Throttling Errors

Throttling errors are returned when your application or WhatsApp Business Account has exceeded a rate limit set by Meta. These are among the most common operational errors in high-volume messaging environments and require careful handling to avoid message loss.

WhatsApp Cloud API has multiple layers of rate limiting — at the app level, the WABA level, the throughput level, and the per-recipient level. Each has its own error code.

Error 4 - API Too Many Calls

App-Level Rate Limit Reached

ERROR CODE

4

ERROR SUMMARY

API Too Many Calls — App-Level Rate Limit Reached

ERROR DESCRIPTION

The application has exceeded its Graph API call rate limit. This is an app-level rate limit, distinct from the message throughput limit. It applies to the total number of API calls made by the app across all endpoints.

HTTP Status: 400 Bad Request. The API call rate limit is calculated on a rolling basis and is visible in the App Dashboard.

RESOLUTION & TROUBLESHOOTING STEPS

1. Log in to the Meta App Dashboard and navigate to your app. In the 'Application Rate Limit' section, verify that the limit has been reached.

2. Implement exponential backoff with jitter in your retry logic. When you receive a 4 error, wait before retrying — start with a 1-second delay and double it with each retry attempt.

3. Reduce the frequency of API calls by batching requests where possible. For example, instead of making individual status checks per message, aggregate them.

4. Review whether any background processes are making redundant API calls and optimise them.

5. If sustained high API call volumes are necessary, consider requesting a rate limit increase from Meta.

OTHER NOTES

Chakra Chat implements automatic retry logic with backoff for transient errors including Error 4. You can review retry behaviour in Settings → Advanced → Retry Configuration.

This error is different from 130429 (throughput limit) — Error 4 is about total API call frequency, not message send throughput.

Error 80007 - Rate Limit Issues

WhatsApp Business Account Rate Limit Reached

ERROR CODE

80007

ERROR SUMMARY

Rate Limit Issues — WhatsApp Business Account Rate Limit Reached

ERROR DESCRIPTION

The WhatsApp Business Account has reached its account-level rate limit. This applies specifically to the WABA and is separate from the application-level rate limit (Error 4) or the throughput limit (Error 130429).

HTTP Status: 400 Bad Request. WABA-level rate limits are tied to the account's quality rating and messaging tier.

RESOLUTION & TROUBLESHOOTING STEPS

1. Refer to the WhatsApp Business Account Rate Limits documentation at https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/about-the-platform#rate-limits.

2. Implement a message queue with rate limiting in your sending pipeline. Chakra Chat's campaign scheduling feature can distribute message sends over time to stay within limits.

3. Monitor your WABA's current messaging tier in WhatsApp Manager and work towards tier upgrades by maintaining high engagement rates and template quality.

4. Spread campaigns across multiple phone numbers if you have a multi-number setup to distribute the load.

5. Wait for the rate limit window to reset before retrying.

OTHER NOTES

WhatsApp Business Accounts start with a messaging limit of 1,000 unique contacts per 24-hour rolling window (Tier 1) and can scale up to 10M+ with quality maintenance.

Sending messages to many users who don't respond or who block your number can lower your quality rating, which in turn reduces your rate limit tier.

Error 130429 - Rate Limit Hit

Cloud API Message Throughput Exceeded

ERROR CODE

130429

ERROR SUMMARY

Rate Limit Hit — Cloud API Message Throughput Exceeded

ERROR DESCRIPTION

The Cloud API message throughput limit has been reached. Throughput refers to the number of messages per second (MPS) that can be sent from a specific business phone number. The default throughput is 80 MPS, which can be increased.

HTTP Status: 400 Bad Request. This error is one of the most common in high-volume sending environments and requires robust retry logic.

RESOLUTION & TROUBLESHOOTING STEPS

1. Implement exponential backoff retry logic. When you receive this error, pause message sending and retry after increasing intervals (e.g., 1s, 2s, 4s, 8s, etc.).

2. Review and optimise your message dispatch rate. Ensure your sending pipeline is not exceeding 80 MPS per phone number.

3. For higher throughput requirements, contact Meta to request a throughput upgrade. Enterprise accounts can achieve throughput in the thousands of MPS.

4. Distribute sending load across multiple business phone numbers to effectively multiply your total throughput capacity.

5. Use Chakra Chat's campaign throttling settings to configure a maximum send rate that stays within API limits.

OTHER NOTES

Throughput limits apply per phone number, not per WABA. A WABA with 3 phone numbers has a total potential throughput of 3x the per-number limit.

See the Throughput documentation at https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/throughput for details on default and maximum limits.

Error 131048 - Spam Rate Limit Hit

Phone Number Messaging Restriction

ERROR CODE

131048

ERROR SUMMARY

Spam Rate Limit Hit — Phone Number Messaging Restriction

ERROR DESCRIPTION

The business phone number has been restricted from sending messages because too many previous messages were blocked by recipients or flagged as spam. This is a quality-based rate limit that is separate from volume-based throughput limits.

HTTP Status: 400 Bad Request. This error signals a serious quality issue with your messaging content or targeting.

RESOLUTION & TROUBLESHOOTING STEPS

1. Immediately stop sending messages from the affected phone number and investigate the root cause.

2. Check your template quality ratings in WhatsApp Manager. Identify templates with low quality scores or that have been paused.

3. Review your recipient targeting strategy. Ensure you are only messaging users who have explicitly opted in and are likely to engage with your messages.

4. Avoid sending unsolicited promotional messages, especially to cold audiences.

5. Monitor the Template Quality documentation at https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/templates/template-quality and improve content accordingly.

6. Gradually resume sending with improved content and better-targeted audiences to rebuild your quality rating.

OTHER NOTES

This error is a strong signal that your messaging quality needs immediate attention. Continuing to send will likely worsen the restriction.

Chakra Chat's Template Analytics dashboard provides quality metrics per template to help you identify which messages are generating negative signals.

Error 131056 - Pair Rate Limit Hit

(Business Account, Consumer Account) Pair Rate Limit Hit

ERROR CODE

131056

ERROR SUMMARY

(Business Account, Consumer Account) Pair Rate Limit Hit

ERROR DESCRIPTION

Too many messages have been sent from the business phone number to the same recipient phone number in a short period of time. WhatsApp enforces per-pair rate limits to prevent businesses from overwhelming individual users.

HTTP Status: 400 Bad Request. This is a recipient-specific limit.

RESOLUTION & TROUBLESHOOTING STEPS

1. Wait before retrying messages to the same recipient. The rate limit applies specifically to the sender-recipient pair.

2. You can continue sending messages to other recipients without waiting — this error does not block all outbound messaging.

3. Review your automation flows in Chakra Chat to ensure you are not inadvertently sending multiple messages in rapid succession to the same user.

4. Implement deduplication logic to prevent duplicate messages being sent to the same number.

OTHER NOTES

This error is designed to protect end-users from being flooded with messages from a single business. It is normal to encounter it occasionally in high-frequency chatbot or automation scenarios.

The rate limit window for this error is not publicly documented by Meta, but is generally a few seconds to minutes. Implementing a short delay before retry is sufficient in most cases.

Error 133016 - Account Register Limit

Account Register/Deregister Rate Limit Exceeded

ERROR CODE

133016

ERROR SUMMARY

Account Register/Deregister Rate Limit Exceeded

ERROR DESCRIPTION

The business phone number has been blocked from registration or deregistration because too many attempts were made in a short period of time. This is a security-oriented rate limit to prevent abuse of the registration endpoint.

HTTP Status: 400 Bad Request.

RESOLUTION & TROUBLESHOOTING STEPS

1. Stop attempting to register or deregister the phone number immediately.

2. Wait for the block to lift automatically. The duration is specified in the 'details' field of the error response.

3. Review the Registration documentation (https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/business-phone-numbers/registration) for limitations on registration attempts.

4. Identify why multiple registration attempts were being made. This could indicate a bug in your provisioning flow.

OTHER NOTES

Repeated registration/deregistration is an unusual operation in production. If you are hitting this limit regularly, it suggests a misconfiguration in your onboarding or phone number management pipeline.