1. The Necessity of Warming Up
Why is a warm-up phase necessary?
WhatsApp sets sending limits for business accounts to ensure the quality of communication and prevent spam.
Building trust: A new account must first earn Meta's trust by sending relevant, high-quality messages that users respond to positively.
Reputation: Your quality rating is based on user feedback (responses, clicks, complaints). A poor rating may result in message limits not being increased.
Ported numbers: Even if you port an already active phone number to JUNE, your initial sending limit will be reset as Meta evaluates the new business portfolio. ➞ If the number was previously used for a WhatsApp Business account, the tier level will remain the same (💡see below for more information on tier levels).
2. Overview of Messaging Limits (Tiers)
New business accounts start with an initial limit that increases in the following stages. These limits refer to the number of unique recipients in a rolling 24-hour window to whom you can send template messages:
Tier-Level | Daily limit (unique recipients) |
Initial | 250 |
Level 1 | 2.000 |
Level 2 | 10.000 |
Level 3 | 100.000 |
Unlimited | Unlimited |
You can check your limit in Meta's WhatsApp Manager under Account Tools in the Messaging Limits panel:
3. Quality Assessment
WhatsApp closely monitors every new number and applies a "zero trust" principle. Each template receives a quality rating that is determined directly by user behavior:
Green (High) = Positive rating
Yellow (Medium) = Acceptable
Red (Low) = Critical, risk of suspension
4. Automatic Increase of Limits
Your limits will be automatically increased by Meta if you meet certain criteria.
Criteria for the jump from 250 to 2,000
Understanding the 250 limit
The 250 limit is the starting point for unverified WhatsApp Business accounts. It defines the maximum number of unique recipients (not messages) with whom you can initiate a business-initiated conversation within a 24-hour period. Conversations initiated by customers do not count toward this limit.
The primary goal of the warm-up is to act like a real person, not a bot. A real person does not send 500 messages to strangers at once. The key is to build up activity gradually over several weeks.
To reach the first major limit of 2,000 recipients, you must meet one of the following criteria:
Complete business verification: Verifying your business in Meta Business Manager is the fastest way.
High engagement: Send 2,000 delivered template messages to unique users in a rolling 30-day window while maintaining a high-quality score.
Criteria for advancing to higher tiers (2,000, 10,000, Unlimited)
Once you have reached the limit of 2,000, the increase will happen automatically if you meet these two conditions:
High message quality: You must maintain a high quality rating.
High usage: You have used at least 50% of your current limit in the last 7 days.
Meta checks these criteria regularly (e.g., every 6 hours). If the criteria are met, the limit will be increased within a few hours.
5. Strategy for a Successful Warm-up with JUNE
Since the goal is user interaction, you should focus your campaigns in the warm-up phase on provoking replies or button clicks. These are the strongest signals for Meta.
Phase | Goal | JUNE Implementation |
Start (Weeks 1-2):
Focus: Send interactive templates with clear calls to action (e.g., "Reply" buttons that generate an immediate response). | Send to an increasing number of recipients per day (max. 250) and ensure quality assessment.
Tip: Avoid links and advertising. | Segmentation: Select your most active or best-known customers from your subscriber list, e.g., a segment with good RFM analysis results. |
Enhancement: Monitoring: Link your template buttons to follow-up actions in JUNE Automation to track clicks and responses. | Increase utilization to >50% of the limit and monitor the interaction rate. | Campaign planning: Use the campaign results in JUNE to monitor your mailing volume and message quality in order to further improve your performance. |
6. Quality Assurance: Best Practices
Relevance: Always send templates that are of high value to the user (e.g., order confirmations, exclusive discounts, important information).
Encourage interaction: Use interactive messages or templates with reply buttons to generate responses.
Prevent unsubscribes: Pay attention to frequency. Too many irrelevant messages lead to blocks or unsubscribes, which immediately damages your reputation.
Data maintenance: Ensure that your contact list does not contain any invalid or non-existent numbers.
Strategies for declining quality rankings:
Reduce campaign activity
Check recently sent messages for complaints
Focus on engagement with good/active users
A red rating over 7 days leads to a reduction in the limit.
(Information current as of December 2025)
➞ Link to Meta