you can still respond to messages initiated by contacts.
💡 If the quality does not improve, your phone number will still return to a Connected status after a certain period, but it may be placed in a lower messaging tier.
How to improve the quality rating
To improve your quality rating:
- Review any templates added by your business in the last seven days to identify any that may be causing issues.
- Check that all messages you send via Live Chat, automations, and Broadcasts comply with WhatsApp policies.
- Check if your contacts have opted in for any recent template topics. For example, if contacts have only opted in for purchase receipts, sending them account updates via the API could lead to negative responses, as they did not consent to this type of communication.
For more information, please refer to the Meta’s article Quality Rating and Messaging Limits.