WhatsApp Business API limits for property agents
The 24-hour window, messaging tiers, and the pricing change landing 1 October 2026 — what WhatsApp's own rules say, and why a shared, reply-only number like NovaKit's mostly sits outside them.
This isn't official Meta documentation. WhatsApp's platform rules and pricing change on their own schedule, independent of anything on this site. Check Meta's own developer docs for the current numbers before you rely on any figure here for a business decision.
Photo: Ketut Subiyanto / Pexels
What is the 24-hour customer service window?
When someone messages a WhatsApp Business number, a 24-hour window opens during which the business can reply freely — any content, any format, no pre-approval needed. Each new message from that person resets the window. Outside it, the business can only reach them with a pre-approved message template. Since NovaKit only ever replies to a message an agent sent first, every reply it generates falls inside this window — it never needs a template to start talking to you.
What are the messaging tiers, and do they limit how many replies I get?
Meta caps how many unique phone numbers a business can message outside the customer service window, in a rolling 24 hours. A new, unverified number starts at Tier 250; verifying the business, or sending enough high-quality template messages, moves it up.
| Tier | Unique users / 24h | How you get there |
|---|---|---|
| 250 | 250 | Default for a new, unverified number |
| 2,000 | 2,000 | Business verification, or 2,000 delivered template messages in a 30-day window |
| 10,000 / 100,000 / Unlimited | 10K–unlimited | Automatic, if quality rating stays high and you use at least half your current limit within 7 days |
This tier system governs business-initiated outreach — a business messaging someone who hasn't messaged first. It has nothing to do with how many times NovaKit can reply to you, since those replies happen inside the customer service window your own message opened, not outside it.
What changes on 1 October 2026?
Starting 1 October 2026, Meta begins charging for service messages — the free-form replies a business sends inside the 24-hour window — which have been free since November 2024. Every WhatsApp Business phone number gets 1,000 free service messages a month before per-message charges apply, at the same per-market rate Meta already publishes for utility and authentication templates. The free 72-hour window after someone clicks a "Click to WhatsApp" ad stays exempt; ordinary replies inside the customer service window do not.
Why doesn't NovaKit need message templates or broadcast permissions?
Because it never starts a conversation. An agent messages the shared number first, and every reply is a response to that — not an unsolicited outbound message. There's no marketing template, no opt-in flow, and no scheduled send anywhere in the product. That's a deliberate design choice: the tier and template-approval rules above exist specifically to govern business-initiated messaging, and NovaKit's shared, reply-only number was built not to need any of it.
What this means for you, practically
- You don't need a verified WhatsApp Business Account or a messaging tier to use NovaKit — you're the one starting every exchange.
- NovaKit doesn't count against your own business number's tier or template quota, because it isn't your number — it's a separate, shared number you message into.
- None of this changes your obligations if you separately run your own WhatsApp Business number for marketing to your own clients — those rules above still apply to that number, in full.
Sources
For the rules on what actually has to be in a property ad, see RERA rules for advertising a property on WhatsApp.