Until September 30 2026, businesses can send free-form Service Messages within the 24-hour customer service window without a Meta messaging charge.

From October 1, those Service Messages will become billable per message.

There is, however, an important exception: eligible 72-hour Free Entry Point windows will remain free for message delivery.

This is a significant change for businesses using WhatsApp for customer support, sales conversations, AI agents, and other two-way interactions.

Here's what is changing and what it means for your WhatsApp costs.

The key distinction is:

The 24-hour customer service window still exists. What changes is whether messages sent inside it are free.

From October 1, Service Messages and in-window Utility Templates become billable.

A Service Message is a free-form, non-template reply sent by a business in response to a customer's message.

For example:

Customer: "Where is my order?"

Business: "Let me check that for you."

Business: "Your order has shipped and should arrive tomorrow."

These are Service Messages when they are sent by a human agent or a third-party AI/automation system.

These Service Messages are free when sent within the 24-hour customer service window.

These same Service Messages become billable per message.

Meta will charge Service Messages at the applicable per-message rate for the market.

When a customer sends a message to your business, a 24-hour customer service window opens.

The window allows the business to respond to that customer.

For example:

Customer: "Can you help me track my order?"

The 24-hour customer service window opens.

The business can then respond with free-form messages.

These Service Messages are free.

These Service Messages are charged per message.

So the window does not disappear. The free pricing inside the window changes.

Imagine a customer contacts a brand about an order.

Customer:
"Where is my order?"

Business:
"Let me check."

Business:
"Your order has shipped."

Business:
"It should reach you tomorrow."

All three Service Messages are currently free if they are sent within the 24-hour window.

The same conversation would result in three billable Service Messages.

This is why message volume within customer conversations will become more important.

This is where things can get confusing.

A Free Entry Point is a qualifying entry point through which a customer starts a WhatsApp conversation with your business.

Examples include:

When a customer starts a conversation through an eligible Free Entry Point, a 72-hour free entry-point window opens.

During this window, eligible WhatsApp messages can be delivered without Meta messaging charges.

Importantly, this 72-hour window remains unchanged by the October 1 Service Message pricing change.

Imagine you run a Meta ad:

"Get 20% off your first order. Chat with us on WhatsApp."

A customer clicks the ad and starts a WhatsApp conversation.

During this window, eligible messages remain free for Meta message delivery.

For example:

Customer: "Hi, I'd like to know more about the offer."

Business: "Sure! You can get 20% off your first order."

Customer: "Can I use it on footwear?"

Business: "Yes, the offer is valid on footwear as well."

These messages can remain free during the applicable 72-hour Free Entry Point window.

This remains true after October 1.

Think about them as two different mechanisms.

How it starts:
Customer sends a message to your business.

How it starts:
Customer comes through an eligible entry point, such as a Click-to-WhatsApp Ad.

There is another change happening on October 1.

Today, Utility Templates sent inside an open 24-hour customer service window are free.

From October 1, these messages will also become billable per message.

For example:

Customer: "I want to change my delivery address."

Business: "Your address has been updated."

If this is sent as an eligible Utility Template inside the 24-hour window:

So October 1 affects both:

The impact will depend on how your business uses WhatsApp.

Businesses with a high volume of:

are likely to see the biggest impact.

Note: 100% of your message volume may not be billable. Billing is applicable based on Free Entry Point messages, as mentioned above.

Suppose an agent currently responds like this:

"Sure."

"Let me check that."

"I found your order."

"It has shipped."

"It should arrive tomorrow."

That's five messages.

A more efficient response could be:

"Your order #1234 has shipped and is expected to arrive tomorrow. You can track it here: [link]."

That's one useful response instead of five.

As Service Messages become billable, reducing unnecessary message fragmentation can directly reduce messaging costs.

If you need customers to provide structured information such as:

consider using BIK Webforms to collect multiple fields in a single, structured form instead of asking for each detail through multiple messages.

Know more

If your acquisition strategy already uses Click-to-WhatsApp Ads, the 72-hour Free Entry Point window remains an important cost-saving mechanism.

Consider designing the conversation so that the highest-value interaction happens within that window.

Manifest AI is an AI-powered website assistant that helps visitors discover products, get answers to their questions, and get personalised assistance through conversation - directly on your website, without relying on WhatsApp.

Consider using Manifest AI when you want website visitors to:

Learn more about Manifest AI