Instagram messaging limits

Instagram sets firm rules for automated messaging: when you may send, how fast, what a message may contain, and how opt-outs must be respected. Ravela enforces all of them automatically — in the builder before you publish, and in the sending engine at runtime. This page exists so the behavior never surprises you, not because you need to police it yourself.

Automated DMs may only be sent within 24 hours of the contact’s last message to you. Every inbound message — a DM, a story reply — reopens the window. Ravela applies a safety margin under the 24-hour line, checks the window before every send, and never fires a message Instagram would count against you.

When the window is closed, the message simply isn’t sent: the run either takes the message node’s “not sent” branch if you configured one, or ends gracefully with a “24-hour window expired” reason on the Runs page — it is not treated as a failure of your flow.

Waits and delays can legally outlast the window — a delay node accepts up to 30 days — but the builder warns you at publish time, because the message after a long delay only sends if the contact has replied in the meantime. For follow-ups measured in days, the validation itself points you at the better tool: send an email instead. There’s also a Messaging Window node that branches on Open versus Closed, so a flow can plan for both cases explicitly.

Instagram limits automated DMs to 200 per hour per account. Ravela paces sends with a small safety margin and queues anything beyond the limit, delivering it when the hourly window resets — messages are delayed, not dropped. A run only fails on rate limits after repeated rescheduling can’t get the message out, and the Runs page says so plainly.

Public comment replies have their own platform cap of roughly 60 per hour per account. If a viral post exceeds it, Ravela retries the replies as capacity frees up while the DMs continue on their own track.

The builder validates every message against Instagram’s content rules before you can publish:

A contact who messages “stop” — or unsubscribe, cancel, end, quit, opt out — as their whole message is opted out of automation on the spot. Longer phrases like “please stop” or “no more DMs” work anywhere in a message. Matching is deliberately careful: “don’t stop posting!” opts nobody out.

On opt-out, active flow runs for that contact end immediately, automation stays blocked, and the contact receives a single confirmation: “You’re opted out of automated DMs from this account. A person can still reply here. Reply START to resume automated messages.” Repeated STOPs don’t re-send it. Manual replies from your inbox remain allowed throughout.

Opt-outs are scoped per connected account, and contacts return by sending START (or subscribe, or resume) as their whole message. None of this is configurable — it’s the compliance floor that keeps automated DMs welcome.

Humans get more room than automations, but not unlimited room. Replying from the inbox is unrestricted within the 24-hour window. From 24 hours up to 7 days, Instagram permits manual replies only under its human-agent permission, which Meta grants through app review. Past 7 days, even a follower can’t be messaged until they message you again.

The practical takeaway: answer while conversations are warm, and let flows capture anything that needs following up later — over email if the follow-up is measured in days.