What is the Instagram 24-hour messaging window?
When someone messages your business account, apps can reply for 24 hours after their last message. Each new message from them restarts the 24 hours. Outside it, automated messages can't be sent.
Meta calls it the standard messaging window. It applies to Instagram and Facebook Messenger alike:
- The person messages you: the window opens for 24 hours.
- They message again: it restarts from that message.
- After 24 hours of silence, an app can't send them anything.
There's one exception: the human agent tag lets a person on your team, not a bot, answer up to 7 days later. It's meant for support conversations that need time, not for automated follow-ups.
Comments work differently: they allow one private reply within 7 days, and that reply doesn't open the 24-hour window until the person answers it.
Sources
Checked October 14, 2026. Platforms change their rules; tell us at contact if something here is out of date.