WhatsApp message templates: categories, approval and 12 examples

WhatsApp message templates are pre-written messages that Meta reviews and approves before a business can send them. You need one whenever you message someone outside the 24-hour customer service window, which covers every campaign, reminder and notification you start. Each template has a category (marketing, utility or authentication), a language, and optional variables, media and buttons.

Templates decide what you can send, what it costs and whether it arrives. Get the category wrong and you pay more or get recategorised. Get the formatting wrong and Meta rejects it. Send one people don't want and it gets paused. This guide covers all of it, with examples, and shows how templates work inside a WhatsApp marketing platform like Buddy.

Why does WhatsApp need message templates?

When a customer messages or calls you, "a 24-hour timer called a customer service window starts" (Meta). Inside it you can reply with anything: text, images, voice notes, interactive messages. Once it closes, "you can only send pre-approved template messages". Templates are how Meta keeps business-initiated messages useful, identifiable and priced by what they are.

So templates are not only for marketing. An order confirmation to someone who bought on your website, a reminder the day before an appointment, and a welcome message to someone who just subscribed on a web page all need templates, because the person hasn't messaged you in the last 24 hours. Templates also only go to people who have opted in, as our WhatsApp opt-in guide explains.

What are the WhatsApp template categories?

Meta sorts every template into one of three categories (template categorisation). The category sets the price and the rules, so it's worth understanding exactly where the lines are.

Marketing vs utility: where the line falls

This is where most businesses slip. Two rules from Meta settle most cases:

• Mixed content is marketing. A template that combines a utility message with promotion, such as an order update with a discount code, is categorised as marketing. So is a template whose purpose is unclear.
• Some "helpful" messages are still marketing. Meta's own examples put an abandoned-cart reminder ("You left {{items}} in your cart!") and an alert that an item matching a saved search is available (in effect, a back-in-stock message) in the marketing category, and an order confirmation in utility.

A quick test: would this message exist if the customer hadn't just done something, and does it try to sell? If it's triggered by their action and only tells them about it, it's probably utility. If it nudges them to buy, it's marketing. Meta's utility templates guide has more examples.

What happens if Meta recategorises a template?

When WhatsApp finds a utility template that should be marketing, it gives one day's notice, by email and webhook, before changing the category. The template stays approved and usable, but it's charged as marketing from then on, and you have 60 days to appeal through Business Support (Meta). If you disagree, appeal. If you don't, rewrite the promotional part out of the utility version and keep a separate marketing template for offers.

What goes into a WhatsApp template?

A template is built from components. These are Meta's limits, mostly from its template components reference:

Two more limits from Meta's templates overview: an unverified business portfolio can hold 250 templates per WhatsApp Business account (verified portfolios with approved display names can hold up to 6,000), and you can create at most 100 templates per account per hour. And Meta's components reference notes that templates "composed of 4 or more buttons, or a quick reply button and one or more buttons of another type, cannot be viewed on WhatsApp desktop clients", which is a good reason to keep to three buttons of one type if your customers use WhatsApp on a computer.

How does WhatsApp template approval work?

You submit a template, Meta reviews it, and it comes back approved or rejected. Meta says "it can take up to 24 hours for an approval decision to be made" (template review), though many are decided within minutes. If your template uses variables, Meta requires sample values for each one with the submission, so reviewers can see what a real message looks like.

Once approved, a template moves through a small set of statuses over its life:

Why do WhatsApp templates get rejected?

Most rejections are formatting problems you can fix in a minute. Meta's template review page lists these common reasons:

• "Variable parameters are missing or have mismatched curly braces". Write {{1}}, never {1} or {{1}.
• "Variable parameters contain special characters such as a #, $, or %". Keep variables to plain numbers.
• "Variable parameters are not sequential". Use {{1}}, {{2}}, {{3}} in order, with no gaps.
• "The template contains too many variable parameters relative to the message length". Add real words around your variables.
• "The message template cannot start or end with a parameter". Don't open with {{1}} or finish on one.
• "The message template is a duplicate of an existing template". Meta treats a template as a duplicate when its body and footer match one you already have.

Content matters too. Meta lists rejections for templates that break WhatsApp's Commerce Policy (for example offering goods or services it doesn't allow), that ask people for sensitive identifiers such as full payment card numbers, and that contain "potentially abusive or threatening content, such as threatening a customer with legal action or threatening to publicly shame them". If you believe a rejection is wrong, you can appeal. Meta says appeals must include a sample and are reviewed within 24 hours.

A pre-submission checklist

1. 1Pick the category honestly. If there's any promotion in it, it's marketing.
2. 2Start with a word, not a variable. "Hi {{1}}," is fine.
3. 3End with words or punctuation after your last variable.
4. 4Number variables in order and give a realistic sample for each.
5. 5Say who you are. Recipients block messages they don't recognise.
6. 6Keep buttons short, specific and working. Test every link.
7. 7Add a footer that explains how to opt out of marketing messages.

12 WhatsApp message template examples

Adapt these to your business. The categories follow Meta's rules above, but Meta makes the final call when it reviews your template. All business names are made up.

Notice two things. None of them starts or ends on a variable. And the order confirmation stays utility only as long as it stays free of promotion: add "and here's 10% off your next order" and it becomes marketing. For e-commerce plays in more detail, see our guide to WhatsApp for e-commerce.

How does template quality rating work?

Approval is not the end. "Every template has a quality rating based on usage, customer feedback, and engagement" (Meta), updated automatically over time:

In practice, negative feedback means signals such as people blocking or reporting you after a message. Meta says quality ratings factor into template pacing and pausing, and a template can end up paused or disabled. Template quality also feeds your number's overall quality rating, which affects your messaging limit, covered in our guide to WhatsApp messaging limits and quality rating.

What is template pacing?

Template pacing is "a mechanism that allows time for customers to provide early feedback on templates" (Meta). It applies to marketing and utility templates that are new, recently unpaused, or don't yet have a green rating.

When a template is paced, messages send normally up to a threshold Meta doesn't disclose, and the rest are held while early recipients react. If the feedback is good, the held messages are released to the full audience. If it's bad, the template is paused and the held messages are dropped, reported with error code 132015.

The practical lesson: send a new template to your most engaged segment first. A warm audience gives positive early signals, so the template clears pacing and is ready for the wider send.

Creating WhatsApp templates in Buddy

Buddy's Message templates builder submits templates straight to Meta from the app, so you don't need to switch to WhatsApp Manager. Here's what you fill in:

• Template name in lowercase with underscores, a category and a language code such as en_GB.
• Header (optional): none, text up to 60 characters, or an image (JPG or PNG up to 5MB).
• Body with {{1}}, {{2}} variables. Buddy asks for a sample value for each one, because Meta needs them.
• Footer (optional) up to 60 characters.
• Up to three buttons: Link (a URL), Quick reply or Call (a phone number), each with a label of up to 25 characters.

A live preview shows the message as it will look on a phone. After you submit, the templates list shows each one's status (approved, in review, rejected, paused, disabled or draft), its quality (high, medium or low), the rejection reason if there is one and a cost hint. Templates created directly in Meta's WhatsApp Manager sync into Buddy too, and status and quality update automatically as Meta reports changes.

Once a template is approved, you use it in a WhatsNew: pick the template and language, fill the variables (with {name} personalisation for each recipient), add a media header if the template has one, choose your audience and send or schedule. Buddy's eight ready-made campaign starters, such as a new product launch, a limited-time offer and an appointment reminder, are a good place to start. Approved templates also power automations, for example a welcome message sent the moment someone subscribes, as our WhatsApp auto-reply guide explains.

Sending one-time passcodes and transactional messages through the Buddy API is planned for release 1.1 in mid-October 2026.

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