Outreach caps and message limits explained

For operators confused about why they can only send so many messages, and why the number doesn't match what they expected from their plan.

The short answer

The message cap you see at the top of the Automations page is TikTok's limit, not Cruva's. TikTok sets how many creators you can reach out to based on your shop's affiliate GMV. Higher GMV → higher cap. It resets weekly (for most shops, every Sunday).

Your Cruva plan does not set your message cap. Your plan controls how many concurrent automations you can run at once (see the bottom of this article). Those are two different limits, and mixing them up is the most common confusion here.

Where to see your cap

Dashboard → Outreach → Automations. The cards at the top show:

• Weekly TikTok Message Limits — a gauge of how much of your cap you've used (e.g. "used/max unconnected creators").
• 30-Day Affiliate GMV — the GMV figure your cap is based on ("Weekly limits are based off 30d affiliate GMV").
• Click the ? icon on either card to open TikTok's own quota page for your region.

What actually counts against the cap

Only outreach to creators you haven't connected with yet consumes your cap:

• Sending a message or an invitation to an unconnected creator uses one spot.
• If you send both an invitation and a follow-up DM to the same unconnected creator in the same week, that's still only one spot.
• The cap does not apply to creators you've already reached, or to creators who responded to you.

Daily vs weekly

• Most shops are on a weekly cap that refreshes on a fixed day (almost always Sunday). Cruva shows "Weekly TikTok Message Limits" when the reset is within the coming month.
• Some shops/regions see limits phrased differently in Affiliate Center. When in doubt, the ? icon links straight to TikTok's quota overview for the authoritative numbers.

How GMV raises your cap

TikTok tiers your cap by your shop's affiliate GMV. As GMV grows, the cap steps up (users commonly see it move from ~1,000 to ~2,000 and higher). Key rules:

• The GMV must come from an affiliate sale. Organic sales (and sales that show in Seller Center but not attributed to an affiliate) do not count toward the outreach cap.
• A qualifying sale can take a few days to register after the order is fulfilled.
• Once it registers, the higher cap takes effect at the next weekly reset (Sunday).
• If your shop has $0 affiliate GMV in 30 days, outreach is blocked entirely until your first affiliate sale. The quickest unlock is to buy from an affiliate's shoppable video of your product — that registers as an affiliate sale.

Cruva's cap vs TikTok Affiliate Center's cap

They are the same cap. Cruva reads and displays TikTok's messaging quota — it doesn't add a second limit of its own on TikTok DMs/invites. If Cruva says you're capped, TikTok's Affiliate Center quota page will show the same thing. That's why the ? icon sends you to TikTok's quota overview.

Email campaigns are separate and have their own daily sending limit (default 60/day per address) — that's a Cruva deliverability guard, not the TikTok cap. See the email campaigns article.

Common problems

"My cap says 1,000 but I was told 2,000 — is it because I'm on a trial?" No — trials don't reduce the cap. The cap is your TikTok GMV tier. 1,000 usually means low/early affiliate GMV; it lifts as GMV grows.

"It says limit reached but I've sent 0/2,000." This can happen right around the weekly reset, or when prior invites/messages this cycle already consumed spots that aren't reflected in the campaign's own counter. Check the gauge at the top of the page and TikTok's quota page via the ? icon — the lower of your Cruva cap and TikTok's remaining quota is what applies.

"My weekly limit hasn't refreshed." Resets happen on your shop's refresh day (typically Sunday).

"Does the cap stack per campaign / email / domain?" No. The TikTok outreach cap is per shop, shared across all your automations — running more campaigns doesn't give you more messages.

Plan limits are a different thing: concurrent automations

Your Cruva plan caps how many automations can run at the same time, not how many messages you send:

• Basic — Concurrent automations: 5
• Growth — Concurrent automations: 7
• Scale — Concurrent automations: 100

"Concurrent" counts automations that are actively running.