Messaging limits — what they are and how to increase them (250 → unlimited)

🔗 Connect your numberLevel: Beginner⏱ 8 min

🎯 Goal

Know how many customers you can message today, why campaigns stop at a limit, and how to raise it to unlimited.

🧰 What you need

A connected number

What the limit is

The messaging limit is how many unique people you can start conversations with, by sending a template outside the 24-hour customer service window, in a moving 24 hours.

Replies aren’t limited. When a customer writes to you, everything you send inside their open 24-hour window doesn’t count.
It counts people, not messages. Three templates to the same person in a day count once.
It belongs to your business portfolio, not to one number. Every number in the portfolio shares it, so one number can use up the whole allowance. (Meta made this change on 7 October 2025.)

Source: Meta: messaging limits, checked 29 October 2026.

The tiers

250people / 24 h
Where every new business portfolio starts.
2,000people / 24 h
After business verification, or 2,000 delivered template messages to unique people in 30 days with high-quality templates, then Meta’s quality check.
10,000people / 24 h
Automatic: high-quality messages and at least half your limit used in the last 7 days. Rises within 6 hours.
100,000people / 24 h
Automatic, same rule.
Unlimitedpeople / 24 h
Automatic, same rule.

Unique people you can start conversations with (templates outside the 24-hour window) in a rolling 24 hours, shared by every number in your business portfolio. Replies inside an open window are never limited.

Every new business portfolio starts at 250. A new number added to an existing portfolio gets the portfolio’s current limit.
250 → 2,000 happens through one of these paths, followed by Meta’s quality check:
1. Verify your business, or
2. send 2,000 delivered template messages outside the 24-hour window to unique people within 30 days, using high-quality templates.
If Meta approves, it raises the limit to 2,000 immediately. If not, the limit stays and Meta sends an alert with other ways to qualify.
From 2,000 upwards it’s automatic. When you send high-quality messages across all your numbers and templates and used at least half of your limit in the last 7 days, Meta raises it one step within 6 hours.

Check your limit and quality

In MeAPI: My Numbers → Number health shows each number’s Messaging limit with how much you used in the last 24 hours (amber at 70%, red at 90%), its Quality and Throughput. Home shows a short Number health card too. Number health

Messaging limit: your tier and how many people were reached in the last 24 hours. — **Messaging limit**: your tier and how many people were reached in the last 24 hours.
**Quality**: High / Medium / Low from customer feedback over the last 7 days.

**Messaging limit**: your tier and how many people were reached in the last 24 hours.
**Quality**: High / Medium / Low from customer feedback over the last 7 days.

In Meta: WhatsApp Manager → Account tools → Messaging limits.

Illustration

business.facebook.com · WhatsApp Manager → Account tools

Messaging limits

Business portfolio: Sharma Sweets
Current limit: 2,000 people in 24 hours
Business verification: Verified
Next limit: 10,000, when you use half your limit with high-quality messages

WhatsApp Manager's Messaging limits panel: the portfolio's current limit and how to reach the next one. Illustration: Meta's real screen may look different.

Increase your limit: checklist

Verify your business in Meta’s Security Center. This is the quickest way past 250. How
Get your display name approved. How
Keep quality High. Message only people who opted in, say who you are, and make every message useful.
Prefer Utility templates for updates and reminders. They’re blocked far less than promotions.
Use at least half your limit on most days of a week. That’s what triggers the automatic rise.
Grow steadily. Send to your most engaged contacts first, then widen.
Watch the campaign report for blocks, failures and low read rates. They’re early warnings.

What holds a limit back

Low-quality messages. Meta only raises limits for high-quality messages across all your numbers and templates. Since October 2025 a quality drop no longer lowers the limit, but it stops the rise.
Not using it. If you use less than half the limit in 7 days, nothing changes.
Restrictions on the account. A policy violation can stop sending altogether: 368, 131031. A spam rate limit is error 131048.
Template category violations, error 131064, limit sending until the enforcement period ends.

Not the same thing: throughput and the per-user marketing limit

	What it limits	Typical value	When it bites	Error
Messaging limit	How many people you can start conversations with per 24 h (business portfolio)	250 → unlimited	Big campaigns to new people	Sends beyond it fail; MeAPI warns before launch
Throughput	How fast one number sends	Up to 80 messages / second; up to 1,000 for eligible numbers	Very large campaigns	130429: MeAPI slows down and continues
Per-user marketing limit	How many marketing templates one person gets from all businesses	Set by Meta per person, based on engagement	Promotions to people who rarely read them	131049: wait 24 h or more
Pair rate limit	Many messages to the same person in a short time	—	Loops, rapid repeats	131056

Marketing messages sent inside an open 24-hour window don’t count toward the per-user marketing limit. Sources: throughput, per-user marketing limits.

What MeAPI shows when you reach the limit

Before you launch a campaign, the review step warns when the audience is bigger than what’s left: “This campaign reaches 3,000 people, but your messaging limit leaves 1,200 of 2,000 for the next 24 hours. Meta will reject the rest — split the audience or schedule part of it for tomorrow.”
Auto reminders hold back at 95% of the limit and try again an hour later, with the reason in the Log.
Number health turns the bar amber at 70% and red at 90%.
Messages Meta rejects show as failed in the campaign report with Meta’s reason and code. See Meta error codes.

Common mistakes

One big blast on day one. At 250 a day, a 5,000-person list takes weeks and burns quality. Verify first, then grow.
Counting replies. Chatting with customers who wrote to you never uses the limit.
Forgetting the limit is shared. A second number in the same portfolio doesn’t double it.
Buying lists. Blocks and reports stop the limit from rising and risk the account.

What’s next

Verify your business →The quickest way past 250.Number health →Quality rating and what to do when it drops.Scheduling →Split a big campaign over days.

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