WhatsApp quality rating and messaging limits: how the tiers work, what drops the rating, and how to keep it green
250, 1,000, 10,000, 100,000, unlimited — how a number moves up, why it stops, what blocks and reports do to the rating, and the five habits that keep it green. Limits are per Business portfolio since late 2025.
Rates and limits verified against Meta's published pricing on 19 September 2026 · Meta's page
Your WhatsApp number has a quality rating — green, yellow or red — set by how customers react to your messages in the last seven days, and a messaging limit — 250, 1,000, 10,000, 100,000 or unlimited business-initiated conversations a day — that rises as you send at volume with a green rating. Blocks and reports lower the rating; a red rating stops the limit rising and can pause templates. Consent and a working STOP are the whole game.
On this page
Two numbers Meta keeps on you
Open WhatsApp Manager and every number shows a quality rating and a messaging limit. The rating is what customers think of your messages; the limit is how many people you may start conversations with in a day. They move together: a good rating earns a higher limit, a bad one freezes it or pauses your templates. Neither counts the customers who wrote to you first — a reply is never limited.
The quality rating
| Rating | What it means | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Green — high | Few blocks or reports over the last seven days | The limit can rise |
| Yellow — medium | Blocks and reports are rising | A warning; the limit does not rise |
| Red — low | Many blocks or reports | The limit cannot rise; if it stays red, templates are paused and the number can be restricted |
The signals are the customer's: blocking the number, reporting a message as spam, and the reason they give when they do. Meta also weighs how templates perform — a template that gets reported is paused on its own for three hours, then six, then disabled, whatever the number's rating.
The messaging limit
| Tier | Business-initiated conversations in a rolling 24 hours | How you get there |
|---|---|---|
| Unverified | 250 | A new number, before business verification |
| Tier 1 | 1,000 | Business verification approved |
| Tier 2 | 10,000 | Used at least half of tier 1 in the last seven days, rating not red |
| Tier 3 | 100,000 | Same, from tier 2 |
| Unlimited | No cap | Same, from tier 3 |
Meta re-evaluates the tier automatically, several times a day. Since late 2025 the limit is set per Business portfolio rather than per number, so a second number does not start over. A red rating does not drop the tier on its own any more, but it stops it rising, and a policy violation can restrict the number outright.
What lowers the rating, in order
- Messaging people who did not agree to it. The single largest cause. A purchased list, a scraped list, a list from another product: the blocks arrive in the first hour.
- Marketing that is too frequent. Three messages a week to the same person is a block by the second week.
- A STOP that does not work. A person who replied STOP and got another message reports the next one.
- Templates that mislead. A utility category on a promotion, a "your order" subject on a sale.
- Bad timing. A broadcast at 11 pm gets blocked more than the same one at 11 am.
Keeping it green
- Consent is recorded, per person, with a source and a time — and checked before every send, not once at import.
- STOP works in every language the customer might use, immediately, and suppresses the person across every campaign.
- Marketing goes only to people who asked, no more than once a week, and every message ends with the way out.
- Templates are what they say they are. The template guide has the categories.
- Watch the rating weekly; a move to yellow is a week's warning.
In Linkubit
Every outbound message goes through one gate that checks consent, suppression and the channel's rules before it leaves — campaigns, the assistant's replies, reminders. A STOP in any language suppresses the person everywhere in the same second. This is not a setting; it is the only path a message can take.
How do I increase my WhatsApp messaging limit?
Verify the business (250 → 1,000), then send to at least half your current limit within seven days while keeping the rating green. Meta promotes the tier on its own; there is no form.
How long does a red quality rating last?
The rating is over the last seven days, so it recovers a week after the cause stops. Paused templates unpause on their own schedule; a restricted number needs Meta's review.
Do replies count towards the limit?
No. Only conversations you start count. Answering a thousand customers who wrote to you costs nothing against the limit.
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