How to create a WhatsApp broadcast list, and the new 35-a-month limit

Tanvi Desai runs a farsan and sweets shop in Vadodara. Every year before Diwali she sends the gift-box price list to about a thousand regular customers from the shop’s WhatsApp Business app, split across four broadcast lists. This year a friend in the same market showed her a notice saying he was close to his monthly broadcast limit, and she wanted to know whether her October plan still worked.

Here’s how broadcast lists work, what that limit is, and what to do if you outgrow them.

How to create a broadcast list in the WhatsApp Business app

On Android, WhatsApp’s help centre gives these steps:

1. Open the Chats tab and tap More options (the three dots).
2. Tap New broadcast.
3. Search for or select the contacts you want to add.
4. Tap the tick to create the list.

You can also start from a label. Tap More options, then Labels, open the label you want (say, “Diwali regulars”), then tap More options and Message customers.

On iPhone the help centre places broadcast lists under Settings, as a new list you add contacts to. WhatsApp moves these menus between versions, so if you can’t find the option, search the help centre for “broadcast lists” and pick your phone type.

To send a broadcast, open the list and type your message as you would in any chat. Each person on it receives it as a separate chat from you.

The rules that trip people up:

• A list holds up to 256 contacts. You can make as many lists as you like.
• Only contacts who have saved your number in their phone receive the broadcast. Everyone else on the list silently gets nothing.
• You can’t create or view broadcast lists from a linked device, only on the main phone.

That second rule matters more than the 256. A customer who bought once and never saved the shop’s number won’t see your Diwali price list, however many lists you make.

Broadcast list or group?

A group is one shared conversation. Everyone in it sees every message and every reply, and sees who else is in it. A broadcast list is private in both directions: each customer gets your message in their own chat with you, and their reply comes only to you.

For a shop, that settles it. Use a broadcast list for offers and price lists, because customers’ replies (“2 boxes kaju katli, pickup Saturday?”) shouldn’t land in front of 200 other people. Use a group only where people know each other and expect to talk, like a society’s residents or a batch of students.

The 35-a-month limit: what WhatsApp actually says

WhatsApp’s help centre article “About broadcast limits” says that “people in some countries might see a monthly broadcast limit”, that the feature “is rolling out gradually and might not be available everywhere”, and that “you can send up to 35 free broadcast messages per month.”

It adds that you can check your limit under Settings, then Broadcasts, and that WhatsApp will notify you as you get close. To reach more people, it suggests status updates and channels. Its last line reads: “Businesses can get more advanced messaging tools on the WhatsApp Business app.”

That’s the whole primary source, and it has no date.

What it leaves open

The page doesn’t list the countries, so it doesn’t say whether India is one. In October 2025 TechCrunch reported that WhatsApp was expanding a test of limits on messages people and businesses send without getting a reply, to more than a dozen countries including India. That’s a press report about a related test, not WhatsApp’s statement about this cap.

It doesn’t say whether the Business app is covered. The closing line sends businesses to the Business app, which reads as though the page is written for personal WhatsApp, but it doesn’t rule the Business app out. TechCrunch’s March 2025 report described limits for users and businesses alike during testing.

And it doesn’t say what counts as one broadcast, or whether one send to a list of 200 counts once or 200 times.

Our reading: if the Broadcasts screen in Settings shows a limit, you have it. If it shows nothing, you don’t yet. Plan as though it may arrive, because WhatsApp says it’s rolling out.

If you hit the limit or outgrow the app

Three things get called “broadcast”, and they follow different rules.

	Who receives it	What it costs
Broadcast list (app)	Up to 256 per list, only contacts who saved your number	Free, possibly capped at 35 a month where the limit applies
Business broadcast (app)	Contacts who haven’t saved your number too	Per delivered message, priced by recipient country
Template campaign (Platform)	Anyone who opted in to hear from you	Per delivered message, by template category

Option 1: send fewer, fuller broadcasts

If the cap reaches you, fold three October broadcasts into one: price list and photos together, then a single reminder before the order cut-off. Move announcements nobody needs to reply to, like festival opening hours, to your WhatsApp channel or status. The trade-off is reach, which this doesn’t fix.

Option 2: paid business broadcasts in the app

According to WhatsApp’s help centre, business broadcasts reach contacts who haven’t saved your number. Meta reviews each one before it goes out. You pay only for messages delivered within five days, and undelivered ones are refunded. Pricing depends on each recipient’s country code, and the feature is “currently available in limited countries and might not be available to you yet”.

The pricing page links an INR rate card rather than printing a price. When we opened it on 1 October 2026, the link led to Meta’s Platform rate card, where India’s marketing rate is ₹0.8631. WhatsApp doesn’t say which column applies to business broadcasts, so check the total the app shows before you pay.

The Meta Verified help page lists “Send business broadcasts” in its Business Plus, Premium and Max plans. Meta One, announced on 15 September 2026, includes “business broadcast credits” in its Advanced plan, which Meta’s newsroom prices from $49.99 a month. WhatsApp’s own Meta One page says it’s “in limited testing”. Neither gives Indian prices or credit counts. If business broadcasts show up under Tools in your app, they’re the smallest step up. If they don’t, you can’t buy your way in yet.

Option 3: move campaigns to the WhatsApp Business Platform

The Platform, which providers like us build on, doesn’t count broadcasts. To message someone first you send a template Meta has approved, and festive offers are marketing templates. You need the person’s opt-in, but they don’t need to have saved your number. A new business can reach 250 different people outside the 24-hour window in a rolling day, and business verification takes that to 2,000; our messaging limits guide has the detail.

Meta charges per delivered message. Marketing to an Indian number is ₹0.8631 before GST, on the rate card effective 1 July 2026, unchanged on the 1 October card. For Tanvi, a price list to 1,000 customers who opted in costs about ₹863 per send before GST, plus provider fees. That’s why we’d send the price list and one reminder, not three messages.

Two costs to know first. WhatsApp caps how many marketing messages each person receives from all businesses combined, with no published number; a blocked send fails with error 131049. And since 1 October 2026, replies are charged at ₹0.115 each to Indian numbers after 1,000 a month per business number. A busy festive week of questions can pass 1,000.

Meta’s coexistence option keeps the app on the owner’s phone and the number on the Platform too, but broadcast lists in the app become read-only once you connect. The app vs Platform guide covers what else changes.

Which one we’d pick

If your regulars save your number and you send a handful of broadcasts a month, broadcast lists are enough. Don’t worry about 35 until the Broadcasts screen shows it. If many customers never save your number, or you need several people replying at festival time, you’re past what a broadcast list can do, and the choice is between business broadcasts and the Platform.

Before your next big send, open Settings, then Broadcasts, on the shop phone, and ask three regulars whether they have your number saved. If you’re new to any of these terms, the glossary defines them.