If a customer arrives from an ad and you reply within the first 24 hours, a window of up to 7 days opens in which your messages are not charged. Here is how it works and how to make the most of it.
If you reply within 24 hours to someone who messages you from a Click to WhatsApp ad, Meta does not charge for your messages for up to 7 days, counted from your reply.
It is the most useful exception in the new pricing scheme: since October 1, 2026, Meta charges for every message your business sends on WhatsApp, including replies to a customer who wrote to you first.
That window has conditions, and it coexists with another 24-hour rule that is easy to confuse with it. Here is how both work, with a day-by-day example.
Meta documents two changes that arrived almost together.
The first: since October 1, 2026, Meta also charges per message for the replies you send when the customer writes to you, known as service messages. Each number gets 1,000 of those messages free per month; from message 1,001 onward, they are charged at your country's rate, which Meta publishes in its official pricing documentation.
The second: since September 28, according to Meta's changelog, the free window for Click to WhatsApp ads went from 72 hours to up to 7 days. For anyone investing in ads, it is the best news in the update. If you do not use them yet, this practical guide to Click to WhatsApp ads explains how to set them up.
Up to 7 days, counted from your first reply. It is not a fixed 7 days: Meta describes it as a maximum. To understand it, you need to separate two clocks that start running when a customer writes to you from an ad.
While it is open, you reply with free-form messages. It resets every time the customer writes to you again. Once it closes, you can only send approved templates.
It opens when you reply within the first 24 hours and is counted from your reply. While it is open, your messages are not charged: service, utility, marketing and authentication, including templates.
The only exception Meta points out is messages from its own AI agent, Meta Business Agent, which are billed separately.
A car dealership runs an ad for its new SUV with the "Send message" button.
Ad → reply in under 24 h → quote → follow-up → appointment: the entire sales process can fit inside the free window.
If your ad brings in messages on a Friday night and your team returns on Monday, the free window does not open. An AI agent can reply instantly, at any hour; at Atom, for example, that role is played by Cortex.
Quote, schedule and confirm inside the window. With a WhatsApp Flow you can collect all the data on a single screen, without back-and-forth messages.
The customer who did not reply on the first day is your best opportunity: send them the template while it is still free. These WhatsApp templates for every stage of the buying journey are a good starting point.
Without measurement you do not know which campaign sells. Atom has a Click to WhatsApp report with a campaign filter, and if you have the WhatsApp and HubSpot integration, the ad click identifier reaches your CRM.
Want to reply to every message from your ads in seconds, at any hour? Message us and we will show you what it would look like in your business.
No. Meta defines it as up to 7 days, counted from the business's first reply. It is best not to promise or plan around a fixed 7 days.
Yes. While the free window is open, service, utility, marketing and authentication messages are not charged. What still applies is the 24-hour rule: after that period with no reply from the customer, you can only send templates.
No. Meta only opens the window when the customer writes from the ad using the WhatsApp app on Android or iOS.
Each number gets 1,000 free service messages per month. From message 1,001 onward, they are charged at your country's rate as published by Meta.
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