Template categorization | Developer Documentation
Template categorization
Updated: Jan 30, 2025
When creating a new template, or managing existing ones, it’s important to understand how WhatsApp categorizes your template for pricing purposes.
This information is also available in PDF form in our Message templates category guidelines explainer PDF.
Template category guidelines
Our template category guidelines define the category of message templates. Message templates can be categorized as:
Marketing template guidelines
Marketing templates are the most flexible. They enable businesses to achieve a wide range of goals, from generating awareness to driving sales and more.
The following templates are also considered marketing:
Note: Examples are illustrative only. Templates that contain similar content, or the example text above, might be categorized differently based on the exact content.
| Message Objective | Business Goal | Example Templates |
|---|---|---|
Awareness | Generate awareness of your business, products, or services among customers who have subscribed to receive messages from your business on WhatsApp. | |
Sales | Send promotional offers to customers related to sales events, coupons, or other content intended to drive sales or renewals. | |
Retargeting | Promote or recommend offers, products or services; attempt to renew subscriptions; or other calls to action to users who might have visited your website, used your app or engaged with you.
These are marketing even if requested by users. | |
App Promotion | Request customers to install or take a specific action with your app. | |
Build Customer Relationships | Strengthen customer relationships through personalized messages or by prompting new conversations. |
Utility template guidelines
Utility templates are typically triggered by a user action or request. For a template to be categorized as utility, it needs to meet both criteria below:
| Message Objective | Business Goal | Example Templates |
|---|---|---|
Opt-In Management on WhatsApp | Confirm opt-in to receive messages on WhatsApp as a follow-up to opt-in collected via other channels (for example, website, email) or confirm opt-out. | |
Order Management | Confirm, update or cancel an order or transaction with a customer, using specific order or transaction details in the body of your message. These messages should not promote, recommend, upsell, or cross-sell products; include offers; or attempt to secure renewals. | |
Account Alerts or Updates | Send important or time-sensitive updates or alerts or other information specific to purchased or subscribed products/services. These messages should not promote, recommend, upsell, or cross-sell products; include offers; or attempt to secure renewals. | |
Feedback Surveys | Collect feedback on previous orders, transactions or engagements with customers. Specificity of the order or interaction to which these relate is necessary. A general/generic survey or request for feedback will not be approved as utility. | |
Continue a Conversation on WhatsApp | Send a message to begin an interaction on WhatsApp that began in another channel. These messages should not be initiated without a user having requested the conversation to be moved to WhatsApp. |
For a utility template to be deemed essential or critical to the user, it must reflect one of the use cases below and must also be non-promotional (not containing any promotional or persuasive intent).
| Use Case Category | Use Case | Example that meets definition of "essential or critical to the user" |
|---|---|---|
Public Safety | Severe weather | There is a {{tornado}} alert in your area. We recommend you remain indoors until {{time}} today. |
Public Safety | Crisis response | We activated support services for the {{crisis}} in the {{zip code}} area. Live updates on our site, available below. |
Public Service | Health awareness | Stay up-to-date with your health. Stop by {{location}} by {{time}} to get your free COVID-19 {{vaccine}}. Bring your {{vaccination_card}} and identification document. |
Public Service | Health emergency | The {{city}} has just declared a health emergency because of {{issue}}. We will follow up with more details once available. |
Public Service | Voting registration | To vote on {{date}}, please ensure your voter {{registration card}} is active. Please click the URL below to understand steps required to renew, if needed. Please disregard this message if your {{registration card}} will be active. |
Public Service | Disbursements | Your {{welfare}} disbursement balance is {{amount}}. Kindly note it will expire on {{date}}. |
Public Disruption | System outages | We have detected a system outage that impacts zip code {{code}}. We expect to restore service by {{time_and_date}}. We apologize for the inconvenience. |
Public Disruption | Operational disruption | This is to notify you that {{trains}} at our {{location}} station are halted because of {{issue}}. Please avoid the area as we work to rectify. |
Account or Product Protection | Fraud awareness | We have detected an increase in {{ATM fraud}}. To protect your card ending in {{1234}}, please consider updating your PIN. Click below to see the step-by-step. |
Account or Product Protection | Product recalls | The {{product}} you ordered on {{date}} has been recalled. Please click below to let us know how you would like to proceed. |
Account or Product Protection | Warranty alerts | Thank you for your purchase of {{product}}. Your warranty is active as of {{date}}. Our {{product manuals}} are below, for your reference |
Legal/Regulatory Compliance | Identity compliance | This is to notify you that you need to upgrade to a {{updated_identification_card}} by {{date}}. To avoid any inconveniences when traveling, please ensure you make an appointment at your local {{office}}. |
Legal/Regulatory Compliance | Privacy disclosures | We updated our privacy policy on {{date}}. Please click the button below to learn more. |
Legal/Regulatory Compliance | Warranty alerts | Thank you for your purchase of {{product}}. Your warranty is active as of {{date}}. Our {{product manuals}} are below, for your reference |
Authentication template guidelines
Note: Only authentication templates can be used to send a one-time passcode for identity verification. Marketing and utility templates cannot be used for this purpose.
You can use authentication templates from Template Library. These templates include optional add-ons like security disclaimers and expiry warnings.
Authentication templates enable businesses to verify user identity (usually with alphanumeric codes) at various steps of the customer journey:
Authentication templates are our most restrictive, so for a template to be classified as authentication, a business must:
Message Objective: Authentication
| Message Objective | Business Goal | Example Templates |
|---|---|---|
Authentication | Authenticate users with one-time passcodes, potentially at multiple steps in the login process (for example, account verification, account recovery, integrity challenges). |
How WhatsApp assigns a category during template creation
When you create a template, you indicate the template’s category, based on the guidelines above. WhatsApp validates the category you indicated per the contents of the template and the guidelines. The template is then created and its status is set to one of the statuses below, based on the outcome of the validation process.
a. When you create a template and it is approved, you can request a review up to 60 days from the creation date.
b. For utility templates that may be updated to marketing, you can request a review up to 60 days from the date the category was updated.
Approved status
APPROVED status means WhatsApp agrees with the category chosen in your template creation request and that the template successfully passed template review. It can now be used to send messages.Status updates — An email and WhatsApp Manager alert will inform you that the template was approved, and a message_template_status_update webhook will be triggered with the event property set to
APPROVED.Effective April 9, 2025, If you selected
UTILITY as the template’s category and WhatsApp determined it should be MARKETING, the template is approved as MARKETING. In WhatsApp Manager, you will see the screen below. When using the API, the behavior will be as outlined above. You can request a review up to 60 days from the date the category was updated.
Effective April 9, 2025 – The
allow_category_change property during template creation. Previously, if set to true in a template creation request, this allowed us to update a template’s category to marketing, if marketing to be its category was determined to be its category per its content and the guidelines. This is now the default behavior.Pending status
PENDING status means WhatsApp agrees with the category chosen in your template creation request, however the template is undergoing template review.Status Alerts — The outcome of template review will be communicated via email and WhatsApp Manager alert. Upon completion, a message_template_status_update webhook will be triggered with the event property set to
APPROVED or REJECTED.Rejected status
REJECTED status indicates that WhatsApp disagreed with the category you designated in your template creation request.Status Alerts — Rejections are communicated via email and WhatsApp Manager alert. Upon review completion, a message_template_status_update webhook will be triggered and the
event property set to REJECTED, with the reason property set to INCORRECT_CATEGORY.If your message template is rejected, you have the following options:
Duplicated Templates from Phone Number Migration
All eligible templates are automatically duplicated in the destination WABA and category checks will be performed to ensure that all duplicated templates are correctly categorized.
How WhatsApp updates a template’s category after initial approval
July 1, 2024 — To ensure templates on the platform are correctly categorized per the template category guidelines, WhatsApp introduced a recurring process to identify and update approved templates that should be of a different category, per the template category guidelines.
Effective April 16, 2025 — For any business detected to be abusing the template categorization system and to whom a warning is sent, the 24-hour notice mentioned below will no longer be provided if a utility template that should be marketing is detected. The category will be updated with no advance notice and emails/webhooks will be triggered to confirm the category change
Automatic category updates can apply to approved templates only that were not initially approved per the template category guidelines. Advance notice is provided on different surfaces, like through webhook and email, before action is taken on these templates.
How it works
For templates approved as utility, but should actually be marketing
marketing.
UTILITY to MARKETINGCategory changes will be instantTemplate category — The template category is changed to MARKETINGTemplate status — There is no change to template status; it remains APPROVED and can continue to be used to send messages.For templates approved as marketing or utility, but should actually be authentication
This process was introduced on October 1, 2024
REJECTED and can no longer be used to send messages.
How you are notified
For templates approved as utility, but should actually be marketing
| Advanced notification of category updates | Description |
|---|---|
Via Email | |
Via Webhook | A template_category_update webhook will be triggered for each template whose category will be updated, with a correct_category property in the payload set to what the template’s category should be. The new_category property also exists in the payload indicating the template’s current category. |
Via WhatsApp Manager |
| Notification when action is taken | Description |
|---|---|
Via Email | |
Via Webhook | A template_category_update webhook will be triggered for each template whose category has been updated. The new_category property will indicate the template’s new category and the previous_category property will indicate the template’s category before automatic update. |
For templates approved as marketing or utility, but should actually be authentication
| Advanced notification of category updates | Description |
|---|---|
Via Email | REJECTED will be updated will have an “information” icon beside their name. Hovering over the icon will display the date when the template will be rejected. |
Via Webhook | |
Via WhatsApp Manager |
| Notification when action is taken | Description |
|---|---|
Via Email | |
Via Webhook | A status webhook will be triggered for each template that has been rejected. whose category has been updated. The webhook will have the event property set to REJECTED and the reason property set to INCORRECT_CATEGORY. |
Your options in this process
When you receive notice that a template’s category will be updated or a template will be rejected, you can:
You have 60 days to review and appeal these changes in Business Support Home.
Learn which template(s) will be updated or have been updated
Via API
You can use the
GET /<WHATSAPP_BUSINESS_ID>/message_templates endpoint to get the list of templates that have been or will be updated.Request the
category and correct_category fields, which will return the IDs of all of the WABA’s templates, and each template’s category and correct_category values. You can then compare these values:GET /<WHATSAPP_BUSINESS_ID>/message_templates?fields=category,correct_category
MARKETING), the template’s category has already been updated with the correct_category value.If they mismatch and the correct_category is not an empty string or null (for example, category is UTILITY but correct_category is MARKETING), the template’s category will be updated on the first day of the next month with the correct_category value.If the correct_category value is an empty string or null, the template has not been impacted.Via WhatsApp Manager
The WhatsApp Manager’s Manage Templates panel identifies any templates whose categories will be updated.
How to update a template category or request a category review
This process has been in effect since June 2023, when the marketing, utility and authentication template categories were introduced.
Edit your template’s category
Via API
new_category property in the webhook payload will indicate its new category.Via WhatsApp Manager
On the Manage Templates tab:
If the template passes validation and review, its category will be updated and a template_category_update webhook will be triggered. The
new_category property in the webhook payload will indicate its new category.Qualifications and outcomes for category review
You can request Meta to review the category of your template if:
UTILITY or MARKETING and status is REJECTEDIt is categorized as MARKETING and status is APPROVEDPossible outcomes after you submit a request of your template’s category:
new_category property in the webhook payload will indicate its new category.Review is rejected – The category will not change.How to request a category review
A review can only be requested via WhatsApp Manager.
In the sidebar of WhatsApp Manager, select the Message Templates dropdown, and then Message Templates. You should see a rejection banner with the template in question. Click Go to Business Support.
Click Template Category Updates, select the templates you would like reviewed and then click the Request Review button to begin the review process.
How to view templates submitted for review
In the Business Support sidebar, click Template category Updates, and then the In review tab.
How to view template category decisions
If the template category change is not approved: The template can be viewed in Business Support under the Template category updates > Unchanged tab. The template’s category will change to the correct category during an automatic category update.
If the template category change is approved: the template can be viewed in Business Support under the Template category updates > Reversed tab. If the template category was already changed during automatic category update, it will be reverted to its previous category.
Restrictions on businesses misusing the template categorization system
How it works
Written notice is provided before businesses are restricted from using the WhatsApp Business Platform for utility messaging in the following way:
UTILITY to MARKETINGCategory changes will be instantRestriction – If misuse is detected after this warning, the following restrictions will be introduced which would prevent the WhatsApp Business Account from using the WhatsApp Business Platform for utility messaging for 7 days:
UTILITY templates will no longer be rejected. Instead, they will be re-categorized as MARKETINGFor 7 days – Disable category reviews for these templatesFor 7 days – Disable creation of new utility templatesFor businesses that have been restricted previously — If continued misuse of the template categorization system is detected, these restrictions might be re-introduced for 30 days.
Notices when action is taken
The following notices are triggered:
Warnings – Email is sent to all WhatsApp Business Account admins (people with Full control of the WhatsApp Business Account). An
account_update webhook will be sent out indicating utility restriction WARN for the WhatsApp Business Account.Restrictions – When restrictions are introduced or lifted, email is sent to all WhatsApp Business Account admins (people with Full control of the WhatsApp Business Account). A change to the
restriction_info object in the account_update webhook is also triggered.Your options in this process
Businesses that believe these restrictions have been applied in error can request a review via Business Support.
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