Introduction

One of the most frequently asked questions is: how many customers can a business start a conversation with using message templates?

The question matters because every business wants to reach the largest possible audience with its campaigns, and Meta caps how many people you can reach in a day.

Messaging Limits

A messaging limit is the maximum number of unique WhatsApp user phone numbers you can deliver messages to, outside of a customer service window, within a moving 24-hour period.

Two consequences follow from that definition:

  • Sending several messages to the same person within the 24 hours counts once. The limit counts unique recipients, not messages.
  • Replies you send inside an open 24-hour customer service window do not count at all, because they are not outside a customer service window.

{warning} Messaging limits are calculated and set at the business portfolio level, and are shared by every business phone number in that portfolio. Adding more phone numbers to the same portfolio does not give you a larger allowance — the same limit is split across all of them.

A new business portfolio starts at 250 unique recipients per 24 hours. That number can be increased, gradually and under conditions.

{info} You can see your current messaging limit in WhatsApp Manager > Account tools > Messaging limits.

How to increase your messaging limit

Messaging limits can rise through the following levels:

  • 2,000 unique recipients per 24 hours (by completing a scaling path)
  • 10,000 (via automatic scaling)
  • 100,000 (via automatic scaling)
  • Unlimited (via automatic scaling)


Increasing the limit from 250 to 2K

A new portfolio is limited to 250 unique recipients in a moving 24-hour period. To reach the first level of 2,000, complete a scaling path — any one of the following is enough:


First: Business verification

Submit your business for Meta business verification. Once your business portfolio is verified, the limit is raised.

Second: Verification by a partner

Have a partner complete business verification on your behalf.

Third: 2,000 delivered messages in 30 days

Deliver 2,000 messages outside of customer service windows, to unique WhatsApp user phone numbers, within a moving 30-day period, using templates with a high quality rating.

{info} If you completed business verification or met the 2,000-in-30-days threshold and are still limited to 250, contact WhatsApp support to request a messaging level upgrade.


Automatic scaling

Once you are at 2,000, further increases happen automatically. Meta continuously checks two criteria:

  • Message quality: you are sending high-quality messages across all of your business phone numbers and templates. A low quality rating can hold a number back or bring it down.
  • Usage: in the last 7 days, your business has used at least half of your current messaging limit.

When both criteria are met, your portfolio's limit increases by one level within 6 hours.


Now consider the following examples. In each table, "recipients" means unique WhatsApp user phone numbers messaged outside a customer service window.

Example 1

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

Day One Two Three Four Five Six Seven
Unique recipients messaged 1000 1000
Total unique recipients in the last 7 days 10001 2000
Messaging limit 2000 10,000

    1. On day one the business reached half of its current limit (half of 2,000 is 1,000) while sending high-quality messages, so it qualified for the increase, which takes effect within 6 hours. ↩

Example 2

Messaging limit increased from 2K to 10K in 4 days:

Day One Two Three Four Five Six Seven
Unique recipients messaged 200 400 400 600
Total unique recipients in the last 7 days 200 600 10002 1600
Messaging limit 2000 2000 2000 10,000

    2. On day three the running 7-day total reached half of the current limit (half of 2,000 is 1,000), so the business qualified for the increase, which takes effect within 6 hours. ↩

Example 3

Messaging limit increased from 2K to unlimited:

Day One Two Three Four Five Six
Unique recipients messaged 1000 5,000 50,000
Messaging limit 2000 10,000 10,000 100,000 100,000 Unlimited

At every step Meta analyses your messaging quality to decide whether your activity warrants a higher limit, and either grants or withholds the increase on that basis.

High-Quality Messages

Here are some guidelines for sending high-quality messages:

  • Make sure your messages follow the WhatsApp Business messaging policy in terms of legal and business-related content.
  • Only message users who have opted in to receiving messages from your business.
  • Keep messages personalized and useful. Avoid open-ended welcome or introductory messages.
  • Be mindful of messaging frequency; avoid sending customers too many messages a day.