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DELIVERY AND LIMITS
Frequency capping (per-user marketing cap)
Frequency capping is Meta's mechanism that limits how many marketing template messages an individual WhatsApp user can receive from all businesses combined over a period of time. When a user has reached the cap, further marketing sends to them fail with error 131049 until the cap resets, and the business is not charged for the failed message.
error 131049marketing templateheld messageerror 131049 frequency cap
Why it matters
The cap is per user, not per business, and the threshold is not published, so a campaign to a broad list will always see some 131049 failures regardless of your own behaviour. Users who receive marketing from many businesses (typical in India) hit it first. Retrying immediately does nothing, and since April 2026 Meta penalises rapid retries.
In VGraple CRM
Recipients failing with 131049 are held with a "retry later" state, retried once after a cooling period rather than hammered, and reported separately so the failure is not mistaken for a wrong number. The eligibility check also skips users who received marketing from you very recently.
Related terms
Error 131049, Marketing template, Held message, and the 131049 guide.