How to Send WhatsApp Broadcasts Without Getting Blocked

To send WhatsApp broadcasts without getting your number blocked, send them through the official WhatsApp Business API, only to customers who opted in, and inside your messaging limit. Use an approved template with an easy way to opt out, and check your quality rating after every send. WhatsApp restricts a number when the people receiving its messages block, report or ignore them.

The short answer

Use the official API. Bulk-sender tools and modified apps on an ordinary WhatsApp account can get the number banned.
Get opt-in first. You may message only people who gave you their number and agreed to hear from you.
Know your limit. A new business can message 250 unique customers in 24 hours. The limit then rises to 2,000, 10,000, 100,000 and unlimited.
Make it easy to leave. A Stop promotions button costs you one subscriber. A block costs you quality.
Watch the rating. Green is healthy. A template that turns Red is paused for 3 hours, then 6 hours, then disabled.

What does “blocked” mean on WhatsApp?

“Blocked” covers four different things, and only the last is the disaster people fear. Work out which one you have before you change anything.

A signalA customer blocks or reports you

One block changes nothing. Many of them lower your quality rating, which WhatsApp works out from the last seven days of feedback: blocks, reports, mutes and archives.

The customer picks a reason, such as “Didn’t sign up” or “Spam”.

DeliverySome messages are not delivered

WhatsApp limits how many marketing templates one person receives from all businesses. Messages over that limit fail with error 131049. Your number is fine.

Wait at least 24 hours before you send to those people again.

TemplateA template is paused

A template that drops to a low quality rating is paused for 3 hours. The second time it is paused for 6 hours. The third time it is disabled.

Sends of a paused template are rejected, and you are not charged for them.

AccountThe account is restricted or banned

For policy violations such as spam, Meta warns you first. Then it blocks templates for 1 or 3 days, then all messages for 5, 7 or 30 days. After that it locks the account, and finally disables it.

On the WhatsApp apps, bulk or automated messaging can get the number banned.

Meta describes the account steps in its policy enforcement guide, and the template steps under template pausing.

Should you use a broadcast list or the WhatsApp Business API?

There are two ways to broadcast. A broadcast list in the WhatsApp Business app suits a shop with a few hundred regulars. The WhatsApp Business API is built for sending at scale.

	Broadcast list in the app	Broadcast through the API
Who receives it	Only people who have saved your number in their contacts	Any customer who opted in
How many	Up to 256 contacts per list	Your messaging limit: 250 to unlimited customers in 24 hours
What you send	Any message you type	A template Meta has approved
Cost	Free lists. Some countries now have a monthly limit and paid business broadcasts	Per delivered message. India: ₹0.86 for marketing
Main risk	A ban, if you over-use lists or use unofficial tools	A paused template or a restricted account, if customers report you

Swipe sideways to see the full table.

A broadcast list reaches only people who saved your number, so it cannot reach a list of strangers. If your list has outgrown the app, see how to get the WhatsApp Business API. You can keep the app on the same number, but its broadcast lists switch off once the number is on the API.

Why do WhatsApp numbers get blocked?

WhatsApp cares less about how much you send than about how people react to it. These are the causes it names.

Unofficial tools. WhatsApp says its apps are not intended for bulk or automated messaging. Using unofficial apps such as GB WhatsApp can get an account banned temporarily or permanently.
Lists that are not yours. WhatsApp’s responsible use guide warns against contact lists that aren’t yours and data from illicit sources. That covers bought and scraped numbers.
No opt-in. People who never agreed to hear from you choose “Didn’t sign up” or “Spam” when they block you.
Too many messages. WhatsApp bans app accounts that are reported many times for over-using broadcast lists. On the API, it limits businesses whose quality stays low.
Promotions dressed as updates. Meta lists template misclassification next to spam as a reason for account blocks.

How do you send a WhatsApp broadcast without getting blocked?

Follow these nine steps for every broadcast, including the small ones.

Send through the official WhatsApp Business API
Do not broadcast from the app with bulk-sender tools or modified apps such as GB WhatsApp. WhatsApp bans accounts for that. The API is built for sending at scale.
Message only people who opted in
WhatsApp’s policy lets you contact someone only if they gave you their number and agreed to hear from you. A customer who messaged you first has not opted in to promotions.
Clean and segment your list
Remove numbers that are not on WhatsApp and contacts who have not interacted with you recently. Send each message only to the people it is relevant to.
Check your messaging limit
A new business can message 250 unique customers in 24 hours. Verifying your business is the usual way to reach 2,000. Split a bigger audience across several days.
Write a template people expect
Say who you are in the first line, make it personal and useful, and keep it short. An offer is a marketing template, even when it rides on an order update.
Give every promotion an opt-out
Add a quick reply button such as Stop promotions. When someone taps it, or asks to stop in any other way, take them off your list.
Test, then start small
Send the template to your own number first. Then send it to a small, engaged segment before the full list.
Do not over-send
Meta’s guidance is to avoid sending too many messages a day. People who get more marketing than they read hit WhatsApp’s per-person limit, and your messages stop arriving.
Watch quality after every send
Check your quality rating and the template’s status in WhatsApp Manager. If a template is paused, stop the campaign.

How to collect opt-in

Meta’s opt-in rules ask for two things: say clearly that the person is agreeing to messages, and name your business. The method is yours to choose. These work well:

A tick box at checkout or on a sign-up form that mentions WhatsApp.
A question from your staff in the shop or on a call, noted against the customer.
A WhatsApp QR code or a click-to-chat link that starts a chat. Scanning it is not opt-in by itself, so ask in your first reply.

Say which kinds of messages they are agreeing to. A customer who wants order updates has not agreed to weekly offers. Keep a record of when and how each person agreed.

How to offer an opt-out

Add a quick reply button to every marketing template message. Meta calls an opt-out button a common use for quick replies. When a customer taps it, mark them as opted out before your next send.

WhatsApp also gives every user an Offers and announcements setting to stop marketing messages from a business. After that, your marketing templates to that person fail with error 131050.

How many people can you broadcast to in a day?

Your messaging limit is the number of unique customers you can message outside the 24-hour customer service window, in a moving 24 hours. Replies to customers who wrote to you do not count.

250Every new business
2,000After verification
10,000Automatic
100,000Automatic
UnlimitedAutomatic

The limit belongs to your business, not to a number. Since 7 October 2025 every number in a business portfolio shares one limit.
To reach 2,000: verify your business. Or deliver 2,000 template messages with a high quality rating to unique customers within 30 days. Meta then reviews your message quality before it raises the limit.
After that, upgrades are automatic. Send high-quality messages and use at least half your limit in 7 days. The limit then rises one level within 6 hours.
Meta no longer lowers your limit when quality drops. It still rate limits businesses whose quality stays low, and it still pauses templates.

Plan around the limit. With a list of 8,000 and a limit of 2,000, send to 2,000 customers a day for four days. WhatsApp does not deliver messages beyond the limit.

How do you read your WhatsApp quality rating?

WhatsApp rates the quality of your messages from how customers received them over the past seven days, weighted towards the most recent. It counts blocks, reports, mutes, archives and the reasons people give when they block you.

Green: high quality

Customers are receiving your messages well. Keep the same audience rules and pace.

Yellow: medium quality

Several customers gave negative feedback, or read rates are low. You can still send, but a template at this rating may soon be paused. Narrow the audience and check the block reasons.

Red: low quality

A template that reaches this rating is paused automatically. Stop the campaign, fix the message or the audience, and restart with a small segment.

Your number and each template have their own rating, with the same three colours. Your number’s rating is in WhatsApp Manager, under Account tools, then Phone numbers. A template’s rating is part of its status, for example Active - High Quality. When a number’s rating is Yellow or Red, hover over it to see why customers blocked you.

What should you do if a template is paused or your quality drops?

Stop every campaign that uses the template. Meta rejects sends of a paused template.
Find out why. Read the block reasons in WhatsApp Manager. “Didn’t sign up” points to your list. “No longer needed” points to relevance or to how often you send.
Change something real. Edit the template, and narrow the audience to people who bought or replied recently. Rewording the same message for the same list rarely helps.
Wait for the pause to end, then restart small. The first pause lasts 3 hours and the second 6 hours. A third disables the template.
For a policy violation, ask for a review. In Business Support Home, choose the violation and click Request Review. A decision typically takes 24 to 48 hours. Not every spam violation can be appealed.

A new or recently paused template may be paced. WhatsApp sends the first messages, holds the rest while it reads the early feedback, then releases or drops them. A template paused during pacing has to be unpaused by hand in WhatsApp Manager.

Which errors mean a broadcast is being limited?

Each failed message comes back with an error code. These are the ones that matter, from Meta’s error code list.

Code	What it means	What to do
131049	Not delivered “to maintain healthy ecosystem engagement”. The recipient has reached their marketing message limit.	Wait at least 24 hours. Retrying sooner fails again and can lock that recipient out for up to 24 hours.
131050	The recipient chose to stop marketing messages from your business.	Do not retry. Mark the contact as opted out.
131026	The message cannot be delivered. Often the number is not on WhatsApp.	Remove the number from your list.
131048	The number is restricted because too many earlier messages were blocked or flagged as spam.	Stop sending and check your quality rating.
132015	The template is paused for low quality.	Stop the campaign until the template is Active again.
132016	The template was paused too many times and is permanently disabled.	Write a new template for a better-chosen audience.
130429	You sent faster than your number’s throughput allows (80 messages a second by default).	Not a block. Slow down and retry.
131031 or 368	The account is restricted or disabled for a policy violation.	Request a review in Business Support Home.

Swipe sideways to see the full table.

Error 131049 is the one most businesses meet first. WhatsApp limits the marketing messages each person receives, based on how much they read and how full their inbox is. Meta publishes no fixed number. Wait at least 24 hours before you try those customers again.

How do you send a broadcast in Sendiee?

In Sendiee a broadcast is a campaign. The wizard has four steps.

Dashboard→Campaigns→Create Campaign

Template
Open Campaigns, click Create Campaign and choose a template. Only approved templates are listed.
Audience
Build the audience from segments, tags, lead categories and dates such as Last replied. Contacts marked Opted out, and numbers Meta reported as undeliverable, are left out by default.
Personalize
Map each variable to a contact field or to fixed text, with a default fallback for contacts where the field is empty.
Launch
Read the Risk check. It warns you when the phone quality is Yellow or Red, when the audience is larger than your daily messaging tier, and when the number is new. Use Send yourself a test, then launch.

The Risk check warns you. It does not stop a launch, so treat a Yellow or Red warning as a reason to wait.

During and after the send

You can pause, resume or cancel a campaign while it is running.
Sendiee paces the send to the throughput Meta allows your number, and retries messages that Meta rate limits.
The report shows Sent, Delivered, Read, Replied and Failed, with failure reasons grouped by Meta’s error code. You can export the recipients as a CSV.
Read the failure reasons before you use Resend Failed. It does not help numbers that are not on WhatsApp, or customers who just hit their marketing limit.
When a customer asks to stop, switch them to Opted Out on their lead page. They are then left out of new campaigns by default.

Meta charges for each delivered marketing template: ₹0.86 in India, so about ₹8,600 for 10,000 customers. Sendiee adds no markup. Other countries are on Meta’s pricing page, and WhatsApp’s October 2026 pricing change covers what replies cost. WhatsApp does not currently deliver marketing templates to United States numbers.

Send your first campaign, start free

Frequently asked questions

Can WhatsApp block my number for sending broadcasts?

Yes. On the WhatsApp apps, bulk or automated messaging and unofficial tools can get a number banned. On the WhatsApp Business API, unwanted messages lead to paused templates first, then to blocks of 1 to 30 days, an account lock, and finally a disabled account.

How many broadcast messages can I send on WhatsApp per day?

On the WhatsApp Business API, a new business can message 250 unique customers in 24 hours. The limit rises to 2,000, 10,000, 100,000 and then unlimited. In the WhatsApp Business app, a broadcast list holds up to 256 contacts and reaches only people who saved your number.

Do I need opt-in to send a WhatsApp broadcast?

Yes. WhatsApp’s Business Messaging Policy says you may contact people only if they gave you their number and you have their opt-in. A customer who messaged you first has not opted in to future promotions.

Why are some of my WhatsApp broadcast messages not delivered?

The usual reasons are WhatsApp’s per-person limit on marketing messages (error 131049), numbers that are not on WhatsApp (131026), and people who stopped marketing messages from your business (131050). None of these means your number is blocked.

Is it safe to use a bulk WhatsApp sender or GB WhatsApp?

No. WhatsApp says its apps are not intended for bulk or automated messaging, and that unofficial apps such as GB WhatsApp violate its Terms of Service. Accounts can be banned temporarily or permanently.

Sources

Facts checked against Meta and WhatsApp pages on 12 October 2026.

Need a hand?

Sendiee is an AI marketing platform for WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger, and an official Meta Business Partner. Not sure whether your list is ready for a broadcast? Message us on WhatsApp or write to [email protected].

How to send WhatsApp broadcasts without getting your number blocked