5 Best Instagram Chatbots in 2026
By Joren Wouters • Updated on
With 44% of Instagram users shopping every week, offering a great customer experience has never been so important.
But great content isn’t enough to succeed on Instagram. When your DMs, story replies, and comments start piling up, manual replies simply don’t scale.
That’s where Instagram chatbots come in. They build engagement, automate responses to messages and turn followers into leads.
But how do you know which one is the best one for you?
Over the past decade, I’ve tested and reviewed 50+ chatbot platforms and built hundreds of bots for my clients.
In this guide, I break down the 5 best Instagram chatbot platforms in 2026. I’ll cover who each one is best for, the tradeoffs, and how to pick the best one for your situation.
For this 2026 update, I re-evaluated each platform specifically for Instagram:
- Instagram automation: Can it automatically DM users from comments, story replies, and keywords?
- AI capabilities: Does it use AI or is it just rule-based?
- Live chat: Can you easily hand conversations over to a human agent?
- Ease of use: How quickly can you set up an Instagram bot without coding?
- Omnichannel support: Can you deploy the same bot across many platforms?
- Integrations: Does it connect with your other tools?
- Pricing: What’s the chatbot platform’s cost?
Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
What an Instagram Chatbot Actually Does (And What It Doesn’t Do)
An Instagram chatbot automates conversations inside Instagram DMs and on your posts.
It can:
- Send automatic DMs when someone comments on your post
- Trigger replies from story mentions or keyword messages
- Run automated follow-up sequences
- Qualify leads and collect contact information
- Hand conversations over to a human agent
Some platforms focus heavily on marketing features like comment-to-DM triggers and broadcast sequences. Others are designed mainly for AI-powered customer support.
Chatbot platforms also have their limitations.
For example, Instagram messaging follows Meta’s policies. This includes time limits for messaging and limits on promotional broadcasts.
Before choosing a tool, consider:
- Do you need strong marketing automation or just customer support?
- Do you want AI-powered conversations or structured flows?
- Do you need integrations with Shopify, your CRM, or email software?
- Will you expand beyond Instagram to other channels?
For example, here’s how Brian Young (spiritual coach) uses an Instagram DM funnel automation to get people to attend his webinar:
Best Instagram Chatbot Platforms: Quick Overview
| Name | Rating | Pricing | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manychat | 4.5/5 ⭐ | Free plan, Pro plan starts at $15/month | Marketing Automation and Customer Support |
| Chatbase | 4.1/5 ⭐ | Free plan, Hobby plan starts at $40/month | AI Beginners |
| UChat | 4.5/5 ⭐ | Free plan; Premium plans start at $15/month and up | Omnichannel Support |
| Botpress | 4.1/5 ⭐ | Free plan with pay-as-you-go model | Advanced AI Chatbots |
| Freshchat | 4.5/5 ⭐ | Free plan, Paid plans starting at $19/month | AI Agents with Large Customer Support Teams |
1. Manychat
Best for: Marketing Automation & Support
Rating: 4.5/5 ⭐
Manychat is one of the best chatbot platforms for creating chatbots on Instagram. It has a super user-friendly interface and flow builder, making it easy for everyone to create chatbots.
The platform is also great for marketing automation. For example, it lets you automatically DM users who comment on your posts or send broadcasts.
Likewise, you can build advanced automations by setting up sequences, rules and even A/B testing. So it’s a great tool for lead generation.
Manychat has a built-in live chat, allowing you to handover a conversation to a support agent. This makes the tool perfect for customer support as well.
And if you want to take it up a notch, you can extend the platform with AI Features, such as an AI Flow Builder Assistant & AI intents.
Pros
- Super user-friendly interface & Flow Builder
- Integrates seamless with Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, SMS & Telegram
- Many marketing possibilities to drive users to DM Automations
- Advanced Marketing options: Broadcasts, Sequences & Rules
- Built-in Live Chat
- Direct Integrations + Zapier/Make Integrations
- Built-in AI: Intents, AI Steps & AI Flow Builder Assistant
Cons
- Learning curve for advanced features
- Some features are locked behind higher-priced plans
Pricing
- Free plan up to 1000 contacts. Contains basic features of the platform.
- Pro plan starts at $15/month
- AI Add-on for $29/month
If you want to get started with Manychat, just click the button below to get my 100% discount code:
2. Chatbase
Best for: AI Beginners
Rating: 4.1/5 ⭐
Chatbase is great at one thing: training itself on a knowledge base and automatically answering user questions. And this platform is so easy to use, you can literally set up a chatbot in less than 10 minutes.
With Chatbase, you can just upload a bunch of documents or website URLs. Then, Chatbase will train itself on your data. And then, the chatbot can automatically answer questions about it, within minutes.
Additionally, you can revise every answer of your AI chatbot. You can improve them manually, and Chatbase learns from that.
Alternatively, Chatbase has a Suggestions feature. It highlights missing information in your training data without your manual input. This is a unique feature, which I haven’t seen in other platforms.
Plus, you can also integrate Chatbase with other applications using AI Actions. They enable your chatbot to perform tasks when users ask it to. For example, an AI Action can automatically look up an order’s status when a customer asks for it.
So Chatbase is a perfect choice for businesses looking to implement AI-driven customer support quickly.
Pros
- Very easy to use for beginners
- Set up a chatbot in less than 10 minutes
- Built-in AI: Knowledge Base
- Integrates with Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Website & Slack
- AI Actions let you connect with other apps
- Easily Revise Answers of your chatbot
- Livechat integration with Zendesk
Cons
- No marketing options for Instagram
- Cannot create custom chatbot flows
Pricing
- Free plan, 100 message credits and train a chatbot on 400,000 characters
- Hobby Plan ($40/month). 2,000 messages credits and train a chatbot on 11 million characters
3. UChat
Best for: Omnichannel Bots
Rating: 4.5/5 ⭐
UChat is a powerful platform for creating omnichannel chatbots. They can work across Instagram, Facebook, and more. While fairly easy to use, it has a higher learning curve compared to platforms like Manychat.
However, it has extensive features. It lets you create one chatbot and publish it across multiple channels, with one click.
The platform has many marketing possibilities (similar to Manychat) and also has a built-in live chat. This allows you to create omnichannel marketing and support chatbots.
Furthermore, it has over 50 direct integrations with other applications. This allows you to easily connect it to the rest of your tech stack.
Pros
- Easy-to-use Flow Builder
- Create 1 chatbot and publish it across 13 channels
- Keyword Recognition and Intent Detection
- Direct integration with ChatGPT
- Many marketing possibilities for Instagram
- Advanced Marketing possibilities: Broadcasts, Sequences & Rules
- Built-in Live Chat
- 50+ Direct Integrations, including Zapier and Make
Cons
- Steep learning curve for beginners, can feel overwhelming
Pricing
- Free plan
- Paid plan start at $15/month
If you want to get started with UChat, click the button below to get my 100% discount code:
4. Botpress
Best for: Advanced AI Chatbots
Rating: 4.1/5 ⭐
Botpress is designed for creating advanced, intelligent chatbots. It has a flow builder and built-in AI, giving you the freedom to create custom flows and leverage the power of AI in your chatbot.
And Botpress stands out with its advanced AI capabilities. With this platform, you can:
- Train a chatbot on a custom knowledge base
- Rewrite every sentence to a certain personality
- Summarize each conversation automatically
- Understand images when they are uploaded by users
- And translate your chatbot to the user’s language
This makes Botpress one of the most sophisticated AI platforms on the market.
Pros
- Flow Builder
- Many advanced AI capabilities (Knowledge Base, Summarize, Vision Agent & Automatic translation)
- Publish your chatbot on Instagram and 9 other channels
- Customize website widget
- Direct live chat integration with Zendesk
Cons
- Steep learning curve for beginners
- No marketing possibilities for Instagram
- Basic analytics on standard plan
Pricing
- Free plan up to 500 messages
- Pas-as-you-pricing, available from $5/month
5. Freshchat
Best for: AI Agents with Large Customer Support Teams
Rating: 4.5/5 ⭐
Freshchat lets large support teams build and use AI Agents easily.
With Freshchat, you can:
- Train AI Agents on your own knowledge
- Connect those agents to AI actions for common support tasks
- Improve their responses over time as new questions come in
Plus, the platform is very easy to use.
When needed, you can hand off conversations to human agents automatically via assignment rules.
Freshchat also includes tools for scaling. They include a shared inbox, team collaboration features, and proactive messaging. These help teams stay organized while managing conversations across channels, such as Instagram.
On top of that, Freshchat connects with 400+ applications. That makes it easy to integrate with the rest of your support and business tools.
Pros
- Easy-to-use interface
- Publish chatbot on Instagram + 6 Other Channels
- Built-in AI: Intents, Self Service, Copilot
- Livechat with Auto-Assignment and Automations
- 400+ direct integrations
- Advanced Analytics: Many Reports & Add Custom Reports
Cons
- Can be pricey for smaller businesses
- No marketing possibilities on Instagram
- Some features are hidden in the interface
- Limited customization options
Pricing
- Free plan for live chat up to 10 agents
- Paid plan starting at $19/agent/month (comes with 500 AI agent sessions)
- AI Add-on: $49 per 100 AI agent sessions
Your Next Steps
These are the 5 best Instagram Chatbot tools. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses.
The next step is to create your own Instagram chatbot. Click on this tutorial to learn how:
FAQs
Do Instagram chatbots use advanced AI like GPTs or other LLMs?
Some top-tier chatbot platforms use the power of large language models and GPTs. These AI-driven bots can:
- Understand context better
- Offer more natural conversations
- Generate creative content for your Instagram posts
Are Instagram chatbots only for big businesses?
Not at all! Businesses of all sizes – from small online shops to large retail chains – can benefit from Instagram bots. They’re especially useful for B2C companies that want to improve customer service and boost sales on Instagram.
Can I use Instagram chatbots without an Instagram Business or Creator account?
No.
To use an Instagram chatbot, you need an Instagram Business or Creator account connected to a Facebook Page through Meta Business Manager.
Chatbot platforms rely on Instagram’s official Messenger API. Personal accounts don’t support this integration.
Do these bots work with Instagram Stories and comments?
Yes — but only certain platforms support full Instagram automation.
Tools like Manychat and UChat allow you to:
- Automatically DM users who comment on your posts
- Trigger automations when someone replies to your Stories
- Respond to specific keywords in DMs
Other platforms, like Chatbase, Botpress, and Freshchat, focus more on AI-powered support inside DMs. They don’t offer advanced marketing triggers like comment-to-DM automation.
If Instagram marketing automation is your priority, Manychat is probably the best choice.
Are Instagram chatbots safe and compliant with Instagram policies?
Yes — when using approved platforms and following Meta’s rules.
All tools in this list use Instagram’s official API. That means:
- Users must interact with your account before you can message them
- Messaging outside Meta’s allowed windows is restricted
- Spam behavior can lead to account penalties
No legitimate chatbot can bypass Instagram’s policies.
Which chatbot is best if I want eCommerce automation (shop links, product replies)?
If your goal is eCommerce on Instagram, focus on strong marketing automation tools.
Manychat is the best overall choice for ecommerce automation. It supports:
- Comment-to-DM automation
- Automated product links
- Follow-up sequences
- Lead capture
UChat is also strong if you want omnichannel ecommerce automation across Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp.
