Short answer
Meta's documentation says each WhatsApp Cloud API business phone number supports up to 80 messages per second by default, rising to 1,000 by automatic upgrade for eligible numbers. Separate limits apply to the same recipient, to Graph API management calls and to daily messaging. Exceeding throughput returns error 130429; slow down, queue the work and retry with backoff.
Getting to 1,000 messages per second
The cap applies to each business phone number and counts inbound and outbound messages of all types. Meta upgrades eligible numbers automatically, at no cost, when all three conditions hold. The upgrade can take up to 1 minute, during which the number is unusable.
Numbers used with both the WhatsApp Business app and the Cloud API have a fixed 20 messages per second.
| Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Messaging limit | Unlimited on the business portfolio |
| Volume | 100,000 or more unique users messaged outside customer service windows in a moving 24 hours |
| Quality | Quality score of YELLOW (medium) or higher |
Four different limits and their errors
| Limit | What it caps | Typical error |
|---|---|---|
| Throughput | Messages per second per number | 130429 |
| Pair rate limit | Messages from one number to the same recipient in a short time | 131056 |
| Graph API limits | Management calls per app and account | 4, 80007, 80008 |
| Messaging limit | Unique people reached per moving 24 hours | Restrictions on sending |
How to retry safely
- Queue every send and drain the queue with a worker pool.
- Limit the rate below your cap, leaving room for replies.
- Record each message before sending so a retry never duplicates it.
- Retry only throttling and transient server errors, with exponential backoff and jitter, capping delay and attempts.