> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.pipelime.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# WhatsApp daily limits, new-chat budget and warm-up

> Why a number can still send messages but refuses to open a new conversation, and how the first days of a new number are paced.

export const Screenshot = ({id, alt, caption, frame = 'browser', url, marks = [], lang = 'en', workspace = 'northwind-outbound'}) => {
  const src = `/images/screenshots/${lang}/${id}.png`;
  const chrome = url ? `app.pipelime.ai/${workspace}${url}` : 'app.pipelime.ai';
  return <figure className={`pl-shot pl-shot--${frame} not-prose`}>
      <div className="pl-shot__frame">
        {frame !== 'bare' && <div className="pl-shot__bar">
            <span className="pl-shot__dots">
              <span className="pl-shot__dot" />
              <span className="pl-shot__dot" />
              <span className="pl-shot__dot" />
            </span>
            <span className="pl-shot__url">{chrome}</span>
          </div>}
        <div className="pl-shot__media">
          <img src={src} alt={alt} loading="lazy" />
          {marks.map(mark => <span key={mark.n} className="pl-shot__mark" style={{
    left: `${mark.x}%`,
    top: `${mark.y}%`
  }} aria-hidden="true">
              {mark.n}
            </span>)}
        </div>
      </div>
      {caption && <figcaption className="pl-shot__caption">{caption}</figcaption>}
    </figure>;
};

A WhatsApp number runs against two separate sending budgets, not one: a larger total for
everything it sends, and a much smaller one for conversations it opens with someone new. A
freshly connected number is held below the smaller of the two while it warms up.

<div className="pl-availability">
  <div className="pl-availability__row">
    <div className="pl-availability__label">Where</div>
    <div className="pl-availability__value"><span className="pl-path">Integrations<span className="pl-path__sep">→</span>Integrations<span className="pl-path__sep">→</span>WhatsApp Accounts</span></div>
  </div>

  <div className="pl-availability__row">
    <div className="pl-availability__label">Your role needs</div>
    <div className="pl-availability__value">Read access to WhatsApp Accounts <code>read-whatsapp-accounts</code>. Admin, Member and Viewer have it by default.</div>
  </div>

  <div className="pl-availability__row">
    <div className="pl-availability__label">To create or change</div>
    <div className="pl-availability__value"><code>create-whatsapp-accounts</code> to add one, <code>update-whatsapp-accounts</code> to change one, on top of the permission above.</div>
  </div>

  <div className="pl-availability__row">
    <div className="pl-availability__label">Your plan</div>
    <div className="pl-availability__value">Needs at least one seat for WhatsApp numbers.</div>
  </div>

  <div className="pl-availability__note">If you cannot find this in your sidebar, your workspace may have a custom menu configuration. Contact support and we will check it for you.</div>
</div>

## How it behaves

### Two budgets, and the smaller one is the one that binds

A number's settings page opens on **Message Limits**. **Daily messages** and **Weekly messages**
cap everything the number sends, and the daily field tops out at 250. Each field shows a
recommended figure alongside its maximum, and leaving a field blank runs the number at the
recommended figure, not at the maximum.

Below a divider, **New Conversations** holds a second, separate pair of fields (**New chats per
day** and **New chats per week**) that count only sends opening a conversation with someone who
has never messaged the number before. That budget is capped far lower: at most 25 a day. A
new-chat ceiling of no more than 6 in any single hour applies as well; it is not a field on this
screen, and a number runs below it by default.

Opening a conversation draws down both budgets at once, so the message budget stays the global
ceiling and the new-chat budget is the one that actually stops outreach first. WhatsApp watches
new-conversation volume specifically, which is why a number sitting comfortably inside its message
budget can still be restricted for opening too many first contacts.

<Screenshot id="channels/whatsapp-limits-and-new-chats--limits-form" url="/whatsapp-accounts/1" alt="The Message Limits accordion open on a WhatsApp account's settings page, showing Daily messages and Weekly messages fields above a divider, then a New Conversations heading with New chats per day and New chats per week fields below it, and Delay Between Actions fields underneath" caption="New Conversations (1) is a second, much lower budget, not a stricter version of the message limit above it." marks={[{ n: 1, x: 50, y: 55 }]} />

### An answer is exempt from both

An answer to someone who has written to the number is exempt from both budgets. It does not
consume either one, and it is never held back by either one, however close the number is to its
daily message limit. That exemption is what keeps live conversations moving on a number whose
outreach has already stopped for the day.

What counts as an answer depends on who is writing it. A message you type yourself in the inbox
counts as one as long as that lead has written to that number at some point. An automatic reply
counts as one only while the lead's own last message is still recent; once the conversation has
been quiet longer than that, an automatic message to the same lead is treated as fresh outreach
again and goes through both budgets like any other cold open.

How long an automatic reply waits before it goes out is a separate, workspace-wide setting, timed
in seconds rather than minutes because WhatsApp is treated as a live chat rather than
correspondence: see [Workspace-wide pacing settings](/en/ai-agents/campaign-pacing-settings) for
that.

### A newly connected number can't open anything for its first day

On top of both budgets, a number that has just connected is held back further: for its first full
day it cannot open a single new conversation, no matter how high you set its limits. The same wait
applies again after a real disconnect and reconnect, not only the first time a number is linked.
Answers keep sending normally throughout, since they are exempt from it regardless.

### The new-chat allowance then ramps up over ten days

Once that first day passes, a number does not jump straight to its configured **New chats per day**
limit. How many new conversations it may start climbs a little further each day across its first
ten days connected, reaching 30 on the ramp's last step: already above the highest that field can
ever be set to (25), so your own configured limit takes over as the binding one before the ramp
runs out.

Where you see this depends on the screen:

* While the number is in that first-day wait, the accounts list shows a warming-up label beside
  its usage counters, counting down to when new chats reopen.
* Afterwards, that label reappears only once the number has spent the day's ramped allowance, and
  then it names which day of the ramp the number is on. Below the allowance there is no label,
  because nothing is being held back yet.
* The settings page shows the ramp the whole way through. While a number is warming up, the helper
  line under **New chats per day** is replaced with today's actual allowance and how far into the
  ramp the number is.

<Screenshot id="channels/whatsapp-limits-and-new-chats--warming-row" url="/whatsapp-accounts" alt="A row on the WhatsApp Accounts list for a number connected today, showing its message and new-chat counters with a warming-up label beneath them counting down to when new chats reopen" caption="A representative example. Answers are not affected by any of this; only new conversations wait out the first day." />

### What else can hold a number back

The accounts list shows one label at a time: the first thing standing between the number and a new
conversation, with the reason in a tooltip.

* **Daily limit reached**: the message budget is used up, whether that is its daily, hourly or
  weekly ceiling. Sending resumes on its own.
* **Daily new chats reached**: the new-chat budget alone is used up. New conversations resume the
  next day.
* **Outside sending hours**: the number has a schedule and the moment falls outside it. Outreach
  is queued until the schedule reopens.

None of the three holds back an answer to someone who has written recently; those keep sending
immediately in every case.

### The schedule, and the hours it is read in

A number arrives with a weekly **Schedule** already filled in: weekday business hours, as the
note at the top of **Message Limits** says. The schedule governs only when the number may start
new outreach; an answer to someone who wrote recently is never held for it. Clear every block and
the number is no longer restricted to particular hours at all.

The accounts list carries a **Schedule** column: a calendar button on a number that has one, and a
dash on a number that does not. The button opens a **Weekly Schedule** panel listing each day's
blocks, headed by the zone those hours are read in: the number's own **Timezone**, set alongside
the blocks themselves, not your browser's.

## Limits

|                   |                                                                                                                                                            |
| ----------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Message budget    | Up to 250 a day, with separate hourly and weekly ceilings of its own                                                                                       |
| New-chat budget   | Up to 25 a day and never more than 6 in an hour: the stricter budget, and usually the one that binds first                                                 |
| Exempt from both  | An answer to someone who has written to the number; for automatic replies, only while their message is still recent                                        |
| Post-connect wait | A full day with no new chats, after connecting and after a real reconnect                                                                                  |
| New-chat ramp     | Climbs daily over the number's first ten days, reaching 30 on the last step                                                                                |
| Schedule          | Created with weekday business hours on connect, in the number's own time zone; governs new outreach only, and enforces nothing once every block is cleared |

## Related

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Connect a WhatsApp number" icon="link" href="/en/channels/connect-whatsapp">
    Link a phone and set these budgets for the first time.
  </Card>

  <Card title="WhatsApp Chat" icon="messages-square" href="/en/channels/whatsapp-chat">
    Where the conversations these budgets govern actually happen.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Why an agent's sending numbers move" icon="gauge" href="/en/ai-agents/sending-limits">
    How an agent's WhatsApp budget is read from this account's limits and ramp step.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Workspace-wide pacing settings" icon="sliders-horizontal" href="/en/ai-agents/campaign-pacing-settings">
    Where the WhatsApp reply delay lives, separate from the per-number budgets on this page.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>