WhatsApp quality rating: what lowers it and how to keep it green

A Mirpur clothing shop ran three campaigns in nine days before Pohela Boishakh. The first went to opted-in buyers and did well. The second and third went to "everyone in the sheet", including numbers from 2023 COD orders. On day ten the number in WhatsApp Manager was yellow. Two of their templates were paused in the middle of the sale.

The quality rating is Meta's way of asking one question: do people want messages from this number? This guide explains how the rating works today, what it changes, and how a shop keeps it green through the busy seasons.

What is the WhatsApp quality rating?

The WhatsApp quality rating is Meta's score for a business phone number, based on how customers reacted to the messages it sent recently. It has three levels:

The rating reflects recent activity, so it moves. A bad week can turn it yellow, and a few clean weeks can bring it back.

What lowers a quality rating?

Customers blocking or reporting your number lowers the rating most. When someone blocks a business on WhatsApp, they can give a reason, such as not having signed up or the messages being spam, and those reasons count too.

Here are the usual causes in Bangladeshi f-commerce, roughly from most to least damaging:

Notice that most of these are not about the words in the template. They are about who receives it and how often.

What does the quality rating affect today?

The quality rating affects whether your messaging limit can grow, whether your templates keep running, and, if quality stays low for a long time, whether Meta restricts your account. It no longer cuts your messaging limit directly.

Meta changed this on 7 October 2025. Before that date, a number with a red rating could be marked as flagged and, if it did not recover within a week, moved down a messaging tier. Meta's current documentation says the flagged state no longer exists and a drop in quality does not downgrade the limit.

What still happens:

• No scaling. To move up from 2,000 to 10,000 and beyond, Meta requires high-quality messages across all your numbers and templates. A yellow or red number keeps the whole portfolio stuck. More in our guide to WhatsApp messaging limits.
• Template pausing. Each template has its own quality score. When one reaches the lowest level, Meta pauses it for 3 hours the first time, 6 hours the second time, and disables it the third time.
• Enforcement. Meta's policy says businesses with low quality for a sustained period can be rate limited, and serious or repeated policy problems can lead to restrictions on the account.

A disabled template in the middle of an Eid sale is the real cost for most shops. The order-confirmation template you built your whole process on can stop working because of an unrelated promotion.

How do I keep my quality rating green?

Message only people who opted in, send them things they care about, not too often, and make stopping easy. In practice:

1. Opt-in first. Ask "Notun collection ar offer WhatsApp e pathabo?" after an order and record the answer. Our guide to building a WhatsApp opt-in list covers the wording.
2. Segment. Send the saree offer to saree buyers, not to everyone.
3. Limit frequency. Decide a cap, such as two promotions a month per customer, and stick to it, even in sale season.
4. Add a STOP line to every marketing template, and honour it the same day.
5. Separate jobs. If you can, keep marketing on a different template from order updates, so a paused promotion does not stop delivery messages.
6. Start small. Send a new template to a few hundred of your best customers first. If replies are friendly and blocks are low, widen it.

A template that tends to do well with Bangladeshi customers is short, personal and gives a reason it was sent:

{{1}} apu, apni gelo mase amader kach theke kurti niyechilen. Notun summer collection eshe geche, apnar jonno 10% off code: SUMMER10. Dekhte "Show" likhun. Offer na chaile "STOP".

My rating turned yellow or red. What should I do?

Stop promotions, find what caused the complaints, and restart slowly with your best customers. A recovery plan for one to three weeks:

Do not try to "fix" quality by switching to a new number and repeating the same sends. The problem is the audience, and it follows you.

Does replying to customers affect quality?

Replies to customers who messaged you rarely cause blocks, because the customer started the chat. Quality problems almost always come from messages your business starts. That said, a slow or rude reply can still lead to a report, so fast, polite answers help too.

How does SaleMag help protect quality?

SaleMag shows each connected number's quality rating (green, yellow or red) and messaging limit on the channel setup screen, as reported by Meta, and the number's status shows a quality warning when the rating is red. Its WhatsApp broadcast campaigns skip contacts without WhatsApp opt-in, let you target a segment or tag instead of your whole list, and let you preview the audience before sending. Template statuses from Meta, including paused and rejected, update inside SaleMag. SaleMag connects through Meta's official WhatsApp Business API; it cannot change your rating, but it makes the habits that protect it easier.

Next steps

Open WhatsApp Manager and check your rating today. Then set a monthly frequency cap, add a STOP line to every marketing template, and remove numbers without opt-in from your next audience. When you want segments, opt-in tracking and template status in one place, start free.