Sprout Social for Instagram DM automation
Updated:
Per-seat social media management suite whose Instagram automation consists of Smart Inbox Automated Rules (tag, complete, alert, hide) on the Advanced plan and a Bot Builder for Instagram DMs. Comment-to-DM automation is not documented. It does not offer comment-to-DM automation.
- 1K contacts
- Not offered
- 10K contacts
- Not offered
- Free plan
- No
- Billing
- Per seat
- Meta status
- Business Partner
- Type
- Social media suite
Instagram features
| Feature | Sprout Social |
|---|---|
| Send a DM when someone comments | No |
| Keyword triggers | Yes |
| Public reply under the comment | No |
| Auto-reply to incoming DMs | Yes |
| Trigger on replies to your stories | No |
| Trigger on story mentions | No |
| Trigger on live video comments | No |
| Message new followers | No |
| Multi-step flow builder | Yes |
| Broadcast messages | No |
| AI agent that replies on its own | No |
| Hand the chat to a person | Yes |
| Shared team inbox | Yes |
Pricing
| Plan | Per month | Contacts included | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essentials | $99 | Yes | |
| Standard | $199 | Yes | |
| Professional | $299 | Yes | |
| Advanced | $399 | Yes | |
| Enterprise | Sales quote | Yes |
Free plan. No free plan. 30-day free trial, no credit card required.
Trial. 30-day free trial, no credit card required.
The 1,000 and 10,000 contact figures use the cheapest plan that includes comment-to-DM, on monthly billing. The method is on how we compare.
Meta status
- Uses the official Instagram API
- Yes
- Claims Meta Business Partner status
- Yes
- Listing confirmed in Meta's partner directory
- No
CRM and payments
- Built-in CRM
- No
- Payment links
- No
- Take payment inside the chat
- No
Channels and AI
Channels. Instagram, Facebook Messenger, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, WhatsApp.
- AI agent
- No
AI providers. OpenAI.
Every plan includes 100 Trellis AI agent credits per seat per month. Trellis Plus (1,000 credits/month) costs $35 per user/month on monthly billing or $28 on annual billing. Trellis is an insights agent over Listening, Inbox and reporting data, not a reply agent. Inbox AI is limited to 'Enhance Reply by AI Assist' (tone rewriting of a human-written reply, Advanced plan), conversation summaries, intent classification and 'Response Recommended' tagging. Generative features are powered by OpenAI per the vendor's AI feature list.
Reviews elsewhere
We do not publish our own star ratings. These are the public scores we could read in October 2026.
| Site | Score | Reviews |
|---|---|---|
| Capterra (opens in a new tab) | Rated 4.4 out of 5 | 609 |
| G2 (opens in a new tab) | Rated 4.4 out of 5 | 6,875 |
| Trustpilot (opens in a new tab) | Could not be read | |
Strengths and limits
Where it is strong
- Vendor displays a Meta Business Partner badge and supports two Instagram connection methods, including a direct Instagram login that avoids the 3-month Facebook reauthorization.
- Bot Builder supports Instagram DM chatbots with up to 4 Ice Breakers, text and image replies, unlimited layers, and handoff into the Smart Inbox where agents reply, create cases and tag.
- Automated Rules on the Advanced plan can tag, complete, alert on or hide Instagram comments and messages using keywords, advanced keyword queries, sentiment, spam classification, language, follower count and verified status.
- 30-day free trial without a credit card, longer than most competitors' 14 days.
Where it falls short
- No comment-to-DM automation: the vendor's Automated Rules actions are limited to tagging, completing, alerts and hiding, and chatbots start only when a user opens a DM. No automatic public comment replies are documented either.
- Per-seat pricing from $199 per seat/month (annual billing) for the first plan with an inbox. Automated Rules require the $399 per seat/month Advanced plan.
- One active chatbot per profile. Instagram bots are limited to 4 Ice Breakers and the Bot Builder's Keyword Command is documented only for X and Facebook.
- AI in the inbox assists humans (tone rewriting, summaries, intent tags) rather than replying autonomously. Trellis credits are capped at 100 per seat per month unless Trellis Plus is purchased.
Skip it if you want comment-to-DM lead capture, keyword-triggered DM funnels or DM broadcasts on Instagram. Or if your budget is under roughly $200 per month or you are a solo creator paying per seat. Or if you need Instagram story reply, story mention, live comment or follow triggers.