Auto Reply for WhatsApp That Answers Questions

An auto reply for WhatsApp sends a message for you when a customer writes. The WhatsApp Business app has two built in: a greeting for new chats and an away message on a schedule. Both send the same text, whatever the customer asked.

Greeting, away message, quick replies: which does what

WhatsApp gives businesses three helpers in the free WhatsApp Business app, all under the Tools tab. A greeting message goes out when someone writes to you for the first time, and again when they write after 14 days of silence (WhatsApp Help Center, read October 26, 2026). An away message goes out on a schedule you pick: always, during a custom time window, or outside the business hours in your profile (WhatsApp Help Center). For both you choose who gets them, from everyone to a few selected contacts, and both only go out while your phone has an internet connection.

Quick replies are not automatic at all. They are up to 50 saved messages that you pull into a chat by typing "/" (WhatsApp Help Center).

An auto reply for WhatsApp, or WhatsApp automatic reply, is a message sent to a customer without you typing it: either a fixed greeting or away text from the WhatsApp Business app, or an answer an AI agent writes to the question the customer actually asked.

Can you set an auto reply on WhatsApp?

Yes, in the free WhatsApp Business app. To set a WhatsApp away message:

1. 1

   Open the away message

   In the WhatsApp Business app, open the Tools tab and tap Away message.

2. 2

   Switch it on and write it

   Turn on Send away message, tap the message text to edit it, then confirm.

3. 3

   Pick when it sends

   Under Schedule, choose Always send, Custom schedule or Outside of business hours. The last one needs business hours in your business profile.

4. 4

   Pick who gets it

   Under Recipients, choose Everyone, Everyone not in address book, Everyone except… or Only send to…, then save.

A greeting message works the same way under Tools > Greeting message.

What is a good automatic reply message?

A good auto reply says what happens next, makes a promise you can keep, and gives one fact people can use right away. Three auto reply message samples for business WhatsApp, written for a made-up driving school:

• Away, during the day: "Thanks for writing to Greenway Driving School. We are out on lessons until 5 pm and reply to every message today. Prices and lesson types: greenwaydriving.example/lessons"
• Outside business hours: "Thanks for your message. We are closed now and reply from 8 am. Our prices and opening hours are on greenwaydriving.example."
• Greeting: "Hi, this is Greenway Driving School. Tell us which lesson you want and where you live, and we will take it from there."

Where one fixed message stops being enough

Take Greenway Driving School, a made-up school with two instructors. On a Tuesday afternoon both are in the car with students, and the away message is set to Always send. Within the hour, three people write: "Do you have automatic cars?", "How much is a 90-minute lesson?" and "Is anything free this Thursday?"

All three get the same away text, although two answers are on the school's website and the third sits in its lesson planner.

Ultimo Bots is an AI agent that answers WhatsApp messages on your business number from your own website, files and Q&A pairs, passes requests to your team, and steps back in any chat where you reply yourself. On Greenway's number, the first two people get their answer in the chat: yes, both instructors teach in automatic cars, and a 90-minute lesson is $75 (example data). The Thursday question needs the lesson planner, which is a job for Mo.

The agent does not need your phone to be online, so a question sent at 3 AM gets the same answer as one sent at noon. It answers text messages, links included. A voice note, photo or sticker gets no AI reply and does not reach the Ultimo Bots inbox; with the Business app on the number, you see it on your phone.

Keep the WhatsApp Business app, put an AI agent on the number

You do not have to give up the app. When you connect WhatsApp in Ultimo Bots, the setup asks how you use WhatsApp today, and I use the WhatsApp Business app keeps your number on your phone (Meta checks the number during setup and needs app version 2.24.17 or later).

Meta calls this coexistence: new one-to-one messages are mirrored between the app and its Cloud API (Meta for Developers, read October 26, 2026). You see the agent's answers in the app, and the Ultimo Bots inbox shows each chat's text messages from the day you connect; older chats stay in the app. Group chats are not mirrored, broadcast lists are switched off, and linked devices are signed out (WhatsApp for Windows cannot be relinked). Open the app on your phone at least every two weeks: after about 14 days without it, Meta disconnects the number.

+1 555-555-0142

CustomerAutomatic cars?3:12 PMAI agentYes, both instructors teach in automatics.3:12 PM

Business app

Mirrored

WhatsApp 15555550142

CustomerAutomatic cars?AI agentYes, both instructors teach in automatics.

Ultimo Bots inbox

Your own replies keep priority. With Pause AI on manual reply on, which is the default, a message you send from the Business app or from the Ultimo Bots inbox pauses the AI for that one chat until you switch AI Auto-Response back on in the inbox. Every other chat keeps getting answered, and replies you type yourself cost no AI credits.

You connect through Meta's own sign-in window from Deploy > Channels > WhatsApp. The WhatsApp setup guide walks through the three setup options and the first test; the WhatsApp channel page shows what is included.

From away message to booked lesson: build it with Mo

Greenway's Thursday question needs live data, and this is where an agent leaves every auto reply behind: you describe in plain words what it should do, and Mo, the builder in the AI Studio, builds it as a skill. The school's lesson planner has a public API with a key, so the owner types one message to Mo:

Mo reads the planner's API documentation, asks for the API key in a secure field (stored encrypted, never sent to the AI), builds a skill with two steps, finding free slots and booking one, tests each step (the booking as a dry run) and reports what the agent can now do. Test chats you run yourself make real calls, so delete any test booking afterwards.

Two limits keep this honest. The system needs a public HTTPS API with a key or token, and each call gets 20 seconds. And a custom API has no identity check for the person in the chat, so build skills that show free slots and make new bookings, not ones that read a student's existing bookings.

No system of your own? Ready-made skills send a Calendly booking link, book through Cal.com, send a Stripe payment link or save the contact to HubSpot or add it to Mailchimp with double opt-in: connect the app and add a skill that uses it (app actions). And when the agent cannot answer reliably, its lead skill offers once to forward the request and asks for contact details only after the customer says yes. The request lands in Leads with the conversation.

The 24-hour window: when a person can still reply

WhatsApp lets a business reply freely for 24 hours after each customer message; after that, only approved message templates may reach the customer (WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy, last updated September 23, 2026, read October 26, 2026).

The agent never hits this limit: it only answers messages that just arrived, never writes first and sends no templates or broadcasts. Your own replies depend on where you type them:

Customer writes

AI agentAt once

Inbox

Business appAny time

24-hour windowTime

• From the Ultimo Bots inbox, your reply goes through Meta's Cloud API and has to fall inside the 24 hours. After that the inbox tells you: "WhatsApp's 24-hour reply window has expired. Ask the customer to message you again before replying here."
• From the WhatsApp Business app on your phone, the window does not apply: Meta states that messages sent with the app are not subject to it (Meta for Developers).

The same policy allows automation inside the window as long as people have a clear way to reach a person, such as a phone number, an email address or a support form. Nobody joins a WhatsApp chat live the way a teammate can on your website chat, so when someone asks for a person, the agent offers to forward the request or gives the contact details in its knowledge, and your reply from the phone lands in the same chat. As of October 2026; practical guidance, not legal advice.

WhatsApp shows no AI notice either, so add one behavior: in the AI Studio, open the Behaviors tab of the "Your agent" panel, click Add Behaviors, paste this text and click Add. It is stored word for word and applies on every channel:

How much does an auto reply for WhatsApp cost?

A WhatsApp Business auto reply, the app's greeting or away message, is free, like everything you send from the app. An AI agent has two prices: the agent itself, and what Meta charges to deliver its answers through the Cloud API.

Meta's figures come from its WhatsApp pricing page, updated September 30, 2026. Since October 1, 2026, replies sent through the Cloud API are charged as service messages again, with 1,000 delivered free per business number each month, then the rate for the country of the customer's number. Add a payment method in Meta: without one, replies stop once the free 1,000 are used. Meta Business Agent, Meta's own AI, costs $2 per million tokens, about 4 to 5 cents a reply, when it answers through Meta's Business Agent Platform; for businesses that switch it on themselves, Meta says getting started is free, with paid subscriptions to come (Meta Newsroom, June 3, 2026). Connecting it switches off the app's greeting messages.

With Ultimo Bots, WhatsApp is part of every plan, and each answer uses AI credits: 1 on Ultimo Core, 4 on Ultimo Pro, 8 on Ultimo Max. Smart is $29 a month, or $19 billed yearly, with 500 AI credits; Boost is $59, or $39 billed yearly, with 2,000; Ultimo is $149, or $99 billed yearly, with 10,000 (per agent, as of October 26, 2026; details on the pricing page). The same balance pays for your website chat, your other channels and Mo's building work, and teammates cost nothing extra.

To size it, count a week of customer questions and multiply by four. You get a warning at 80% of your credits by default; at zero the agent pauses until you add credits, upgrade or your monthly AI credits renew.

Start with the questions already in your chats

Before you change a setting, scroll back through last week's chats in the WhatsApp Business app and copy every customer question into one note, worded the way they wrote it. Then look for each answer on your website. Every question answered on a page is one the agent can take over on day one. Every question without one is a gap: write the answer once, as a page or a Q&A pair in the knowledge base. Questions that need live data, like Greenway's free Thursday slots, become your first sentence to Mo.

Questions and answers