WhatsApp Account Restricted
If your messages stopped going out
Your number is probably not banned
Something specific is blocked, and Meta will tell you exactly which thing it is. Most of the panic around WhatsApp account health comes from guessing at a system that reports on itself in detail.
Five separate things have to be healthy before a message leaves: the app, the business portfolio that owns it, the messaging account, the phone number, and the template. Any one of them can stop a send on its own. The number everyone blames is usually fine.
The check almost nobody runs
One API call tells you which of the five is blocked
Requesting the health_status field on a phone number, template or messaging account returns a verdict for every node in the chain, plus an error code and a suggested fix for anything blocking. Here is what a real answer looks like when a template is the actual problem.
AVAILABLE
The node meets every messaging requirement. Nothing to do.
LIMITED
It works but with a restriction, and an additional_info string says which. An unapproved display name is the usual one.
BLOCKED
It fails a requirement. An errors array gives the code, the description and a possible_solution.
Any provider worth using can run this for you in under a minute. If yours is telling you to wait and see, that is a choice rather than a limitation.
Where most advice goes wrong
Meta rebuilt this in October 2025
On 7 October 2025 messaging limits moved from individual phone numbers to the business portfolio, and the mechanism that linked quality rating to your sending limit was retired. Almost every guide still online describes the old behaviour, which is why so much account-health advice no longer matches what actually happens.
messaging_limit_tierwhatsapp_business_manager_messaging_limit. The old field is deprecated.Source: Meta's Messaging Limits and Upcoming Changes documentation, both updated 2026. Verified 2 November 2026.
What actually happens when you breach policy
The restrictions arrive in a fixed order
Enforcement escalates in steps rather than landing all at once, and each step has a published duration. Knowing where you are on this ladder tells you whether to wait, appeal, or change how you are sending.
Two things that skip the ladder
Severe harm categories. Evidence of child exploitation, scams, terrorism or sale of illegal drugs means immediate offboarding, with no warning sequence.
Excessive negative feedback. Enough user complaints can limit or remove a business even without a specific policy breach, which is the quiet reason behind a lot of unexplained restrictions on heavy marketing sends.
Where to read the detail
Business Support Home in Meta Business Suite carries the violation, the policy text, what happens on a repeat, and the appeal route.
How long an appeal takes
Typically 24 to 48 hours. The outcome comes back as either Unchanged or Reversed, and a reversal restores the previous status.
What cannot be appealed
Not every spam violation is eligible. Where it is not, the restriction has to be waited out.
How to be told immediately
The account_update webhook reports violations in real time, including restriction type and duration, rather than leaving you to notice sends failing.
So what does quality rating still do
It moved from your number to your templates
Quality rating did not disappear, it changed target. Each template carries its own score built from user feedback, read rates and engagement, and that score drives pacing and pausing. A template that keeps drawing complaints loses approved status, and once that happens it cannot be sent until approval is restored.
High quality. Little or no negative feedback. Sends normally.
Medium. Negative feedback from several users or low read rates. Still sends, but pausing is close.
Low. Still sends, but at real risk of being paused or disabled. Fix the content now.
Pending. Every new template starts here until feedback data arrives. Sends normally.
The one place number-level quality still matters is throughput. Reaching 1,000 messages per second needs a Medium rating or better, an unlimited portfolio limit, and a number already messaging 100,000 or more unique users inside a rolling 24 hours.
Getting capacity back, or getting it up
Five steps, and a 50% rule
New portfolios start at 250 unique recipients per rolling 24 hours. Reaching 2,000 takes a deliberate action. Everything above that happens on its own if you keep earning it.
Three ways to reach 2,000
Verify your business, have the partner who onboarded you verify it, or deliver 2,000 messages to unique recipients outside service windows within a 30 day moving window using high quality templates.
Then it climbs by itself
Each further level needs high quality messaging across all numbers and templates, plus having used at least half your current limit in the last 7 days. The increase lands within 6 hours.
Why growth stalls at a tier
Almost always the 50% rule. A portfolio sitting at 10,000 and sending 3,000 will never climb, however clean its quality is. Under-sending is the blocker, not quality.
If an increase is denied
An account_alerts webhook returns the reason. Deferred and failed both point back to the 2,000 message route; a third asks you to verify identity first.
Where we fit
We read the account before touching the sending
UberBrains works as the team in the middle, matching businesses to the right provider rather than selling a platform. On a restricted account that means running the health check, locating the node that is actually blocking, reading the violation in Business Support Home, and deciding whether this is an appeal, a wait, or a sending problem that will repeat until the templates change.
If your provider has told you the number is banned and left it there, that is usually the point at which a second opinion is worth having. It is also worth asking whether the provider itself is the right fit, which is a separate question we have written up here.
Straight answers
Frequently Asked Questions
Why has my WhatsApp Business API account stopped sending?
Five nodes have to be healthy for a message to send: the app, the business portfolio, the messaging account, the phone number and the template. Requesting the health_status field on the number or template returns a verdict for each one, with an error code and a suggested fix for whichever is blocked. A template stuck outside approved status is the most common single cause, and it looks identical to a banned number from the outside.
Does a red quality rating reduce my messaging limit?
No, not any more. Meta retired that mechanism on 7 October 2025, along with the Flagged phone number state. A quality drop no longer downgrades your messaging limit. Quality still affects template pacing and pausing, and still gates throughput eligibility, but the limit itself is no longer tied to it. Most guidance online has not been updated for this.
How long does a WhatsApp messaging restriction last?
Restrictions escalate in published steps. A first breach is a warning with no block. Then a 1 or 3 day block on template messages. Then a 5, 7 or 30 day block on all messages. Then an indefinite account lock that only an appeal can lift. Then permanent removal. Severe harm categories such as scams or illegal drug sales skip the sequence and are offboarded immediately.
Can I appeal a WhatsApp Business policy violation?
Usually. Open Business Support Home in Meta Business Suite, select the messaging account, choose the violation and click Request Review. A decision normally arrives in 24 to 48 hours and comes back as either Unchanged or Reversed, with a reversal restoring the previous account status. Not every spam violation is eligible, and where it is not the restriction has to run its course.
Why is my messaging limit not increasing?
Most often because of the utilisation rule. Automatic scaling requires that you used at least half your current limit in the last seven days, alongside high quality messaging across all numbers and templates. A portfolio on 10,000 that only sends 3,000 will stay there indefinitely no matter how clean its quality rating is. Limits also now sit on the business portfolio rather than on individual numbers, so adding more numbers does not add capacity.