Guides

Rate limits

Limits protect your number's quality rating and keep the API fast for everyone.

How limits work

Limits are counted per credential: each API key or OAuth token has its own budget (requests without one are counted per IP).
The current budget is 2,000 requests per minute per credential, in a one-minute window. Read it from x-ratelimit-limit rather than hard-coding it.
Need more for a migration or a large integration? Talk to us and we can raise it.

Response headers

`x-ratelimit-limit`	Requests allowed in the current window.
`x-ratelimit-remaining`	Requests left in the window.
`x-ratelimit-reset`	Seconds until the window resets.
`retry-after`	Sent with `429`: seconds to wait before retrying.

When you hit the limit

The API answers 429 with the standard error envelope:

429 Too Many Requests

{
  "success": false,
  "error": {
    "code": "RATE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED",
    "message": "Rate limit exceeded. Retry after 12s.",
    "details": {
      "limit": 2000,
      "remainingMs": 12000
    }
  },
  "requestId": "a1f4c2e0-9b6d-4a1e-8c3f-2d7e5b9a0c11",
  "timestamp": "2026-07-12T09:30:00.000Z",
  "path": "/api/public/v1/messages",
  "method": "POST"
}

Best practices

Wait for retry-after, then retry with exponential backoff and jitter.
Sending to many people? Create a broadcast instead of looping over POST /messages — one call, and inaiy paces delivery for you.
Use webhooks instead of polling message status.
Use the fields and limit query parameters to fetch only what you need.

WhatsApp limits are separate

Meta also limits how many new customers a number can message per day (messaging tiers). Those limits apply to the WhatsApp number, whichever API or tool you send from.

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