ManyChat

Comment a keyword under a reel, and a few seconds later a DM arrives with the promised link: that exchange is what ManyChat is built to automate. The company, which now writes its name Manychat, describes itself as the world's largest Instagram DM automation platform, used by over 100,000 Instagram accounts. It's an official Meta Business Partner, builds on Instagram's own APIs, and says it meets Meta's product team every week, which matters when the platform's rules change under you.

Manychat was founded in 2015 by Mike Yan and Antony Gorin. In April 2025 it raised $140 million in a round led by Summit Partners, taking its total funding to $163.3 million, and the announcement described a profitable company with over a million users in 170 countries, Nike and the New York Times among them.

The Instagram triggers

Everything in Manychat starts with a trigger, and the Instagram set is the reason most people sign up.

The comment trigger watches a specific post or reel, all of them, or simply the next one you publish. You can fire it on any comment, only on certain keywords, or on everything except certain words, and you can post public replies under the comment in several variations that Manychat rotates at random so they don't read as copy-paste. The private DM then carries the actual payload.

The quickest way in is the Auto-DM links from comments template. It strings together an Opening DM (the commenter taps a button to opt in), an optional check that they follow you before they get the goods, an optional request for their email address, the main message with up to 3 links, and a follow-up if nobody clicks. You can build it in the browser or in the iOS and Android app.

The other triggers cover the rest of Instagram:

• Story replies. Any reply or emoji reaction to a story starts a flow, with an optional delay of up to 10 minutes so it feels less instant, and an automatic heart reaction if you want one. With the trigger set to all stories, ones saved to Highlights keep working after they expire.
• Live comments. Viewers who comment during an Instagram Live get a DM, though only while the Live is running and only on the main host's account.
• Share to DM. Someone who shares your post or reel to their story gets a thank-you, a discount or a resource.
• Follow to DM. New followers get a welcome message. It's in beta, Meta decides which accounts qualify, and Meta allows only 1 such message per user per week.
• Instagram ads. Ads built in Meta Ads Manager can open a conversation, though boosted posts can't.

Manychat AI

Manychat introduced its AI features in 2024, and on Instagram 2 of them do the heavy lifting. AI Comments spots positive comments on your posts and reels and replies in your voice: it reads your past replies, drafts 5 example responses and asks whether they sound like you before going live. AI Replies answers questions in DMs and comments from a Knowledge library you fill with a link or pasted text, and when it doesn't know an answer it can assign the conversation to a team member or group. An AI Playground lets you test answers before switching anything on. Both features are Instagram-only, need a paid plan and are labelled beta.

Beyond Instagram

The same builder runs on Facebook Messenger, TikTok, WhatsApp, Telegram, SMS and email. TikTok needs a Business account and can't currently be connected by users in the EU or UK. WhatsApp, SMS and email start on the Pro plan, which is also where you can move leads from Instagram or TikTok into WhatsApp to close a sale. Telegram has no messaging-window limits at all.

Integrations include Google Sheets, HubSpot, Klaviyo, Stripe (for a Buy Button inside Messenger and Instagram chats) and ChatGPT through your own OpenAI key. Zapier connects Manychat to 7000+ other apps but works on paid plans only, and Pro adds access to the Manychat API.

What it costs

Manychat moved to a new pricing model on March 2, 2026. Every plan is now sized by Active Contacts: people who interact with you through Manychat during the billing month. Your follower count doesn't matter, someone who messages you repeatedly in a month still counts as a single contact, and the count resets each month even on an annual plan.

• Free. $0 for 25 Active Contacts a month, 1 user, 2 channels chosen from Instagram, TikTok, Messenger and Telegram, and up to 4 live automations. New contacts see a "Powered by Manychat" message the first time you write to them.
• Essential. $17 a month, or $14 a month billed annually, for 250 Active Contacts. It removes the automation cap and adds email and phone capture, follower checks, tags and Google Sheets sync. There's a 14-day free trial.
• Pro. $39 a month, or $29 billed annually, for 2,500 Active Contacts, 3 users and 3 channels including WhatsApp, SMS and email, plus AI automation and the API. Also with a 14-day trial.
• Business. $99 a month, or $69 billed annually, for 7,500 Active Contacts, 5 users and unlimited channels.
• Advanced. $199 a month, or $139 billed annually, for 25,000 Active Contacts and 10 users, with the cost per contact falling as volume grows. Bigger teams can ask for a custom plan.

Extra Inbox seats cost $25 each on Pro and above. Go over your contact limit and automations keep running, with overage billed per contact ($0.10 on Essential monthly, falling to $0.025 on Business), and Manychat warns you at 70%, 90% and 100% of the limit. You can also set an overage threshold, which is a sensible precaution before a reel goes viral. Accounts opened before March 2, 2026 are being moved to the new plans country by country, so an older account may still see different terms. A subscription cancelled within the first 30 days qualifies for a refund under Manychat's policy, though Manychat reserves the right to refuse one.

Working inside Meta's rules

Manychat is open about the limits it can't change. On Instagram and Messenger, a 24-hour window opens after a contact's last interaction; after that, a 7-day window allows manual replies from the Inbox but no automations. Manychat holds back scheduled messages that would break the rule rather than letting them through. The comment trigger fires only on a user's first comment under a given post, an Instagram API limit that applies to every tool. And if Meta restricts your account for spammy behaviour, Manychat says plainly that it can't reverse bans, though it will escalate cases that look like mistakes.

The caveats

The Free plan is now small. 25 Active Contacts covers a test or a very quiet account, and the branding message on first contact is a giveaway, so anyone with a real audience will want at least Essential. WhatsApp needs Pro, the AI features are still beta, and the help centre says automation performance data (deliveries, opens and click-throughs) can't be exported yet. None of that changes what Manychat does well; it just tells you which plan to budget for.

Who it suits

Manychat is built first for Instagram creators, coaches and small shops who use comment keywords, story replies and Lives to hand out links, collect emails and sell in the DMs. The Essential plan is enough to run real lead-capture funnels on 2 channels, Pro is the step for anyone who sells over WhatsApp or wants AI answering FAQs, and Business and Advanced exist for teams and agencies working at volume. With over 100,000 Instagram accounts on board, a help centre that documents every trigger and limit, and a free plan to test with, it's an easy tool to start on and a deep one to grow into.