WhatsApp's limits (and why they aren't Wapes')
WhatsApp caps how many new chats you can start each month with people who don't reply. What counts, what doesn't, and how to send without hitting that cap.
When you send in bulk there are two different limits, and it pays not to mix them up:
| Your Wapes plan limit | WhatsApp’s limit | |
|---|---|---|
| What it limits | How many messages Wapes sends for you | How many new chats your number can start |
| Set by | Wapes | WhatsApp (Meta) |
| Lifted by | A higher plan | Nothing: no plan or tool lifts it |
WhatsApp’s new-chat cap
Since 2026, WhatsApp limits how many new chats each number can start per month with people who don’t reply. As you get close, WhatsApp warns you with a message like “You started N of X new chats this month”.
- It’s per phone number, not per app: it doesn’t matter whether you send by hand, with Wapes or with any other tool.
- The cap isn’t the same for everyone. WhatsApp doesn’t publish a fixed figure: some accounts see 150, others 600, others 1,000. The number that matters is the one WhatsApp shows you.
- It resets every month.
What counts and what doesn’t
| Counts toward the cap | Does not count |
|---|---|
| A new chat with someone who never messaged you… | …if that person replies |
| …and who doesn’t reply | Chats you already had open |
| Messages in groups | |
| People who messaged you first |
That’s why writing to your own customer base — people who already talk to you — barely uses the cap. What burns it is cold-messaging lists of people who don’t know you.
How to send without hitting the cap
- Get them to message you first. Share a link like
wa.me/15551234567?text=Hi(with your number) on your social media, website, confirmation email or sign-up form. Everyone who writes to you stops counting as a “new chat”. - Ask for a reply. End your message with a question or a “Reply YES to confirm”. A chat where they reply no longer counts.
- Start with people who know you. Customers and contacts with history first; new numbers last, a few at a time.
- Spread it across the month. If your list is bigger than your cap, split it over several days and start with the people who matter most.
- Use several lines only if they already exist. If your business has several established lines, you can split the list between them, without repeating people. Don’t create new numbers to get around the cap: WhatsApp is stricter with new numbers and may block all of them.
What if I go over?
If you keep opening new chats nobody replies to, WhatsApp can restrict your number for hours or days. What to do then: My WhatsApp account is restricted.
Wapes can’t see or change your WhatsApp cap. If a warning says “X of X new chats”, it’s from WhatsApp, not from your Wapes plan.