Message Template Category Selection Guidelines

When creating a new template, it’s important to understand how WhatsApp categorizes it, both for pricing purposes and to ensure it gets approved.

In this article, you’ll learn how WhatsApp defines different template categories and what type of content is allowed under each category.

Message Template Categories

WhatsApp categorizes message templates as:

• Marketing Templates: They allow businesses to generate awareness, drive sales, and retarget customers. Examples include new product or service announcements, targeted promotions or offers, cart abandonment reminders, etc.
• Utility Templates: They allow businesses to respond to user actions or requests. Examples include opt-in confirmations, order or delivery updates, account changes, alerts (e.g., payment reminders), or feedback surveys.
• Authentication Templates: These templates allow businesses to verify a customer’s identity during various stages of their buying journey. Examples include verification codes used to confirm transactions or log in to an app.

How Template Categories Affect Pricing

WhatsApp charges different rates for sending different types of messages. Generally:

• Marketing templates are priced the highest, as they’re used for promotional or outreach purposes.
• Utility templates are priced moderately as they’re typically used for transactional or service-related messages.
• Authentication templates are priced the lowest, since they’re strictly used for identification purposes.

You can learn more about WhatsApp’s messaging charges here.

Avoid Category Misuse

Note that intentionally mislabelling a template (for example, using a utility template for promotional content) violates WhatsApp’s template guidelines.

WhatsApp actively monitors approved templates and may reclassify them if the content doesn’t match the selected category. In cases of misuse, especially after a prior warning, WhatsApp may reclassify templates automatically without notice.

This can result in unexpected charges and may impact your account status.

Now that you know how template categories affect pricing, let’s look at the content guidelines for each category.

Marketing Template Guidelines

Marketing templates are the most flexible category of message templates. They can be used for a wide range of purposes, such as sending promotions or offers, announcing new products or services, retargeting cold leads, and re-engaging existing customers.

Here are some examples of marketing templates for different goals:

Note that the following are also considered marketing templates:

• Templates with mixed content (e.g., both utility and marketing, such as an order update with a promo code, or a feedback survey with promotional content).
• Templates where the contents are unclear  (e.g., messages that only contain {{1}} or vague phrases like “Congratulations!”).

>>> Create a Marketing Message Template in WANotifier

Utility Template Guidelines

Utility messages are usually triggered in response to user actions or requests and must include information related to that action or request. For example, an order confirmation message should include an order number.

Here are some examples of utility templates for different business goals:

Note: None of the above templates should contain content that upsells or cross-sells new products or services.

>>> Create a Utility Message Template in WANotifier

Authentication Template Guidelines

Authentication templates are WhatsApp’s most restrictive type of message template. They are the only templates allowed for sending one-time passcodes (OTPs) for identity verification. Marketing and Utility templates cannot be used for this purpose.

Content Restrictions

WhatsApp does not permit the following in authentication templates:

• URLs
• Media files
• Emojis

These restrictions apply to both the message content and any variables you use. Also, variables must be no longer than 15 characters.

Note: When you create an authentication template in WANotifier, these rules are built into the template creation process, so you don’t need to apply them manually.

Here are some examples of authentication templates for confirming user identity:

• {{1}} is your verification code
• {{1}} is your verification code. For your security, do not share this code
• {{1}} is your verification code. This code expires in 15 minutes

>>> Create an Authentication Message Template in WANotifier

For more details on category selection, refer to the Template Category Guidelines on the WhatsApp Business Platform.

Updated on: 25/06/2025