{"id":3086,"date":"2026-10-15T15:37:59","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T10:07:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smsgatewaycenter.com\/blog\/?post_type=docs&#038;p=3086"},"modified":"2026-10-15T15:37:59","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T10:07:59","password":"","slug":"why-is-my-whatsapp-number-restricted-or-flagged","status":"publish","type":"docs","link":"https:\/\/www.smsgatewaycenter.com\/blog\/kb\/why-is-my-whatsapp-number-restricted-or-flagged\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is my WhatsApp number Restricted or Flagged?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These are two different states, with two different causes and fixes. Both are visible under <strong>WhatsApp &gt; Connections<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Restricted: you hit your messaging limit<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Your number has already started conversations with as many unique customers as your tier allows in the current rolling 24-hour window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>What still works:<\/strong> you can keep replying to customers who messaged you.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>What stops:<\/strong> new business-initiated messages, including campaigns and notifications.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>How it clears:<\/strong> on its own, as the 24-hour window rolls forward.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>How to avoid it:<\/strong> check your Messaging Limit before each campaign and split large lists across days.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Flagged: your quality rating dropped to Low<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>What it means:<\/strong> enough recipients blocked or reported your messages for Meta to warn you.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>What happens next:<\/strong> if your rating returns to Medium or High within 7 days, the number goes back to <strong>Connected<\/strong>. If it doesn&#8217;t, it returns to Connected anyway, but on a lower messaging limit.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>What to do now:<\/strong> pause marketing campaigns, keep sending only messages customers expect, remove unresponsive and opted-out numbers, then watch the rating daily.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>What not to do:<\/strong> keep pushing volume. More sending while Flagged risks a further drop.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Tell them apart quickly<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If your campaign stopped partway through the day but replies still work, it is a limit problem. If your Quality Rating shows <strong>Red<\/strong>, it is a quality problem. Both at once means fix the quality first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.facebook.com\/docs\/whatsapp\/api\/rate-limits\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Meta: Capacity, Quality Rating and Messaging Limits<\/a>. Meta changes these rules from time to time, so check the source if something looks different in your account.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>These are two different states, with two different causes and fixes. Both are visible under WhatsApp &gt; Connections. Restricted: you hit your messaging limit Your number has already started conversations with as many unique customers as your tier allows in the current rolling 24-hour window. Flagged: your quality rating dropped to Low Tell them apart [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"doc_category":[1382],"doc_tag":[],"class_list":["post-3086","docs","type-docs","status-publish","hentry","doc_category-troubleshoot-whatsapp-business-api"],"year_month":"2026-10","word_count":255,"total_views":"2","reactions":{"happy":"0","normal":"0","sad":"0"},"author_info":{"name":"admin","author_nicename":"admin","author_url":"https:\/\/www.smsgatewaycenter.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"},"doc_category_info":[{"term_name":"Troubleshoot","term_url":"https:\/\/www.smsgatewaycenter.com\/blog\/kb-cat\/troubleshoot-whatsapp-business-api\/"}],"doc_tag_info":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smsgatewaycenter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/3086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smsgatewaycenter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smsgatewaycenter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/docs"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smsgatewaycenter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smsgatewaycenter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.smsgatewaycenter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/3086\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smsgatewaycenter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"doc_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smsgatewaycenter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/doc_category?post=3086"},{"taxonomy":"doc_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smsgatewaycenter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/doc_tag?post=3086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}