WhatsApp Daily Messaging Limits and Tiers Explained

In this article:

Daily Messaging Limits and Tiers
How to Move to a Higher Tier
Best Practices for Scaling up to Higher Tiers

Daily Messaging Limits and Tiers

WhatsApp implements a limit on the number of recipients you can start new conversations with within a 24-hour period. Please note this is based on the number of hours and not the calendar date.

There are 5 tiers of capacity limits:

Tier 0: Your business may initiate conversations with up to 250 unique users per 24 hours. All new WhatsApp numbers begin here and remain in this tier until the Meta Business Manager is verified.
Tier 1: Once your business is approved by Meta, you will automatically be upgraded to this tier. You can then start conversations with 1,000 users per 24 hours
Tier 2: 10,000 users per 24 hours
Tier 3: 100,000 users per 24 hours
Tier 4: Unlimited number of users

These messaging limits only apply to business-initiated conversations and do not apply to user-initiated conversations. For example, if a user sends you a message and you respond, that user does not count towards the limit.

These limits are based on the number of unique conversation sessions, not the number of messages sent.

How to Move to a Higher Tier

In order to move to a higher tier of capacity you must ensure:

Your number quality is not low. This quality rating is determined by Meta. The rating is not visible in GymSales, but your GymSales contacts can help you understand your quality rating.
Additionally, within a consecutive 7-day period, you must start a sum total of conversations with at least half the number of customers as your current messaging limit. This regards the total number of conversations started in a single 7-day period.

Once you reach the threshold number of conversations in order to be upgraded (at least half of your Tier’s current limit), you will be upgraded to the next Tier within 24 hours.

For example, to move from Tier 2 (10,000 conversations) to Tier 3 (100,000 conversations):

Your sender’s quality rating is Medium or higher.
Your business must initiate at least 5,000 conversations within a period of 7 consecutive days (this 5K can be spaced throughout the week).

Then, to move from Tier 3 (100,000 conversations) to Tier 4 (unlimited conversations):

You must retain a quality rating that is Medium or higher.
You must initiate at least 50,000 conversations within a period of 7 consecutive days (this 50K can be spaced throughout the week).

Due to these requirements, it will take at least 7 days to move from Tier 1 to Tier 4. More often it will take a business 4-6 weeks to reach Tier 4 (unlimited). You should plan on gradually rolling out WhatsApp to a large number of end users over the course of a week at minimum.

Messaging limits are automatically increased by WhatsApp; limits can be decreased if your quality rating decreases. This may happen if users are blocking or reporting your messages in WhatsApp. For privacy reasons, WhatsApp does not return data to show you which users block or report your messages, but they do track this to determine your quality rating.

When working to move up tiers, consider some of the following best practices. First, make sure you understand your current tier and quality rating before you start. Your business’s tier and rating are not visible in GymSales, but your GymSales contacts can access this information from our service provider to keep you informed.

Best Practices for Scaling up to Higher Tiers

If your quality rating is low, you need to improve that first and foremost.

WhatsApp determines your sender’s quality based on a few factors, including the frequency rate of "report spam" and "block" responses your messages receive.

Not only can a low quality rating keep your number from moving to a higher messaging rate tier, in some cases it can cause it to be downgraded to a lower rate tier.

In order to improve and maintain high quality for your sender, WhatsApp recommends the following:

Ensure your messages follow the WhatsApp Business Policy
Only send messages to users who have opted into receiving WhatsApp messages from your business.
Messages should be personalized and useful. Avoid sending vague or open-ended welcome or introductory messages that don’t provide users value.
Keep an eye on your messaging frequency; don't send users too many messages in a day. Be thoughtful about any informational messages, ensuring that content is helpful and length is reasonable.

Try distributing your conversations over the course of a week as needed in order to hit the minimum required to move up to the next tier. For instance, if you are in Tier 3 (100K conversations/day), you just need to initiate 50K conversations in total for the week in order to move up to Tier 4 (unlimited).

Try to send messages consistently over time to scale up. Bulk WhatsApp Messages make it easy to schedule Templated WhatsApp messages for initiating conversations into the future. Just make sure you use a variety of Filters on the People tab to build unique segments so you aren’t messaging the same group of people over and over; remember that the WhatsApp messaging Tiers are based on the number of unique conversations, not the number of messages; so if you are messaging people that are already in an active conversation with your business, this will not help you toward increasing your limit.

Think about your audience when you are working to move up Tiers. As we know, having recipients report or block a number will decrease its quality, so consider sending relevant, personalized messages to those who you have communicated with in the past to mitigate the risk of being blocked or reported.