Instagram Chatbots: Top 5 Vendors & Use Cases in 2025

Instagram is the 2nd-most used social media platform for e-commerce purchases.¹ 44% of “active” Instagrammers use it to shop weekly.²

Companies across different sectors, such as e-commerce, content creation, organization, and customer service, are looking for Instagram chatbots that offer:

• personalized communication
• high volumes of inquiry in support
• manageable costs

We listed top chatbot providers with their features and best practices for optimizing Instagram chatbots.

Instagram chatbot vendor comparison

*The pricing changes may occur for annual billings. Additionally, there may be adjustments in pricing based on subscribers and the monthly conversations you have.

Instagram chatbot feature comparison

Sorting for the vendors is made by the number of employees. See explanations for all features below.

Selection criteria

Numerous conversational AI platforms exist. We have narrowed them down to the following: 

• Having 100+ employees on LinkedIn
• Highlighting Instagram integration on their website

How do Instagram chatbots work? 

Instagram chatbots are similar to other chatbots. They can be triggered by emojis or keywords and pick an answer from their knowledge base. Moreover, adding ML and generative AI functionalities expands their conversational and operational features. Some of their features are:

• Answer FAQs instantly, ensuring all inquiries are addressed.
• Qualify leads by asking targeted questions and connecting high-potential prospects to live agents.
• Facilitate commerce through in-chat product catalogs, order tracking, and payment processing.
• Deliver personalized experiences by accessing user preferences and past interactions.

Figure 2 shows how an Instagram chatbot can read comments and Instagram direct messages, understand their sentiments, and respond accordingly.

Figure 2: An Instagram chatbot’s architecture for reading and responding to comments and messages.

Having said that, there are Instagram-native functionalities – like reacting to Story mentions or responding to comments – that are specific to Instagram chatbots.

We harness a blend of AI natural language processing (NLP), machine learning algorithms, and predefined workflow engines to power chatbots. Key technological components include:

• NLP Engines: Interpreting user intent from text, emojis, and even voice notes.
• Intent Classification: Mapping incoming messages to predefined intents for seamless conversation flows.
• Entity Recognition: Extracting critical data—such as dates, product names, or contact details—from user inputs.
• Integration APIs: Connecting the chatbot to CRMs, e-commerce platforms, and analytics tools for unified data management.

Instagram chatbots’ key features

There are two common features among all of the vendors:

1. Connecting to live agents: Handing off complex queries to humans.
2. Story: Monitor the brand’s story mentions and respond effectively to users.

To identify the vendor that offers the best Instagram chatbot, we looked for the following features:

1. Click-to-chat ads: Starting a conversation when users click on an ad.

Figure 1: Click-to-chat ads direct users to a chatbot.³

2. Comments: Monitoring and responding to users’ comments.
3. Reels monitoring: The capability to activate automations (or capture and respond) when users comment on or tag you in an Instagram Reel.
4. Payment button: Providing a universal payment gateway button (i.e., PayPal or Stripe, but not Shopify)
5. Upselling and cross-selling: Suggesting complementary and alternative products to increase average order value (AOV)
6. Meta partner: A chatbot developed by a Meta-certified vendor signifies that it:
   • Adheres to Meta’s QA
   • Has priority access to API features 
   • Leverages Meta’s technical support 
   • Supports Meta’s data protection frameworks and more.

What can Instagram chatbots do?

1. By automating responses to 80% of routine queries, including Direct Message (DM) replies, Instagram chatbots reduce average response times from hours to seconds, enhancing customer satisfaction and improving brand perception.

Figure 3: Instagram chatbots can automate DM replies.⁴

6. React to Story mentions (e.g., by sending a coupon code as a thank you).
7. Collect users’ information for lead generation and personalized DMs.
8. Connect customers to a live agent if the query is complex
9. Gather critical lead information directly within Instagram DMs through conversation prompts

How to create Instagram chatbots? 

You can create Instagram chatbots by using a chatbot developer or a chatbot vendor. Building your own Instagram chatbot can be complex and expensive, so it’s expected to be a less popular choice and won’t be covered here.

Using a chatbot provider

1. Create an Instagram business account or switch your personal account to a business account. 
2. Link it with a Facebook fan page. If you don’t have one, you must create one. (Facebook’s involvement is because Instagram uses Facebook Messenger’s API)
3. Link your chatbot platform to your Instagram account
4. Customize the chatbot for your use case. 
5. Track your chatbot and assess its performance for further improvement. Important Performance Indicators (KPIs) to consider when monitoring chatbot performance are:
   • Average response time
   • Query resolution rate
   • Conversion rate from chat interactions
   • Customer satisfaction scores (CSAT)

Each chatbot provider has a different GUI. So, read/watch documentation/tutorials. But typically, a low-code configuration looks as follows:

• Suppose you want to integrate Stripe’s payment gateway into Direct Messages, enabling customers to place and pay for their orders in the chat.
• Go to “Integrations” on your developer’s dashboard. Search “Stripe.” Connect it to your account.
• Add the product’s info, image, and price to its card.
• Your chatbot now allows users to finalize purchases on Instagram DM.

Measuring the success of your Instagram chatbot

Quantitative metrics

• Response accuracy: The percentage of queries resolved without the need for human support.
• Engagement rate: The number of users interacting for every 1,000 followers.
• Conversion rate: The ratio of conversions that result in a sale or a lead.

Qualitative feedback

Gather user satisfaction insights through brief surveys integrated into chats, guiding ongoing improvements.

What are the benefits/use cases of Instagram chatbots?

1. Enhanced product showcasing

Instagram chatbots can dynamically showcase products, via carousel features or links to Posts, Reels, Videos, and Stories

2. Story interactions 

Stories are one of the most used features of Instagram:

• +500M Instagrammers use Stories daily⁵
• 70% of Instagrammers watch Stories daily
• 49% of Gen Z use Stories to find products/services
• 1 in 3 Instagrammers are more interested in a story-showcased product⁶

Using a chatbot in an Instagram marketing campaign can interact with users to increase conversion rates by:

• Responding to product inquiries
• Giving discount codes
• Setting reminders (if the Story is promoting an event)
• Soliciting feedback (if the Story is highlighting a product)
• Facilitating chatting with users during story interactions, which can enhance customer engagement and support targeted ad campaigns

3. End-to-end shopping 

Instagram has native shopping features, like Shopping Tags and Checkout. Instagram chatbots can guide the user through the buying process in the app, resulting in lower exit rates. 

4. Providing product information

After seeing a product on Instagram, 79%⁷ of users try to find more information about it. Some in-app methods of finding information are:

• Reading other users’ comments 
• Posting a comment
• Direct Messaging the brand 
• Looking at images

Chatbots can monitor these engagement points and automatically answer product questions in comments and DMs. This lets users find information instantly in the app, instead of on search engines.

5. Hyper-targeted messaging

Using Instagram’s analytics and insights, chatbots can compile user data on behavior and past brand interactions to deliver focused messages, including exclusive deals and personalized recommendations.

Learn more about chatbot analytics.

6. Data-driven influencer collaboration

6.1. The scope of influencer marketing on Instagram

• On average, ~30% of users make an “influenced-by-influencers” purchase⁸
• 53% of Gen Z had made an “influenced-by-influencers” purchase⁹
• 51% of users’ purchases were influenced by social media advertising¹⁰
• By 2025, Instagram’s influencer marketing size will be $22.2B¹¹

6.2. Leveraging chatbots for influencer collaborations

Companies can use an Instagram chatbot to benefit from Influencer marketing by:

• Sending a personalized message to users who tag the product in their Posts or Stories.

• Collecting analytics of an influencer’s post, like engagement, click-through, and conversion rates, to measure the ROI of the collaboration campaign.
  • When successful posts/Stories are identified, delve into specifics like:
    • Filters used in the Stories or images
    • Timing of the posts or Stories
    • Duration of Stories
    • Presence or absence of closed captions
• Answering queries instantly and consistently. This is most important, especially when collaborating with a popular influencer driving high traffic to your account.
• Distributing automated follow-up messages, discount codes, or special offers to users redirected from an influencer’s Call-to-Action (CTA) stickers and affiliate links.

7. Quick DM replies

Rule-based Instagram chatbots can quickly resolve common queries on DMs. Advanced AI algorithms can provide personalized answers to more complex customer service or sales questions.

For example, a user gives their body measurements and asks what size would fit them. The chatbot accesses its database and replies, “In the past, customers with similar body measurements bought X or Y size.” 

8. Shopping cart abandonment recovery

An Instagram chatbot can send an automated reminder or discount code to incentivize users who’ve abandoned their cart.

What are some tips for optimizing an Instagram chatbot?

Program the chatbot to integrate with the following Instagram features:

1. Instagram stories 

Use Stories to promote the chatbot and its functionalities. Direct people to engage with the chatbot through swipe-up links to CTA link stickers 

2. Instagram Insights 

Use Instagram’s native analytics tools to monitor how users interact with the chatbot via DMs and adjust your strategies accordingly. 

3. IGTV, Reels, and Lives 

For more engaging product exhibitions, let the chatbot direct users to IGTV and Reels. 

If you have planned Live sessions, have the chatbot send reminders to users to join ahead of time.

4. Quick and Saved Replies 

Use the Quick and Saved Replies feature in your chatbot’s script to allow users to select from pre-set responses for basic, repetitive queries. 

5. Hashtags 

Use the chatbot to manage hashtag promotions. It can tell users to share photos/Stories of a product with its specific hashtag. Or if someone wants to explore a t-shirt’s styling options, for example, it can give its hashtag from previous campaigns, so they can search.

6. Comments 

Use the chatbot to reply to/like comments to enhance engagement, answer questions, and increase exposure in followers’ feeds. 

7. Shopping feature 

Use Instagram’s shopping feature and the chatbot’s payment gateway integration to enable users to place and pay for orders in the chat. 

8. Post tags and Story mentions 

When your product or brand is tagged on Posts or mentioned in Stories, program the chatbot to respond/engage appropriately.

9. Carousel and collection posts 

Program the chatbot to handle Instagram’s carousel and collection post formats when sharing multiple images or product listings. 

10. Spam-free guidelines

Follow Instagram’s guidelines¹² to ensure your bot doesn’t spam. You can program the bot to only answer/send a certain number of comments/DMs each hour, or not use the exact wording for all its answers.

11. Images, files, & emojis

Given Instagram’s young user base, program the chatbot to converse via a combination of images, files, emojis, and GIFs.¹³

FAQs

Further reading

• Chatbot vs Voicebot: Where to Use Each One?
• WhatsApp HR: Top 25 Use Cases For Human Resources
• Chatbot Lead Generation: Top 8 Benefits

External Links

• 1. Preferred social commerce platforms worldwide 2024| Statista. Statista
• 2. Instagram for Business | 44% of people surveyed use Instagram to shop weekly, using features like shopping tags and the Shop tab. 🛍🛒 Help potential customers... | Instagram.
• 3. Free Instagram Chatbot | SendPulse. SendPulse
• 4. https://chatfuel.com/instagram⁴https://www.tidio.com/blog/instagram-chatbot/⁵https://sendpulse.com/features/chatbot/instagram
• 5. 33+ Incredible Instagram Stories Statistics to Know in 2025.
• 6. So können Marketer Instagram Stories Ads optimieren | Facebook IQ | Meta for Business.
• 7. Facebook IQ: So stärkt Instagram Marken und Verkaufszahlen | Facebook IQ | Meta for Business.
• 8. U.S. consumer spending on influencer endorsed products 2018 | Statista. Statista
• 9. UK: social media influencers impact on purchases 2022| Statista. Statista
• 10. U.S. purchase influence by social media 2020| Statista. Statista
• 11. Instagram ad revenue 2024| Statista. Statista
• 12. Gemeinschaftsstandards | Transparency Center.
• 13. Instagram: age distribution of global audiences 2024| Statista. Statista