Instagram comment-to-DM automation: a word in the comments, your link in their DMs
Someone comments your word, Mellow Hub replies under the post and sends them one private message with your link. Official Instagram API, in every Hub plan.
By Mellow · Updated
How comment-to-DM works in Mellow Hub
You choose a word, say GUIDE, and ask for it in a post’s caption. When someone comments it, Mellow Hub answers twice in your account’s name: a short public reply under the comment, picked from the variants you wrote, and one private message with what you promised: a link, a guide or a promo code. It goes through Instagram’s official API, on Mellow’s own Meta app, which passed Meta’s App Review for Instagram messaging on 26 October 2026. The same screen answers direct messages by keyword, and your AI agent can read and answer comments and messages over MCP.
Set up auto-replies
anna.makes GUIDE please 🙏Reply
your.brand Sent it to your messages ✨Reply
leo.draws guideReply
your.brand Check your DMs!Reply
GUIDE please 🙏
Here’s the guide, as promised: yoursite.com/guide
Before you start
Set up a comment-to-DM rule
Open Auto-replies and press Connect Instagram
Instagram asks you to let Mellow read and answer the account’s comments and messages; allow both. This connection is separate from the one Hub publishes through: disconnecting it stops the answers and leaves publishing as it is.
Press New rule and choose Comments
Then choose Every post, or one of your recent posts when the word belongs to a single reel.
Add the words to listen for
Up to 10 words, each up to 40 characters: guide, link, price. Capital letters do not matter.
Write the public reply
One per line, up to 5 lines of up to 300 characters. Hub picks one for each comment, so a thread of answers does not read like a robot.
Write the private message
Up to 1,000 characters: the link, the guide or the code you promised, in a sentence or two. Instagram shows it with a note that it answers their comment.
Press Turn on, then ask for the word
The rule answers new comments from that moment. Write “Comment GUIDE” in the caption; if a post asks for a word no rule listens for, Hub’s check before publishing tells you.
Which comments get an answer
How fast it answers
The first 3 comments in 5 minutes are answered at once. After that Hub leaves 30 to 90 seconds between answers, and 3 to 8 seconds between the public reply and the private message, the way a person writes one and then the other. A reel that suddenly gets hundreds of comments is answered in order rather than in one burst: the same words sent to many people at once is the pattern Instagram’s spam protection is wary of.
Comments from before the rule existed
A rule answers the comments that arrive while it is on. For the ones from before, or from while it was off, Auto-replies shows how many are waiting for a reply: comments from the last 7 days that one of your rules matches and nobody has answered.
Reply to all answers them one every 2 to 4 minutes, oldest first, because their 7-day window closes first. You can close the page: the queue runs on Hub’s server.
Keyword replies in direct messages
Choose Direct messages instead of Comments, and the rule answers a message that contains one of its words, in the same conversation. Instagram lets an account answer within 24 hours of the person’s message, and a rule answers as the message arrives, well inside that window.
One person gets at most one automatic answer from a rule in 60 minutes, however often they repeat the word.
It answers people who wrote to you. It cannot start a conversation, write to followers who never wrote, or send a broadcast: Instagram does not allow that, and Hub does not try.
Instagram’s rules, and how Hub keeps them
These are Meta’s messaging rules for Instagram. Hub is built inside them, so it does not try what Instagram would refuse.
Hub does not answer Live comments, story replies or story mentions. When Instagram refuses a message, Auto-replies marks it Not sent and keeps Instagram’s reason.
Let your AI agent answer comments and messages
An agent connected to Mellow Hub over MCP, such as Claude, ChatGPT or your own, can do all of this: read new comments and messages, answer one, catch up on missed comments, and create or change rules. Reading needs a key that may read posts. Answering goes to real people from your account, so it needs an autopilot key you approved, with its accounts, its expiry and a ceiling of 300 answers a profile a day; a review key reads and prepares, and you send. Every answer is in the journal at Agents, where revoking a key takes effect on its next request.
list_autorepliescreate_autoreplyupdate_autoreplydelete_autoreplycatch_up_autoreplieslist_commentsreply_to_commentlist_messagesreply_to_messageThe tools and the permissions each needs are in the Instagram MCP guide.
What it costs
Auto-replies are part of every Mellow Hub plan. There is no price per contact or per message: a plan is priced by brand profiles, and the same subscription publishes to 10 networks and includes Creative Studio’s AI credits. A new account starts with 7 days at $0, with a card on file; cancel before the trial ends and nothing is charged.
Current prices, yearly totals and taxes are on the pricing page.
What it does not do
If you need those, a chat-automation platform such as ManyChat does far more of it. The ManyChat comparison says where each one is stronger.
What we have checked
Mellow runs these rules on its own Instagram accounts, where they answer comments from people outside the team. Meta approved Instagram messaging for Mellow’s app on 26 October 2026; since then Hub’s Instagram sign-in asks every profile for messages, and if Instagram declines them for an account, Hub still connects it for public replies.
Set up auto-replies
From $19 a month, with publishing to 10 networks and Creative Studio in the same subscription.
Set up auto-repliesQuestions
Is comment-to-DM automation allowed on Instagram?
Yes, through Instagram’s official API: Meta lets a professional account send one private reply to each comment within 7 days of it, and answer a person within 24 hours of their message. Mellow Hub uses that API through Mellow’s own Meta app, which passed Meta’s App Review for messaging. Instagram does not allow messaging people who did not write, and Hub cannot do that.
Does it work with a personal Instagram account?
No. Instagram’s API answers comments and messages only for professional accounts, Business or Creator. Switching to a professional account is free in Instagram’s settings.
Is it charged per contact or per message?
No. Auto-replies are included in every Mellow Hub plan, from $19 a month, however many people comment. Chat-automation platforms such as ManyChat price by the number of people they talk to each month.
Can the private message include a link?
Yes. The message is text of up to 1,000 characters, and a link in it opens for the person who receives it. Hub sends no buttons or pictures in it.
Why did someone not get the private message?
Usually one of these: the account was connected without messages (Auto-replies then offers Answer direct messages too), Allow access to messages is off in Instagram, the comment was a reply inside a thread, or Instagram refused the message, which Auto-replies marks Not sent. Hub never sends a second private reply to the same comment.
Can I answer comments that came before the rule?
Yes, those from the last 7 days: Auto-replies counts them, and Reply to all answers them one every 2 to 4 minutes, oldest first.
Does it answer direct messages too?
Yes, by keyword: a Direct messages rule answers a message that contains one of its words, inside the 24-hour window Instagram allows, at most once in 60 minutes for one person and one rule.
Can my AI agent reply to Instagram comments?
Yes, over MCP: list_comments reads them, reply_to_comment answers one publicly and with the private message, and catch_up_autoreplies finds the ones a rule missed. Sending needs an autopilot key you approved, with a ceiling of 300 answers a profile a day, and every answer is in the journal.
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