Facebook auto reply: answer every Page message and comment
Free for 7 days, no credit card required
Someone asks your opening hours in Messenger at 11 at night. Someone else comments LINK under your ad. Both wait until a person opens the inbox, and a buyer who waits often buys somewhere else. Here is what Facebook already gives a Page for free, where it stops, and how to answer the rest automatically.
- Meta's official API, no password, nothing installed
- Unlimited contacts on every plan
- AI replies in your customer's language
- From $29 a month
What Facebook gives a Page for free
Meta Business Suite gives a Facebook Page an instant reply, an away message, answers to frequently asked questions, keyword replies and a comment to message automation, all free. For replies that go out at once on every Messenger message and every comment on a post or an ad, with up to 50 keywords, buttons and AI answers from your own knowledge, CommentWatchDog automates them through Meta’s official API, from $29 a month.
Meta Business Suite, on a computer
How to turn on Facebook’s own auto replies
- 1
In Meta Business Suite, go to Inbox and click Automations.
- 2
Click Create automation and choose one: Instant reply, a greeting for someone’s first message (the setup screen lists it as Auto reply); an Away message for when you are not available; Frequently asked questions; Custom keywords; or Comment to message, a message to people whose comment contains the words you set.
- 3
Follow the on-screen instructions. The automation then shows under Automations, where the toggle below Status turns it on or off.
- There are also ready replies for a message asking for your location, your contact information or your hours.
- Meta says a new automation can take a few minutes to appear.
Source: Set up Inbox automations on desktop, read October 8, 2026
In Meta’s own words
Where the free tools stop
A keyword reply takes up to 5 keywords or phrases.
Meta says the keywords are case-sensitive, and the reply is not sent unless they match exactly.
A keyword reply is sent after 15 minutes, unless you answer the message yourself first.
Custom keywords and Comment to message can be set up only on a computer.
Turning on Meta Business Agent pauses automations such as the away message and the instant reply.
Source: About Inbox automations, read October 8, 2026
Replies that go out at once, every time
Facebook’s free automations cover a greeting, an away note and a handful of exact keywords. These four rows are where a busy Page outgrows them. To build whole conversations, see the Messenger chatbot page.
CommentWatchDogFacebook’s side is Meta’s own help: About Inbox automations and Set up Inbox automations on desktop, read October 8, 2026. Facebook and Messenger are trademarks of Meta.
The words you choose, answered at once
This is a keyword automation on a Facebook Page, named Opening hours and switched to Live.
- Contains a keyword
- Three keywords here: schedule, hours and open. The line under them says they match anywhere in the message.
- First messages
- The note below says this automation answers a first message that has one of those words, and the Messenger welcome keeps the rest.
Every way to auto reply on Facebook
Each one is its own automation on your Page, named the way the app names it, with Meta’s rule beside it. Running Instagram too? Its twin is Instagram auto reply.
In Messenger
Replies to what people write to your Page.
- Messenger messageKeyword replies
A message that has one of your keywords, is exactly your phrase, or any message at all gets its answer at once: text, buttons, a link or a whole flow. Keyword replies in DMs.
Up to 50 keywords, 80 characters each. A keyword must start a word, so “hi” is never found in “this”.
- Ice breakers and first messagesA welcome message
The first time someone ever writes to your Page they get your greeting, once per person, whatever they wrote. The welcome message.
A keyword reply goes first when both fit: only one automatic answer goes to one message.
- Ice breakersQuestions people can tap
Up to 4 questions sit above an empty Messenger chat. A tap sends the question, and each question leads to its own answer. Ice breakers.
A question is up to 80 characters.
- AI agent answersAI for the rest
What your keywords do not catch can go to an AI agent that answers from your website, your text and your FAQs, in the customer’s language. A second check reads each answer against what you gave it before it is sent. The AI chatbot for DMs.
An answer uses 5 AI credits. When it does not know, it sends nothing and a person takes the chat.
Under your posts and ads
Replies to comments on your Page.
- Post or ad commentsComment to Messenger
A comment with your keyword, or any comment, on a post or an ad sends the commenter a private reply in Messenger. Comment to DM has the whole recipe.
Meta allows one private reply per comment, within 7 days of it.
- Public replyA reply under the comment
The same comment can also get a public reply under it, so everyone reading sees it was answered. Write up to 5 variations and one is picked at random each time.
Up to 500 characters each.
- Private replyA button that opens the chat
The private reply can carry a button. Their tap opens the chat, and the next message goes out.
After the private reply, nothing more can be sent until they tap or reply.
- ModerationSpam gets no reply
Your moderation rules run before any automation. A comment they hid or deleted never starts one, so a scam that types your keyword gets no message. Hide comments on Facebook.
A hidden Facebook comment stays visible to its author and their friends.
When a person should answer
The automation steps aside.
- Hand to a personA hand-off inside a flow
One step pauses the automation in that chat, marks the chat for your team and notifies them. The hand-off step.
The automation resumes after 24 hours, after 3 days, or when someone resumes it.
- Pause for 24 hoursTake over one chat
In the Live inbox, one button keeps automations and the AI agent quiet in a chat while you answer it yourself.
Each message in the thread is marked with who sent it.
One automation for every ad you run
This is the comment to Messenger editor on a Facebook Page, set to answer comments on ads.
- Ads only
- One choice under Where covers all your ads. The chip beside it reads All ads.
- Live
- The automation is named New roast 15% off, and its switch is on.
A welcome and questions, set once
This is the start of a Messenger welcome flow in the flow builder.
- First message
- Switched on: it runs once per person, the first time they ever write to you.
- Ice breakers
- Three questions here, of the 4 Messenger shows above an empty chat. Each has its own way out on the canvas.
A person takes over, the automation waits
A chat a person has taken stays in the Live inbox, and its contact panel says so.
- Paused until
- The panel gives the time, and the line under it reads: A person has this chat. Automations and the AI agent stay quiet until then.
- Resume automations
- One button hands the chat back before that time.
- You can reply until
- The time until which Meta lets you reply.
Your first auto reply, live in minutes
Four steps, from connecting the Page to the first answer going out.
- 01
Connect your Page
Sign in with Facebook’s own login and choose the Facebook Page to answer for. It runs on Meta’s official API, so no password is shared and nothing is installed.
Free for 7 days, no card
- 02
Choose what it answers
A Messenger message with a keyword, a comment on a post or an ad, someone’s first message, or any question for the AI agent.
One automation for each
- 03
Write the reply
Text with their first name in it, buttons, a link, a question that saves the answer, or a whole flow.
Up to 2,000 characters on Messenger
- 04
Turn it on
Switch it to Live and matching messages and comments are answered at once. Turn it off, or take over a single chat, whenever you want.
Nothing is sent outside Meta’s 24-hour window
What cannot be automated
Meta decides when a Page may message someone. Every send is checked against that rule, and the inbox shows you when a chat has closed.
- The 24-hour window
- A Page may reply for 24 hours after the person’s last message. After that, this notice takes the composer’s place until they write again.
- No broadcasts
- So there is no message to everyone who ever wrote to you, and no follow-up days later.
The rules, in one table
What Meta allows on a Facebook Page, and the limits the app adds.
| What | The limit | Set by |
|---|---|---|
| Who writes first | The person: a message, a comment, a tap or a link they open. A Page cannot message someone first | |
| Reply window | 24 hours after their last message, tap or link open | |
| Private replies to one comment | One, within 7 days of the comment | |
| After the private reply | Nothing more until they tap or reply | |
| A comment from another Page | A Page cannot send a private reply to another Page | |
| One Messenger message | 2,000 characters; 640 when it carries buttons | |
| Automatic answers to one message | One: a keyword reply first, then the welcome, then the AI agent | CommentWatchDog |
| Keywords on one automation | Up to 50, 80 characters each | CommentWatchDog |
| What it connects to | Facebook Pages. Not personal profiles or their Marketplace chats | CommentWatchDog |
Meta’s rules are its Messenger Platform documentation, read October 5, 2026. No Meta page states Messenger’s 2,000 characters today; it was sent live: 2,000 passed and 2,001 was refused. The other rows are the app’s own limits.
Questions about Facebook auto reply
Asked by people who run a Facebook Page.
With Facebook’s own tools: in Meta Business Suite on a computer, go to Inbox, click Automations, then Create automation, choose Instant reply, Away message, Frequently asked questions or Custom keywords, follow the on-screen instructions and turn it on. With CommentWatchDog: connect your Facebook Page with Facebook’s login, choose what starts the reply (a Messenger message, a comment or a first message), write it and switch it to Live.
Yes. Meta Business Suite has a Comment to message automation, set up on a computer, that messages people whose comment contains the words you set. In CommentWatchDog a comment on a post or an ad can get a public reply under it and one private reply in Messenger, which is what Meta allows per comment, within 7 days of it. See comment to DM.
Meta’s help describes an instant reply as a greeting sent when someone messages you for the first time, and an away message as a reply sent when you are not available. Both are set up under Automations in Meta Business Suite’s Inbox. To answer the question itself, use keyword replies or an AI agent.
For Facebook’s own replies, go to Inbox in Meta Business Suite, click Automations and switch the automation off with the toggle below Status. In CommentWatchDog, switch the automation off in its list, or pause automations in a single chat for 24 hours from the inbox.
Yes. In CommentWatchDog an AI agent answers Messenger questions from your website, your text and your FAQs, in the customer’s language, and a second check reads every answer against that knowledge before it is sent. When it does not know, a person takes the chat. For whole conversations with questions and buttons, see the Messenger chatbot page.
No. CommentWatchDog connects Facebook Pages through Meta’s official API. Chats on a personal profile, including personal Marketplace chats, are not something it connects to.
Short, specific, with one next step. For an hours question: “We’re open every day: 7 to 6 on weekdays, 8 to 2 on weekends.” For a LINK comment: “Hey Kayla! Tap below and the code is yours.” After the tap: “Here it is: WELCOME15, for 15% off your first bag.”
Facebook’s own Inbox automations are free. CommentWatchDog has a 7-day free trial without a card, then plans from $29 a month. Contacts and messages are not metered on any plan. See pricing.