Overcoming the 'Maximum Number of Phone Numbers Allowed' Error in WhatsApp Business Manager
Many merchants face a common hurdle when expanding their WhatsApp Business operations: the "You have already linked the maximum number of phone numbers allowed for this business..." error. This guide explains how to increase your phone number limit from the default cap of 2 to up to 20 by leveraging verified Facebook Business Manager status.
Understanding the Limit
According to Meta here, by default, business portfolios are limited to registering only 2 business phone numbers with the WhatsApp API. However, for verified businesses with an approved display name, this limit can be expanded to 20. This expansion is essential for businesses looking to scale their WhatsApp communication channels.
Steps to Increase Your Phone Number Limit
Make sure your Facebook Business Manager is verified. To verify or to know if it's verified or not, read this guide.
Contact support
Click on "Ask a Question", select Topic "Dev: Account & WABA" and Request Type "Increase phone number limit"
In the title, copy and paste this -
Wrong error regarding phone number limit
In the description, copy and paste this -
We are a verified business. According to this doc - https://developers.facebook.com/docs/whatsapp/cloud-api/phone-numbers we should be able to register 20 phone numbers with our business manager. We currently have only 1 registered phone number on our account and still when we try to create a new WABA account and add a new phone number, it is giving us the error - "You have already linked the maximum number of phone numbers allowed for this business..."
As you can see in the screenshot attached, we only have 1 phone number in use right now.Please help us with our phone number limit. We need to add one more phone number ASAP to give priority support to our customers and this delay is affecting our business.In the WhatsApp Business Account ID, select your existing WABA Account which has a phone number already connected to it (you don't need to type it, you need to select it) -
In the Phone Number section, select the phone number connected to the WABA account you selected in step 6 (you don't need to type it, you need to select it) -
Add a screenshot of your "Overview" tab in your WhatsApp Business Manager showing that you only have 1 or 2 numbers connected (Quick tip: Zoom out to show all the accounts and numbers)
Submit the support ticket!
What's next?
You should hear back from Meta within a day and your limit should be increased to 20 🥳