WhatsApp · 7 min read · Savina Bansal
The WhatsApp 24-hour window after 1 October 2026
Meta now charges for replies inside the 24-hour window after 1,000 free a month. Here is what the window still does, what changed, and what is still free.
Building the platform this article is about
For almost two years, the answer to "what does a WhatsApp reply cost?" was nothing. From 1 October 2026 it is: Meta charges for replies inside the 24-hour customer service window again, after the first 1,000 a month on each business number, and utility templates sent inside the window are no longer free either.
The window itself has not gone anywhere. It still decides what you are allowed to send, and it is still worth understanding precisely — because most guides online were written for the old rules, and some for rules older than that.
Everything below is from Meta’s own pricing documentation, read on 12 October 2026, and every price is from Meta’s INR rate card effective October 1, 2026.
What opens the window, and for how long
The customer service window opens when a WhatsApp user messages you — not when you message them. It lasts 24 hours, and every new message from the customer resets it to 24 hours.
Any inbound message counts, including a reply to something you sent. So a template that gets answered opens a window. Messages the customer sends you are never charged.
Inside the window: what you may send
Inside an open window you can send non-template messages — plain text, an image, a document, a voice note — written in the moment rather than pre-approved. Outside it you cannot. Templates are the only message type that sends outside a window.
That is a capability rule, not a billing one, and it did not change on 1 October. It is the thing that surprises teams moving from the WhatsApp Business app: you cannot type a follow-up to a customer who went quiet three days ago. You send an approved template or you send nothing.
What changed on 1 October 2026
Every non-template message you send inside the window is a service message, whether a person typed it or a chatbot sent it. Meta made service messages free in November 2024. From 1 October 2026 it charges them again — after a free tier of 1,000 service messages a month on each business phone number. The tier resets monthly and does not roll over.
To India, Meta’s service rate is ₹0.1150 a message, the same as its utility rate. On Ohanvi that is ₹0.1380 on Pay as you go and ₹0.1208 on Pro — Meta’s rate plus the plan’s percentage, as with every other category.
The second change is quieter and affects more automation. Utility templates sent inside an open window — an order status, an appointment confirmation sent in reply to a customer — were free from July 2025. They are not any more. They are charged at the utility rate wherever they are sent.
Marketing and authentication templates were never free inside the window, and still are not.
What is still free
Meta now lists exactly two cases in which it does not charge for a message a business sends.
The first 1,000 service messages a month, on each business number. For a small business answering a few dozen customers a day, that may still cover every reply.
The free entry point window. When a customer reaches you from a click-to-WhatsApp ad — on Meta’s Android or iOS app; desktop and web do not open one — and you reply, Meta opens a window that its documentation says can stay open for up to 7 days, and charges nothing for marketing, utility, authentication or service messages inside it. That is now the single most valuable pricing mechanic on the platform, and it applies to exactly the traffic you have already paid Meta to acquire.
What this changes about how you work
Count your replies. Before October, the number of messages your team sent inside conversations did not matter to the bill. Now it does, past the free tier. A support team handling a few hundred conversations a day can cross it in the first week of the month.
Do not reach for a utility template inside a conversation to save money. That trick worked from July 2025 to September 2026. A typed reply and a utility template now cost the same to India, and the typed reply uses the free tier first.
Route click-to-WhatsApp traffic deliberately. A free entry point window with no charge on any category is worth more now than it was when replies were free anyway.
Templates are still the expensive message. On Ohanvi's Pay as you go plan a marketing message to India is ₹1.0357; a broadcast that earns a reply still buys you a window, and a window is still where a conversation becomes a sale.
Where this shows up on an Ohanvi bill
Ohanvi passes Meta’s free tier through untouched: the first 1,000 service messages a month on your number cost you nothing, because they cost us nothing. Past that, each service message is priced like every other category — Meta’s published rate for the destination plus your plan’s percentage — and the pricing page publishes the figure for every plan and country, beside Meta’s own.
The calculator now asks for replies your team sends and chatbot replies separately, because both count against Meta’s free tier and only chatbot replies count toward your plan’s automated allowance.
Questions this answers
- Are WhatsApp replies free?
- Not since 1 October 2026, past a free tier. Replies inside the 24-hour customer service window are service messages, and Meta gives each business phone number 1,000 free a month; after that each one is charged at the service rate for the recipient’s country — ₹0.1150 to India before any provider’s fee. Messages the customer sends you are always free.
- What is the WhatsApp 24-hour customer service window?
- A 24-hour period that opens when a WhatsApp user messages your business, and resets each time they message again. Inside it you can send non-template messages — free-form text, images, documents. Outside it, an approved template is the only message type you can send.
- Are utility templates still free inside the 24-hour window?
- No. Utility templates sent inside an open customer service window were free from July 2025, and Meta began charging them again on 1 October 2026. They are now charged at the utility rate inside or outside the window. Marketing and authentication templates were always charged inside the window.
- What is still free on the WhatsApp Business Platform?
- Two kinds of message a business sends: the first 1,000 service messages a month on each business phone number, and every message inside Meta’s free entry point window, which opens when you reply to a customer who reached you from a click-to-WhatsApp ad on Meta’s mobile apps and can stay open for up to 7 days. Messages customers send you are also free.
- Does WhatsApp still bill per 24-hour conversation?
- No. Meta moved from conversation-based billing to per-message billing on 1 July 2025, and each message is charged by its category. The 24-hour window still exists, but it governs what you are allowed to send, not how a charge is counted.
- How can I reduce my WhatsApp message costs now?
- Send click-to-WhatsApp ad traffic into Meta’s free entry point window, where nothing is charged for up to 7 days. Keep replies within the free monthly tier where you can, and do not switch typed replies to utility templates — since 1 October 2026 they cost the same. And check the category of everything automated: utility templates are priced far below marketing ones.
