Instagram's rules for automated replies and DMs, explained

Tools that automate Instagram DMs, including CommenSense, must use Meta's official API, and Meta publishes the rules for it. This page sets out those rules with links to the source, then explains the extra limits CommenSense adds on top. All of Meta's rules below were checked on 4 October 2026.

Which Instagram accounts can use automation?

Only professional accounts, meaning Business or Creator accounts. A Facebook Page is not required when the app uses Instagram Login, which is how CommenSense connects (Meta: Instagram API with Instagram Login). Personal accounts can't be automated through the API.

How many DMs can be sent for one comment?

The first DM to a commenter is what Meta calls a private reply. Meta's rules for it (Meta: Private replies):

• One message per comment. An app can't send a second message in reply to the same comment.
• Within 7 days of the comment on a post or reel. (For Instagram Live comments, only during the broadcast.)
• Where it lands: in the person's inbox if they follow you, and in their message requests if they don't.
• Follow-ups only after they respond. Further messages can be sent only if the person responds, and only within 24 hours of their response.

This is why the multi-step flows in CommenSense work the way they do. An opening message with a button, or a follow prompt, uses the one private reply. When the person taps the button or replies, that interaction lets CommenSense send the rest of the flow.

What is the 24-hour messaging window?

For normal DMs, Meta's rule is that an app can only message someone after that person has messaged the account, and it has 24 hours to respond to each message they send (Meta: Messaging API). There's no way for an app to cold-message people who never commented, replied or messaged you.

How many messages per hour does Meta allow?

From Meta's rate limiting documentation:

In practice, the private-reply limit is the one that matters: a post where more than 750 people comment within an hour can't have every DM sent in that same hour, by any tool.

Will automation get my account banned?

No tool can promise that it won't. What we can say is what Meta's rules ask for. Meta's spam policy covers posting, sharing or engaging "at very high frequencies", whether done manually or automatically, and treats repetitive content as a sign of spam (Meta Community Standards: Spam).

In practice, that means:

• send messages people asked for, such as a link they requested by commenting a keyword;
• vary your public replies instead of posting the same sentence hundreds of times;
• don't promise instant replies on a post you expect to go viral.

What limits does CommenSense add?

These are CommenSense's own settings, not Meta's rules. They exist to keep accounts comfortably inside Meta's limits.

• One DM flow per comment, per automation. If a comment comes round again, for example when you re-run an automation, nobody gets the same DM twice.
• A steady sending pace. CommenSense queues DMs and sends them at a pace below Meta's hourly limit. On a busy post, some DMs arrive a few minutes after the comment.
• Backing off when Instagram asks. If Instagram signals that an account is sending too fast, CommenSense pauses sending for that account for at least 15 minutes, or at least an hour if Instagram flags the activity as spam, then carries on.
• Reply limit per post. You choose the most public replies CommenSense posts on one post: 100, 200, 400 or 800. People past the limit still get the DM.
• Several reply versions. Public replies need at least two versions, and one is picked at random each time.

Where can I check these rules myself?

• Private replies (Meta for Developers)
• Messaging API (Meta for Developers)
• Rate limiting (Meta for Developers)
• Spam policy (Meta Transparency Centre)

Meta changes these from time to time. We review this page when it does.