Short answer. At any time before entering a plea. The Rules fix the cut-off not as a number of days but as an event: once the accused pleads to the complaint or information at arraignment, the window for a motion to quash closes. Before that moment, the motion may be filed at any time.
What the law says
At any time before entering his plea, the accused may move to quash the complaint or information.
Rule 117, Section 1 — Time to move to quash. Read the full provision →
An event, not a day count
Rule 117 opens with the whole answer: at any time before entering his plea, the accused may move to quash the complaint or information. Most procedural deadlines are measured in days from some notice; this one is measured against a single courtroom event — the plea. Between the filing of the information and the moment the accused stands at arraignment and answers to the charge, the motion is available at any time. The day after the plea, it is not. The deadline is therefore entirely within the accused's sight: everyone knows when the arraignment is set.
Why the plea is the dividing line
A motion to quash attacks the charging document itself — the complaint or information — before the accused joins issue with it. The plea is the act by which the accused answers the charge as written; once that answer is given, the case moves forward on the information as it stands, and the time for objecting to the paper has passed. That structure explains the timing rule: the law gives the accused a full opportunity to test the charge, but demands that the test come before, not after, the accused has taken a position on it. Objections held in reserve while the trial unfolds are exactly what the cut-off is designed to prevent. Note, too, what the section does not say: it names the accused as the party who may move, and the complaint or information as the target — it is a remedy against the charge, not against the evidence, the investigation, or the conduct of the prosecution generally.
What this means once you are charged
The practical clock is the arraignment date on your notice. Everything a motion to quash could raise must be evaluated before that hearing — which means counsel needs the information, the resolution behind it, and your account of the case with real lead time, not the night before. If more time is genuinely needed to study the charge, the arraignment itself is the event to address, through counsel, before a plea is entered. What should never happen is drifting into arraignment unadvised: entering a plea is not a formality but the act that closes this particular door, and the decision to plead — or to move first — deserves advice given in advance.