WhatsApp guides / Error 131056
WhatsApp error 131056: pair rate limit hit
Error 131056 means your number sent too many messages to the same recipient in a short period. Meta's fix is to wait and retry for that recipient; you can keep messaging other numbers in the meantime.
Based on Meta's official documentation, checked 18 October 2026. Sources are linked at the end; where Meta gives no fix, we do not invent one.
What Meta says it means
Meta lists 131056 as a throttling error: too many messages sent from the sender phone number to the same recipient phone number in a short period of time.
What Meta says to do
- Wait and retry if you intend to send to the same number.
- You can send to a different number without waiting.
- Meta's retry advice after a failure: wait 4^X seconds before retrying, with X starting at 0 and rising by 1 after each failure.
The limit, in Meta's numbers
- One message every 6 seconds to the same user (0.17 messages a second), which works out to about 10 a minute or 600 an hour.
- You can burst up to 45 messages in 6 seconds, but a burst borrows from future quota. Meta's example: after a burst of 20 messages you need to wait about 2 minutes.