Instagram AI Chatbot with ManyChat and ChatGPT

This workflow turns your Instagram into an AI-powered customer support or engagement bot. It receives incoming messages from your Instagram page via the ManyChat no-code platform, processes each message through OpenAI’s ChatGPT with a customized system prompt, and sends the AI-generated reply back to ManyChat—which then posts it as a direct message on Instagram. The chatbot also maintains a short-term conversation memory (last 20 messages) to keep responses context-aware. This is ideal for automating common Q&A, providing instant replies, or giving a brand a unique personality on Instagram without needing to code a full backend.

Node Breakdown

• Getting message from Instagram (Webhook) — No auth. Listens for POST requests on the path instagram_chat. Configured to use the responseNode moode, meaning the workflow will send a responce using the Send respond node.
• Set your system promt for AI (Set) — No auth. Extracts session_id and text from the incoming webhook body and stores a hardcoded system prompt (persona, context, style rules) in the prompt variable.
• AI Agent (LangChain Agent) — No auth. Takes the chatInput (user message) and the system prompt. It uses the connected ChatGPT language model and the memory node to generate a reply.
• ChatGPT model (OpenAI Chat Model) — API Key auth. Requires an OpenAI API key configured in n8n credentials. Sends the conversation to OpenAI’s chat completion endpoint.
• Local n8n memory (Buffer Window Memory) — No auth. Injects a conversation history into the AI Agent using the sessionKey from the Set node. Current window is 20 messages.
• Send respond (Respond to Webhook) — No auth. Takes the output of the AI Agent and sends it as the HTTP response back to ManyChat.
• Sticky Notes – Informational. No configuration needed.

Setup Instructions

To use this workflow you need:

• A ManyChat account (free plan works). ManyChat will send Instagram message data to the webhook URL.
• An OpenAI API key. Add it in n8n as a credential (type “OpenAI”).
• n8n (self-hosted or cloud).

Steps:

1. Import this workflow into your n8n instance.
2. Configure the ChatGPT model node: select your OpenAI credential.
3. Copy the webhook URL from the Getting message from Instagram node (e.g., https://your-n8n-domain/webhook/instagram_chat).
4. In ManyChat, create a Custom Action that triggers on an incoming Instagram message. Paste the webhook URL as the endpoint, method POST. ManyChat will send the user’s message and session ID in the body.
5. (Optional) Edit the system prompt inside the Set your system promt for AI node to match your brand voice.
6. Activate the workflow.

Use Cases & Variations

• Customer Support FAQ – Replace the system prompt with a knowledge base instructing ChatGPT to answer only from provided FAQ.
• Lead Capture – Modify the workflow to log questions to a Google Sheet before replying.
• Multi-Language Support – Instruct the bot to detect language and reply in the same language.
• Different AI Models – Swap the ChatGPT node for another LangChain model (e.g., Anthropic, Google Gemini) by changing the credentials.
• Extended Memory – Increase contextWindowLength in the memory node to keep longer conversations.

This template is a lightweight entry point for building a custom Instagram chatbot with AI smarts.

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  "meta": {
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  "name": "InstaTest",
  "tags": [
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      "name": "AI",
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  "nodes": [
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      "name": "Set your system promt for AI",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.set",
      "notes": "In this node in \"prompt\" variable you can set your system prompt",
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        "assignments": {
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            {
              "id": "0b3c3d71-5627-4b8c-91f0-ac44eaedf196",
              "name": "prompt",
              "type": "string",
              "value": "=Persona: You are a instagram influencer.\nContext: You receive a messages from your subscribers\nTask: Answer questions in your writing style and patterns according to your previous posts text. Use your post only for style and patterns reference.\nStyle rules:\nsimple answers"
            },
            {
              "id": "c2a9e272-5c0d-4685-ad0e-ce6995f92a1c",
              "name": "sessionId",
              "type": "string",
              "value": "={{ $json.body.session_id }}"
            },
            {
              "id": "b3c20ee3-07a1-4584-b0d9-7310a2c6b723",
              "name": "chatInput",
              "type": "string",
              "value": "={{ $json.body.text }}"
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// ... truncated (copy to see full JSON)