Instagram Auto Reply DM: What's Free and What Needs the API

Instagram gives every professional account three free DM automations inside Meta Business Suite — Instant Reply, Away Message, and Custom Keywords — plus two tools inside the Instagram app itself, chat FAQs and saved replies. A branching welcome menu, case-insensitive DM keywords, email capture, or an AI chatbot that hands off to a person need a tool connected to Meta's official Instagram API, such as HookReply. Below: what each free option does and where it stops, why Instagram won't let you message new followers, the 24-hour rule, and what a connected tool adds.

Updated October 21, 202611-minute read

What Instagram DM auto-replies are free?

Meta gives every professional Instagram account three free automations in Meta Business Suite's inbox: Instant Reply, Away Message, and Custom Keywords. According to Meta's Business Help Center (checked October 21, 2026), these are the templates:

Custom Keywords carry limits the templates don't:

• Sent after 15 minutes, unless you reply yourself first. It is not instant.
• Up to 5 keywords per automation, and each word can only belong to one.
• Case-sensitive, exact match only: "Price" and "price" count as different keywords.
• Desktop only. Custom Keywords can't be created from the mobile app, though they can include photos, videos, buttons, and links.
• If a message matches another active template too, such as the away message, the template is sent instead.
• Turning on Meta Business AI Agent pauses every other automation in the inbox.

None of the free templates hold a multi-step conversation, collect and store an email address, require a follow before sending a link, tag and export contacts, call a webhook, send broadcasts, or report clicks per automation. Saved replies aren't automatic either — you still type and send them yourself.

How do you set up Instagram's free auto-reply DMs?

You set up Instagram's free auto-reply DMs from Meta Business Suite's inbox with a connected professional account: Inbox › Automations › Create automation, pick a template, and write the message. These are the steps from Meta's help page for the desktop version, checked October 21, 2026:

1. Open Meta Business Suite's inbox and confirm, in the dropdown at the top left, that you're in the right business portfolio.
2. Click Automations, then Create automation in the top right.
3. Pick a template. Instant Reply greets a first-time message; Away Message replies when you're unavailable; Custom Keywords replies to specific words.
4. Click Create automation and follow the on-screen steps to write the message and choose where it runs.
5. Find it in the Automations list. Meta notes it can take a few minutes to appear, and you may need to refresh the page.

Chat FAQs are set up from the Instagram app instead: Messages › more options › Tools › Frequently Asked Questions, turn on showing them, and add up to four questions, each with an optional automatic answer, per Instagram's help page on chat FAQs. They appear before someone starts writing to you. If you later move your welcome message to an outside tool, turn off Meta's version too — the two run independently, and the same person could get both.

Why isn't your auto-reply DM keyword working?

An Instagram auto-reply DM keyword usually fails because of a rule that doesn't show on screen: the 15-minute delay, an exact-match requirement, a competing template, or Meta Business AI Agent pausing every automation. Check these in order:

Why can't you DM new followers automatically?

Meta's Instagram API only lets an app send a message after that person has already messaged you, commented with a keyword, replied to your story, or mentioned you — never to a brand-new follower who hasn't done any of that. Meta's messaging API documentation (checked October 21, 2026) states that an app can only message a user once that user has sent a message to it first. What works instead is inviting people to start the conversation themselves: a bio link, a pinned post, or a caption that says "DM me CATALOG", so the first message comes from them. If what you actually want is to turn public comments into that first DM, that flow is covered in auto-reply to Instagram comments, including free ways to do it in free comment-to-DM tools.

What is the 24-hour window for Instagram DMs?

Instagram's 24-hour window decides how long you can keep messaging someone after their last message, and it resets every time they write back. Per Meta's messaging documentation, linked above:

• You can message someone for 24 hours after their last message, including promotional content inside that window.
• Each reply resets the clock. A button tap counts as a message from them, which is why button-driven flows stay open longer than plain text.
• After 24 hours, only a person can reply manually, and only for up to 7 days (Meta's "human agent" exception). HookReply's inbox only lets you write within the 24-hour window; it doesn't use that 7-day exception.
• No cold DMs, ever. You can't message someone who has never messaged you, and the public messaging API won't auto-message every new follower either.

In practice: put what you promised in the first message, and if you want to reach someone again days later, collect their email while you still can. For how to plan sends, follow-ups, and broadcasts around this window, see scheduling Instagram DMs and the 24-hour rule.

What does a DM automation tool add?

A tool connected to Meta's official API, such as HookReply, replies in seconds and holds a multi-step conversation instead of one fixed message: a welcome menu with buttons, DM keywords that ignore case and accents, replies to story replies and story mentions, and ig.me links with a tracking ref that open a specific flow. Ice breakers work the same way inside the API as Instagram's own chat FAQs, with the same four-question cap, per Meta's ice breakers documentation.

Past the first message, a connected tool can also: ask someone to follow before sending a link (a follow gate), capture an email or phone number and keep it, tag contacts and export them to CSV, hand a conversation to a person with a label when it needs one, send broadcasts to open chats, call a webhook to Make, Zapier, or n8n, and report clicks per automation. An AI chatbot answers only from the instructions you give it and hands off anything outside them — in HookReply, that's a feature of the Pro plan and up.

What doesn't a DM auto-reply tool do?

HookReply, like any tool built on Meta's official API, never messages someone who hasn't messaged, commented, or replied to a story first, and it never sends anything once 24 hours have passed since that person's last message. A comment still gets only one private reply — Instagram's own limit, covered in auto-reply to Instagram comments — not something a tool can change.

HookReply only runs on Instagram, not WhatsApp, Messenger, TikTok, email, or SMS, and it has no multi-user team accounts, no mobile app, and no native integrations beyond its own webhook. It can't attach a PDF directly; it delivers files as a link instead. Reaching the plan's contact limit doesn't trigger a surprise charge: new contacts simply stop getting replies until the following month or until you upgrade, and a daily cap on outgoing messages applies regardless of plan.

How much does it cost?

HookReply's plans range from a free tier to 119 € a month, taxes included, based on how many contacts and Instagram accounts you need; AI replies and broadcasts are available from the Pro plan up.

Contacts are the total across every Instagram account on the user's plan, not per account. The free plan includes 3 automations, no card required, and a HookReply signature on every message; paid plans remove that signature and allow unlimited automations. Refunds are available within 14 days of payment.

HookReply is opening spots gradually through a waitlist: sign-ups are closed until Meta approves its Instagram app, and paid plans cannot be purchased yet.

For scale: ManyChat's free plan allows 25 active contacts and 4 live automations, with a "Powered by Manychat" message on the first reply to each contact, per ManyChat's help center (checked October 21, 2026); HookReply's free plan allows 100 contacts and 3 automations, also signed. ManyChat covers more channels than Instagram alone, including WhatsApp and Messenger.

Frequently asked questions

Meta, Instagram, and ManyChat are trademarks of their respective owners. Page made by HookReply, an interested party. Prices and terms checked on 21-10-2026 on each official website; they may change, so check them before you buy.

Keep reading

• Auto-reply to Instagram commentsTurn a comment keyword into a public reply and a DM, step by step.
• Free comment-to-DM toolsWhat's actually free, and where the limits are.
• Scheduling Instagram DMs and the 24-hour ruleHow to plan sends and broadcasts without breaking the window.