Refill windows: what 30, 60, 90 and lifetime really mean

A refill window is the part of a service row that buyers read last and need first. The number looks like a warranty: thirty days, sixty days, ninety days, lifetime. It is not a warranty on the count. It is a duration that starts when the order completes, and it describes how long the supplier says it will accept a replacement request.

This guide separates the four labels, shows where the clock starts, and works through the arithmetic that decides whether a longer window is worth a higher rate. It also names the exact symptoms that mean the window has closed or was never open.

What the window actually is

A refill is a second delivery against the same order. The supplier replaces units that dropped, usually up to the quantity that was delivered. The window is the period in which the supplier accepts that request. The panel stores the flag, reads the number of days from the service name, and checks the request against the completion time.

The window is a supplier term, not a platform rule. Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Telegram do not publish refill windows, and none of them verifies a seller's label. The number on the row is the supplier's promise to the panel, passed to you. When the supplier changes its terms, the number on the row can change with the next catalogue sync.

Three conditions have to be true before a refill can be requested. The order has to be completed, the service row has to carry the refill flag, and the request has to arrive inside the window. A fourth condition sits behind them: the order needs a supplier reference, because the refill is sent to the supplier against that reference. If any of the four is missing, the button does not produce a refill.

The four labels

Label	What it covers	What it does not cover	Fits
30 days	Drops in the month after completion	A drop on day 31, or a drop during delivery	Short campaigns and test orders
60 days	Drops in the two months after completion	A drop after the second month	Accounts with slower churn
90 days	Drops in the three months after completion	A drop after the third month	Seasonal pages and longer funnels
Lifetime	As long as the supplier honours the term	Supplier closure, a changed term, a second refill	Pages you expect to keep for years

A qualitative comparison. The durations are the labels the catalogue carries, not a measurement of how long an account survives.

The label describes duration, not strength. A ninety-day window on a weak pool can produce a replacement that drops again in a week. A thirty-day window on a stable pool can be enough. Read the window together with the service row, the rate and the delivery history, not as a standalone score.

Where the clock starts

The clock starts at completion. On this panel the refill check uses the order's completion time first, then the last update, then the creation time as fallbacks when completion is missing. That order matters: a slow order does not get a longer window, it gets a later start.

Suppose a hypothetical order is paid on day one and completes on day six. A thirty-day window then runs to day thirty-six, not day thirty-one. The coverage period has moved later by the delivery time. That can help when the drop risk sits in the weeks after delivery. It does not help when the drop happens during delivery, because the order is not completed yet and the refill action is not available.

The fallback chain is a safety net, not a feature. If a supplier never reports completion, the panel can still calculate a window from the last update, but the order is not in the state a refill requires. The useful lesson is to keep the completion time on the order page and to compare it with the day the count falls.

The symptom that brings people here

What you see: the count dropped, the refill button is missing, or the request is rejected with a message that the window closed.

What it means: one of the four conditions is false. The order is not completed, the service has no refill flag, the window has passed, or the order has no supplier reference.

Next action: open the order page and check the completion date, the refill flag on the service row and the refill request already recorded. If the order completed inside the window and the flag is present, send support the order id and the date of the drop.

The second rejection is different from the first. An order accepts one refill request. If a replacement was already requested, the order records the request time and a second press is rejected even when the window is still open. If the replacement also drops, the remedy is a support ticket with both ids, not another press of the same button.

What lifetime means, and what it does not

Lifetime is the longest label and the least specific. It means the supplier says it will accept a refill request for as long as the service exists and the supplier honours the term. It does not mean the accounts are permanent, and it does not mean the panel can produce a refill after the supplier closes.

A lifetime window depends on three things staying true: the supplier keeps the service, the supplier keeps its records, and the panel keeps the order reference. If the supplier changes ownership or closes, the window closes with it. If the panel loses the supplier reference, the request has nowhere to go. The label is a duration, not an insurance policy.

Lifetime also does not remove the one-request rule. An order can carry one refill request. A lifetime window on an order that already used its request is a lifetime window on a closed door. Keep the refill id and the date, because the second conversation starts from those two facts.

What the market table shows

The market table groups Instagram followers services by the refill label on the row. The counts and medians below are read when this page is rendered. They show which windows suppliers actually publish, not which window is right for your page.

Refill label	Services	Median rate per 1,000
7 days	6	$2.2332
15 days	13	$4.00
30 days	89	$9.60
60 days	31	$6.525
90 days	50	$10.5788
180 days	18	$35.06
365 days	47	$11.0019
lifetime	35	$5.70

Counts and medians are read from the market table when this page is rendered. A row can disappear when a supplier changes its catalogue.

The useful comparison is within one label, not across labels. A thirty-day row and a ninety-day row can come from different suppliers, different pools and different countries. The label alone does not tell you whether the extra duration is worth the extra rate. The next section does that arithmetic.

Worked example: a drop on day ten and a drop on day forty

Take a hypothetical 10,000 unit Instagram followers order at the median rate. The charge is $7.35. The order completes, the count is 10,000 above the start count, and the service carries a thirty-day window.

On day ten the count falls by 1,500. The order is completed, the flag is present, the window is open and the supplier reference exists. A refill request is accepted. The supplier replaces the missing units against the same order, and the replacement enters the supplier queue like any other order. The customer pays nothing for the replacement. The wait is real, because the replacement is a new delivery.

On day forty the count falls by another 1,500. The thirty-day window closed on day thirty. The order is still completed and the flag is still present, but the fourth condition fails. There is no refill. The remedies are a new order at the current rate or accepting the drop. The window did its job for the first drop and had no obligation for the second.

Now suppose the order took six days to complete. The window runs from day six to day thirty-six. A drop on day ten is day four of the window. A drop on day forty is day thirty-four of the window, which is outside it. The same calendar dates produce different answers when the delivery time changes. This is why the completion date belongs next to the drop date in any ticket.

A partial delivery changes the arithmetic again. If the supplier delivered 7,300 of the 10,000 and reported 2,700 remains, the undelivered share is worth $1.9845 at the median rate. That is a refund, not a refill. The refill window applies to units that were delivered and then dropped, not to units that never arrived.

Is a longer window worth a higher rate?

Compare the median rate of the thirty-day row with the median rate of the ninety-day row on the same platform, category and quality. If the ninety-day row costs more per 1,000, the difference is the price of three extra months of cover. Divide the difference by the quantity you buy to get the extra charge for one order.

Then estimate the drop you are protecting against. If the expected drop inside the extra window is worth less than the extra charge, the longer window is insurance you do not need on that order. If the expected drop is worth more, the longer window is the cheaper path. The estimate can come from your own history: the count at day seven and day thirty on previous orders is enough to make the comparison.

There is a second cost that does not appear in the rate: the refill itself takes time. A replacement enters the supplier queue, and a slow queue can push the recovery past the moment you needed it. A longer window does not make the replacement faster. It only keeps the door open longer.

For a page that you expect to keep for years, the lifetime label can be worth a premium because it removes the calendar question. For a campaign that ends in a month, it cannot earn its premium. The label should match the life of the page, not the size of the order.

What to do next

If the refill button is missing, check the order state first. Only a completed order can be refilled. If the order is partial, the remedy is a refund for the missing share, not a refill.

If the request is rejected because the window closed, write down the completion date and the drop date. If the gap is just outside the window, ask support whether the supplier will accept a late request. Some suppliers do, as a courtesy. The answer is not a policy, and you should not plan around it.

If the request is rejected because a refill was already requested, find the refill id in the order events. Send support the order id, the refill id and the date of the new drop. A second replacement is a new decision, not a second press of the same button.

If the count drops during a long delivery, do not wait for the refill window. The order is not completed, so the refill path is closed. Open a ticket with the start count, the current count and the remains. The delivery dispute and the refill are two different processes, and mixing them delays both.

For the reason a count falls in the first place, read why followers drop. For the money side of an incomplete delivery, read partial delivery. To see which services carry the flag today, open services with refill, and for the written policy, read the refund page.