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Guide · Templates · For the owner who approves the words and never built one

How WhatsApp templates work underneath: the 250 or 6,000 limit, variables, buttons, the edit allowance and the 12-month archive

A template is the only kind of message a business can send to a customer who has not written in the last 24 hours, so every reminder, confirmation and promotion you send cold is one. Owners usually see templates only as text to approve. Meta's pages describe the machinery underneath: how many you may have, what each part may contain, how often an approved one can be edited, what deleting one actually does, and when Meta quietly archives the ones you stopped using. Here is that machinery, without the code.

Published 1 October 2026 · Updated 8 October 2026

How many, and how they are named

250 or 6,000
An account under an unverified business portfolio may hold 250 templates. Once the portfolio is verified and at least one of its numbers has an approved display name, the limit becomes 6,000.
Each language counts
A template exists in one language, which you choose; Meta translates nothing. The same template in English, Arabic and Urdu is three templates against the limit, sharing one name.
Which languages
Meta's list has 111 languages and regional versions. Arabic appears on its own and in separate versions for the UAE, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and Qatar; English has a UAE version among its regional ones. Urdu, Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Bengali, Filipino, Persian, Pashto and Sinhala are all on it.
Names
Lowercase letters, numbers and underscores, up to 512 characters, and not unique, precisely so the same name can carry several languages.
100 an hour
Meta allows 100 template creations per account per hour, which matters only to a system creating them in bulk.

Which of the three categories a template belongs to, and what happens when it is wrongly categorised, is the subject of the template categories guide.

What a template is made of

Meta's components page names four parts. Only the body is required.

Header
Optional, one per template. Either text of up to 60 characters with at most one variable, or a piece of media: an image, a video, or a document such as a PDF, uploaded in advance and reviewed along with the words.
Body
Required, up to 1,024 characters, with as many variables as you need.
Footer
Optional, text only, up to 60 characters, shown in smaller type under the body. Meta's own example uses it to point at the buttons below.
Buttons
Optional, up to 10 in total with limits by kind: up to 10 quick-reply buttons that send a preset text back to you (Meta's example is an opt-out button); up to two website buttons, one of which may carry a variable, so each customer gets their own link; one copy-code button; and one call button, labelled with up to 25 characters.

Variables, and why Meta asks for samples

A variable is a blank the system fills at sending time: the customer's name, an order number, a date. Meta allows them to be named, in words, or numbered, in order; either way every variable needs a sample value when the template is created, because the reviewer sees the sample, not your real data. A sample that reads like a real message gets a fairer review than one that reads "test".

One more option sits outside the four parts. Meta's tap target override page describes a setting chosen when a template is sent, for image, text and header-less templates: the message is shown as a tappable link with a title you choose, opening the address of the template's first website button. Meta reserves it for accounts that are fully verified and keep consistently high quality, so a new number cannot simply switch it on; how quality is judged is in the template quality guide.

Review, and the statuses you will see

Review is automatic and starts on creation and after every edit. Meta's page says it can take up to 24 hours. Only an approved template can be sent. In WhatsApp Manager, the status column runs through these values:

In review
Waiting for the decision.
Rejected
Failed review or breaks a policy. It can be edited and resubmitted without limit.
Active, with a quality label
Approved and sendable. The label (quality pending, high, medium, low) reflects customer feedback and read rates; medium and low are warnings that pausing may follow.
Paused or Disabled
Cannot be sent. Paused is temporary; disabled is not.
Appeal requested
You have asked Meta to look again.

What drives the quality label and what pausing means in days are covered in the template quality guide.

Meta's Business Help Center adds two cautions for whoever writes them. The Preview shown while you build a template does not check formatting, so a template that looks fine there can still be rejected, for example for excessive line breaks. And the samples should be representative but must not contain any real customer's information.

Editing, deleting and the quiet archive

Who can be edited
Only approved, rejected or paused templates. You may change the words and parts, or the delivery time-to-live; you may not change the category of an approved template. An edit replaces every part at once, not one line.
How often
An approved template may be edited 10 times in 30 days and no more than once in any 24 hours. Rejected and paused templates may be edited as often as you like. Every edit goes back through review, and Meta re-approves automatically unless the review fails.
What deleting does
Messages already sent with it but not yet delivered, because a phone was off, keep being attempted for 30 days. The name cannot be reused for a new template for 30 days. A disabled template cannot be deleted at all. Deleting by name removes every language version at once.
Archival
A template not used for 12 months is archived automatically and deleted 28 days later unless someone unarchives it. A seasonal template you run once a year is at risk every year.
Order is not promised
If your system sends three messages in a row, Meta does not guarantee they arrive in that order. Its advice is to wait for the first to show as delivered before sending the next when the sequence matters.

Meta's Business Help Center fills in the rest. Templates are created and deleted in Meta Business Suite: open WhatsApp Manager, choose the account, then the three-dot icon and Manage message templates. Templates that arrived already approved through a provider's sign-up flow show up there but cannot be deleted. And the 30 days of delivery attempts after a deletion are a hard stop: a message that would only arrive after that fails, and the customer never receives it.

Two more things from the help articles

While a template is still waiting for review, its content cannot be edited; you wait for the result. And an account opened through a provider's sign-up flow comes with six sample templates already approved, for testing: plain text, an image, a video, a document, and two with buttons. Every one of them ends with the line “This message is from an unverified business.” Our reading: they are there to check that sending works, not to send to customers. Write your own for real messages.

Questions

We found templates in our account that nobody here wrote. Where did they come from?

If the account was opened through a provider's sign-up flow, Meta adds six sample templates, already approved, so sending can be tested. They end with the line 'This message is from an unverified business.' Meta's help article on deleting templates says these cannot be deleted. Our reading: leave them and use your own for customers.

Our template is still in review and we spotted a mistake. Can we fix it now?

Not the content. Meta's Business Help Center says a template whose status is pending cannot have its message edited. Wait for the result; if it is rejected, it can be edited and resubmitted.

Our template looked fine in the preview. Why was it rejected?

Meta's Business Help Center says the Preview does not check formatting, so a template can still be rejected for problems such as excessive line breaks. Check the layout and the samples, which must be representative and must not contain real customer information, before submitting again.

We have the same template in English and Arabic. Is that one or two?

Two, against the 250 or 6,000 limit, under one name. Meta does not translate; each language is created, reviewed and counted on its own.

Should our Arabic templates use plain Arabic or the UAE version?

Meta lists both, as separate languages. Our reading: pick one and keep to it, because the same template in both would be two templates against the limit.

Can we fix a typo in an approved template today and again tomorrow?

Once in any 24 hours and 10 times in 30 days, for an approved template. Each edit is reviewed again, usually within 24 hours. A rejected or paused template can be edited without limit.

Our Ramadan template disappeared. Nobody deleted it.

Meta archives a template after 12 months without use and deletes it 28 days after that unless it is unarchived. A once-a-year template needs to be unarchived, or used, before the 28 days run out.

Can a button in the template open a page that is different for each customer?

Yes. Of the two website buttons a template may have, one may carry a variable, so the system fills in the customer's own order or booking link when it sends.

Sources

More plain-language notes like this one are on the guides page.

Want templates written, sampled and submitted so they pass first time?

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