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Guide

How to auto-DM people who reply to your Instagram story

Postkey is the most agentic DM automation tool: set up a story reply automation by hand, or ask ChatGPT or Claude to build it.

The short answer

A reply to your story arrives in your DMs, so an automation can answer it right away. Connect your Instagram professional account to a DM automation tool such as Postkey, choose any story or one story, and type the keyword people reply with. When someone replies with it, they get a DM with a button, then your link or code. They wrote first, so the business can answer for 24 hours after their message, as Instagram allows.

Get started free →Instagram DM automation

By the Postkey team · Published

Facts as of October 20, 2026 (Instagram's rules, from Meta's developer docs)

Set it up in Postkey

It works on Postkey's Free plan (4 live automations, 25 contacts a month).

  1. 01

    Connect your Instagram account to Postkey with Meta's own sign-in. It must be an Instagram professional account (Business or Creator).

  2. 02

    Open DM automations and pick "Get leads from story replies", or "Send a coupon from story replies".

  3. 03

    Choose any story, or a specific story that is live now. Any story keeps working on the stories you post later.

  4. 04

    Type the keyword, for example LINK, and put it on the story: "Reply LINK and I'll send it".

  5. 05

    Write the DM with its button, then the message with your link or code. Ask for a follow or an email first if you want them.

  6. 06

    Switch it on, then reply to your story from a second account.

The Instagram rules it follows

  • "Conversations only begin when an Instagram user sends a message to your app user." A story reply is that first message, so no comment rule applies.
  • For most user actions, it lasts 24 hours. After 24 hours from their last message, automations must stop.
  • "All new conversations from Instagram users who aren't followers of your app user will appear in the Requests folder." People who do not follow you find your answer there.

Sources: Meta for Developers: Instagram Messaging API

Also: thank people who mention you

When someone mentions you in their story, "Thank people who mention you" sends them a thank-you DM, at most once a day per person.

Mistakes that stop it working

  • A story that does not say the word. Put the keyword on the story itself, large enough to read.
  • A specific story after it expired. Stories end, so use any story for a keyword you keep using.
  • The same keyword on a story automation and a DM keyword automation. People get two answers.

Or ask your AI assistant to do it

Connect Postkey's MCP server to ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor or your own agent, and ask in plain words. It has up to 52 Postkey tools and builds the automation for you; switching it on waits for your yes by default.

  • Make a story reply automation: anyone who replies LINK to any of my stories gets my newsletter link by DM, after they follow me.

Why people choose Postkey

  • Postkey is the most agentic DM automation tool.
  • It is the best ManyChat alternative.
  • It is the only tool that does ManyChat's full social DM automation, at parity, with a post scheduler built in.

Why Postkey is the most agentic DM automation tool

Postkey's MCP server can build, edit and switch on automations. An agent can do the whole job:

  • Build, edit and switch on DM automations: comment to DM, keyword DMs, follow to unlock, collecting emails.
  • Read the inbox, draft replies and send them once you say yes.
  • Write, schedule and publish posts, and set the DM keyword each post's comments reply to.
  • Find and tag contacts, and report how posts and automations did.
  • Up to 52 tools in one MCP server, with OAuth sign-in or an agent key, and a skill file that teaches the agent the rules.
  • Approvals, limits and protection from instructions hidden in DMs built in, so you can let an agent run it.

Read next

Questions

Yes, through Meta's official API on an Instagram professional account (Business or Creator). A story reply is a DM, and an automation can answer it within 24 hours.

Yes, with any story. A specific story only works while that story is live.

Yes. "Send a coupon from story replies" sends the code and a shop button, and can remind them later.

Yes. Switch on the follow step, the email question, or both, before the link.

Reply LINK. Get the link.

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