WhatsApp API Rate Limits: Throughput, Pair Limits and Error 130429

The WhatsApp Cloud API lets each business phone number send up to 80 messages per second by default, rising to 1,000 by automatic upgrade; go faster and Meta returns error 130429. To any one customer, a number can send 1 message every 6 seconds, and going faster returns error 131056. Separate hourly limits apply to management API calls, such as reading templates or phone numbers: 200 requests an hour per app per account by default, or 5,000 for active accounts with at least one registered number.

None of these is the messaging limit, which caps how many different people you can reach outside a 24-hour window each day. Below: each rate limit with Meta’s numbers, its error codes, and how to send and retry without hitting them.

The WhatsApp API rate limits at a glance

Meta’s platform overview lists several limits that work side by side. Each one counts something different and has its own error code:

Throughput: 80 messages per second, up to 1,000

Meta’s throughput page says Cloud API supports up to 80 messages per second (mps) for each registered business phone number by default. That figure includes inbound and outbound messages and all message types, so a busy inbox shares the same capacity as a campaign. Send more than your level allows and the API returns 130429 until you’re back within it. In error responses, the message reads “(#130429) Rate limit hit”.

Numbers on the WhatsApp Business app too

If your number uses coexistence, so it runs on the WhatsApp Business app and Cloud API at the same time, Meta fixes its throughput at 20 mps to stay compatible with the app. Plan campaign speed around that lower figure.

The automatic upgrade to 1,000 mps

Meta upgrades a number to 1,000 mps automatically, at no cost, when all three of these are true:

1. The business portfolio that owns the number has an unlimited messaging limit.
2. The number is used to message 100,000 or more unique WhatsApp users outside a customer service window, within a moving 24-hour period.
3. The number’s quality is Yellow (Medium) or higher.

Meta says higher throughput doesn’t change pricing. The upgrade itself can take up to a minute, during which the number can’t be used and requests return 131057 (account in maintenance mode). Afterwards a phone_number_quality_update webhook arrives with the event THROUGHPUT_UPGRADE, and later increases happen without downtime. To check a number’s current level, request GET /<PHONE_NUMBER_ID>?fields=throughput.

Pair rate limits: one message every 6 seconds per person

Throughput is meant for messages to many different people. For one person, Meta sets a pair rate limit: a business number can send 1 message every 6 seconds to the same WhatsApp user, which is 0.17 a second, about 10 a minute or 600 an hour. Go over it and you get 131056 until you’re back within the rate.

Short bursts are allowed. Meta says you can send up to 45 messages in a 6-second burst, but that borrows from your future allowance: afterwards you must wait as long as those messages would have taken at the normal rate. Meta’s example is a burst of 20, which needs a wait of about 2 minutes before sending more to that person.

This matters most for chatbots that send a greeting, a menu and a picture in a row. Combine them where you can.

For retries after a burst, Meta suggests waiting 4^X seconds, starting with X = 0 and adding 1 after each failure. That gives waits of 1, 4, 16 and 64 seconds. The error only blocks that one recipient: Meta’s error list says you can still message other numbers without waiting.

Graph API call limits and error 80007

Sending messages isn’t the only thing that’s limited. Calls your app makes to manage a WhatsApp Business account are counted per app, per account, over a rolling hour. Meta lists these endpoints:

• GET /<WABA_ID> and GET /<WABA_ID>/phone_numbers
• GET, POST and DELETE on /<WABA_ID>/message_templates, /assigned_users and /subscribed_apps
• GET on the account-to-number current status object

Your app gets 200 requests an hour per account by default, and 5,000 an hour for active accounts with at least one registered phone number. Credit line endpoints get 5,000 an hour. Go over and Meta returns 80007 (“The WhatsApp Business Account has reached its rate limit”). Meta’s Graph API rate-limiting page lists 80008 for the WhatsApp Business Management API, so handle both codes. Error 4 is different: your whole app has hit its API call rate limit, which you can see in the App Dashboard’s Application Rate Limit section.

Reading the usage header

Responses limited this way carry an X-Business-Use-Case-Usage header. Its call_count, total_cputime and total_time values are percentages of your allowance, and calls may be throttled when CPU or total time reach 100. When you’re blocked, estimated_time_to_regain_access gives the wait in minutes. Log this header and slow down well before it reaches 100.

The usual cause is polling: asking for template status or phone number details on a timer. Use webhooks instead, and cache what changes rarely. Our WhatsApp Cloud API webhooks guide covers setting them up.

Rate limits vs messaging limits

Both stop messages going out, but they answer different questions:

Meta’s messaging limits start at 250 for new portfolios and step up to 2,000, 10,000, 100,000 and unlimited. How to move up is in how to increase your WhatsApp messaging limit. WhatsApp also caps how many marketing messages one person receives (error 131049), and the WhatsApp Business app has its own broadcast caps: see WhatsApp broadcast limits.

Rate limit error codes and what to do

These come from Meta’s error code list. Cloud API errors can come back in the API’s response or in webhooks, so check both. Our WhatsApp API error codes guide covers the rest.

What “spam rate limit hit” means

Only one throttling error on Meta’s list mentions spam: 131048, sent when there are restrictions on how many messages a number can send, which Meta says may be because too many earlier messages were blocked or flagged as spam. Sending slower won’t fix it. It’s a quality problem: check your number’s rating, pause marketing to people who didn’t ask for it, and read WhatsApp quality rating and WhatsApp opt-in.

How to send without hitting rate limits

1. Queue per phone number. Keep one sending queue for each number, paced below its throughput: 80 mps, or 20 for a coexistence number. Remember replies to incoming chats use the same capacity.
2. Pace per recipient too. Leave about 6 seconds between messages to the same person, and merge back-to-back bot messages.
3. Retry the right errors. Retry 130429, 131056 and 131057 with growing waits, such as Meta’s 4^X seconds. Don’t blindly retry 131048 or 133016.
4. Upload media once. Meta suggests uploading media and sending media IDs rather than links to your own server, or using media caching if you host files yourself.
5. Size your webhook server. Meta says to handle 3 times your outgoing message rate in status webhooks plus your expected incoming messages, with median response under 250 ms and under 1% over 1 second.
6. Stop polling. Use webhooks for template and number changes, and watch the X-Business-Use-Case-Usage header.
7. Check your daily limit. Before a big send, make sure your messaging limit covers the number of people you’re reaching outside an open window.

A worked example (made-up example numbers)

Say you want to send a template to 30,000 opted-in customers from a standard number. At 80 mps that takes about 375 seconds, roughly 6 minutes. But if your portfolio’s messaging limit is 10,000, only 10,000 of those people can be reached in 24 hours, however fast you send.

How Automate AI paces campaigns

When you send through Automate AI, campaign messages go out at a speed per business that our team sets, and it never goes above Meta’s standard 80 messages a second. If Meta answers with 130429 while a campaign is sending, the app waits a few seconds and tries that message again.

For messages that still fail, turn on Enable Campaign Resend in Settings › General, then switch on auto-retry for the campaign from its menu or its page. Failed messages are sent again later, after 1, 3 and 6 hours by default, and you can change the timing under Campaign Retry Settings. Messages that failed for being sent too fast are retried; opted-out contacts, numbers not on WhatsApp and template problems are not. Each campaign’s Retries box shows why messages failed and what will be tried when.

Automate AI also shows how much of your daily WhatsApp limit is left, and can pause automatic template sends while your number’s quality is Yellow or Red. See WhatsApp marketing.