WhatsApp Quality Rating Guide: Green, Yellow, Red and How to Raise It
Your WhatsApp API quality rating reflects how customers respond to your messages, and a drop stops upgrades and exposes templates to pauses. Learn what each color means, what lowers it, and the steps to raise it before restrictions hit.
Short answer: the quality rating on a WhatsApp API number is Meta's signal of how customers respond to your messages, shown in three colors where green means high quality, yellow medium, and red low. What drags it down most is negative customer feedback such as blocks and reports, along with low read rates. According to Meta's documentation at the time of writing, a lower rating no longer cuts your messaging limit directly, but it stops automatic upgrades, exposes your templates to temporary pauses, and repeated violations can lead to account restrictions. You raise it by messaging people who opted in, with content they care about, at a sensible pace, and with a button that lets them stop messages instead of reporting you.
Most merchants only open the quality page after something breaks: a paused template, a campaign that will not deliver, or an alert that the number turned yellow. By then the fix is harder, because the causes built up over several campaigns. It is better to treat the rating as a weekly health check you read and understand before it ever turns red.
What each color means
The rating appears in WhatsApp Manager next to every number, and templates carry the same colors.
| Color | Meaning | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Green | High quality, little to no negative feedback | Keep the same approach and check weekly |
| Yellow | Medium quality, some negative feedback or weak read rates | Slow down and review templates and list |
| Red | Low quality, the template or number is at risk | Pause campaigns and fix the cause before sending |
New templates also show "Unknown", which simply means they have not collected enough feedback or read data yet.
Number rating versus template rating
Your number has a rating, and every template has its own. A green number can still have one yellow template because of its wording or the audience it went to. According to Meta's documentation at the time of writing, a yellow template has received negative feedback from multiple users or low read rates, and a red template can still be sent but is close to being paused or disabled. So do not stop at the number's color, open the templates page and check each one.
This split tells you where the problem lives. If only one template is yellow, the fix is usually its wording or the segment it went to. If most templates drop together, the issue runs deeper and usually sits in the list itself or your sending pace.
What affects the rating
Meta does not publish a detailed formula, but its documentation makes clear the basis is customer engagement and feedback. In practice, these signals matter:
- Blocks, when a customer blocks you after one of your messages, the strongest negative signal.
- Reports, when a customer flags your number as spam.
- Low read rates, since a template sent to thousands and read by few signals it is not relevant.
- Messaging people who never opted in, because they are the ones most likely to block and report.
- Too many messages in a short time to the same customer, even if they agreed at first.
Positive signals come from customers who open, reply, and tap buttons, and that happens naturally when a message is expected and useful.
What happens when the rating drops
A lot changed in 2025, and much of what you read online is outdated.
Your limit does not drop directly
According to Meta's documentation at the time of writing, a lower phone number rating no longer downgrades your messaging limit, and the old "Flagged" state is gone. High quality is still a condition for automatic upgrades, so a yellow or red number stays stuck at its current tier however much it sends.
Templates can be paused
A low-quality template can be paused. According to Meta's documentation at the time of writing, the first pause lasts 3 hours, the second lasts 6 hours, and the third time the template is disabled. Imagine that happening to your sale launch template on White Friday, or to the order confirmation template your store relies on every day.
Repeated violations lead to restrictions
Heavy negative feedback or policy violations can lead to restrictions that grow in length, from short blocks on templates to blocks on all sending and then an account lock. The difference between a restriction and a ban is covered in our guide to account restriction versus ban.
How to raise your rating before restrictions hit
- Pause marketing campaigns. Every extra message to an uninterested audience adds negative signals. Keep operational messages like order and shipping updates running, because customers expect them.
- Review your last campaign. Ratings usually drop after a specific send. Check who it went to, how many blocked or tapped "Stop" afterwards, and whether the list included old or unconsented numbers. Sending an oud and incense offer to a full list that includes people who only bought abayas is where problems start.
- Clean the list. Remove numbers that have not engaged in a long time and any number without clear consent. A smaller clean list beats a large one where half the people do not want to hear from you.
- Rewrite weak templates. Low-quality templates usually have a long intro before the point, hype language, an offer that does not fit the reader, or no easy way to opt out. Write a shorter, clearer one and add a quick reply like "No more offers". Our template approval tips cover wording that gets approved and read.
- Return gradually. Once you are back to green, start with your most engaged customers, such as those who bought in the last month, and widen the circle slowly while watching replies.
Habits that keep you green
- Message people who clearly opted in, through a checkout checkbox or a chat they started.
- Segment by interest and purchase, so a women's salon sends its henna offer to clients who booked before Eid, not everyone.
- Keep the pace sensible, one or two marketing messages a week is plenty for most stores.
- Add an opt-out button to every marketing template.
- Answer replies, because a customer who responds with a question and gets an answer turns it into a real conversation.
- Pick the right time and avoid prayer times and late nights.
A mandi restaurant, for example, does better sending customers who ordered in the last two months something like: "Hi [name], family gathering this weekend? Our family mandi platter with salads and drinks has a special price for orders from Thursday to Saturday. Want us to book your pickup time?" with an "I want to book" button and a "No more offers" button. Short, relevant, and easy to stop.
Common mistakes by business type
- Oud and perfume stores send every new launch to the whole list, even though many bought once as a gift.
- Abaya stores send several messages in a few days when collections drop.
- Real estate offices message numbers collected from old listings or groups.
- Salons turn appointment reminders into promotions in the same template, which lowers read rates.
- Restaurants send lunch offers at 10 pm when nobody is ordering.
The fix is nearly always the same: fewer messages, a sharper audience, better timing.
A weekly quality routine
Spend ten minutes a week in WhatsApp Manager checking the number's color, the color of each template you used, and how many people tapped the opt-out button after each campaign. A reply like "Who is this?" is an important warning, since it means the customer does not remember opting in and is close to blocking you. For the most common causes behind banned numbers, see WhatsApp ban reasons.
Make quality part of your campaign plan
Your quality rating is not a technical number to leave to a developer, it reflects your relationship with your customers. With WhatsLoop you can segment contacts, send each group the message that fits it, and let the bot answer quick questions while routing customers to your team in the shared inbox when they need a person. Check your color every week, and start every campaign with one question: does this customer actually want this message?
