WhatsApp error codes, translated for shop owners
A reference written from the customer's side of the conversation rather than the developer's.
A WhatsApp error code is Meta's reason for refusing to deliver one of your messages. Every code below means the customer got nothing — which is why these matter far more than their obscure numbering suggests.
Most references for these are written for developers. This one is written from your side: what the customer experienced, what caused it, and the fix.
The five you will actually meet
| Code | What happened | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| 131047 | You tried to send free text more than 24 hours after the customer's last message | Send an approved template instead, or wait for them to write |
| 131049 | Meta declined to deliver a marketing template — per-user limits, or a US number | Wait at least 24 hours before retrying |
| 132000 | Your template expects N variables and the message supplied a different number | Fix the variable list on the sending step |
| 132012 | A variable's format was wrong for that template | Check what the variable resolved to |
| 131026 | The message could not be delivered to that number at all | Check the number is on WhatsApp and correctly formatted |
131047 — "message failed" on a reply
The most common one, and the least alarming. It means the 24-hour customer service window has closed. Meta's documentation is clear that the window opens when the user messages or calls you and resets each time they do — so if they have gone quiet for a day, free text is no longer allowed.
The fix is structural rather than technical: if a flow may run more than a day after the customer last wrote, it must send a template, not free text. A delay step of 1,440 minutes or more in a flow that then sends free text is this bug waiting to happen.
131049 — the one people misread
This means Meta chose not to deliver a marketing template. Two very different causes hide behind one code.
- Per-user marketing limits. An adaptive cap on how many marketing templates one person receives from all businesses combined. Meta's documentation publishes no number for it, and it does not apply in the EEA, UK, Japan or South Korea, or to messages sent inside an open window.
- A US number. US phone numbers cannot receive marketing templates at all. If every US recipient in a campaign fails and nobody else does, this is why — and there is nothing to fix.
Meta's instruction on 131049 is counter-intuitive and worth following: wait at least 24 hours before retrying. Retrying sooner risks further blocks for up to 24 hours. The instinct to resend immediately makes it worse.
132000 — the parameter count mismatch
Your template has, say, three placeholders, and the sending step supplied two. Meta rejects the whole message. The customer gets nothing and, unless you are watching, you will not notice.
We have hit this ourselves on a seeded rule whose template gained a variable after the rule was created, leaving it sending zero of them. The lesson: if you edit a template's variables, check every automation that sends it.
A related trap is a variable that resolves to an empty string. A contact field that was never filled in — because it was never defined under Settings → Contact Attributes — sends nothing where Meta expects something.
131026 — undeliverable
The number is not reachable on WhatsApp. Usually one of: the number is not registered on WhatsApp at all, it is formatted wrongly, or it is a landline. In cash-on-delivery markets, where the phone number comes from a checkout form typed by hand, this is a data-quality problem rather than a messaging one.
A common and fixable version is the same customer existing under two numbers — one saved with a leading zero, one in international format. Store the number the same way everywhere and the problem mostly disappears.
What Meta does when problems repeat
Errors are not penalties, but the behaviours behind them can be. Meta's policy enforcement documentation describes a graduated ladder: a warning, then blocks of 1 to 3 days on a message type, then 5, 7 or 30-day blocks on all messaging, then an indefinite account lock which can be appealed, and finally permanent removal. Named triggers include spam, template misclassification, restricted categories and excessive negative user feedback. Appeals go through Business Support Home and are typically decided in 24 to 48 hours.
The one that catches honest merchants. Template misclassification is on that list. Repeatedly submitting promotional content as utility to save money is not a clever optimisation — it is a named enforcement trigger. See utility versus marketing.
A diagnostic order for "my automation didn't send"
- Did the flow run at all? Check the automation's activity view. No run means a condition blocked it — usually a keyword that did not match.
- Did it run and stop early? The activity view names the step that stopped it.
- Did it send and fail? Now you are looking at an error code. Match it above.
- Did it send successfully but the customer says nothing arrived? Check whether the template variables resolved to something — an empty variable produces 132000, and a wrong number produces 131026.
That order matters. Most reported "delivery failures" turn out to be step one: a flow that never ran because a keyword list missed the phrasing the customer used. Keyword triggers that actually match covers that.
What to check before you blame the platform
Three questions, in order. Is the number on WhatsApp? Is the window open, or is this a template? Do the template's variables match what the flow supplies? Those three account for the overwhelming majority of failures, and all three are things you can check yourself in under a minute.
Frequently asked questions
What does WhatsApp error 131047 mean?
A free-form message was attempted more than 24 hours after the customer's last message, so the customer service window had closed. Send an approved template instead.
What does error 131049 mean and should I resend?
Meta declined to deliver a marketing template — either the adaptive per-user limit or, for +1 numbers, the US marketing pause. Do not resend immediately: Meta advises waiting at least 24 hours, because retrying sooner risks further blocks.
What causes error 132000?
The template expects a certain number of variables and the message supplied a different number. It commonly happens after a template is edited but the automation sending it is not.
Can repeated errors get my WhatsApp account blocked?
The errors themselves are not penalties, but the behaviours behind them can be. Meta's enforcement ladder runs from a warning to 1–3 day message-type blocks, 5, 7 or 30-day full blocks, an appealable indefinite lock, and permanent removal. Template misclassification is a named trigger.