WhatsApp broadcast limit: 256 contacts and monthly caps

The WhatsApp broadcast limit is three rules. Each broadcast list holds up to 256 contacts, and you can make as many lists as you like. Only contacts who have saved your number receive a broadcast. And in some countries WhatsApp is gradually rolling out a cap of 35 free broadcast messages a month, shared across all your lists.

This guide takes each limit in turn, using WhatsApp's own wording where it has published any: what the "reached the broadcast limit for this month" notice means, what changed for businesses in 2026, and what to use when a list stops being enough. It is written for shop owners, tutors, brokers and organisers who send the same update to a few hundred people.

The WhatsApp broadcast limits at a glance

The 256 ceiling and the saved-number rule apply wherever broadcast lists exist. The monthly cap is newer and only appears on some accounts, so a colleague's phone can show a broadcast count that yours doesn't.

How many contacts can a WhatsApp broadcast list have?

Up to 256 per list. Each recipient gets the message as an ordinary one-to-one chat from you, and a reply comes back to you alone; nobody else on the list sees it. That privacy is the difference from a group, where every member sees every reply. To create a list:

1. 1Open the broadcast lists screen. Android: Chats → More options (the three dots) → Broadcast lists. iPhone: Settings or your profile picture → Broadcast messages.
2. 2Start a new list: tap the new list button on Android, or New List on iPhone.
3. 3Search for or select up to 256 contacts.
4. 4Confirm with the tick on Android or Create on iPhone, then type your message as in any chat.

Why some people on your list never get the message

WhatsApp only delivers a broadcast to people who have added your number to their phone's contacts. Everyone else on the list is skipped. WhatsApp's own advice, if someone isn't receiving your broadcasts, is to ask them to add you to their contacts.

The rule makes a list a poor tool for new leads. A list built from an enquiry form or a spreadsheet reaches only the fraction who saved you, and the people most likely to have saved you are the ones who already talk to you. If you plan to use lists, ask for the save at the first contact: on the receipt, the admission form, the visiting card.

What "reached the broadcast limit for this month" means

It means your account has the monthly broadcast cap and this month's allowance is used up. On 18 March 2025 WhatsApp said it would limit how many broadcast messages individuals and businesses can send, to curb spam, starting with tests of a monthly cap; Meta gave TechCrunch 30 a month as one example. WABetaInfo, which tracks beta builds, found a test limit of 35 a month that May. By October 2025, WhatsApp said the experiment covered more than a dozen countries, including India.

As of October 2026, WhatsApp's help centre says people in some countries might see a monthly broadcast limit, that it is rolling out gradually, and that you can send up to 35 free broadcast messages a month. In practice:

• Check what's left under Settings → Broadcasts. WhatsApp also notifies you when you're about to reach the limit.
• Once it's used up, you can't send more broadcasts until the allowance renews. WhatsApp calls it monthly; while the feature was in development, WABetaInfo reported that it refreshes 30 days after your first broadcast, so don't count on the 1st of the month.
• The cap covers broadcasts only. One-to-one chats and groups carry on as normal, though where WhatsApp is testing its separate limit on messages nobody answers, new chats still count towards it. See the unanswered-message limit.
• If Settings shows no broadcast count, the cap hasn't reached your account yet.

Can you increase the WhatsApp broadcast limit?

Not on a personal account. The 256-contact ceiling is fixed, and WhatsApp offers no way to buy more broadcasts in the personal app. Its help centre points people who want to reach more people to Status updates and channels, and businesses to the WhatsApp Business app.

Until March 2025, TechCrunch reported, WhatsApp Business accounts could send broadcasts free with no monthly cap. The paid route now is business broadcasts, under Tools → Business broadcasts in the WhatsApp Business app. As of October 2026, WhatsApp's help centre describes it like this:

• Some messages can be free first, including through a Meta Verified subscription. After that, you pay for each message delivered to a recipient within five days of sending, priced by the recipient's country code. Money reserved for undelivered messages is credited back.
• Business broadcasts are reviewed by Meta before they are sent.
• Message packs let you prepay credits. One credit is used for each recipient who receives the message, credits don't expire, and packs are only on iPhone for now.
• The feature is available in limited countries. If many recipients report or block you, you get a warning; keep sending and business broadcasts are suspended for three days, with longer suspensions for repeat offences.

Those credits are the 2026 change behind reports of paid broadcasts. WABetaInfo found the credit system reaching more countries in WhatsApp for iOS 26.19.77 in May 2026, with a free allowance of roughly 35 broadcasts a month that varies by region, and reported that WhatsApp may offer 250 free broadcast messages a month for the first six months. WhatsApp's help centre gives the same 35 for broadcasts; it hasn't published the 250 offer, so treat that as reported, not promised.

Broadcast list more than 256: why extra lists don't solve it

Because WhatsApp lets you create as many lists as you like, the usual workaround is to split a big audience: ten lists of 256 give 2,560 places. It runs into three walls.

• The saved-number rule applies to every list. Splitting 2,000 enquiries into eight lists still reaches only the people who saved you.
• Where the monthly cap applies, every list you send to draws on the same allowance. One update to eight lists is eight broadcasts, so 35 covers about four updates a month to that audience.
• The lists live on one phone. They aren't supported on WhatsApp Web or the Windows and Mac apps, so nobody can run them from a computer.

What to do when you hit the broadcast limit

Waiting for the allowance to renew is the only way to send more messages to your broadcast lists from the same account. Everything else is a different tool, each with a trade-off:

• A group: up to 1,024 members, and everyone sees every member's number and every reply. Right for people who should talk to each other.
• A community: an announcement group reaches every member, and only admins post in it. WhatsApp's help centre puts community membership at up to 2,000 people. Community vs group vs broadcast list vs channel compares the four.
• A channel: one-way updates in the Updates tab. A follower's phone number stays private; only admins who have that follower saved as a contact can see it.
• Status: photos, videos or text that the contacts you choose can see for 24 hours. WhatsApp itself suggests Status and channels to people who need more than the broadcast allowance.
• Forwarding: up to five chats at a time, fine for a handful of people. See how the forward limit works.
• A contact-list campaign: each person gets their own one-to-one chat, paced across one or more numbers. Recipients don't need to have saved your number, but they do need to expect the message. See messaging many contacts without a broadcast list.

Sending one-to-one messages at scale

A contact-list campaign is what WavesFlo runs: every person on the list receives the message in their own chat, spread across your connected numbers, with a randomised 30 to 300 second gap, a daily and hourly allowance per number, and quiet hours at night. Opt-outs are enforced at send time across every campaign. It isn't a way round WhatsApp's rules. Where WhatsApp applies its cap on unanswered messages, a message nobody answers counts whichever tool sent it, so the list has to be people who asked to hear from you. The daily pacing guide explains the defaults, and campaigns across many numbers covers spreading volume.