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How does ManyChat handle very high comment volumes? (15k comments in 3 hours)

  • June 10, 2026
  • 1 comment
  • 7 views
R

Hi everyone,

I'm running a comment-to-DM automation on Instagram (ManyChat only, no other tools) and I had a Reel/post blow up: about 15,000 comments in 3 hours. In the same window ManyChat sent only ~3,000 DMs. I'm trying to understand exactly what's happening before my next big post, so a few specific questions:

1. Rate limits & queue: When the volume exceeds Meta's hourly limit for comment private replies, what does ManyChat actually do with the excess? Are those messages parked in a queue and retried automatically as the rolling window resets, or are they dropped?

2. No skipping: My main goal is that EVERY commenter eventually gets the DM, even if it takes many hours and goes very slowly. Can ManyChat guarantee it won't silently skip users? If a send fails due to a rate-limit error, is it retried later, or lost?

3. 24-hour window: Since automated DMs must reach the user within 24h of their comment, what happens to people who are still in the queue after 24 hours? Are they simply lost, and is there any way to see/recover them?

4. Best practices: For viral-level volume like this, is there anything you recommend to avoid losing users??

Any official clarification on the queue/retry behavior at high volume would be hugely appreciated. Thanks!

      1 reply

      SumGenius
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      • SumGenius
      • Smooth talker
      • June 10, 2026

      Hey Riccardo, most of this is Meta's plumbing showing through, not ManyChat doing something odd. Quick pass on your four:

       

      1. Rate limits & queue: comment private replies are capped per account on Meta's side (documented ceiling is 750/hour, and most tools throttle under that to stay ban-safe). Past that, the excess isn't dropped at the rate-limit layer, it queues and goes out as the rolling hour frees up. That's why a 15k spike trickles out over the following hours.

      2. No skipping: a send that fails on an actual rate-limit error is generally retried, not silently dropped. The thing that truly loses people is the next point.

      3. The window (this is the big one, and good news): the initial private reply to a comment has a 7-day window on Meta's side, not 24h. The 24h window is for continuing the conversation after someone replies to you. So you've got far more runway than you thought. The catch: at 15k in 3 hours, even a 7-day queue at a few hundred/hour may not clear the whole tail, and anyone past 7 days from their comment is unreachable by private reply.

      4. Best practices for viral volume: accept you can't instantly DM everyone on a real spike, that's a Meta ceiling no tool escapes. What helps: keep the first DM a short  conversational opener (put the link in message 2) so more of them actually land, and if your tool lets you, go back over the post's existing comments to catch the ones that slipped while you're still inside the 7-day window.

      Short version: the cap is real and shared by every tool, but your misses mostly aren't permanent if you sweep the post again within 7 days.

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