cold_send_limit — Cold-send cap reached
What the API returns
{
"error": {
"code": "cold_send_limit",
"message": "The hourly limit for messages to new recipients is reached.",
"request_id": "req_01JRQ8F4X9N2K7YB3C5V6W8H0T"
}
}Every Wapito error is this one envelope. Branch on code, which is stable; message is written for people and can be reworded; details appears only when there is something specific to say; request_id is what to quote to support.
What it means
cold_send_limit is an HTTP 429 error from the Wapito WhatsApp API: cold-send cap reached. The response message reads “The hourly limit for messages to new recipients is reached.” It is retryable: the same request can succeed later without changes. 5 endpoints can raise it, POST /messages/text among them.
Why it happens
A cold send is a message to a number that has never written to you and that you first wrote to less than a day ago. Wapito budgets those per hour because a fresh number blasting strangers is the pattern WhatsApp's abuse systems are tuned to catch: ten an hour on the first two days, twenty until the end of the first week, then sixty on premium and twenty on sandbox. The refused message was never sent and is not counted. details.cap and details.used show where the hour stands.
How to fix cold_send_limit
Read details.cap and details.used, then hold the remaining cold messages until the top of the next hour rather than retrying in a loop.
Order your queue so replies to people who already wrote to you go first; they are never cold and never consume this budget.
Warm the number up over its first week with real conversations before pointing an outreach list at it, and keep the list to people who opted in.
Endpoints that raise it
Where you will meet it
- Send Without Template
Feature guide
Retry guidance
Safe to retry
The condition is transient, so the same request can succeed later without any change on your side. Retry with exponential backoff and jitter — start at one second, double each attempt, cap at a minute — and stop after a handful of tries so a stuck condition surfaces as an alert rather than a hot loop.
On a 429, read the Retry-After header first when the response carries one — rate_limited always sends it, in seconds — and when the details object names a window or a reset time, wait for exactly that. Both beat a guessed backoff.
Frequently asked questions
Does a reply to an existing conversation count against the cold-send cap?
No. A recipient who has messaged you, or whom you first messaged more than twenty-four hours ago, is a known contact and is outside this budget entirely. Only first messages to strangers are metered, which is why a support inbox rarely sees this error while a cold outreach job hits it in minutes.
Why is the cap lower on the first two days after connecting?
Because that is when a number is most fragile. A freshly linked number with no history that immediately starts opening conversations with strangers looks exactly like a burner, and WhatsApp locks or bans those quickly. The ladder gives the number a week of ordinary-looking traffic before the ceiling rises, and the plan cap applies after that.
Related
Try it on your own number
Create a channel, link a WhatsApp number by QR or pairing code, and call the API in a couple of minutes. The Sandbox plan is free and needs no card.