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WhatsApp quality rating and messaging limits
Meta watches how customers react to your WhatsApp messages. That reaction shapes your quality rating, decides whether your templates keep running and affects how fast your messaging limits grow. This guide explains WhatsApp quality rating and messaging limits as Meta documents them today.
How Meta measures message quality
Meta bases message quality on how WhatsApp users received your messages over the past seven days, with recent days weighted more. The signals are user feedback: blocks, reports, mutes, archives and the reasons people give when they block you. Numbers with high traffic can see their quality change within minutes.
You can see your phone number's status, quality rating and messaging limit in WhatsApp Manager, under Account tools, Phone numbers.
Template quality ratings
| Rating | In WhatsApp Manager | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Green | Active - High quality | Little or no negative feedback. The template can be sent. |
| Yellow | Active - Medium quality | Negative feedback from several users or low read rates. It may soon be paused. |
| Red | Active - Low quality | Negative feedback or low read rates. It can be sent but is in danger of being paused or disabled. |
| Unknown | Active - Quality pending | New template with no feedback yet. It can be sent. |
When templates are paused
A template that reaches the lowest rating is paused automatically: for 3 hours the first time, 6 hours the second time, and it is disabled the third time. A paused template cannot be sent, and you are not charged for attempts. If a business keeps sending low-quality templates, the phone number itself may eventually be affected.
WhatsApp messaging limits
A messaging limit is the number of unique WhatsApp users your business can deliver messages to outside a customer service window in a moving 24-hour period. Replies inside an open window do not count.
| Limit | How you get there |
|---|---|
| 250 | Starting limit of a new business portfolio |
| 2,000 | Complete a scaling path (below) |
| 10,000 | Automatic scaling |
| 100,000 | Automatic scaling |
| Unlimited | Automatic scaling |
How to raise your messaging limit
Reach 2,000 with a scaling path
Verify your business with Meta, have your partner verify it if one onboarded you, or deliver 2,000 template messages outside service windows to unique users within 30 days using high-quality templates.
Let automatic scaling work
From 2,000, Meta raises your limit by one level within 6 hours when you send high-quality messages across all numbers and templates and used at least half of your current limit in the last 7 days.
Share the limit wisely
Since 7 October 2025 limits are set per business portfolio, not per number. All numbers in the portfolio share one limit, so one busy number can use it all.
How to keep a high quality rating
- Only message people who opted in to hear from your business.
- Make messages personal and useful. Avoid open-ended welcome messages.
- Do not send too many messages a day to the same person.
- Give an easy way to opt out of marketing.
- Pause a campaign if a template turns yellow and find out why.
- Keep marketing and utility separate, so order updates are not seen as ads.
Per-user marketing limits
Separately, WhatsApp may limit how many marketing templates one person receives from all businesses when that person is less likely to engage. Those messages fail with error 131049; Meta advises waiting at least 24 hours before retrying. These per-user limits are not active for business numbers in, or users in, the EEA, the United Kingdom, Japan or South Korea.
Tracking quality in BelloSend
BelloSend analytics show delivery, read and failure status for messages and campaigns, along with Meta account health, so you can spot a falling read rate before Meta pauses a template.
Facts checked on 2026-10-05. https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/messages/send-messages · https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/templates/template-quality · https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/templates/template-pausing · https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/messaging-limits · https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/upcoming-messaging-limits-changes · https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/templates/marketing-templates/per-user-limits
Frequently asked questions
What lowers my WhatsApp quality rating?
Negative user feedback over the last seven days: blocks, reports, mutes, archives and block reasons. Low read rates also hurt template quality.
Is the messaging limit per phone number?
No. Since 7 October 2025 Meta sets it per business portfolio, and all numbers in the portfolio share it.
Do replies to customers count toward the limit?
No. Only messages delivered outside a customer service window to unique users count.
How do I get from 250 to 2,000?
Complete Meta Business Verification, or deliver 2,000 messages outside service windows to unique users in 30 days with high-quality templates.
Will a lower quality rating cut my limit?
Meta's notes on the October 2025 change say a drop in phone number quality no longer downgrades the messaging limit. Low quality still blocks automatic scaling and can get templates paused.