The WhatsApp 24-hour window, explained
In short
When a WhatsApp user messages a business, a 24-hour customer service window opens. Inside it the business can reply with any kind of message — text, images, documents — and the first 1,000 such replies a month per business phone number are free; since 1 October 2026 Meta charges for the rest at the utility rate. Outside it the business may only send pre-approved template messages, which are charged. The window resets every time the customer sends another message, and nothing the business sends extends it. Error 131047 means the window has closed and a template is now required.
Checked
Almost every confusing thing about business WhatsApp comes back to one rule: you may write freely to somebody who wrote to you, for 24 hours. Everything else is a consequence.
What opens it
A message from the customer. Any message — a question, a sticker, a “hi”, a tap on the opt-out button at the bottom of your own broadcast. The clock starts when they send it.
What resets it
Another message from the customer. The window is 24 hours from their most recent message, not from first contact, so a conversation that runs for a week never closes.
What does not affect it at all
Anything you send. Reply forty times and the window still closes 24 hours after their last message. Your own activity buys nothing.
Inside the window
Any message type — plain text, images, PDFs, audio, location. No template, no approval, no wait.
Those replies are free up to 1,000 per business phone number per month. Since 1 October 2026 Meta charges for the rest, at the utility rate for that market. What that means in practice.
Outside the window
Exactly one thing: a message template Meta has already approved, charged at marketing, utility or authentication rates depending on the category.
There is no way around this and no setting that turns it off. A tool that appears to let you type freely into a closed conversation is queueing it, sending a template, or about to fail.
Error 131047
131047 — “Re-engagement message” — means the window has closed: Meta rejected a free-form message because more than 24 hours have passed since the customer last wrote.
It is not a bug and there is nothing to retry. Send an approved template instead, which reopens the conversation if they reply.
A well-built inbox checks the window before calling Meta, so the agent is told “this conversation is closed, send a template” rather than shown a numeric code after the round trip. Reading 131047 out of a log is not something a support agent should ever have to do.
The free entry point window, which is different and better
If somebody reaches you by tapping a Click-to-WhatsApp ad or a call-to-action button on your Facebook Page, and you answer within 24 hours, a 72-hour free entry point window opens from the moment you replied. Inside it everything is free, templates included.
Two conditions people miss: it only counts from the WhatsApp Android and iPhone apps, not web or desktop; and the ordinary 24-hour window runs independently, so the free window can still be open after the service window has closed — templates again, but free ones.
How this shapes what you actually do
- The window is a reason to answer fast, not a reason to send more. A reply within the hour costs nothing and keeps the conversation open. A template later costs money and may be refused.
- Do not treat the closing window as a deadline to fill. Firing a message at hour 23 extends nothing, and the customer notices.
- The opt-out tap opens a window. A STOP tap arrives as an ordinary inbound message and opens 24 hours. What it does not do is give you permission to write to them. It is the opposite.
