WhatsApp error 131064: messaging limit reached due to template classification violations, and the fix

WhatsApp error 131064 is Meta's response when your WhatsApp Business account has hit a messaging limit imposed because of template classification violations. Meta's error reference reads: "Message failed to send because this account has reached its messaging limit due to template classification violations. This applies to both template messages and direct send messages." The listed solution is to review your template classifications and make sure they are categorised correctly, and it adds: "This restriction is automatically lifted after the enforcement period."

Meta announced the code in its changelog on 17 Apr 2026. It is current, documented and specific, so if a forum post or older article says something else about 131064, trust Meta's page.

What "template classification violations" means

Every template has a category: marketing, utility or authentication. Utility templates are for updates about something the customer already did or asked for, such as an order, booking or account change. They are charged at a lower rate than marketing in many markets and are not counted against per-user marketing limits. That makes it tempting to put promotional content into a utility template.

Meta reviews categories automatically and recategorises templates that do not fit (see template recategorisation). Its template categorization page goes further and describes what happens to businesses that consistently misclassify marketing templates as utility. 131064 is the error your sends receive while that kind of enforcement is limiting your account.

The enforcement levels Meta describes

Meta's template categorization page lists escalating restrictions for this misuse:

Meta adds that continued misuse after a restriction can bring enforcement back for longer periods and at a higher level.

Meta's error page does not say in one sentence which level produces 131064. Our reading is that it matches the rate-limiting level, where utility messages over the cap are "rejected" and the account's limit is the result of classification violations. Treat that as an interpretation, and rely on the webhook below for the exact state of your account.

How to see what was applied and until when

Meta notifies Messaging account admins by email when a warning, restriction or lift happens, and sends an account_update webhook on the whatsapp_business_account subscription. Example shape, with illustrative values:

{
  "field": "account_update",
  "value": {
    "event": "ACCOUNT_RESTRICTION",
    "violation_info": {
      "violation_type": "UTILITY_TEMPLATE_ABUSE_RATE_LIMIT"
    },
    "restriction_info": [
      {
        "restriction_type": "RATE_LIMITED_UTILITY_TEMPLATE_MESSAGING",
        "expiration": "1762425600"
      }
    ]
  }
}

violation_type tells you the scenario, and restriction_info is present only while a restriction is active. Its expiration is a Unix timestamp. Values Meta documents include:

• UTILITY_TEMPLATE_ABUSE: a warning (no restriction_info), or a utility template suspension with RESTRICTED_UTILITY_TEMPLATES
• UTILITY_TEMPLATE_ABUSE_RATE_LIMIT with RATE_LIMITED_UTILITY_TEMPLATE_MESSAGING: utility messages rate limited
• UTILITY_TEMPLATE_ABUSE_UNBAN and UTILITY_TEMPLATE_ABUSE_RATE_LIMIT_RECOVERY: the restriction has been removed

If your app does not subscribe to account_update, the first sign is often a wave of 131064 failures on utility sends.

How to fix it

You cannot make the error disappear before the enforcement period ends, but you can make sure it ends cleanly and does not come back at a higher level:

1. Stop the misclassified sends. Pause automations and campaigns that use utility templates with promotional content.
2. Audit every utility template. Read each one as Meta would. Anything that sells, cross-sells, offers a discount, announces a sale or asks for a review with an incentive is marketing.
3. Split mixed templates. Keep the transactional part as utility and move the promotion into a separate marketing template that goes only to people who opted in to offers.
4. Check Meta's decisions. In WhatsApp Manager, Business Support has a Template Category Updates section showing recategorised templates.
5. Appeal only real mistakes. If a template was recategorised wrongly, select it there and click Request Review. Appeals are per template.
6. Send real marketing as marketing. Meta's page says marketing and authentication messages are not affected at the rate-limiting level, so genuine promotions should go out as marketing templates.

A worked example of a misclassified template

Rangoli Home's shipping notification was approved as utility:

Hi {{1}}, your order {{2}} has shipped and will arrive by {{3}}. Use code FESTIVE15 for 15% off your next order!

The first sentence is utility; the second is a promotion. Sent thousands of times a day, templates like this are what the enforcement is built to catch. The fix is two templates: a utility order_shipped with only the shipping details, and a separate marketing template with the festive code, sent to customers who opted in to offers. Our guide to how template categories are decided has more examples of where the line falls.

Codes people confuse with 131064

• 131049 is the per-user marketing limit. It concerns one recipient and one marketing message, and you can retry after 24 hours. See error 131049 explained.
• 131048 is a restriction on how many messages your number can send, linked to messages being blocked or flagged as spam. It is about quality, not categories.
• 130429 is throughput: too many messages per second.
• 131063 means the business turned off marketing templates on Cloud API in favour of the Marketing Messages API.

How Broadchat shows this

When a send fails with 131064, Broadchat shows the reason Meta sends under the failed message in the Inbox, and the code in Message info; campaign reports list the failed recipients. Template categories are kept in sync with Meta through the template category webhook, so the template list in the panel shows when Meta has moved a template to marketing. If you manage templates for clients, a quick category audit before festive campaigns is worth building into your routine. Agencies can offer this as a service under their own brand with the white-label program.

For other error codes, see the WhatsApp API error codes cheat-sheet, and for the basics, what the WhatsApp Business API is.