WhatsApp error 131049
Error 131049: Marketing message not delivered (frequency limit)
Error 131049 means Meta chose not to deliver a marketing template because the person has already received as many marketing messages from businesses as Meta allows for now. Nothing is wrong with your template or your number. Do not resend straight away: Meta suggests waiting at least 24 hours, and the real fix is sending marketing messages less often.
- Meta’s description
- “This message was not delivered to maintain healthy ecosystem engagement.” Meta’s error codes, 4 October 2026
- Charged by Meta?
- No. Meta charges only for delivered messages, and this one was not delivered.
- Shown in Fliok analytics as
- “Marketing frequency cap”
Common causes
- The recipient has reached Meta’s limit on marketing messages from businesses in a period. Meta does not publish the exact number, and it varies.
- The same person got marketing templates from you, or from other businesses, shortly before.
- It applies to marketing templates. Utility and authentication templates and free-form replies are not stopped by it.
How to fix it
- Wait at least 24 hours before sending that person another marketing template; an immediate retry usually fails the same way.
- Send fewer marketing messages to the same people, and space campaigns out.
- Use the utility category only for genuinely transactional messages (orders, bookings, account changes). Meta reviews categories and reclassifies promotions.
- Target people who recently engaged with you rather than your whole list.
What Fliok does about it
- When Meta reports 131049 for a contact, Fliok marks that contact as capped for 24 hours. Marketing templates to them in that time are recorded as skipped and never sent to Meta, so they do not use your plan’s message allowance.
- Fliok also keeps at least 48 hours between two marketing templates to the same person, for every broadcast and API send.
- Utility and authentication templates and free-form replies are never held back by either rule.
- The failure shows as “Marketing frequency cap” in the analytics failure breakdown, and it does not set off an alert for each message.
Meta sets and changes these codes. If anything here disagrees with Meta’s current reference, Meta is right.
No. It is Meta’s per-person limit on marketing messages, applied message by message, and there is no appeal for a single send. Send less often and wait before trying the same person again.
Only if the message genuinely is utility, such as an order or booking update. Meta reviews template categories and can reclassify a promotion as marketing, which brings the limit back and can count against your templates.
Let Fliok catch it before Meta does
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