Free Instagram DM Automation Tools in 2026 (After ManyChat's 25-Contact Change)
Eight free Instagram DM automation tiers compared on real limits, follow gates and what the first paid tier costs. Updated August 2026.
Zorcha is still the most generous free Instagram DM automation tool in 2026, with unlimited DMs and automations and no published ceiling. LinkToDM gives you 2,000 DMs a month across 2 creator accounts. ReelDrop's free plan includes 5 active DM automations plus a full Instagram Reels scheduler, and it never asks for a credit card. ReplyRush lost part of what made its free plan good this cycle, and Chatfuel may not have a permanent free plan at all anymore.
Updated: September 2026
TLDR
- Zorcha's free plan is still unlimited DMs and automations, and it now visibly includes a follow-gate feature ("Ask for Follow") that wasn't documented in August.
- ReplyRush's free plan quietly lost Comment Auto Reply and the follow gate since our last check. Both now require the $10/month Lite plan. This is a real downgrade, not a rounding error.
- LinkToDM's pricing page now lists 2 creator accounts on the free plan, and it has a Pro+ tier at $18/month billed yearly ($25 monthly) for agencies wanting API access.
- ManyChat quietly added a fifth tier, Advanced at $139/month for 25,000 contacts. Its free plan is unchanged: 25 active contacts, 2 channels, 4 automations.
- Chatfuel's live pricing page, checked September 22, no longer advertises a permanent free "Light" plan. It opens with "every plan starts with a free trial," which is a meaningfully different claim.
- ReelDrop's free plan is unchanged: 5 active DM automations, no published DM cap, and a full Reels scheduler, still with no credit card required.
Quick answers
- Most generous free plan overall: Zorcha, because it has no ceiling on DMs or automations at all.
- Best free plan with a follow gate included: LinkToDM and Zorcha. ReplyRush no longer qualifies as of this check.
- Best if you already schedule Reels somewhere: ReelDrop, since the automation attaches to the post while you schedule it.
- Cheapest paid upgrade for real volume: LinkToDM's Pro at $10/month billed yearly for unlimited DMs.
- Tool to avoid trusting on "free" claims right now: Chatfuel, until it publishes a clear permanent free tier again.
Table of contents
- How we checked these free plans
- What changed since August
- The free plans at a glance
- The eight free plans in detail
- What happens the month you outgrow free
- What the word free tends to hide
- Which free plan should you pick
- Frequently asked questions
- Sources
How we checked these free plans
We opened every vendor's own pricing page again on September 22, 2026, and wrote down what the free tier says today, not what it said in August or what a roundup from earlier this year claims. Where a vendor doesn't publish a limit, this page says so instead of guessing. Four things decided the order: how much the free plan lets you send, whether follow verification is included free, whether a card is required to start, and what the first paid tier costs once you outgrow it.
One disclosure before the list. We make ReelDrop. It's in here at its real position, and its section says what it's bad at.
Every tool below runs on Meta's official Instagram API. That was a hard filter, not a preference. Tools that ask for your Instagram password instead of sending you through Instagram's own login screen are the ones that get accounts restricted, and none of them made this page.
What changed since August
Three things moved enough to matter. First, ReplyRush's free plan now excludes Comment Auto Reply and the follow gate. Both were free in our last check; both now sit behind the $10/month Lite plan. If you built a workflow around ReplyRush's free follow gate, check your account, because the feature may already be gone.
Second, ManyChat added a fifth paid tier. Advanced, at $139/month for 25,000 active contacts, sits above Business. The free plan itself didn't change: still 25 active contacts a month, which is the number that started this whole comparison back when ManyChat rebuilt its pricing in April.
ManyChat meters active contacts, and ReelDrop meters active automations, so a Reel that takes off does not change ReelDrop's bill.
Third, and this is the one worth pausing on: Chatfuel's pricing page, fetched directly on September 22, doesn't show a permanent free plan anymore. It shows a Business plan and an Agency plan, both trial-based, with Business at $20 a month, or $18 a month billed yearly. Older write-ups this year describe a free "Chatfuel Light" tier, and even older ones describe a completely different contact-based pricing model. Three different pricing structures were reported for the same product in the same calendar year, which tells you Chatfuel has been repricing often. Treat any Chatfuel free-plan claim, including ones on this page, as something to verify again before you build on it.
The free plans at a glance
| Tool | What the free plan gives you | Follow gate free? | Card needed? | First paid tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zorcha | Unlimited DMs and automations | Yes ("Ask for Follow") | No | $14.99/mo ($9.99/mo annual) |
| LinkToDM | 2,000 DMs/mo, 2 creator accounts | Yes | No | $10/mo billed yearly |
| ReelDrop | 5 active DM automations, no published DM cap, plus the full Reels scheduler. Free-plan DMs end with a short Sent via reeldrop.io line. | No, from Influencer ($9.99/mo) | No | $9.99/mo (Influencer), $29/mo (Creator) |
| LinkDM | 1,000 DMs/mo, 1 Instagram account | Not stated | No | $19/mo (25,000 DMs) |
| ReplyRush | 1,500 DMs/mo, 1 Instagram + 1 Facebook account | No, Lite and above | No | $10/mo (7,500 DMs) |
| CreatorFlow | 500 DMs/mo | No, Pro and above | No | $15/mo, $12/mo annual (5,000 DMs) |
| ManyChat | 25 active contacts/mo, 2 channels, 4 automations | Yes | No | $14/mo (250 contacts) |
| Chatfuel | No permanent free plan (free trial only) | Not stated | Not stated | $20/mo ($18/mo billed yearly) |
Prices and free-plan limits in this table were checked against each vendor's public pricing page on 1 October 2026.
Checked against each vendor's public pricing page, September 22, 2026. "Not stated" means the vendor doesn't publish the answer, not that the feature is missing.
Best free option: Zorcha, on volume alone, and now with a documented follow gate to go with it. ReplyRush has dropped out of that conversation this cycle since two of its better free features moved behind a paywall.
The column that decides everything is still the second one, because these tools aren't measuring the same thing. ManyChat and LinkToDM meter contacts. ReplyRush, LinkDM and CreatorFlow meter messages sent. ReelDrop meters how many automations you can have switched on and leaves the volume alone. Zorcha meters nothing. Reading "1,500" next to "25" without knowing the unit is how people end up on a plan that runs out in a week.
The eight free plans in detail
Zorcha, if you want no ceiling at all
Zorcha's free plan still runs unlimited DMs and unlimited automations, and this check found something the August version of this page couldn't confirm: the free plan's feature list now explicitly includes "Ask for Follow," which is Zorcha's name for follow-gated DM delivery. That closes the documentation gap that used to be its main weakness.
- Unlimited DMs on the free plan
- Unlimited automations
- Follow gate included ("Ask for Follow")
- 20 free FAQ slots in its separate AI FAQ product
- Paid tier from $14.99/mo, $9.99/mo billed annually (zorcha.com/pricing)
Trade-off: analytics on the free plan are labeled "Basic," and the deeper flow builder, integrations and personalization features are all locked behind Pro or Ultimate.
Safety: describes itself as a Meta Tech Provider on its own site and connects through the official Instagram API.
LinkToDM, if you run more than one account
LinkToDM's own pricing page disagrees with itself this time, which is worth flagging rather than smoothing over. The main pricing card says the free plan includes "2 creator accounts." The plan-comparison table further down the same page says the free plan includes "3." We couldn't resolve which is current, so treat the account count as 2 to 3 until LinkToDM fixes the page.
What did change cleanly: LinkToDM added a new Pro+ tier at $18/month billed yearly ($25/month monthly), aimed at agencies, with API access and payment integration. Pro itself dropped to $10/month billed yearly for unlimited DMs, which is one of the cheapest real upgrades on this page.
- 2,000 DMs per month free
- 2-3 creator accounts on the free plan (page is inconsistent)
- Follow gate included free
- New Pro+ tier at $18/mo yearly for API access and 6 accounts
- Pro from $10/mo billed yearly (linktodm.com/pricing)
Trade-off: contact metering, so a post that pulls a lot of one-message commenters eats the plan quickly, and the account-count confusion means you should confirm your actual limit inside the dashboard rather than trusting either number on the marketing page.
Safety: self-describes as a Meta Business Partner on its footer, running on the official API.
ReelDrop, if the post and the automation should live together
ReelDrop's free plan includes 5 active DM automations plus a full Instagram Reels scheduler, and it never asks for a credit card. The cap counts live flows rather than messages, so a reel that actually lands doesn't burn an allowance the way a message-metered plan would. Full pricing is on the ReelDrop pricing page.
What's different is the order of operations. Every other tool here starts working after the reel is already live: you schedule in one tab, automate in another, and hope you remembered to attach the trigger before the comments started. In ReelDrop you attach the DM automation to the reel while you're scheduling it, so it's running the moment the post goes out. Details are on the DM automation page.
- 5 active DM automations free, no published DM cap
- Unlimited Reels and post scheduling on the free plan
- Real follow verification, checked against the Instagram Graph API rather than an honor system
- Triggers on comments, story replies (Influencer and up) and incoming DMs
- Influencer from $9.99/mo for unlimited automations and all trigger types; Creator from $29/mo adds up to 5 accounts and auto DM reply
Trade-off: there's no branching flow builder, so ManyChat still goes much deeper on multi-step funnels. Zorcha's free tier is more generous on raw volume. It's Instagram only, and the Studio team plan hasn't shipped.
Safety: publishes and messages through the official Instagram Graph API as a Meta Tech Provider, and never asks for your password. Full detail is on is ReelDrop safe.
LinkDM, if you're a link-in-bio or affiliate creator
1,000 DMs a month on one Instagram account, with story auto-reply included free, which several tools on this page hold back for a paid tier. The free plan is built around the specific job of getting a link from a comment into an inbox, and nothing about that changed this check.
- 1,000 DMs per month free
- 1 Instagram account
- Story auto-reply on the free plan
- Pro from $19/mo for 25,000 DMs and 3 accounts (linkdm.com/pricing)
Trade-off: the follow gate still isn't documented anywhere on the pricing or feature-comparison pages, so treat it as unconfirmed rather than assuming it works like ReplyRush or LinkToDM's version.
Safety: describes itself as a Meta Business Partner on its own site, running on the official API.
ReplyRush, if you can live without the follow gate on free
ReplyRush's free plan still gives 1,500 DMs a month, which remains the largest published free message allowance on this page. What it no longer includes is Comment Auto Reply or Follow Gated DM. Both show as excluded on the current pricing page, where our previous check had them included on free. That's a real downgrade for anyone running a comment-to-DM funnel, since Comment Auto Reply is arguably the core feature of the category.
The $10/month Lite plan restores both, along with 7,500 DMs and branding removal, so the practical fix is a $10 upgrade rather than switching tools. But it does mean ReplyRush's free plan is now closer to a trial than a usable comment-to-DM setup.
- 1,500 DMs per month free
- 1 Instagram and 1 Facebook account
- Comment Auto Reply and follow gate now require Lite ($10/mo) or above
- Lite from $10/mo for 7,500 DMs, Comment Auto Reply and the follow gate (replyrush.com/pricing)
Trade-off: without Comment Auto Reply, the free plan can still send DMs from other triggers, but it can't do the specific "comment a keyword, get a DM" flow that most people come to this category for.
Safety: says it's approved by Meta's developer team and connects via the official API. The badge is a claim on its own site rather than a listing you can look up independently, which is worth knowing either way.
CreatorFlow, if you want flat pricing later
500 free DMs a month is still the smallest real allowance on this page, and the follow gate still sits behind Pro. Its appeal remains what happens after the free tier: flat message tiers rather than contact metering, so the bill doesn't jump unpredictably when a reel takes off. A Growth tier at $30/month ($24/month annual) now sits above Pro, adding 5 accounts, 10,000 DMs per workspace and 5 team seats, which is useful context if you outgrow Pro's 2-account limit.
- 500 DMs per month free
- Story reply automation included free
- Follow gate and email gate on Pro and above
- Pro from $15/mo, $12/mo billed annually, for 5,000 DMs (creatorflow.so/pricing)
Trade-off: the free plan is really a trial with a longer fuse than most, and Pro is capped at 2 accounts, so agencies land on Growth fast.
Safety: lists tech provider status and uses the official API, stated plainly in its own footer.
ManyChat, if you've already outgrown free
The product is still the deepest one in this category. Branching logic, quizzes, broadcasts, a genuine flow builder: nothing else on this page comes close. The free plan is simply not the reason to choose it, and that hasn't changed since April.
What's new is a fifth tier. Advanced, at $139/month for 25,000 active contacts, now sits above Business, aimed at teams running real volume across every channel ManyChat supports.
- 25 active contacts per month free
- 2 channels and 4 live automations free
- Follow gate available on paid plans
- Essential $14/mo, Pro $29/mo, Business $69/mo, Advanced $139/mo (manychat.com/pricing)
Trade-off: contact metering means your bill tracks how well your content does, which is a strange incentive to live with, and the jump from Free's 25 contacts to Essential's 250 still isn't much room to test anything real.
Safety: a Meta Business Partner, official API, well documented. Nobody sensible worries about this one on safety grounds.
Chatfuel, if you check the pricing page yourself first
We're putting Chatfuel last and with the most caveats, because its own pricing page no longer supports the claim that made it a free-plan candidate at all. Fetched directly on September 22, 2026, chatfuel.com/pricing shows a Business plan and an Agency S plan, both described as starting with a free trial rather than a permanent free tier. The page's opening line reads "every plan starts with a free trial," which is a different promise than "there's a free plan."
This matters because sources from earlier in 2026 disagree with each other and with what we just found. Some describe a free "Chatfuel Light" plan paired with a $69/month AI PRO tier. Others, also from 2026, describe an entirely different contact-based model called Fuely Super and Fuely Max with no free tier at all, only a 7-day trial. Three distinct pricing structures reported for one product inside a single year is not normal, and it means anyone quoting a specific free-plan number for Chatfuel right now is quoting something that may already be gone.
- Live pricing page (checked Sept 22, 2026) shows no permanent free tier, only trial-based plans
- Business plan listed at $69/mo, with a limited-time offer at $18/mo billed yearly through September 30
- New Agency S tier at $90/mo billed yearly, covering 3 client companies
- Third-party sources from earlier in 2026 describe two other, different pricing structures
Trade-off: you can't plan around limits, or even a plan, that keeps changing shape. If Chatfuel is on your shortlist, check chatfuel.com/pricing yourself the day you sign up.
Safety: carries a Meta partner badge and runs on the official API, at least on that front nothing has changed.
What happens the month you outgrow free
Free-plan comparisons hide the part that actually decides your bill. Take one reel that pulls 4,000 comments in a week, which is a good week rather than a viral moment, and look at what each tool charges that month.
| Tool | What happens | Cost that month |
|---|---|---|
| Zorcha | No cap to hit | $0 |
| ReelDrop | Caps automations, not DM volume | $0 (or $9.99 for unlimited automations) |
| LinkToDM | Past 2,000 free DMs, and Pro is unlimited | $10 billed yearly |
| ReplyRush | Past the free 1,500, and Lite's 7,500 covers it, plus restores Comment Auto Reply | $10 |
| CreatorFlow | Past 500 free, and Pro's 5,000 just covers it | $15, or $12 billed annually |
| LinkDM | Past 1,000 free, and Pro covers 25,000 | $19 |
| ManyChat | 4,000 contacts exceeds Pro's 2,500, so Business is required | $69 |
| Chatfuel | No permanent free tier to outgrow | $20, or $18 billed yearly |
Same reel, same week, and the spread runs from nothing to nearly $70. The cliff is steepest on contact-metered plans, because one good post moves you two tiers instead of one. That's the number to compare, not the free allowance by itself.
What the word free tends to hide
Four things worth checking before you commit a funnel to any of these.
The unit. Contacts and messages aren't interchangeable. Somebody who sends you five messages is one contact and five messages. On ManyChat that's one unit of your 25. On LinkToDM it's one of your 2,000 contacts regardless of message count. On ReplyRush it's five of your 1,500 DMs.
The billing period on the sticker. LinkToDM's $10 and Chatfuel's advertised $18 are annual-billing prices displayed as monthly figures. Month to month, both cost more than the number you see first.
Whether the follow gate is actually free right now, not whether it used to be. This is the single biggest lesson from this update. ReplyRush's free follow gate existed in August and doesn't exist now. Zorcha's, on the other hand, went from undocumented to documented. Check the current page, every time, rather than trusting a cached memory of what a tool used to offer. If you're writing the DM copy that goes with a gate like this, our free CTA builder is a reasonable place to draft it.
Whether it uses the official API. Every tool on this page does, and that's the line between sanctioned automation and a suspended account. Meta documents what's allowed in its Messenger Platform policy, including the 24-hour messaging window every one of these tools has to obey. If something asks for your Instagram password instead of sending you to Instagram's own login screen, close the tab. Price has nothing to do with account safety. The connection method has everything to do with it.
Which free plan should you pick
If you want no ceiling and a documented follow gate, Zorcha. If you run two or three handles and can tolerate a page that hasn't fixed its own account-count typo, LinkToDM. If you already schedule your Reels somewhere and would rather stop paying for two products, ReelDrop. If you're an affiliate creator working link-in-bio funnels, LinkDM. If you can live without Comment Auto Reply on the free tier, ReplyRush still has the raw DM number, but budget the $10 upgrade sooner than you'd think. If you need branching logic and broadcasts, pay ManyChat and skip its free tier entirely. If Chatfuel is on your list for any reason, verify its current plan structure yourself before you write a single automation, because it has changed three times this year by different accounts.
Whichever you pick, run one real reel through it before you rebuild anything around it. Free plans are cheap to test and expensive to migrate off. For the deeper feature and compliance comparison rather than the free-tier view, see our full DM automation roundup, and the broader free-tool picture is in our free Instagram tools list.
Frequently asked questions
What is the ManyChat free plan limit in 2026?
Twenty-five active contacts a month, two connected channels and four live automations. Those limits date to ManyChat's April 2026 pricing rebuild and haven't changed since, even after ManyChat added a fifth paid tier in September. An active contact is anyone who exchanges a message with you during the billing month.
Did ReplyRush's free plan get worse?
Yes, on two specific features. As of this check, ReplyRush's free plan no longer includes Comment Auto Reply or the follow gate, both of which were free in our previous check. They now require the $10/month Lite plan. The 1,500 DM allowance itself is unchanged.
Does Chatfuel still have a free plan?
It's unclear as of September 2026. Chatfuel's live pricing page shows only trial-based paid plans, with no permanent free tier listed. Some third-party sources from earlier this year describe a free "Chatfuel Light" plan; others describe a different, entirely paid pricing model. Check chatfuel.com/pricing directly before assuming either is current.
What are the best free ManyChat alternatives right now?
Zorcha still runs unlimited free DMs and automations, and now documents a follow gate on that free plan. LinkToDM includes free follow gating across multiple accounts, though its own page disagrees on the exact account count. ReelDrop's free plan includes 5 active DM automations plus a full Instagram Reels scheduler, with no credit card required.
How many DMs can I send on a free plan?
It depends entirely on the tool. ReplyRush allows 1,500 a month, LinkDM 1,000, LinkToDM 2,000 contacts, and CreatorFlow 500. ManyChat doesn't count DMs at all and allows 25 contacts instead. Zorcha and ReelDrop publish no DM cap. Instagram enforces its own rate limits on top of whatever the tool allows.
Do free Instagram DM tools include follow verification?
Some do, and which ones changes over time. As of this check, Zorcha and LinkToDM include it free, and ReelDrop includes real follow verification checked against the Instagram Graph API on its paid plans, starting with Influencer at $9.99 a month. It is not on ReelDrop's free plan. ReplyRush moved its follow gate behind a paid tier this cycle after including it free previously. CreatorFlow still holds it back for Pro. Test any specific claim on a live post before relying on it.
Can a free DM automation tool get my Instagram account banned?
Not if it runs on the official Instagram API, and every tool here does. Restrictions come from password-based tools that log in as you and simulate taps, which Instagram can't tell apart from a hijacked account. Price is irrelevant to account safety. How the tool connects is what matters.
Is ManyChat still worth paying for?
If you need branching flows, quizzes or broadcasts, yes, because nothing else on this page is close on depth. Essential starts at $14 a month for 250 contacts, and a new Advanced tier at $139/month now covers 25,000 contacts for teams running real volume. If all you run is comment-to-DM with a follow gate, you're paying for a flow builder you'll never open.
Sources
- ManyChat pricing (fetched September 22, 2026)
- Zorcha pricing (fetched September 22, 2026)
- ReplyRush pricing (fetched September 22, 2026)
- LinkToDM pricing (fetched September 22, 2026)
- LinkDM pricing (fetched September 22, 2026)
- CreatorFlow pricing (fetched September 22, 2026)
- Chatfuel pricing (fetched September 22, 2026)
- Meta Messenger Platform policy for Instagram
- ReelDrop pricing and the ReelDrop safety page (ours)
