Quality Ratings and Messaging Limits of WhatsApp Business API

Quality Rating

Your quality rating is based on how messages have been received by recipients in recent days. It is determined by a combination of quality signals from conversations between businesses and users. Examples include user feedback signals like blocks, reports and the reasons users provide when they block a business.

Messaging Limits

Messaging limits determine how many unique users your business can send messages to on a daily basis. This includes new conversations as well as existing conversations with users. The messaging limit does NOT limit the number of messages your business can send, just the number of users you are trying to message. It also does NOT apply to messages sent in response to a user-initiated message within a 24-hour period.

1. Limited Access Tier: Allows your business to send messages to 50 unique customers in a rolling 24-hour period.

2. Tier 1: Allows your business to send messages to 1K unique customers in a rolling 24-hour period.

3. Tier 2: Allows your business to send messages to 10K unique customers in a rolling 24-hour period.

4. Tier 3: Allows your business to send messages to 100K unique customers in a rolling 24-hour period.

5. Tier 4: Allows your business to send messages to unlimited unique customers in a rolling 24-hour period.

Note: A business starts in Tier 1 when it registers its phone number.

Since the 12th September 2021, you can now use the WhatsApp Business API without completing Business Verification for your Facebook Business Manager.

Once the integration process is complete, you will be placed in a new Limited Access tier, which allows you to:

• Unlimited customer-initiated conversations (24-hour messaging windows) keeping in mind the amount of chats included in your plan

• Ability to send notifications to 50 unique customers in a rolling 24-hour period

However, you must initiate Business Verification if at any point you want to have:

• the currently available proactive messaging limits (HSM templates)

• more than 2 phone numbers

• an Official Business Account (Green tick)

Moving Tiers

You are automatically upgraded to a higher tier based on the volume and quality of the messages you send. Conversely, you can be downgraded if more of your messages are reported by users.

Upgrades

A business’s phone number is upgraded to the next tier if:

1. Its quality rating is not low, and

2. The cumulative amount of users it sends notifications to adds up to twice its current messaging limit within a 7-day period.

Once the business reaches this threshold, it is moved to the next tier. The minimum amount of time that this upgrade can occur is after 48 hours, when the business is sending messages up to their current limit every day. Flagged Status If a business has a Flagged status, it cannot upgrade tiers. After a business is Flagged, it must return to the Connected status and then restart the process to upgrade to the next tier.

Examples See the charts below for examples of how a business might move to the next tier Example 1: A business is upgraded from Tier 1 to Tier 2 when it messages a total of 2,000 users within a 7-day period.

Example 2: The chart explains the concept of messaging limit in a rolling 24-hour window.

Minimum time to move to Higher Tiers

Messaging limits determine how many unique users your business can send messages to, on a daily basis, and it takes at least 7 days for the new number to reach the last tier. You should always analyse phone number quality before sending notifications to twice the current tier reach, so you guarantee you can move to the next tier in a healthy way. This is an opportunity for business to test with a smaller database to see how customers see this new communication channel you are creating.

Best Practices for WhatsApp Business API

To maintain high quality:

1. Make sure messages follow the WhatsApp Business Policy

2. Only send messages to users who have opted into receiving messages from your business.

3. Make the messages highly personalised and useful to users. Avoid sending open-ended welcome or introductory messages.

4. Be mindful of messaging frequency; avoid sending customers too many messages a day. Be thoughtful of informational messages, optimizing for content and length.