Instagram comment to DM automation

Point it at a post and pick the word

Choose the comment trigger, then choose what it watches: one specific Reel from a grid of your recent media, a post you have not published yet, or everything you post. Add the keyword. GUIDE, LINK, MEALS, whatever your caption asks for.

Match mode decides how forgiving it is. Contains catches send me the guide and guide please!!, which is what most comments actually look like. Exact fires only when the comment is that single word. Any ignores keywords and replies to every comment, which suits a giveaway and badly suits anything controversial.

Two replies, one public and one private

The public reply goes on the comment itself. It is short, and its job is social proof for everyone scrolling past. Write a handful of variants and each commenter gets a different one.

The DM is where the link lives. It opens with a short message and a button, and the link card arrives once they tap. You can attach up to three buttons, and a live phone preview shows the conversation the way the commenter will read it. A per-post reply limit caps the public replies if a Reel takes off harder than expected.

Attach it while you schedule the Reel

The usual version of this workflow is two products: a scheduler for the Reel, a DM tool for the keyword. In ReelDrop the automation picker is in the composer, so you attach the automation to the post at the same moment you pick the time slot, and it is live the second the post publishes. No gap where the Reel is public and the automation is not running.

How ManyChat prices this

ManyChat is the tool most people compare comment-to-DM against, and the two products meter completely different things. ManyChat charges for Active Contacts, the people who reply to you: its free plan has been 25 Active Contacts a month plus 4 live automations since 2 March 2026, Essential is $14 a month for 250 contacts, and Pro is $29 a month for 2,500. On the free tier the first message carries ManyChat branding.

ReelDrop meters automations instead of people, so a Reel that goes unexpectedly well does not move you up a tier mid-campaign. The free plan is 5 active automations with no contact cap, and the comment trigger is included in it. ManyChat also has no post publishing, so running comment-to-DM there means running a scheduler beside it. Where ManyChat wins is branching: its flow builder is the best on Instagram and ReelDrop does not have one.

One evergreen keyword, running all year

A yoga teacher keeps one automation pointed at every post, with the keyword START, sending her beginner sequence PDF. She has not opened the automation screen since March. It keeps delivering the PDF from posts she made about something else entirely, which is the whole appeal of an evergreen keyword: it works on the Reel you were not thinking about.

A keyword per launch

A photographer runs three offers a year and gives each one its own keyword and its own automation. When a launch ends, she pauses that automation rather than deleting it, and the numbers from last time are still sitting there when she reruns it.

Every trigger by plan

Starter is a real free plan rather than a trial, but it is deliberately one trigger type: a comment on a post or Reel, on up to five active automations. Everything else in the builder unlocks at Influencer.

ReelDrop plans as of September 2026. Paid plans start with Influencer at $9.99 a month ($79 a year); Creator is $29 a month, with founding pricing at $149 a year or $249 once. India pricing is on the pricing page.