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.

New in October 2026: TikTok has started moving shops to a new system that splits the weekly limit by creator level and adds an effectiveness bonus. Not every shop has moved yet. See TikTok's new weekly outreach limits for how it works and how to tell which system you're on.

Where to see your cap

Dashboard → Outreach → Automations (also at the top of Workflows). The Weekly outreach limits card shows:

• A badge saying Shop-wide limit (the standard rules) or Per creator level (TikTok's new rules). Hover it for an explanation.
• Outreach this week: Unlimited, or how many unconnected creators you can still reach, with a progress bar. On the new rules this is one tile per creator level instead.
• Your 30-day affiliate GMV and the tier it puts you in, plus when the limits reset next.
• Your creator follower cap, if your tier has one.

Click More info for the full tier table with your tier highlighted, what GMV moves you up or down a tier, and a link to TikTok's own quota page. Next to it, the Target collaborations card shows how many open Target Collab invites your shop has against TikTok's cap (see Target Collab Cleanup).

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.

When it resets

Limits are weekly and reset every Sunday at 12 PM (GMT-7). The card shows the exact reset time in your local time zone, and how long until it. Unused outreach doesn't carry over.

How GMV raises your cap

TikTok tiers your cap by your shop's affiliate GMV over the last 30 days. On the standard rules, US shops currently get:

Other markets have their own tiers in local currency; More info on the card shows yours. Shops on TikTok's new rules have a different table per creator level, covered in the October 2026 article.

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 on the standard rules, 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. (On the new rules, $0 GMV shops can still reach a limited number of creators.)

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. More info on the card links to TikTok's quota page if you want to compare.

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, and tiers differ by market. Open More info to see the table for your shop; 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 Weekly outreach limits card at the top of the page (and TikTok's quota page via More info). On TikTok's new rules, also check the tile for the creator level you're targeting: Lv.2 can be used up while Lv.0 – Lv.1 is still unlimited.

"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.