The WhatsApp 24-hour window and message templates, explained

How the 24-hour window works

When a customer messages or calls your business number, a 24-hour timer starts. Meta calls it the customer service window. While it is open you can send free-form messages: text, images, documents, buttons and lists. If the customer writes again before the timer ends, it resets to a fresh 24 hours. When it ends, you can send only templates.

Two things people miss. First, only the customer can open or extend the window. Your own message never does. Second, the window belongs to one customer on one number. Other customers' messages do not keep it open for someone who has gone quiet.

What a template is

A template is a message you write in advance and submit to Meta for approval. It has a name, a language, a category and body text, and the body can contain variables, written {{1}}, {{2}} and so on, that your software fills in for each customer. Meta says template messages are the only kind you can send to a customer outside the window.

Review is automatic, and Meta says a decision can take up to 24 hours. An approved template starts with a quality rating of pending, and Meta updates it as customers react. A template can also be sent inside an open window, because Meta says templates can be delivered at any time. It is simply not needed there.

The three categories, and why the category matters

Each template has one category, and the category sets the price. Meta decides the category from the exact wording, not from the label you pick. The examples below show how Meta's published guidelines read for loan advisory work. Rates are Meta's ringgit rates for messages to Malaysian numbers as of October 2026, for accounts billed in ringgit. Ringgit billing opened on 1 April 2026, and an account's currency is chosen when it is created and is not simply switched later, so check which currency yours bills in.

Two rules catch people out. A message that mixes a promotion into an update is treated as marketing. A message whose body is unclear, such as only a variable, is treated as marketing too. And if you label a template utility but Meta judges it to be marketing, Meta approves it as marketing and you pay the marketing rate. You can ask Meta for a category review within 60 days. Businesses that keep mislabelling templates can be warned and then limited.

What Meta charges, and what is free

Meta charges per delivered message, only for messages from a business to a customer. Messages from customers to you are never charged. What counts is the category of each message you send.

• Marketing and utility templates: charged for each one delivered, at the rates above, except inside a free entry point window. Utility rates fall at high monthly volumes.
• Service messages, your free-form replies inside the window: free for the first 1,000 delivered each month on each business number, then charged at RM 0.0564 each.
• Messages in a free entry point window: if a customer on a phone starts a chat by tapping an ad that clicks to WhatsApp, and you reply, Meta's page says the window can stay open for up to a week, and in it marketing, utility, authentication and service messages are not charged.

Meta changes rates only on the first day of January, April, July or October, with notice. Check its rate card before you budget. The setup and cost guide has a worked monthly example.

Writing templates that are approved and stay approved

• Number your variables in order and do not start or end the text with one. Missing braces, special characters such as # or %, and gaps in the numbering are common reasons for rejection.
• Give a sample for every variable. Reviewers need to see how the message will read.
• Do not duplicate an existing template. Meta rejects templates with the same wording.
• Keep promotion out of utility templates. If you want to promote, use a marketing template and accept the rate.
• Write one clear purpose per template. A template that does three jobs is harder to approve and to categorise.

After approval, keep watching. Meta rates each template green, yellow or red from customer feedback and read rates. A template that reaches red is paused for 3 hours, then 6 hours the next time, and disabled the third time. New or weak templates can also be paced, which means Meta sends the first messages, waits for feedback and releases the rest only if it looks good. The follow-ups guide explains how to avoid it.