My quality rating dropped or my number got restricted: what happened, what do I do?
This page is for the moment Meta emails you "low quality rating" or "phone number flagged". Meta calculates the rating, not Chatinbox. Below: what the rating looks at, what the three statuses mean, and what to do in order.
The rating reflects customer reactions to your messages in the last 7 days: blocks, reports and block reasons. Three colours: Green (high), Yellow (medium), Red (low). At Red the number becomes "Flagged". Back to Yellow or Green within 7 days: status returns to "Connected". If not, it still returns to "Connected" but your daily limit drops one tier. "Restricted" means you used up your daily limit; it reopens after 24 hours. See both in Meta WhatsApp Manager.
What you provide
- Access to Meta WhatsApp Manager (rating and status live there)
- A list of which template went to whom in the last 7 days
- The decision to pause bulk sends until the rating recovers
What Chatinbox does
- Reviews recent sends with you: which template, which list, what time
- Goes through template wording and target lists with you
- Agrees with you which messages wait until the rating recovers
- What the rating looks at
- Three statuses: Connected · Flagged · Restricted
- What to do, in order
- Messaging limit tiers
Check in order
Read the status in Meta
Meta Business Suite → WhatsApp Manager → Phone numbers. Next to the number you see the quality colour and the status. If you got an email, the same information is there. First settle which case you are in: Flagged or Restricted?
If Restricted, wait
This status is not about quality. You reached your daily business-initiated conversation limit. You can still reply to incoming messages. After 24 hours, sending reopens.
Meta ruleIf Flagged, stop bulk sends
The rating looks at the last 7 days and weighs recent messages more heavily. Continuing a send that generates complaints pushes the rating further down. Pause campaigns; only reply to conversations customers start.
Review the last 7 days of sends
Which template, which list, at what hour? Common causes: sending to a list without consent, repeat sends to the same person in a short interval, no opt-out in the message, night-time sends. Set the suspect template and list aside.
Count the 7 days
If within 7 days of being Flagged the rating becomes Yellow or Green, the status returns to Connected and the limit is kept. If not, it still returns to Connected but the limit drops one tier. A lowered limit rises again over time with high-quality sending.
7-day ruleMessaging limit tiers
Meta's written tiers: a newly created business portfolio starts at 250 business-initiated conversations per day. The next tiers are 2,000, 10,000, 100,000 and unlimited.
Ways to reach 2,000: business verification, or 2,000 delivered messages to unique numbers within a 30-day moving period using templates with a high quality rating. After that it scales automatically: quality is high across all your numbers and templates, and in the last 7 days you used at least half of your current limit.
These numbers come from Meta's own documentation; if Meta changes them this page is updated.
Do and don't
Do
- Send templates only to people who opted in
- Leave an opt-out path in every marketing message
- Avoid repeat sends to the same person in a short interval
- Change or retire a template that draws complaints
Don't
- Don't keep a campaign running while the rating is Red
- Don't send to a purchased list
- Don't re-open the same text under a new template name
- Don't wait for "Chatinbox to fix the rating" — it is computed by Meta
If your rating dropped, let's review the sending plan together
In a 15 minute call we go through the last 7 days of sends and your templates with you.
Source: Meta help center (phone number quality rating, business help article 896873687365001) and Meta developer documentation (messaging limits). Meta can change these rules. This page was checked against those documents on 18 August 2026.
