WhatsApp quality rating: how brands keep it healthy

What Meta measures

Every template has a quality rating based on usage, customer feedback and engagement; low ratings can lead to template pacing or pausing. Ratings are shown as green, yellow or red. Yellow and red mean negative feedback from multiple users or low read rates.

Messaging limits

New business portfolios start with a messaging limit of 250 people in a moving 24-hour period, which can rise to 2,000, 10,000, 100,000 and then unlimited as you send high-quality messages and use at least half of your limit in 7 days.

Your limit sets how many different people you can start conversations with in a rolling day. Quality affects whether it rises.

What lowers quality

• Messaging people who never opted in.
• Frequent promotions to your whole list.
• Messages that do not match what people signed up for.
• Templates with vague or misleading content.
• No easy way to opt out.

What keeps it high

• Utility messages people want: order confirmations, shipping and delivery updates.
• Clear opt-in wording that names your brand.
• Segmented campaigns sent to people likely to care.
• Honouring opt-outs immediately.
• Spacing marketing messages out.

A pre-campaign checklist

1. Check your current quality rating and messaging limit.
2. Check the template's own quality rating if it has been used before.
3. Confirm the segment only includes opted-in buyers.
4. Stagger large sends rather than sending to everyone at once.
5. Have someone watch replies and opt-outs for the first hour.

If your rating drops

1. Pause marketing campaigns for a few days.
2. Look at the last sends: which template and segment drew the blocks?
3. Keep sending utility messages, which buyers expect.
4. Rewrite or retire the template that caused it.
5. Restart campaigns with your most engaged segment.

Festive seasons

Festive weeks bring the most campaigns and the most blocks. Plan fewer, better-targeted messages, and keep a week of healthy, utility-led sending before the big launch.

New numbers

A brand-new number starts with the lowest messaging limit. Ramp up gradually with utility messages and small campaigns rather than blasting a large list on day one.

Templates have their own ratings

Each template is rated separately, so one poorly received campaign template can be paused while your order updates carry on. Retire templates that draw blocks, and write new ones rather than resending the same message to the same people.

Monitor, do not guess

Check quality and limits regularly, not only when something fails. Tools that check automatically and alert you give you time to act before a template is paused.