An Instagram DM inbox that sorts brand deals from fan mail
The Money Inbox reads every Instagram DM that is not already part of an automation and files it into one of four lanes, so paid brand inquiries and buyers surface first and the rest stop competing for your attention. Brand inquiries arrive with the budget, deliverables and deadline already pulled out. Sorting is free on every plan.
Free plan, no card needed. Instagram tools work with a Business or Creator account.
What is a DM inbox for creators?
For a creator, an Instagram inbox is where a brand offering $1,200 for a Reel sits between hundreds of fan messages, growth-agency pitches and scams. Instagram’s own inbox sorts by recency, so the message worth money can be buried for days, and a slow reply loses the deal.
The Money Inbox sorts by what a message is worth instead. It runs on rules on every plan and costs nothing, and from Starter, AI reads the message on top of the rules to sharpen the category and fill in details. AI is only ever allowed to promote a message into a lane that needs attention or to fill in blanks; it can never bury an inquiry that stated a budget.
How the Money Inbox works
Switch on “Sort my DMs”
On the Settings tab of the Inbox. It works on every plan and only affects DMs that arrive from then on.
Try it on a real DM
Paste a message you have actually received into “Try it on a real DM” to see which lane it lands in and what would be sent back. Nothing is saved and nobody is messaged.
Work the Money lane
Open a card to read the message, check the offer that was pulled out, reply from the inbox, and mark the deal Won or Lost when it resolves. Correct anything filed wrongly and it stays corrected: that conversation is pinned and never re-sorted.
Switch on auto-replies (Pro and Max)
Choose which categories are answered automatically, once per person, the first time they write. The brand-deal reply sends your media kit, so a brand sees your audience and rates within seconds.
What it does with your DMs
Four lanes
Money holds paid brand inquiries and people trying to buy from you. Needs a reply holds real questions and gifting offers. Handled for you is fan mail and repeat questions that already got an answer. Spam and pitches is scams and people selling services to you.
The offer, already read
Brand inquiries show who is writing, the budget they stated, the deliverables they asked for and the deadline they gave. Anything they did not say shows as “Not stated”, never a guess, and a parsed budget always shows the words it came from.
Eight categories
Brand deal, wants to buy, gifting or barter, question, fan mail, pitched to you, scam and other. Scam signals deliberately outrank sponsorship language, because the most convincing scams are written to look like a brand deal.
Reply from the inbox
Instagram only allows a DM within 24 hours of the person’s last message. If that window closes before a send goes out, the conversation comes back marked “Reply did not send” instead of sitting there looking answered.
Triage in bulk
Filter by category, sort by newest, oldest, highest budget or Superfans first, and use the menu on any card to mark it read, Won, Lost or archived without opening it.
From inquiry to deal
Brand DMs the inbox has sorted can be imported into your Deal Desk pipeline, so an inquiry becomes a tracked deal. See brand deal tracking and invoicing.
What each plan includes
Read from the same table as the pricing page, so the two always agree.
| Feature | Free | Starter | Pro | Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Money Inbox sortingEvery DM sorted into one of four lanes: budget, deliverables, deadline, or general — so brand deals never get buried. | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| AI inbox readsHow many incoming DMs the AI can read and route each month. Reading is unlimited manually; this is only the AI-assisted reads. | Not included | 500 / month | 5,000 / month | 30,000 / month |
| Inbox auto-repliesLet the AI draft and send a reply itself, instead of just sorting the DM for you to answer. | Not included | Not included | Included | Included |
| Published media kitYour public one-pager for brands, built from your real Instagram stats. | With badge | With badge | Full, no badge | Full, no badge |
Limits and what it can’t do
Knowing the edges is part of choosing a tool. Several of these are Instagram’s rules, not ours.
- You can only reply within 24 hours of a person’s last message. That is Instagram’s rule, and it is why the inbox tracks your median first-reply time.
- Question and scam messages are never auto-answered. A canned reply to a real problem makes it worse, and scams are never replied to.
- Sorting reads DMs that arrive after you switch it on, and only ones that are not already part of an automation flow.
- AI reading is metered by plan (500 messages a month on Starter, 5,000 on Pro, 30,000 on Max). At the limit, sorting carries on with rules alone.
- A budget that could not be parsed is left as “Not stated” for you to fill in. The inbox does not negotiate for you.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find brand deal DMs on Instagram?
Instagram sorts DMs by recency, not by value, so brand inquiries get buried. The Money Inbox files every DM into a lane and puts paid brand inquiries and buyers in Money, with the budget, deliverables and deadline already read out of the message. You can also filter by category and sort by highest budget.
Is the Instagram DM inbox free?
Yes. Sorting into lanes runs on every plan at no cost. AI reading starts on Starter, and automatic replies (including the one that sends your media kit) start on Pro.
How does it tell a brand deal from a scam?
A brand deal is sponsorship language, a stated budget, deliverables, usage rights or a message from a company email address. Scam signals such as fake copyright strikes, verification phishing, crypto and prize bait deliberately outrank sponsorship language, because the most convincing scams are written to look like brand deals. A link alone is never treated as suspicious, since brands always send links.
What if it files a message in the wrong lane?
Change the category and it stays changed. That conversation is pinned and will not be re-sorted when the person writes again. Edit the budget field by hand if it was parsed wrongly; a hand-entered figure replaces the parsed one.
Can it reply to brands automatically?
On Pro and Max, yes. Auto-replies go out once per person, the first time they write, and only for the categories you switch on. The brand-deal reply sends your media kit link; if your media kit is not published, that line is dropped rather than sending a dead link. Questions and scams are never auto-answered.
Does it read all my DMs?
It reads the DMs that arrive after you switch sorting on and are not part of an automation flow, to file them. Message text and identities are removed on a fixed schedule, and you can erase a contact or all Instagram data at any time. See the privacy policy.
Guides
- How to Stop Losing Brand Deals in Your Instagram DMs
A five-figure sponsorship offer and a stranger asking if you're single can land in the exact same inbox, one scroll apart. Here's why brand deals go unanswered — and what actually fixes it.
- How to Reply to a Brand Collab DM: 10 Templates for Every Offer
Paid, gifted, commission-only or a lowball? Copy-paste replies for ten kinds of brand DMs, plus how to spot the offers that are actually worth your time.
- Fake Brand Deal or Real? 9 Instagram DM Scams Targeting Creators
Fake copyright strikes, blue-badge offers and brand deals that ask you to pay first. Nine Instagram DM scams aimed at creators, and how to spot each in seconds.
- Brand Deal Tracker: How to Stop Losing Sponsorships to a Messy Spreadsheet
A DM here, a spreadsheet row there, a payment you half-remember chasing. Here's what an actual brand deal pipeline looks like — and why most creators outgrow a shared spreadsheet faster than they think.
- What Your Instagram DMs Are Already Telling You to Make Next
If fifteen people ask you the same thing in a week, that's not fifteen coincidences — it's market research you already have, sitting unread in your inbox.
- How to Actually Get Paid on Time by Brands (Net-30 Isn't a Suggestion)
"Net-30" sounds like a promise. In practice it's a starting point for a conversation you have to keep having. Here's how to chase a late payment without sounding like you're chasing a late payment.
Documentation
- The Money Inbox
Brand deals and buyers on top. Fans answered. Scams and pitches gone.
- How DMs get sorted
What each category means, and what to do when one is wrong.
- Signals: what your audience keeps asking for
Requests, repeated questions and praise, counted from what people actually wrote.
- The deal pipeline
Stages, a board and list view, and a daily list of what actually needs you.
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Try it on your own account
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Start for freeLast reviewed against the product on . Plan limits are read from the pricing table and change only when the product does.