AI Sending Limits and Pauses
At a glance
| Location | Settings → AI Assistant (MCP) → Limits, and What got limited |
| Plan | All plans, including the free tier |
| Related features | 5 |
AI sending limits control how fast and how widely connected AI apps (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or any MCP client) and Weave may send WhatsApp messages from your number. They protect the number: messaging many different chats in a short time is the pattern WhatsApp restricts or bans numbers for.
Messages a person types in the inbox are never limited by them. There are seven limits and one choice, in Settings → AI Assistant (MCP) → Limits. Messages per minute and Messages per day apply to each connected AI app separately.
Different chats per 10 minutes is counted across all AI connections of the number together, and going over it pauses AI sending. Messages waiting for approval caps how many messages one app may have in the AI Sends queue. Approval expires after sets how long an unapproved message stays in the queue.
Resume by itself after a pause sets how many minutes a pause lasts before sending starts again on its own; 0 means it waits for an administrator.
Ask for approval after this many different chats matters when AI apps send without approval: once AI has messaged that many different chats within 10 minutes, a message to yet another chat is not sent but waits in AI Sends for a person to approve it.
A chat AI already messaged in those 10 minutes is not another chat, the count is the same one the pause uses, and the number must be lower than Different chats per 10 minutes so that AI asks a person before it reaches the pause.
A Sending pace choice fills in all seven: Normal (6 a minute, 200 a day, approval after 8 different chats, 15 different chats per 10 minutes), Aggressive (12, 500, 20, 30) and Very aggressive (20, 1000, 40, 60).
The choice First message to a new chat decides what happens when AI wants to message a one-to-one chat that has no earlier messages with this number. Ask for approval is the default: the message waits in AI Sends until a person approves it.
Send it like any other message lets it go out without waiting for a person when AI apps send without approval; it cannot be saved while the limits are locked, because messages to people who never wrote to the number are what WhatsApp restricts or bans numbers for most often.
Never send it means AI may not send the first message to a chat at all and it cannot be approved either, so a person writes the first message. Group chats are not covered by this choice; their limits are in Settings → WhatsApp → Sending safety.
With two-step approval every AI message already waits for a person, so the approval number and the Ask for approval choice change nothing there. When one of the two holds a message, the AI app is told that the message is waiting for approval and why, and the message is sent once a person approves it in AI Sends.
Changing one number shows the pace as Custom. Two account-wide limits are fixed by Spun and cannot be changed: 20 messages a minute and 1000 a day for all AI connections together. When AI sending is paused, the Limits section shows a pause card with what happened, when, and a Resume AI sending button.
An administrator can resume up to 3 times in 24 hours; after that Spun support has to help. A banner at the top of the inbox tells administrators that AI sending was paused or limited and opens the Limits section, and the workspace administrator gets an email.
The pause belongs to the WhatsApp number, not to one app: disconnecting and reconnecting an AI app does not lift it and does not reset the counts. While AI sending is paused, Weave and every connected AI app are paused together, and typing a message by hand in the inbox still works.
A pause set by Spun itself can only be lifted by Spun support. Limits are locked on Normal for a new number. A number can raise its limits once it has been connected for 30 days with no ban or number replacement in the last 30 days, is not restricted by WhatsApp and is not at high risk.
Until then the limits can be lowered but not raised, the section shows the date they open, and a pause waits for an administrator (no automatic resume). Spun support can unlock a number earlier.
A higher limit always carries a higher chance that WhatsApp restricts the number; keeping the number on your own connection with Self Proxy or a Spun Box helps it stay in good standing. The What got limited list shows every time a limit blocked, held or paused an AI message in the last 30 days, with a Change this setting link.
When a person approves more messages in AI Sends than the per-minute limit allows, the extra ones are not refused: they show Waiting: sending pace and go out by themselves in the next minute.
Approving messages never pauses AI sending: an approved message that would take the number past Different chats per 10 minutes also shows Waiting: sending pace and goes out by itself when the 10 minutes allow it.
The daily limit is different: a message approved after the daily limit is reached stays in the queue until the next day or until the limit is raised. The error text an AI app may show for a pause contains the code kill_switch_engaged; it means AI sending is paused as described here, not that the account is blocked.
How to use
- As an administrator, open Settings → AI Assistant (MCP) and press Limits in the row of section buttons at the top.
- If a red card says AI sending is paused, read what happened and press Resume AI sending.
- To change the pace, choose Normal, Aggressive or Very aggressive under Sending pace, or type your own numbers, then press Save limits.
- If the limits are locked, you can only lower them until the date shown; write to Spun support if you need them raised sooner.
- Scroll to What got limited to see what was blocked or paused and press Change this setting to jump to the limit.
- To avoid pauses without raising limits, ask your AI to message fewer different chats at a time.
- To let AI write first to new chats without asking, or to stop it from ever doing so, pick an option under First message to a new chat and press Save limits.
- When a message waits because of one of these, open Spun Tools → Automate → AI Sends and approve or reject it.
Related features
- Autonomous Sending for Connected AI Apps (no approval)
- AI Sends Approval Queue
- Send preferences (per-line guards and Expert mode)
- Sending Health
- Weave AI Assistant
FAQ
- Why did my AI stop sending messages?
- What does kill_switch_engaged mean?
- How do I unlock sending for ChatGPT?
- How do I resume AI sending?
- Why is AI sending paused?
- How many messages can my AI send per minute?
- How do I raise the AI sending limits?
- Why can I not raise my AI limits?
- When can I raise my AI sending limits?
- What is the velocity tripwire?
- Why did my approved messages not all send at once?
- Does reconnecting ChatGPT remove the pause?
- Can I still send messages myself while AI sending is paused?
- How do I make the pause end by itself?
- Why does my AI ask for approval before messaging a new contact?
- Can my AI send the first message to someone who never wrote to me?
- Why did my AI message wait for approval after 8 chats?
- How do I stop my AI from messaging new people?