WhatsApp broadcast lists: 256 contacts and one big condition
A broadcast list is a saved list of contacts you can message again and again without picking them each time. Each person receives your message as a normal one-to-one chat, and replies come back to you individually, not to the rest of the list (WhatsApp Help Center).
- Up to 256 contacts per list, and you can create as many lists as you like.
- Only people who have saved your number in their phone contacts receive it. Everyone else on the list simply does not get the message.
- A monthly limit in some countries. WhatsApp says people in some countries may see a monthly broadcast limit, a change it is rolling out gradually.
- Phone only. Broadcast lists are not supported on WhatsApp for Windows, Mac or Web.
Create a broadcast list on Android
- Open Chats, tap the three-dot menu, then Broadcast lists.
- Start a new list and select the contacts.
- Confirm with the check mark, then write your message and send it.
Create a broadcast list on iPhone
- Tap Settings or your profile picture, then Broadcast messages.
- Tap New List, then search for or select the contacts.
- Tap Create, then write your message and send it.
The 256 limit is rarely the real constraint; the saved-number rule is. A list of people who never stored your number reaches almost nobody, and people who receive messages they did not expect report them. WhatsApp says accounts that are reported multiple times are banned (WhatsApp Help Center). One more detail if you plan to connect the number to software later: when a WhatsApp Business app number is also onboarded to the Cloud API, Meta disables broadcast lists in the app (Meta documentation).
WhatsApp Business broadcasts: the paid option inside the app
The WhatsApp Business app has a separate, paid tool for campaigns: business broadcasts, which replaced marketing messages in some countries. You open it from Tools and then Business broadcasts (WhatsApp Help Center).
- Audience: pick individual contacts or ready-made lists, labels included. On the WhatsApp Business web app you can also upload a CSV or XLSX file.
- Review and consent: business broadcasts are reviewed by Meta, and you need your customers’ consent to message them.
- Price: you pay for each delivered message, priced by the recipient’s country code (WhatsApp Help Center).
- Timing: send right away or schedule it for later.
- Availability: only in a limited number of countries, so it may not appear in your app yet.
Misuse costs you here too: businesses that break Meta’s terms for business broadcasts can lose access to the feature, temporarily or for good.
Marketing templates on the WhatsApp Business Platform
For real volume, the official route is the WhatsApp Business Platform: you send approved marketing templates to people who opted in, through the Cloud API or Meta’s newer Marketing Messages API, usually with the help of a Meta partner. Five rules decide what you can send.
1. Opt-in comes first
Meta requires businesses to get opt-in before messaging people on WhatsApp. The opt-in must state clearly that the person is agreeing to receive messages from you, and it must name your business (Meta documentation). The WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy adds that you must respect every request to stop, made on or off WhatsApp (policy). Meta checks opt-in reactively, through user feedback, so the proof is yours to keep.
2. Every template is reviewed
A marketing message template is reviewed automatically when you create or edit it, and review can take up to 24 hours. Only approved templates can be sent, and templates that collect negative feedback or low read rates can be paused or disabled (Meta documentation).
3. You pay per delivered message
Since July 1, 2025 Meta has charged per delivered template message, with the rate set by category (marketing, utility or authentication) and by the recipient’s country; promotions fall under marketing. A chat that starts from a Click to WhatsApp ad opens a free entry point window of up to 7 days, in which your replies, templates included, are free. From October 1, 2026 Meta also charges for service messages beyond 1,000 free per business phone number each month (Meta pricing). The older conversation-based model no longer applies.
Meta has also announced that the Cloud API will stop supporting marketing messages after October 13, 2027, with the Marketing Messages API taking over marketing traffic (Meta documentation).
4. Messaging limits: how many people per day
A messaging limit caps how many unique people you can reach outside a customer service window in a moving 24-hour period. Since October 7, 2025 it is set per business portfolio and shared by all of its phone numbers (Meta documentation).
| Limit | Where it starts and how you move up |
|---|---|
| 250 people | The default for every new business portfolio |
| 2,000 people | Verify your business, have a partner verify it, or deliver 2,000 messages to unique people outside service windows within 30 days using high-quality templates; Meta then reviews your quality |
| 10,000 people | Automatic: keep sending high-quality messages and use at least half of your current limit over the last 7 days, and the limit rises one level within 6 hours |
| 100,000 people | The same automatic scaling |
| Unlimited | The same automatic scaling |
Two details matter for planning. Messages inside an open customer service window do not count against the limit, and a drop in quality no longer lowers it: Meta stopped downgrading limits for that reason on October 7, 2025 (Meta documentation).
5. Quality decides whether you keep sending
Every template carries a quality rating based on how people react to it: high, medium or low, shown as green, yellow and red. A low-quality template can still be sent but risks being paused or disabled, and only high-quality sending lets your messaging limit grow (Meta documentation). WhatsApp may also limit how many marketing templates one person receives from all businesses, and it currently does not deliver marketing templates to US phone numbers (Meta documentation).
Setting it up through a Meta partner
Most businesses do this with a Meta partner, often called a BSP (Business Solution Provider). Meta now distinguishes Solution Partners, which can extend a credit line and invoice you directly, from Tech Providers, where you add your own payment method so Meta bills you for messages and the provider bills for its software. With developers of your own, you can also build on the Cloud API directly (Meta documentation). A typical setup:
- Collect opt-in on your website, at checkout or in store, naming your business and what people will receive.
- Create or verify your Meta business portfolio, open a WhatsApp Business Account and register a phone number.
- Choose a partner, or build on the Cloud API yourself.
- Write a marketing template, submit it and wait for approval, which can take up to 24 hours.
- Send in batches that fit your messaging limit, and watch template quality and opt-outs.
- Answer the replies. A customer’s reply opens the 24-hour window, which is where a shared inbox earns its keep.
Why “bulk message sender” programs get numbers banned
Search for WhatsApp bulk messaging and most results sell a program: a browser extension that drives WhatsApp Web, a desktop tool that sends from a spreadsheet, or a modified WhatsApp app. They all automate an account WhatsApp built for people, and WhatsApp’s rules say so directly.
- The Terms of Service rule out the behaviour. Acceptable use excludes communications “such as bulk messaging, auto-messaging, auto-dialing, and the like”, and using the service “through automated or other means” in ways WhatsApp has not authorised (WhatsApp Terms of Service).
- Modified apps are named. WhatsApp says unofficial apps such as GB WhatsApp and FM WhatsApp violate its Terms of Service and can lead to temporary or permanent bans, including limits on linking devices (WhatsApp Help Center).
- Detection is not about speed alone. WhatsApp asks people not to bulk message, auto-message or auto-dial, and it uses machine learning together with user reports to find accounts that send unwanted automated messages (WhatsApp Help Center).
That is why “send slowly” or “rotate numbers” settings do not make these programs safe: the problem is the method, not the speed. And a ban does not just take a phone number. It takes the number your customers know, along with every link and QR code that points to it.
Messaging people in Türkiye: Law No. 6563, İYS and KVKK
If your recipients are in Türkiye, Turkish law adds its own layer on top of WhatsApp’s rules. This section is general information, not legal advice.
- What counts as a commercial message. Law No. 6563 on the Regulation of Electronic Commerce defines a commercial electronic message as data, voice or image content sent electronically for commercial purposes by means such as telephone, call centres, fax, automatic dialling machines, smart voice recording systems, email or SMS. The list is open-ended (“such as”), so the safe reading is that WhatsApp campaigns are covered (Law No. 6563).
- Consent first. Under Article 6, commercial electronic messages may be sent only with the recipient’s prior consent, given in writing or by any electronic means. There are two exceptions: messages about changes to, use of or maintenance of goods and services already supplied, when the person gave you their contact details, and messages to tradespeople and merchants.
- Refusal. Recipients can refuse at any time without giving a reason, and the sender must stop within three business days (Article 8).
- Fines. In 2026 the fine for sending without consent is 2,859 to 14,309 Turkish lira, and when messages go to more than one person at once it can be increased up to ten times (Article 12).
- İYS. The İleti Yönetim Sistemi is Türkiye’s national database of commercial message consents, set up by TOBB at the Ministry of Trade’s request. Businesses that send commercial electronic messages must register, and commercial messages cannot be sent to recipients without consent recorded in İYS (İYS FAQ). İYS keeps consent for three channels: voice calls, SMS and email. WhatsApp has no channel of its own there, which is not an exemption, because the consent duty comes from the law. Keep your own record of who agreed, when and to what.
- KVKK. A phone number is personal data. The KVKK Board’s decision 2018/119 requires businesses that send advertising SMS, calls or emails without explicit consent or another legal basis to stop that processing immediately (KVKK).
In short, Meta’s opt-in and Turkish consent are separate obligations, and you need both. If you have a concrete sending plan for Türkiye, check it with a lawyer.
Where Pinlyx fits, and where it does not
Pinlyx does not send WhatsApp broadcasts or template messages, and it cannot start a WhatsApp conversation with someone who has not written to you. If you need opted-in campaigns on WhatsApp, use business broadcasts in the WhatsApp Business app or a Meta partner on the Business Platform, as described above.
Pinlyx covers the other half of the job: the conversations customers start. On the Pro plan ($24.99 a month, or $20.82 billed yearly) you connect your WhatsApp number and every incoming chat lands in one unified inbox with Telegram, Instagram, X, email and live chat. You assign chats to teammates, tag contacts and move them through a pipeline, and an AI agent answers inside the 24-hour window with your own OpenAI, Gemini or other provider key. The setup is in our WhatsApp auto reply guide and on the WhatsApp CRM page.
To start more of those conversations without a broadcast, make it easy to write first: put a wa.me link or QR code from our free WhatsApp link generator on your website, receipts and Instagram bio, or run Click to WhatsApp ads, whose chats open Meta’s free entry point window of up to 7 days.
If your audience is on Telegram
Telegram works differently, and Pinlyx can send there. Pinlyx’s Telegram campaigns go out from your own Telegram accounts at a capped pace, by default up to 20 messages per account per hour and 50 per day with at least 10 seconds between messages, and wait out Telegram’s flood limits automatically. That suits communities and customers who already talk to you on Telegram; see Telegram CRM. The same rule of thumb applies: message people who expect to hear from you, and in Türkiye the safe reading is that the consent rule of Law No. 6563 covers commercial messages on Telegram too.