Send a Private Reply to a Commenter

Updated: Jun 30, 2026

This documents shows you how to programmatically send a private reply to a person who commented on your app user’s Instagram professional post, reel, story, Live, or ad post.

How It Works

Step 1. An Instagram user comments on your app user’s Instagram professional post, reel, story, Live, or ad post.

Step 2. A webhook event is triggered and Meta sends your server a notification with information about the comment including:

Your app user’s Instagram professional account ID

The commenter’s Instagram-scoped ID and username

The comment’s ID

The media’s ID, if the commenter included media in their comment

The text of the comment, if applicable

Step 3. Your app uses the comment’s ID to send a private response directly to the Instagram user. This reply appears in the person’s Inbox, if the person follows the Instagram professional account, or to the Request folder, if they do not.

Two Instagram phone screens: a commented post on the left and the resulting private reply message in the commenter's inbox on the right

Step 4. Your app can send this private reply within 7 days of the creation time of the comment, excepting Instagram Live, where replies can only be sent during the live broadcast. The private reply message includes a link to the commented post.

Requirements

This guide assumes you have read the Instagram Platform Overview and implemented the needed components for using this API, such as a Meta login flow and a webhooks server to receive notifications.

You need the following:

	Instagram API with Instagram Login	Instagram API with Facebook Login
Access Tokens	Instagram User access token	Facebook Page access token
Host URL	`graph.instagram.com`	`graph.facebook.com`
Login Type	Business Login for Instagram	Facebook Login for Business
Permissions	`instagram_business_basic` `instagram_business_manage_comments`	`instagram_basic` `instagram_manage_comments` `pages_read_engagement` If the app user was granted a role on the Page connected to your app user’s Instagram professional account via the Business Manager, your app will also need: `ads_management` `ads_read`
Webhooks	`comments` `live_comments`	`comments` `live_comments`

Limitations

Only one message can be sent to the commenter

The message must be sent within 7 days of the comment was made on the post or reel

For Instagram Live, private replies can only be sent during the live broadcast. Once the broadcast ends, private replies cannot be sent

Follow-up messages can only be sent if the recipient responds, and must be sent within 24 hours of the response

Send a Private Reply

To send a private reply to a commenter on your app user’s Instagram professional post, reel, or story, send a POST request to the <APP_USERS_IG_ID>/messages endpoint. The recipient parameter should contain the comment’s ID and the message parameter should contain the text you wish to send.

Sample request

Formatted for readability.

curl -i -X POST "https://<HOST_URL>/<API_VERSION>/<APP_USERS_IG_ID>/messages"
     -H "Content-Type: application/json"
     -H "Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>"
     -d '{
             "recipient":{
                 "comment_id": "<COMMENT_ID>"
             },
             "message": {
                 "text": "<COMMENT_TEXT>"
             }
         }'

On success, your app receives a JSON response with the recipient’s Instagram-scoped ID and the ID for the message.

{
  "recipient_id": "526...",   // The Instagram-scoped ID
  "message_id": "aWdfZ..."    // The ID for the private reply message
}