Manychat
Also known as: ManyChat, manychat.com, Manychat AI
A chat marketing platform for Instagram, TikTok, Messenger, WhatsApp and Telegram whose Manychat AI answers DMs and comments from a brand's own knowledge, steers each conversation toward a link, a follow or a captured lead, and hands off to people, on top of the comment to DM automations used by more than 1.5 million creators and businesses.
Manychat automates conversations on Instagram, TikTok, Messenger, WhatsApp and Telegram, plus SMS and email, for creators, marketers and brands. Comments, DMs, story replies, new follows and ad clicks start automations built in Flow Builder or picked from Quick Automations, which send links, collect emails, run giveaways and pass contacts to tools such as HubSpot, Klaviyo and Mailchimp. More than 1.5 million creators and businesses use it.
Manychat AI adds an AI layer that acts on its own. On Instagram, AI Replies answers DMs and comments from a Knowledge library of text and web pages, AI Comments answers positive comments in the account's own tone, and AI Goals carries on after a reply to share a link, suggest a follow or capture a lead into contact fields. The AI Step brings goal driven conversation into flows on Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok and Telegram. AI Behavior sets the persona and guardrails, the AI Playground shows the sources behind each test answer before launch, and conversations the AI cannot handle go to a chosen person or group. Manychat labels these AI features beta.
Plans run from a free tier to Advanced at $139 a month billed annually, sized by active contacts with overage per contact, and Manychat AI starts on Pro at $29 a month billed annually. Manychat holds ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II and ISO 42001, and keeps production data in AWS data centers in Frankfurt.
It fits creators, social media teams and small brands that sell and capture leads through Instagram DMs and comments and want AI replies on top of proven comment to DM flows. It fits less well where AI agents are needed with the same depth on WhatsApp or TikTok, or where a choice of model, a scored test harness or single sign on is required.
Vendor details
Canonical URL
https://manychat.com
Category
GTM / revenue agent
Subcategory
Social DM and comment automation with AI replies, goals and lead capture for creators and brands
Funding status
$140M Series B led by Summit Partners, April 2025. Founded by Mike Yan (CEO) and Antony Gorin; launched on Telegram in 2015, with hubs in Armenia, Brazil, the Netherlands, Spain and the US.
Company status
independent
Use cases & customers
Primary use cases
Target customers
Deployment options
Integrations
Contacts and conversation data flow to HubSpot, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, Kit, Flodesk and Google Sheets, Hotmart sells courses inside Instagram and WhatsApp chats, and Zapier and Make reach more than 7,000 apps. The External Request action calls any HTTPS API, flows can call ChatGPT, Claude or DeepSeek on the brand's own key, events go to Meta's Conversions API, and Stripe and PayPal take payments from the Inbox. A public REST API and the Dev Program's Manychat Applications serve developers.
In practice
A creator posts a reel offering a free guide. Followers comment a keyword, Manychat sends each one a DM with the link, checks whether they follow the account and asks for an email, which lands in Kit or Mailchimp.
A skincare brand loads its shipping, returns and ingredient pages into Knowledge. AI Replies answers Instagram DM questions around the clock, AI Goals shares the product link after each answer, and questions the Knowledge cannot cover go to the support team in the Inbox.
A coach adds an AI Step to a WhatsApp flow with the goal of qualifying leads. The AI asks about budget and timing and saves each answer to a contact field, and the flow sends a booking link to qualified leads and tags the rest for a later sequence.
Sources & related URLs
Related / legacy domains
Research sources
Agentic Index coverage score
10.0 / 14 capabilities · 71%
| Integrations & Tool Calling | Full |
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Flows write into the marketing stack through named connectors. Contacts collected in DMs go to HubSpot, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, Kit and Flodesk, chat data logs to Google Sheets, and Hotmart sells courses inside Instagram and WhatsApp conversations. Zapier reaches more than 7,000 apps and Make builds scenarios across them. The External Request action calls any HTTPS API with GET, POST, PUT or DELETE, custom headers and a JSON body, and maps the response into contact fields. Developers can also package an API as a Manychat Application with its own auth, actions and option sources. The AI reaches these systems through the flow it sits in, rather than choosing a tool itself in the middle of a conversation. Sourcemanychat.com/integrationsread 2026-10-09 |
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| Workflow Orchestration | Full |
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Flow Builder chains triggers, messages, conditions, delays, actions and other flows on one canvas, with a Randomizer that splits contacts across up to 12 weighted paths, sequences that send over days, and rules that run actions on events. An AI Step drops into any flow: the brand states a goal and background, the AI turns them into tasks, carries the conversation and saves answers into fields that later steps branch on. On Instagram, up to three AI Goals follow an AI reply in a priority order the brand sets, and a lead capture ends by sending a message, starting another automation or assigning the conversation to a person. Sourcehelp.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/14281187288860-manychat-ai-stepread 2026-10-09 |
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| Knowledge Grounding & RAG | Full |
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A Knowledge library feeds AI Replies. Brands add text entries of up to 250,000 characters each and public web pages, scanned one page at a time, shown for review and editing, and active only once saved. Link entries can be refreshed when a page changes, entries can be updated or deleted at any time, and edits apply from the next conversation. In the AI Playground every test answer lists the entries it drew on. Only visible page text is extracted, so images, video and PDFs are skipped, social profiles and Google Docs are refused, and file uploads are marked coming soon. The AI Step instead works from up to 10,000 characters of context written into the step. Sourcehelp.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/25626595060124-manychat-ai-knowledgeread 2026-10-09 |
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| Human Oversight & Guardrails | Full |
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AI Behavior sets the AI's role, brand voice and explicit guardrails, the topics it should never touch and what it should never say or do, starting from a draft written off the account's bio and recent comments. Before AI Replies goes live, the brand tests it in the AI Playground and picks who takes conversations the AI cannot answer, and Assign to a person routes those to a team member or group. Each skill has its own toggle, only Admins and Editors can change Manychat AI, and staff can pause automation for a contact from 30 minutes to indefinitely and resume it from the Inbox. AI Comments is tuned by approving or rejecting five sample replies. The product page says brands approve every AI comment reply, while the help center shows approval only at setup. Sourcecommunity.manychat.com/product-updates/your-ai-now-speaks-your-language-meet-ai-behavior-9491read 2026-10-09 |
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| Security, Identity & Governance | Full |
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Accounts have five roles with set permissions: Owner, Admin, Editor, Inbox Agent and Viewer. Inbox Agents work conversations, tags and contact fields without touching automations, Viewers see statistics read only, invitation links are single use and expire in 24 hours, and only Admins and Editors reach Manychat AI. Manychat holds ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification from BSI, a SOC 2 Type II report from A-LIGN available on request, ISO/IEC 42001:2023 for AI management, a CSA STAR listing and PCI DSS compliance under SAQ A for its payment integrations. Data is encrypted in transit with TLS 1.2 and 1.3 and at rest to FIPS 140-2, penetration tests run yearly and a private bug bounty runs on Bugcrowd. Single sign on, SCIM and two factor sign in do not appear. Sourcemanychat.com/securityread 2026-10-09 |
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| Observability & Auditability | Partial |
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Every message the AI sends sits in the contact's Inbox conversation beside the automations that ran, and an Overview tab in Manychat AI reports on AI performance. In the AI Playground each test answer shows the Knowledge entries behind it, and testers rate answers up or down with a reason. Inbox Analytics tracks response times, team efficiency and conversation volume. Live conversations do not carry that source view, and there is no log of agent decisions, tool calls or configuration changes for tracing a single reply after the fact. Sourcecommunity.manychat.com/product-updates/better-faster-stronger-introducing-new-updates-to-ai-playground-9311read 2026-10-09 |
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| Memory & State Persistence | Partial |
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Inside a conversation the AI keeps the thread, adapting to what the follower says over several turns and waiting up to 10 hours for a reply before it stops. Answers it gathers, such as an email or a budget, are saved to system or custom contact fields that later flows and the Inbox read, so they belong to the contact record rather than to a memory the agent keeps. AI Comments studies the account's past comment replies to match its tone, and AI Behavior holds the persona and guardrails as settings. Nothing carries what the agent learned about a person from one conversation to the next with its own scope, lifetime or deletion control. Sourcehelp.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/14281227789468-power-up-your-chat-marketing-with-manychat-airead 2026-10-09 |
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| Deployment & Data Residency | Not documented |
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Manychat runs as a hosted service only, and all production data sits in AWS data centers in Frankfurt, with no other region on offer and no private cloud or on premises install. AI features run on generative AI providers OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Microsoft, all listed as processing in the US, and transfers from the EU, UK and Switzerland rest on the Data Privacy Framework and standard contractual clauses. Full daily database backups are kept apart from the main data center, accounts inactive for 18 months are flagged for deletion, and personal data leaves active systems when an account is deleted. Sourcemanychat.com/securityread 2026-10-09 |
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| Prebuilt Agents / Templates / Packs | Full |
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Quick Automations are ready made setups a brand picks and fills in step by step, among them auto DM links from comments, generate leads with stories, grow followers from comments and a delayed welcome to new followers. Templates install whole automations, fields and tags from a link, creators and agencies build and protect their own, and Pro templates need a paid plan. Manychat AI ships as separate skills: AI Replies answers questions, AI Comments answers positive comments, and AI Goals extends either by sharing a link, growing followers or capturing leads. The Flow Builder assistant drafts a whole automation from a plain description of the goal. Sourcehelp.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/16654065283100-quick-automation-auto-dm-links-from-commentsread 2026-10-09 |
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| Triggers & Channel Coverage | Full |
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Inbound social activity starts the work. Comments on posts and reels, DMs matching a keyword or a described intention, story replies and mentions, new followers, clicks on Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp ads, Facebook Shop messages, QR codes and ref links each open an automation, and AI Replies and AI Comments answer as messages arrive, around the clock. Sequences and broadcasts run on schedules, and outside apps start flows by posting to Manychat's webhook endpoint. Channels span Instagram, TikTok, Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, SMS and email. AI Replies, Comments and Goals run on Instagram only, the AI Step on Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok and Telegram, and intention recognition on all of those but TikTok. Sourcehelp.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/23018283889180-manychat-ai-repliesread 2026-10-09 |
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| Model Flexibility & Routing | Partial |
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The model behind Manychat AI is not named, and brands cannot pick one for AI Replies, Comments, Goals or the AI Step. The subprocessor list names OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Microsoft for generative AI, and the AI terms cite OpenAI's policies and the Azure OpenAI code of conduct. Separately, flows can call ChatGPT, Claude or DeepSeek on the brand's own API key, choosing the model, prompt, temperature and token limit and saving the answer to a field. Those calls are single generations from the latest message, billed by the provider, and sit outside the Manychat AI skills. Sourcemanychat.com/legal/service-providersread 2026-10-09 |
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| APIs / SDKs / MCP Extensibility | Full |
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A public REST API at api.manychat.com, with a Swagger console and Bearer token auth, covers the account (tags, custom and bot fields, flows, growth tools), sending (content and whole flows) and contacts (create, update, find, tag and set fields). Reads run at up to 100 requests a second, sends at 25 and writes at 10, and an account over the limit may be cut off for 24 hours. Keys are generated under Settings on paid plans. The Dev Program adds Manychat Applications, JSON defined apps with an App Key per install, actions, option sources and triggers that outside systems fire through a webhook, with public apps listed at apps.manychat.com after review. Manychat publishes no MCP server of its own. Sourcehelp.manychat.com/hc/en-us/articles/14959510331420-how-to-generate-a-token-for-the-manychat-api-and-where-to-get-parametersread 2026-10-09 |
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| Testing, Debugging & Optimization | Partial |
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The AI Playground lets a brand chat with its AI as a follower would before going live, with suggested or custom questions. It flags questions the Knowledge library cannot answer and offers to add the missing information on the spot, shows which entries each answer drew on, and takes a thumbs up or down with a reason. Brands retest after each change, then go live. Flows can be previewed before publishing, and the Randomizer splits contacts across weighted paths for A/B tests. There is no saved test set, scoring run or comparison between AI versions, and the Randomizer reports no results by path, so a change is judged by reading test conversations. Sourcecommunity.manychat.com/product-updates/ai-playground-test-your-ai-detect-knowledge-gaps-and-go-live-with-confidence-9189read 2026-10-09 |
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| Browser / Computer-use | Not documented |
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Manychat works through the official messaging platforms as a Meta Business Partner and TikTok Marketing Partner, so DMs, comments and messages travel through the Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, TikTok and Telegram channels. No browser, desktop or computer is driven by the AI. Public web pages enter Knowledge as extracted text, a fetch for answers rather than an agent operating a site. Sourcemanychat.comread 2026-10-09 |
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The Agentic Index coverage score grades every vendor Full, Partial or Not documented against the same 14 buyer facing capabilities, from public evidence only. Each capability links to how all vendors in the index score on it. How this evidence is graded
Pricing
Free plan · Essential from $14 a month billed annually · Manychat AI from Pro at $29
Plan tier sized by active contacts a month, with a fee per extra contact and per extra Inbox seat
Included quota
Free covers 25 active contacts a month, Essential 250, Pro 2,500, Business 7,500 and Advanced 25,000. An active contact is one person interacting with the account in a billing month, however many messages they send, and the count resets each cycle. Users and Inbox seats run from 1 and 1 on Free to 10 and 5 on Advanced.
What is public
Manychat publishes every plan price billed monthly and annually, the active contact allowance and overage rate for each tier, users and Inbox seats per plan, the extra seat price, trial and refund terms.
Billing mechanics
Pick a plan by channels, team size and monthly active contacts, pay monthly or save 18 to 30 percent annually, and pay per extra contact beyond the allowance. Prices are set by billing country and exclude tax.
Cost watchouts
Active contact overage can add up quickly on a viral post. Manychat AI needs Pro or above, and WhatsApp, SMS and email channels are not available on Essential. Extra Inbox seats cost $25 each, and WhatsApp and email template messages are paid from a separate wallet.
Variable cost rationale
The plan price covers a set number of active contacts each month, and every contact beyond that is billed, so a viral post or a big giveaway raises the bill in the month it lands. An overage cap limits it, and per contact rates fall on the larger plans. Extra Inbox seats add $25 each. WhatsApp and email template sends draw on a separate prepaid wallet.
Additional watchouts
Size the plan on monthly active contacts rather than followers, and set an overage cap before a big campaign. The AI replies, comments and goals work on Instagram only.
Overage / add-ons
Automations keep running past the contact limit and each extra active contact is billed: $0.10 on Essential ($0.082 annual), $0.05 on Pro ($0.038), $0.025 on Business ($0.018) and $0.004 on Advanced ($0.0028), falling further with volume. An owner can cap overages under Settings, and upgrading within the cycle forgives overage already incurred.
Sales call required
No, self serve available
Free / trial
Free plan for 25 active contacts a month, no card needed; 14 day free trial on Essential and Pro
Lowest paid plan
Essential at $14 a month billed annually or $17 monthly, with 250 active contacts, 2 channels, 2 users and 1 Inbox seat
Commercial notes
Manychat raised a $140 million Series B led by Summit Partners in April 2025 and says more than 1.5 million creators and businesses use it. It is a Meta Business Partner and TikTok Marketing Partner.
Key ambiguities
The Manychat AI product page calls Manychat AI a $29 a month add on to Pro, while the pricing page lists it inside Pro, Business and Advanced; read together, the $29 is the Pro plan price. Advanced overage reads $0.004 per contact on its plan article and custom on the Active Contacts article. Accounts created before 2 March 2026 keep legacy plans with different prices.
Cancellation / refund
Plans renew monthly or annually and can be cancelled at any time, with access to the end of the paid period; overage already incurred is still charged. A refund is available within 30 days of the first purchase through support. Upgrades apply at once with prorated credit, monthly downgrades apply at the next period, and annual plans cannot be downgraded before the term ends.
Support SLA / resale
Free has self serve help, Essential and Pro email support on business days, and Business and Advanced priority email support. A service level agreement is published in Manychat's legal pages.
Missing data
Whether Manychat AI usage has its own limits, the price of any plan above Advanced, and per contact rates past the published Advanced tier.
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