# WhatsApp Business quality rating: what Meta measures and how to stay green

> The WhatsApp quality rating is a green, yellow or red score that Meta works out from how your customers received your messages over the last 7 days: blocks, reports, mutes and archives, with the most recent weighing most. Green means high quality, yellow medium and red low. Since 7 October 2025, the “Flagged” and “Restricted” phone number statuses no longer exist.

Key points

- Meta measures quality from what your customers do: block, report, mute or archive the chat. The latest days count most.
- Green is high quality. In yellow or red, hovering over the rating shows the block reasons customers chose.
- Every Meta-[approved template](https://wyp.chat/en/glossary#modele) has its own rating, separate from the number’s: green, yellow, red or pending. A poorly rated template can be paused.
- The “Flagged” and “Restricted” number statuses were removed on 7 October 2025. Restrictions for breaking the rules are a different thing.
- To stay green: write only to customers who agreed, send useful, personal messages, and do not overdo it.

## Green, yellow, red: what Meta measures

Your number’s quality sums up how customers received your messages over the last 7 days. Nobody at Meta decides it and you cannot ask for it: it is worked out automatically and moves with what you send.

- **Green**: High quality. Your number is eligible for more features.
- **Yellow**: Medium quality. Hovering over the rating shows the block reasons.
- **Red**: Low quality. The block reasons also show on hover.

### What goes into the rating

- Period: messages received over the last 7 days, with the most recent weighing more.
- Customer signals: blocks, reports, mutes and archives of the chat, and the reason given when they block you.
- The reasons Meta offers a customer who blocks: “No longer needed”, “I didn’t subscribe or sign up”, “Spam”, “Offensive messages” or “No particular reason”.
- Numbers with high traffic see their quality change within short intervals, sometimes within minutes.

Two of these reasons are easy to prevent. “No longer needed” often means too many messages, or messages that were of no use. “I didn’t subscribe” means that customer had not agreed to receive them. That is our reading, not Meta’s explanation.

### Where to see the rating at Meta

In WhatsApp Manager, on the Phone numbers tab, the “Quality rating” column shows each number’s score. The icon in the Settings column opens the 30-day history, which keeps the lowest score of each day.

### The “Flagged” and “Restricted” statuses are gone

According to Meta’s help page, the Flagged and Restricted phone number statuses have not been available since 7 October 2025. If a page presents them as current quality states, it is out of date. The restrictions Meta places on an account that repeatedly breaks its rules still exist, but they are a different mechanism with different rules.

- [WhatsApp Business account blocked: what to do](https://wyp.chat/en/guides/whatsapp-business-account-blocked)

### Quality and your sending limit

Quality also decides whether your [sending limit](https://wyp.chat/en/glossary#limite-envoi) goes up. According to Meta, the limit moves up one level, within 6 hours, when you send high-quality messages across all your numbers and templates and have used at least half of the limit over the last 7 days.

- [WhatsApp Business messaging limits](https://wyp.chat/en/guides/whatsapp-messaging-limits)

## Each template’s quality: a separate rating

Every Meta-approved template has its own rating, based on usage, customer feedback and engagement. A new template starts with no rating: WhatsApp updates it automatically as it gathers signals.

| Value (API) | In WhatsApp Manager | What it means | Can it be sent? |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| GREEN | High quality | Little or no negative feedback from users. | Yes |
| YELLOW | Medium quality | Negative feedback from several users, or low read rates. The template may soon be paused or disabled. | Yes |
| RED | Low quality | The same, with a risk of being paused or disabled soon. Meta asks you to address what users report. | Yes, but it is at risk |
| UNKNOWN | Quality pending | No feedback or read-rate data yet. This is the case for a newly created template. | Yes |

*Source: Meta’s documentation on template quality, accessed 16 October 2026.*

The rating feeds into how fast the template is sent and whether it gets paused, which can affect delivery. If a template is no longer in the approved status, it cannot be sent in a template message until that status is restored.

- [WhatsApp Business message templates](https://wyp.chat/en/guides/whatsapp-message-templates)
- [Template categories: Marketing, Utility, Authentication](https://wyp.chat/en/guides/whatsapp-template-categories)

## How to keep your number green

Meta gives six guidelines for sending high-quality messages. Here they are in the day-to-day of a shop or a trade business.

1. Follow the WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy. Read it through once: it is short and applies to everyone.
2. Write only to people who agreed to receive your messages. A plumber chasing a quote writes to the customer who asked for it and gave their number for that, not to the whole phone contact list. To collect and prove that consent, see the consent guide.
3. Avoid open-ended welcome or introductory messages. “Hello, how are you? Here is our news” invites a block. “The novel you reserved has arrived” does not.
4. Do not send too many messages a day. In the documentation we read, Meta puts no number on “too many”: set it by what your customer expects from you, and if they reply to stop, stop.
5. Make each message highly personal and useful: the first name, the appointment, the order. A garage reminding the person who booked about tomorrow’s appointment, a bookshop saying a reserved book has arrived.
6. Take care over content and length. A short message, with one thing to say and one possible action, gets read without annoying anyone.

Emma Lewis WhatsApp

Today

Hi Emma, your Fiesta is booked in tomorrow at 9 am at Whitfield Garage for its service. Can you confirm? · 5:30 pm

Confirm Change the time

Confirm · 5:41 pm

Perfect, see you at 9 am. The coffee is on us. · 5:42 pm

This reminder works because the customer gave their number to be told, it arrives the day before, and it says something useful. It is a template in the Utility category.

- [WhatsApp consent: what Meta and the law require](https://wyp.chat/en/guides/whatsapp-consent)

## What WYP.chat does about your number’s quality

The rating comes from Meta, not from WYP.chat. We read it and tell you. We cannot guarantee it stays green.

- You see each number’s quality (High, Medium, Low or Unknown) in Settings › Channels, and the number’s quality on the dashboard.
- WYP.chat reads it again at most once an hour, when you click “Refresh”, and as soon as Meta reports a change.
- When quality drops to Low, owners and administrators get a notification in the app, a banner shows on the channel and, if “Channel health” is ticked in Slack, a message goes there too. The alert goes out once each time it appears. It does not go out for Medium.
- In Templates, the quality column is kept up to date by webhook. At medium or low quality the template shows a warning, and a drop notifies owners and administrators, with an email reminder.
- A contact who replies STOP or switches off your offers inside WhatsApp is unsubscribed for the whole workspace, and unsubscribed contacts are always left out of campaigns. That avoids some blocks, not all of them.

- [WhatsApp campaigns with consent and STOP](https://wyp.chat/en/features/whatsapp-campaigns)
- [What is the WhatsApp Business API?](https://wyp.chat/en/channels/whatsapp-business-api)

## How to do it in WYP.chat

Help centre articles that walk through each setting, screen by screen.

- [Prepare a template for your campaigns](https://wyp.chat/en/help/creer-modele-campagne)
- [Send a WhatsApp campaign](https://wyp.chat/en/help/lancer-campagne)
- [WhatsApp consent form on your website](https://wyp.chat/en/help/formulaire-accord-whatsapp)

## Sources

1. Meta Business Help Centre, About your WhatsApp Business phone number’s quality rating: [www.facebook.com/business/help/896873687365001](https://www.facebook.com/business/help/896873687365001)
2. Meta, Service messages (message quality): [developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/messages/send-messages](https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/messages/send-messages)
3. Meta, Template quality rating: [developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/templates/template-quality](https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/templates/template-quality)
4. Meta, Messaging Limits: [developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/messaging-limits](https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/messaging-limits)

Pages checked on 16 October 2026.

## Frequently asked questions

### What does a red WhatsApp Business number mean?

Low quality: over the last 7 days, customers blocked, reported, muted or archived your messages. Hover over the rating in WhatsApp Manager to see the block reasons.

### Where do I see my number’s quality rating?

In WhatsApp Manager, on the Phone numbers tab, in the “Quality rating” column. With WYP.chat you also see it in Settings › Channels.

### How long does it take to go back to green?

Meta gives no timeframe. The rating rests on the last 7 days with the latest weighing most, and on a high-traffic number it can move within minutes. Only what you send moves it.

### What happened to the “Flagged” and “Restricted” statuses?

Meta removed them on 7 October 2025. Quality is now expressed only as green, yellow and red. Restrictions for breaking the rules are a separate mechanism.

### Is a number’s quality the same as a template’s?

No. Each number has its rating and each Meta-approved template has its own. A red template can still be sent, but it risks being paused or disabled.

### Does quality change how many customers I can contact?

Yes: the limit only goes up a level when your messages are high quality across all your numbers and templates. The details are in the messaging limits guide.

## Read next

- [WhatsApp Business messaging limits: tiers, what is counted and how to raise them](https://wyp.chat/en/guides/whatsapp-messaging-limits)
- [A blocked or restricted WhatsApp Business account: what you can do](https://wyp.chat/en/guides/whatsapp-business-account-blocked)
- [The three WhatsApp Business template categories, and how Meta re-categorises them](https://wyp.chat/en/guides/whatsapp-template-categories)
- [The WhatsApp 24 hour window: what Meta allows and what it costs](https://wyp.chat/en/guides/whatsapp-24-hour-window)
- [WhatsApp consent: what Meta and the GDPR require](https://wyp.chat/en/guides/whatsapp-consent)

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Source: https://wyp.chat/en/guides/whatsapp-quality-rating · Updated on 16 October 2026