Someone tells you to just make a broadcast list. You try it, and you discover the cap — and that half the people on the list never received anything. Here’s what actually works at this scale.
Why the free app can’t do it
The WhatsApp Business app has a broadcast list feature, and on paper it looks like the answer. Two limits make it useless past a certain size:
- 256 recipients per list. A hard cap.
- Both sides must have saved each other’s numbers. Your recipient has to have saved your business number, or they simply never get the broadcast. In practice that means real delivery is a fraction of your list.
Groups aren’t the workaround either. Everyone sees everyone else’s number, anyone’s reply notifies the whole room, and the member cap arrives quickly. A group is a room; a broadcast is a mailing. Communities don’t solve it either — see Community vs group for why neither scales to a customer list.
How to send to 1,000 people
The WhatsApp Business API is the supported route, and the flow is short:
- Get a number onto the API through a provider. Your existing business number can usually migrate.
- Write and submit a template. Broadcasts have to use a Meta-approved template — see templates explained. Approval takes minutes to about 48 hours.
- Upload your contact list. A CSV of opted-in numbers, with any personalisation columns you want to merge in.
- Send the broadcast. Each person receives an individual one-to-one chat. Nobody sees anyone else.
- Watch delivery and replies. You get sent, delivered and read counts, and replies land in your shared inbox.
The broadcasting feature handles steps three to five.
Sending without adding contacts
This is the part people are usually really asking about. On the API, contacts are data in your account, not entries in a phone’s address book. You upload a list, you send to it, and nothing touches anyone’s Contacts app.
That also means you can segment properly — send the win-back offer only to customers who last bought six months ago, rather than to everyone — which is both cheaper and less likely to get you reported.
Will you be allowed to send 1,000
Having a list of 1,000 doesn’t automatically mean you can message 1,000 today. Every number has a daily messaging limit on how many unique customers you can start conversations with:
- New numbers typically start at 1,000 unique customers per day.
- Meta raises it automatically — to 10,000, then 100,000, then unlimited — as your quality rating stays healthy. The full tier table is in the broadcast limit guide.
- Replies inside an already-open conversation don’t count against it.
So a first campaign of exactly 1,000 usually fits. If your list is 5,000, split it across days rather than trying to force it. Details in quality rating and limits.
What 1,000 messages cost
WhatsApp bills per conversation, not per message. A conversation is a 24-hour window, and everything inside it is covered by the one charge — so a customer who replies three times costs the same as one who doesn’t reply at all.
For 1,000 recipients who don’t reply, that’s about 1,000 conversations. On ChatMitra’s Starter plan at roughly ₹0.20 per conversation, you’re looking at somewhere around ₹200 for the send. Marketing-category messages cost more than utility ones, which is worth remembering before you file a reminder as a promotion. Current rates are on the pricing page.
Sending at scale without getting blocked
The difference between a campaign that works and a number that gets banned is mostly about who’s on the list:
- Only message people who opted in. Purchased lists report at a far higher rate and are the most common cause of bans.
- Ramp up gradually. A jump from 200 messages to 5,000 overnight looks exactly like what the abuse systems are built to catch.
- Make it worth receiving. Relevance is what stops people blocking you.
- Honour opt-outs immediately. Someone who asked to stop and got another message is someone who reports you.
- Watch the quality rating after each campaign. A dip is a signal to change the message, not to send more.
If a number does get restricted, WhatsApp banned my number covers the appeal.
