> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.goeva.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Why your send reaches fewer people than you have

> The count on a send to a list says "up to" how many people. Here are the reasons Eva leaves someone out at send time, and which ones you can change.

You have 900 contacts and the send says it will reach **up to** 900 people, but the results show 340
received it. That is not an error: the count you see while building the send is how many people match
your filter. At send time, Eva leaves out anyone who should not receive that message, and the results
tell you why, person by person.

## What you will get

You will be able to explain, contact by contact, the gap between your list and the final number. And
you will know which of those exclusions you can change and which you cannot.

## Where you see the numbers

When you create the send, under **Who**, one sentence says "It will reach up to N people". It is the
count of your filter, the same one you use in **Contacts**. It says "up to" because the channel is not
chosen yet and the rules below apply at send time: anyone who asked not to be contacted stays out,
someone without a phone does not receive a WhatsApp, and someone without an email does not receive an
email.

When you send, Eva opens the send's page. The final numbers are there: how many received the message,
and in the tabs below each person with their situation: **Left** gathers those who stayed out before
sending, with the reason; **Problems** those who were attempted and not reached.

## Exclusions from the contact's own data

These apply to every WhatsApp send, whatever the message. They are the ones you can fix yourself, by
correcting your contacts.

| Reason            | What happened                                                                  |
| ----------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| No phone          | The contact has no number saved.                                               |
| Invalid phone     | The number is not in a valid international format.                             |
| Duplicate contact | The same contact entered the list twice, for example from two pipeline stages. |
| Duplicate phone   | Two different contacts share the same number. Eva writes to it once.           |

<Tip>
  Save phone numbers with the country code. A number without an international prefix counts as an
  invalid phone and never receives anything.
</Tip>

## Exclusions from WhatsApp rules

These protect your number and your customers' permission. Unsubscribing applies to any message; the
last four apply only to marketing messages.

| Reason                       | What happened                                                                                         |
| ---------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Unsubscribed from messages   | The contact asked not to receive messages. They are never written to from a list again.               |
| No prior conversation        | There was never a conversation with that contact. A marketing message does not go out to a cold list. |
| Recent active conversation   | The customer wrote in the last 72 hours. They are in a live conversation and you can reply directly.  |
| Handled by a person          | The conversation is in the hands of someone on your team and had activity in the last 7 days.         |
| Got another message recently | They already received a marketing message in the last 24 hours.                                       |

<Note>
  "No prior conversation" is usually the biggest reason in the first send of a freshly imported
  workspace: the contacts exist, but they have not talked to the business yet.
</Note>

If your workspace has a send window configured, messages outside that window wait for the next one;
they are not lost.

## Exclusions in email sends

An **email** send does not use the WhatsApp rules. Its reasons are different:

* No email: the contact has no email, or the one it has is not valid.
* Duplicate email: two contacts share the same address.
* Email unsubscribed or bounced: the address is on your account's suppression list: it unsubscribed,
  marked your mail as spam, or previous sends bounced.

## One reason that shows up at the end

One reason appears in the results once the send went out: data was missing to build the message. That
contact lacked the data that feeds a variable of the message, the name or the city, and without it the
message cannot be built.

Fix it by filling that field on the contacts, or by giving the variable a fallback value.

## How to know it worked

On the send's page, the total people and the delivered count add up to your list minus the reasons
above. Under **Left** there is one row per person with its reason; **Problems** groups the people by
cause, with a count and a **Resend** button for the causes that can be retried.

## If something goes wrong

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="It says nobody matches these conditions">
    With zero people the send does not continue. Remove one condition or change it; the count updates
    immediately.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="A specific customer did not receive the message">
    Look for them on the send's page. Under **Left**, they stayed out before sending and the reason sits
    next to their name. If they are not there, the send was attempted: **Problems** shows the delivery
    causes and how many people each one affected, not an audience problem.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="It could not count the people">
    It is a temporary error in the calculation, not in your list. You can continue to the message; when
    you send, Eva counts again and does not confirm without the number.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Next steps

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Card title="Send a message to a list" href="/en/automations/campaigns" />

  <Card title="Organize your contacts" href="/en/crm/contacts" />
</Columns>