The short answer
Meta caps how many marketing messages each person can receive from businesses on WhatsApp, based on how engaged they are, and it doesn’t publish the number. When the cap is reached, your message fails with an error instead of arriving. Fewer, more relevant messages get through more often.
Key takeaways
- There is a per-person limit on marketing messages, and India is covered.
- A blocked send returns error 131049; Meta advises waiting 24 hours before retrying.
- Utility templates that read like promotions get approved as marketing instead.
- 01There is a limit per person
- 02What a blocked send looks like
- 03Promotions filed as utility get re-labelled
- 04What helps
There is a limit per person
Meta limits how many marketing messages a person receives from businesses on WhatsApp. It applies in India. Meta doesn’t publish a fixed number: it depends on how that person engages with business messages.
What a blocked send looks like
The send fails with error 131049 instead of being delivered. Meta advises waiting at least 24 hours before trying that person again.
Promotions filed as utility get re-labelled
Since April 2025, a template filed as utility that reads like a promotion is approved as marketing instead, and charged as marketing.
What helps
Send to people likely to care, not your whole list. Space your offers out. Make each message about something that customer actually buys.
Sources
Put it to work.
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Written by the Reten editorial team. General guidance, not legal advice: check consent and messaging rules for your business before you send.
