Template Quality Rating & Pausing

Every approved WhatsApp message template has a quality rating. Meta bases it on how the template is used, the feedback WhatsApp users give, and engagement (whether people read it). A template's quality drops when multiple users give negative feedback on it, or when it has low read rates.

When a template's quality reaches the lowest level (Low), Meta automatically pauses it so it cannot be sent for a while. This protects the quality of the phone numbers that send it.

• 1st time: paused for 3 hours
• 2nd time: paused for 6 hours
• 3rd time: disabled, and it can no longer be sent

A pause ends on its own. A disabled template does not come back. Meta's advice is to create a new template with different content.

The quality ratings#

Meta updates the rating automatically as it collects usage, feedback and engagement over time. Once a template's status is anything other than Approved (Active), it cannot be sent until Approved status is restored.

What happens while a template is paused#

• It cannot be sent. The API rejects every attempt with error 132015 ("Template is paused due to low quality").
• You are not charged for those attempts, and they do not count against your messaging limit.
• Stop your campaigns that use it. Halt any automated sending that relies on the template until it is Active again. The requests will fail anyway.
• Your phone number is not affected at first. Your other good-quality templates keep sending normally. But if a business keeps sending templates that reach Low quality, the phone number may eventually be affected (see Messaging Limits & Quality Rating).
• You are told. Meta sends a WhatsApp Manager notification, an email and a message_template_status_update webhook when a template is paused, and again when it becomes Active.

How to recover#

1. 1

   Wait for the automatic unpause

   After the pause period (3 hours the first time, 6 hours the second), the template unpauses on its own and goes back to Active. Its quality rating is reset based on the most recent customer feedback. Campaigns you did not stop will start working again.

2. 2

   Or unpause it manually

   You can unpause a paused template in WhatsApp Manager with the manually unpause it link, or through the API. Templates paused during template pacing (below) must be unpaused manually before they can be used again.

3. 3

   Fix what caused the negative feedback

   If you think the content is the problem, edit the template. Once you resubmit it, its status changes to In Review and it cannot be sent until it is re-approved and Active again. If the problem is who receives it or when, change your targeting and delivery instead.

4. 4

   If it was disabled, create a new template

   A template paused too many times is permanently disabled (error 132016). Create a new template with different content.

Template pacing: why messages can be held#

Template pacing gives customers time to give early feedback before a template reaches too many people. It applies to Marketing and Utility templates. A template may be paced if it is newly created, has just been unpaused, or does not have a High (GREEN) rating. Utility templates are only paced if you have had a utility template paused, and then for the next 7 days.

When a template is paced, messages go out normally up to a threshold. After that, further messages are held while Meta waits for feedback:

• Good feedback: the held messages are released and sent normally.
• Bad feedback: the template is paused. Each held message is dropped and fails with error 132015. Account admins are told by Meta Business Suite notification, a WhatsApp Manager banner and email.
• No clear signal in time: Meta releases the held messages. Its goal is that even paced, high-throughput campaign messages are delivered within an hour (99th percentile).

Technical detail#

Read a template's quality score:

curl 'https://graph.facebook.com/v26.0/<TEMPLATE_ID>?fields=quality_score' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>'

{
  "quality_score": {
    "score": "GREEN",
    "date": 1758754645
  },
  "id": "1387372356726668"
}

score is GREEN, YELLOW, RED or UNKNOWN. date is when it was last updated, as a Unix timestamp.

Unpause a template: POST /<TEMPLATE_ID>/unpause.

Pacing in the send response: the messages endpoint returns a message_status of accepted for messages processed normally, or held_for_quality_assessment for messages being held.

Webhooks to watch:

Error codes (see Error Handling & Codes):

Frequently asked#

Gotchas & common mistakes#