WhatsApp messaging limits: how many people you can reach a day.

Three limits, not one

Bulk messaging on the API means sending approved templates — they are the only messages allowed outside the 24-hour customer service window (see WhatsApp message templates) — and every send to a new person counts against the first limit.

• The messaging limit: the number of unique WhatsApp users your business can deliver messages to outside a customer service window, in a moving 24 hours. This is the limit people mean by “broadcast limit”.
• Throughput: how many messages a second one phone number can send and receive.
• The per-user marketing limit: how many marketing templates one person receives from all businesses, which WhatsApp adapts to that person's engagement.

Shared by every number of the portfolio

Since 7 October 2025, Meta sets the limit on the business portfolio rather than on each phone number, and all the numbers of the portfolio share it. A new number gets the portfolio's limit at once, but one number can also use up the capacity of all the others in a day. Two changes came with it: a portfolio that meets the criteria moves up one tier within 6 hours (24 hours before), and a drop in a number's quality rating no longer lowers its limit — the old “Flagged” state no longer exists.

Messages sent inside a customer service window — replies to a customer who wrote in the last 24 hours — do not count against the limit. An agent that answers customers who write first is not limited by it; a campaign is.

How to raise the limit

1. Verify the business in Meta's Business Verification. It is one of the three scaling paths to 2,000 and, with an approved display name, it also lifts the template limit from 250 to 6,000 per account.
2. Send templates people want. Above 2,000, Meta looks at the quality of your messages across all numbers and templates. Opt-in, clear wording and an easy opt-out are what keep it high.
3. Use your limit. Automatic scaling requires that you used at least half of your current limit in the last 7 days: a portfolio that never sends will not move up.
4. Watch the alerts. If Meta denies the move to 2,000, it sends an alert telling you which path to take instead, such as verifying your identity.

Throughput: messages per second

Each registered number can send up to 80 messages per second by default, counting inbound and outbound messages; a number shared between the WhatsApp Business app and the API is fixed at 20. Meta upgrades a number to 1,000 messages per second, at no cost, when its portfolio has an unlimited messaging limit, the number messaged at least 100,000 unique users outside service windows in 24 hours, and its quality rating is Medium or higher. Above the allowed rate, the API answers with error 130429.

The per-user marketing limit

WhatsApp may limit the number of marketing templates a person receives from any business when that person is less likely to engage — it looks at their recent marketing read rate and how many messages they have in their inbox. A message that is not delivered for this reason fails with error 131049; Meta asks businesses to wait at least 24 hours before resending, and blocks repeated retries. If the person replies, a customer service window opens and marketing messages inside it do not count.

Meta's documentation also states that WhatsApp does not currently deliver marketing templates to users with United States phone numbers.

Pacing and quality

A new marketing template may be paced: Meta delivers it to a first group, holds the rest until it sees how people react, then sends or drops the held messages. A template with recurring negative feedback is paused. Meta also requires opt-in before messaging anyone: the person must have given their number and agreed to receive messages from your business, by name. Low quality for a sustained period leads Meta to rate-limit the business.

How to send in bulk without hurting the number

• Opt-in in the customer record. Store when and how each person agreed, by message type, before any campaign.
• Batches, not blasts. Send a new template to a small first batch, then the rest once its quality rating is known.
• Separate utility from marketing. Confirmations and reminders go as utility templates; offers go only to people who opted in to offers.
• Handle the errors. On 130429, slow the queue down; on 131049, retry after 24 hours, once.