Conversation-based pricing has changed. See Pricing to learn how our new conversation-based pricing model works.

In addition, visibility of metric_types have changed effective July 1, 2023. Please see the Conversation Analytics table for more details.

Messaging Limits

Messaging limits determine the maximum number of business-initiated conversations you can initiate using each of your phone numbers in a rolling 24-hour period. A business-initiated conversation begins when the first template message is delivered to a customer and ends 24 hours later.

Business phone numbers without a connected status and an approved display name are limited to 250 business-initiated conversations in a rolling 24-hour period. This includes all business phone numbers of an unverified business, since these numbers cannot receive display name approval until the business is verified.

Business phone numbers with a connected status and approved display name can initiate conversations with the following number of unique customers in a rolling 24-hour period:

  • 1K unique customer
  • 10K unique customers
  • 100K unique customers
  • An unlimited number of unique customers

This amount starts at 1K unique customers and scales automatically based on phone number status, phone number quality rating, and how often you initiate conversations with unique customers.

Note that if you meet these requirements but your business phone number has a low quality rating, you may continue to be limited to 250 business-initiated conversations until its quality rating improves. Alternatively, you can open a direct support ticket and request a messaging tier upgrade (Ask a Question > WABiz: Phone Number & Registration > Request type > Request a Messaging Tier Upgrade).

If you reach your messaging limit, you can initiate more conversations as soon as one or more active conversations end. For example:

Checking Your Limit

You can check your current messaging limits in the WhatsApp Manager > Overview Dashboard > Insights tab. The panel depicted below will only show your current limit if your messaging limit has increased from the default limit of 250.

Increasing Your Limit

Each time you initiate a new conversation with a unique customer we will determine if your limit should be increased. This determination is based on the following criteria:

If you meet all conditions, we will increase your messaging limit by one level in 24 hours.

Examples

Messaging limit increased from 1K to 10K in 2 days:

Day 1Day 2Day 3Day 4Day 5

Business-initiated conversations (new)

500

500

Business-initiated conversations in last 7 days

500*

1,000

Messaging limit

1K

10K

* If the 500th conversation is initiated at 3pm (for example), the messaging limit is increased at 3pm the following day (i.e. 24 hours later).

Messaging limit increased from 1K to 10K in 4 days:

Day 1Day 2Day 3Day 4Day 5

Business-initiated conversations (new)

100

200

200

300

Business-initiated conversations in last 7 days

100

300

500*

800

Messaging limit

1K

1K

1K

10K

* If the 500th conversation is initiated at 7pm (for example), the messaging limit is increased at 7pm the following day (i.e. 24 hours later).

Decreasing Your Limit

Each time you initiate a new conversation with a unique customer we will check your phone number quality rating. If the rating has been Flagged for the last 7 days, we will immediately decrease your messaging limit by one level.

Quality Rating

Your quality rating is based on how messages have been received by recipients over the past seven days and is weighted by recency. It is determined by a combination of quality signals from conversations between businesses and users. Examples include user feedback signals like blocks, reports and the reasons users provide when they block a business.

Your business phone number's status, quality rating, and messaging limits are displayed in the WhatsApp Manager > Account tools > Phone numbers tab in WhatsApp Manager.

Note that it is normal for numbers with high traffic to experience quality changes within short intervals (even within minutes).

See About WhatsApp Business Account Message Quality Rating for more information about quality ratings.

Maintaining High Quality

  • Make sure messages follow the WhatsApp Business Policy and Commerce Policy.
  • Only send messages to users who have opted into receiving messages from your business.
  • Make the messages highly personalized and useful to users. Avoid sending open-ended welcome or introductory messages.
  • Be mindful of messaging frequency; avoid sending customers too many messages a day. Be thoughtful of informational messages, optimizing for content and length.