WhatsApp Message Limits: 3 Ways to Improve Your Quality Rating

Understanding the intricacies of the WhatsApp Messaging Limit & Quality Rating is essential if you’re looking to effectively use the WhatsApp Business API for customer communication. In this comprehensive guide, we delve into the critical aspects of WhatsApp’s messaging limits and how they impact your business’s ability to engage with customers. Additionally, we explore the significance of maintaining a high WhatsApp Quality Rating and the steps required to monitor and enhance it.

If you want to access WhatsApp Business Platform/API to communicate with your customers, you need to create a WhatsApp Business account (WABA). Meta lets you connect up to 2 phone numbers to your account and send 50 business-initiated messages to up to 50 unique customers in a rolling 24 hours. You can receive an unlimited number of user-initiated messages and your display name does not need to be approved at this point.

If you want to increase your messaging limits and connect more numbers to your account, you must verify your Facebook Business account and have your WhatsApp display name approved.

What is the WhatsApp Messaging Limit #

WhatsApp has four tiers of messaging limits for each phone number of a verified business. Every business starts at tier 1 and can be upgraded to higher tiers in sequence. Each tier has its own limit of business-initiated conversations. A conversation is a 24-hour period of time from when the first message of a business is delivered to a given customer, regardless of who started the chat.

All of the messages exchanged between your business and a customer in this period are associated with one conversation. Conversations can start in two ways:

• The business starts to chat with a customer by sending them a message (business-initiated conversation)
• The business sends the first reply to the first message of a customer (user-initiated conversation)

Businesses can initiate conversations with customers only by sending a WhatsApp message template. WhatsApp allows an unlimited number of user-initiated conversations at any given time.  Below is the number of business-initiated conversations allowed at each tier.

All businesses start with a 1k limit (tier 1). At each tier, if you reach your messaging limit, you can start more conversations as soon as one or more active conversations end. Here is an example:

Hour 0:

• The business sends 100 business-initiated messages to 100 unique customers.
• The business has a messaging limit of 1,000 business-initiated conversations.

By hour 12:

• The business has reached its limit of 1,000 business-initiated conversations.
• None of these conversations have ended, as 24 hours haven’t passed for any conversation.
• The business cannot start any new business-initiated conversations.
• Unlimited user-initiated conversations can still continue.

By hour 24:

• 900 of the conversations are still open.
• 100 conversations have ended.
• The business can initiate 100 new business-initiated messages to 100 unique customers.
• To start more conversations, the business must wait for at least one more business-initiated conversation to end.

How to Check for Messaging Limits #

1. Log in to your Facebook Business account.
2. Go to Business Settings. On the left side, under Accounts, click on WhatsApp accounts. Go to Settings and then WhatsApp Manager.

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1. On the left side, click on Overview and then Insights.

Factors Affecting Your Messaging Limit #

WhatsApp can increase, decrease, or keep your messaging limit unchanged based on three criteria:

Phone number quality rating #

Understanding how to check the quality rating on WhatsApp is crucial. WhatsApp decides your phone number quality rating based on the feedback it receives from your customers over the past seven days and weighs them by recency. Specifically, it looks at the blocks and reports you get from customers and why customers provide them. There are three quality ratings:

• Green: High quality
• Yellow: Medium quality
• Red: Low quality

If your quality rating becomes low, you’ll receive an email and notification in the Business Manager as a warning. Your quality rating is under the Phone Numbers tab in your WhatsApp Manager.

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Phone number status #

When your quality rating changes, your phone number status changes. There are three phone number statuses:

• Connected - When you have a medium to high-quality rating. You can send business-initiated messages within your messaging limit, and your limit can increase as described below.

• Flagged - If your quality rating becomes low, your phone number status changes from Connected to Flagged. Here, you cannot upgrade your messaging limit. If your quality rating becomes medium/high by the 7th day from when your status became Flagged, your status will become Connected again and you may upgrade your limit.

  If your quality rating doesn’t become high or medium by the 7th day, your status will return to Connected. However, your messaging limit will drop to the previous level; for example, if your current limit is 10k, your limit changes to 1k.

• Restricted - You see this status when you reach your messaging limit, regardless of your quality rating. With this status, you can’t send any business-initiated messages until at least one business-initiated conversation ends. You can still respond to all of your user-initiated messages.

Business messages sent in the past week #

If in the last seven days, you have initiated X or more conversations, where X is your current messaging limit divided by 2, your messaging limit upgrades to the next level automatically. This happens provided that your quality rating is medium or high and your phone number status is connected. If you send fewer than this number of messages, your messaging limit remains unchanged.

Here is an example of a business’s messaging limit increasing from 1k to 10k in 2 days:

A business starts with a 1k messaging limit in a rolling 24-hour. It maintains a medium to high-quality rating and the phone number status is connected. By the end of day one at 8:00 PM, it has sent 500 business-initiated messages to 500 unique customers. On day two at 8:00 PM (24 hours after the 500th message was sent), WhatsApp will automatically increase the messaging limit from 1k to 10k.

The business continues to maintain a medium or high-quality rating and sends half or more of its messaging limits (5k or more) by the 3rd day. As a result, the limit changes to 100k on the 4th day. If the 5,000th message was sent at 2:00 PM on day 3, the messaging limit changes to 100k at 2:00 PM on day 4 (24 hours after the 5,000th message was sent):

Increase your sender level #

The key to unlocking higher tiers lies in consistently maintaining a robust quality rating. This means ensuring that the majority of your customers are satisfied and engaged, minimizing instances of reports or blocks against your business.

To successfully ascend to the next tier, your business must adhere to these pivotal criteria:

Keep your quality score above medium #

A steadfast focus on maintaining, if not exceeding, a medium-quality score is crucial. This involves attentively managing customer interactions to foster positive experiences, reducing the likelihood of negative feedback.

Double the volume of your messages #

Aim to double the volume of your current daily messaging limit over the past week. This demonstrates active engagement and responsiveness to your customers, a vital aspect of enhancing your sender level.

Engage actively with customers #

Prioritize sending messages to customers who show signs of engagement. Communication should be targeted and relevant, avoiding sending messages to unresponsive or unengaged customers. This approach not only improves customer experience but also reinforces the positive standing of your quality score.

Best Practices to Maintain or Improve a High-Quality Rating #

There are a few things you need to have in mind to keep your high-quality rating. Here are some best practices to ensure you consistently achieve a high-quality rating:

1. Message only opt-in customers on WhatsApp #

Before sending a message to customers on WhatsApp, you must make sure to have received consent from them that they would like to receive messages from you. The opt-ins must meet the following criteria:

• It must clearly state that a person is opting in to receive messages from your business over WhatsApp
• It must clearly state your business’s name that a user is opting in to receive messages from

You can obtain the opt-in in a variety of ways. You can use SMS, your website, in a WhatsApp thread, by phone (using an interactive voice response (IVR) flow), or even in person or on paper.

WhatsApp does not enforce receiving opt-ins but strongly recommends it. It can greatly impact your quality rating as the customers who’ve given consent to receiving messages from you are less likely to block and report you.

2. Mind the context and timing #

If you want to start a conversation with your customers, you can only use WhatsApp message templates. You need to send the templates in the right context and at the right time.

Moreover, if you’re trying to get the customers to reply to a question or take a certain action like visiting your website, send them interactive message templates with buttons. Buttons help them reply to you easily by selecting an option or viewing your website with just a click.

3. Give customers an opt-out option #

To reduce the risk of getting blocked or reported, provide an opt-out option in your promotional messages. Customers can continue to receive service messages like order confirmation messages from you, but you shouldn’t send them promotional messages anymore.

Here are some tips for giving customers an excellent opt-out experience:

• Honor all opt-out requests: Make sure you only communicate with customers who opt-in to receive your messages and don’t send any promotional messages from any of your phone numbers after their opt-out.
• Send a confirmation message to those who opt out: Let them know you won’t send them any promotional messages.

You may choose to ask them for the reasons for opting out to improve your messaging and customer targeting. However, customers don’t have to give you feedback. You could also tell them how they could opt in again in case they’ve accidentally pressed the opt-out option, or if they change their mind later.

Carefully choose the messages that should include an opt-out option: Adding a marketing opt-out button to every message may be repetitive and even encourage customers to opt-out. Here are the scenarios WhatsApp suggests businesses include opt-out options:

1. The first promotional/marketing message a customer receives from your business.
2. The first message after a long period without marketing messages.

What is the New WhatsApp Per-User Messaging Limits #

WhatsApp is introducing new per-user messaging limits to improve the quality of interactions. Starting globally from May 23, 2024, these limits cap the total number of marketing messages a user can receive from all businesses combined, rather than from any individual business.

If a user exceeds this limit, additional messages won’t be delivered. The specific number of messages users can receive and the time frame for these messages are not disclosed to businesses and may be adjusted in the future.

Importance of new messaging limit update #

The introduction of these new messaging limits by WhatsApp is significant for several reasons:

1. Improved user experience

   By capping the number of marketing messages a user can receive, WhatsApp aims to reduce message overload, making sure that each communication is meaningful and engaging.

2. Encouraging quality over quantity

   Marketers are encouraged to prioritize the quality and relevance of their messages. With the new whatsapp limits, businesses need to focus on crafting impactful messages that resonate with their audience.

How to prepare for the new WhatsApp message limits #

To effectively adapt to WhatsApp’s new messaging limits, consider the following steps:

• Review marketing message templates: Tailor your content to align with audience preferences within the new constraints.
• Audit your audience: Clean up your lists by removing inactive or disengaged users.
• Check message template classifications: Differentiate between marketing and utility messages in your templates.
• Optimize messaging schedules: Modify how often you send out marketing messages to maintain high engagement levels.

Conclusion #

Understanding and effectively managing the WhatsApp Messaging Limit & WhatsApp Quality Rating are essential for businesses using WhatsApp as a key communication platform. Respecting WhatsApp’s messaging limits ensures that your business can engage with customers efficiently without encountering restrictions. Additionally, a strong focus on maintaining a high-quality rating is crucial for fostering positive customer relationships and enhancing your brand’s reputation on the platform.

By implementing strategic practices such as respecting customer preferences with opt-in and opt-out options, personalizing communications, and following WhatsApp’s guidelines, you can optimize your use of WhatsApp. This not only helps in staying within the WhatsApp messaging limit but also in achieving and maintaining a high WhatsApp quality rating.

Frequently Asked Questions #

About the author

Niloofar Kavousi

Niloofar focuses on marketing and partnerships at Rasayel. She has worked in startups and large enterprises and lived in Asia, the Middle East and Europe. When she’s not working, she enjoys socializing, doing reformer and getting lost in nature.

@Niloofar K on LinkedIn