WhatsApp Number Messaging Limits and Quality Rating

Know how the messaging limit and the quality rating of your WhatsApp phone number is determined by Meta.

Messaging limits

The messaging limit of your phone number determines the maximum number of business-initiated conversations that the phone number can initiate in a rolling 24-hour period. A business-initiated conversation begins when the first template message is delivered to an end customer and ends 24 hours later.

Unverified business accounts have a flat limit of 250 business-initiated conversations in a rolling 24 hour period.

The verified business accounts with business phone number with an approved display name can initiate conversations with 'unique customers' in a rolling 24-hour period as shown in the table.

Messaging LimitDescription
TIER_1KYou can start up to 1000 business initiated conversations within a 24 hour window.
TIER_10KYou can start up to 10,000 business initiated conversations within a 24 hour window.
TIER_100KYou can start up to 100000 business initiated conversations within a 24 hour window.
TIER_UNLIMITEDYou can start an unlimited number of business initiated conversations within a 24 hour window.

Increase the messaging limit

Each time you initiate a new conversation with a unique end customer, Meta will determine, if your messaging limit should be increased.

This criteria to increase your quality rating are:

  • Your phone number status is ‘Connected’
  • Your phone number quality rating is Medium or High
  • In the last 7 days, you have initiated ‘X’ or more conversations with unique end customers, where ‘X’ is your current messaging limit divided by 2.

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

Read the below examples (as given by Meta) to understand how the messaging limit of your phone number increases.

Example 1
Messaging limit increased from 1K to 10K in 2 days.

Day 1Day 2Day 3Day 4Day 5
Business-initiated conversations (new500500
Business-initiated conversations in last 7 days500*1000
Messaging limit1K10K

In this example, 500 or ‘X’ (1000)/2) i.e. (messaging limit/2) unique conversations are made within the first two days. If the 500th conversation is initiated at 3pm on Day 1, the messaging limit is increased at 3pm on Day 2 (24 hours later).

Example 2

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

Day 1Day 2Day 3Day 4Day 5
Business-initiated conversations (new100200200300
Business-initiated conversations in last 7 days100300500*800
Messaging limit1K1K1K10K

In this example, 500 or ‘X’ (1000)/2) i.e. (messaging limit/2) unique conversations are made on Day 3. If the 500th conversation is initiated at 7pm on Day 3, the messaging limit is increased at 7pm on Day 4 (24 hours later).

Decrease the messaging limit

Each time you initiate a new conversation with a unique end customer, Meta will check your phone number quality rating. If the rating has been ‘low’ for the last 7 days, then the messaging limit is immediately decreased by one level.

Quality rating

A phone number's quality rating is determined based on the recent messages(feedback) received from the end customers in the last 7 days. The quality is based on the combination of quality signals from the conversations between the businesses and the end customers. The examples include user feedback signals like blocks, reports and the reasons users provide when they block a business.
The quality rating is based on how the end customers have responded in the past seven days and also the recency of the response. The different types of responses from the end customers include blockages, the reason for blocking, reports and so on.

The different statuses a phone number quality rating are as follows:

  • Connected—With this status, you can send messages within your set messaging limit.
  • Flagged—This indicates the quality rating is 'low' and the messaging limit cannot be upgraded.
  • Restricted—This indicates that you have reached the maximum messaging limit, regardless of the quality rating.