💬 What is a WhatsApp conversation?
Updated at September 22nd, 2025
Table of Contents
WhatsApp's pricing model is based on 24-hour conversations. So when a customer contacts you, you have 24 hours to respond. But there are a few subtleties, so let's take a closer look.
🧾 Per-conversation billing
A billed conversation is an unlimited exchange of messages for 24 hours starting from the first message sent by the company.
The cost of a conversation varies depending on the type of message (marketing, utility, service) and the destination country.
Details are available on the WhatsApp website.
Incoming conversations are free, as long as you don't send templates.
You can find on this document the cost of WhatsApp conversations by country.
France :
- Marketing: 11,86cts
- Utility: 2,48cts
Starting July 1, 2025
WhatsApp changes its template billing model. Before this date, only the first template in a flow was charged, all the followings were free within the 24-hour window.
Now, each template sent is charged.
Before July 1st
After July 1st
Some examples:
Situation |
Charged conversations |
|---|---|
| You send a campaign to a customer | 1 |
| You send a campaign to a customer who goes through the entire 10-message flow within 24 hours after sending | 1 |
| A customer sends you a message and you don’t reply | 0 |
| You send a campaign on Monday, and the customer replies on Wednesday | 1 |
| You send a campaign on Monday, the customer replies on Wednesday, and receives an automated message | 1 |
| You send a campaign on Monday, then another campaign on Tuesday | 2 |
💬 Conversation window
After each message received from a customer, a 24-hour window opens during which you can reply.
This concept of a conversation window is different from billed conversations.
You can very well exchange with a customer for 7 consecutive days — these exchanges are free.
Some examples:
Situation |
Free conversations |
|---|---|
| A customer contacts you on Monday at 8 a.m., and you have until Tuesday at 8 a.m. to reply. After that, you will no longer be able to send a personalized message. | |
| A customer contacts you on Monday at 8 a.m., you reply on Monday at 9 a.m., and they reply on Tuesday at 3 p.m. | 1 |
| A customer contacts you on Monday at 8 a.m., you reply on Monday at 9 a.m., they reply on Tuesday at 3 p.m., and you reply on Tuesday at 4 p.m. | 2 |
How to reply after 24 hours?
Several options are available to you, and they can be combined:
- Preventively, you can set up an automatic message over the weekend to encourage the customer to contact you again on Monday.
To set up an automatic message when you’re unavailable, you can check how to do it here 👉 😴 Automatic message when you are away
- Once the time window has passed, you can send a template to the customer to ask if they still need help. As soon as they reply, the conversation window will reopen.
To create a template, you can check how to do it here 👉 📚 How to create a WhatsApp template
To send a template directly to a customer, you can check here 👉 👋 Respond to a customer from Simio
- As a last resort, you can contact the customer through another channel (call, SMS, personal WhatsApp).