# Frequency capping

Frequency capping, which Meta calls per-user marketing template limits, is a WhatsApp rule that limits how many marketing template messages one person receives in a given period, counted across all businesses. A capped message is not delivered and is not charged.

Source: https://getkanal.com/whatsapp-marketing-glossary/frequency-capping  
Last updated: 2026-10-08

WhatsApp does not publish a fixed number. The limit adapts to each person: Meta's documentation says it depends on their recent read rate for marketing messages and on how many messages they currently have in their inbox from friends, family and businesses.

The cap is per user, not per business. A merchant's campaign can therefore be filtered even if its own cadence is modest, simply because the recipient has already received marketing messages from other brands. The API reports the failure with error code 131049, and Meta asks businesses to wait at least 24 hours before retrying that person.

Two geographic rules sit next to it (as of October 8, 2026): the limits are not active for messages sent from, or to, the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, Japan and South Korea, and WhatsApp does not currently deliver marketing templates to United States phone numbers at all. Marketing messages sent inside an open customer service window do not count toward the limit.

The practical response is relevance over volume: send fewer campaigns to engaged segments, which is how [WhatsApp campaigns](https://getkanal.com/whatsapp-campaigns) are built in Kanal from Shopify customer data.

## Kanal features

- [WhatsApp campaigns](https://getkanal.com/whatsapp-campaigns): Send marketing campaigns that actually get read

## Go deeper: articles

- [WhatsApp Broadcast: Lists, Limits and 6 Message Samples](https://getkanal.com/blog/whatsapp-broadcast-guide): WhatsApp broadcast lists hold 256 contacts, and some countries now cap the app at 35 free broadcasts a month. 6 message samples and how stores go past it.
- [WhatsApp Business Templates: 25 Examples + Meta Rules (2026)](https://getkanal.com/blog/whatsapp-business-templates): 25 WhatsApp Business template examples for online stores (order update, abandoned cart, back in stock), Meta's 3 categories, review time and costs.
- [WhatsApp Business Pricing 2026: Cost per Message by Country](https://getkanal.com/blog/whatsapp-business-pricing-guide): WhatsApp Business pricing, October 2026: the app is free, the API bills each message: $0.0635 per UK marketing message, $0.0034 per US order update.
- [WhatsApp Marketing for E-Commerce: The 2026 Playbook](https://getkanal.com/blog/whatsapp-marketing-ecommerce-guide): WhatsApp marketing for Shopify stores: cart recovery, broadcasts, AI chatbots, the metrics to track, and 12 plays that work in 2026.

## Related terms

- [Marketing template](https://getkanal.com/whatsapp-marketing-glossary/marketing-template)
- [Template pacing](https://getkanal.com/whatsapp-marketing-glossary/template-pacing)
- [Quality rating](https://getkanal.com/whatsapp-marketing-glossary/quality-rating)