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Go to the Accounts page in your dashboard and click “Connect Instagram”. You'll be taken through Meta's official login — CommentDM never sees your password.

You need an Instagram Professional account (Business or Creator). Personal accounts can't use Meta's messaging APIs, so they can't be connected — switch to Professional free inside the Instagram app under Settings → Account type.

During login you'll be asked to grant two permissions: instagram_business_manage_comments (read and reply to comments) and instagram_business_manage_messages (send DMs). Both are required for comment-to-DM automation.

If connecting fails with an error page from Meta, the usual causes are: (1) you're logged into the wrong Instagram account in that browser, (2) the account isn't Professional, or (3) a previous half-finished connection needs to be removed first — disconnect and try again.

Open Automations → New automation. Give it a name you'll recognise later, like “Ebook giveaway”.

Choose what to watch: specific posts/reels (best for campaigns) or all new posts on the account.

Add your keywords and write the DM message. Keep it personal — include the commenter's name with the available variable and one clear call to action.

Optionally add a public reply (“Check your DMs! ✨”) so commenters know to look. Save, then toggle the automation on. Test it by commenting the keyword from a second account.

Each automation holds a list of keywords. “Contains” matching fires when the keyword appears anywhere in the comment (“please send LINK” matches LINK). “Exact” matching fires only when the whole comment is the keyword — stricter, fewer false positives.

Matching is case-insensitive and ignores extra punctuation, so “Link!”, “LINK” and “link please” all match the keyword LINK under contains mode.

Separate keywords with commas. If different keywords need different replies, create one automation per keyword instead.

Reply-to-all mode skips keywords entirely and DMs every commenter — useful for giveaways, but watch your monthly quota.

One DM is sent per commenter per automation, even if they comment the keyword five times.

The follow-gate is for “followers-only” rewards: freebies, discount codes, early access. When a commenter replies with your gate keyword, the system checks whether they follow your business account before releasing the content.

If they don't follow yet, they get a friendly reminder to follow and try again — the gate stays open, so nothing is lost.

If the follow status can't be read (API hiccup), the gate fails open and releases the content rather than blocking a genuine follower.

Only use the gate where the reward justifies the friction. For simple link delivery, skip it — every extra step costs conversions.

Every workspace has a plan (Free, Starter, Pro) with quotas: connected Instagram accounts, active automations, DMs per month, and a per-hour safety cap per account.

Only successfully sent automated DMs count toward your monthly quota. Skipped comments and failed sends don't.

During the testing phase there are no card payments. Upgrades happen through promo codes: open Billing → redeem a code, and your workspace plan upgrades immediately. One redemption per code per workspace.

Admins can also set any workspace's plan directly. When paid billing launches, you'll be able to check out with Razorpay (UPI, cards, netbanking) from the same Billing page.

Check the event log first. Every incoming comment appears there with an outcome: DM_SENT, SKIPPED_NO_MATCH (no keyword matched), SKIPPED_DUPLICATE (already DM'd), or FAILED with a reason.

If comments don't appear in the log at all: (1) the automation may be paused, (2) the post may not be in the automation's watch list, or (3) the webhook subscription may have lapsed — check the account status on the Accounts page.

If sends fail with a permission error, reconnect the Instagram account to re-grant permissions.

Private replies must go out within 7 days of the comment. CommentDM sends within seconds, but if a queued message somehow ages past the safety margin it is cancelled rather than risk an API error.

Hourly safety caps queue overflow for a few minutes instead of dropping it — a delayed DM in the log is normal during spikes.

Disconnect an Instagram account any time from the Accounts page — this revokes our access token immediately and stops all automations on that account.

To delete everything: use the Data Deletion page for step-by-step instructions, including how to request deletion of your workspace, contacts and event history.

Meta also offers its own data-deletion flow for connected apps; our Data Deletion Instructions page documents the callback we honour.

Support tickets and billing records required for legal compliance are retained per our Privacy Policy, then deleted on schedule.