Do I approve every post?

Only if you choose to, and by default you do. Autopilot starts in “Wait for my approval”: every post waits in Needs review until you say yes, and a post you haven't approved never goes out. Switch the schedule to “Publish automatically” and posts go out at their scheduled time without asking, though you can still open any of them and edit, reschedule or archive it before then. Approval is the default for a reason: the image is drawn by an image model, which can add details your website never gave it, such as a price.

When are posts created?

24 hours before each scheduled time by default; you can set anywhere from 1 to 72 hours. The post is made, and its credits spent, at that moment, not when it publishes. A day ahead gives you a full day to look at each post, without writing on Monday about a Friday that will have changed by then.

Can I pause auto-posting?

Yes, with one button. Pausing stops new posts being planned and made. Posts that are already scheduled still publish unless you unschedule them. Press “Start it again”, or save a change to the schedule, and it carries on from the next posting time, skipping the ones you paused through rather than catching up all at once. The schedule also pauses by itself if your credits run out or your Instagram connection lapses, and emails you when it does.

What happens if publishing fails or credits run out?

A post Instagram rejects is marked Failed, emailed to you, and can be retried with one click. A few temporary problems, such as Meta failing to fetch the image or hitting Instagram's daily publishing limit, are retried automatically first. If your Instagram connection expires, the schedule pauses and picks up again once you reconnect. If credits run out, the schedule pauses, emails you once, and restarts by itself when your balance covers the most expensive format in your mix. A post that fails to generate refunds its credits, and that day simply has no post.

Is auto-posting allowed on Instagram?

best-in-slot publishes through the Instagram API, the route Meta provides for apps that post to professional accounts, using permission you grant with a Facebook login. It never asks for your Instagram password, and it stays within the API's limit of 100 posts per 24 hours. By default it also tells Instagram that each image is AI-generated.

Does it work with a personal Instagram account?

No. It needs an Instagram professional account, Business or Creator (switching is free, in the Instagram app), linked to a Facebook Page you manage.

Which plan do I need?

Autopilot is on Growth and Agency; Growth is $79 a month for 2,100 credits. Starter, Growth and Agency can schedule posts you've made yourself, one at a time. Every plan, including Free, can make a post and publish it with a button, and the 50 free credits (no card) are the way to see the posts before paying for the schedule.

Can it auto-post carousels, stories or Reels?

Single images, carousels of 3 to 10 slides, and stories, in whatever mix you set. By default each feed post is also followed by a free story that points to it. Reels aren't supported.

Can I still post things myself?

Yes. Make a post whenever you like and publish it straight away, on any plan. From Starter up you can schedule it too: from five minutes to 90 days ahead, up to 30 scheduled posts per brand, on a calendar you can drag to reschedule. Autopilot keeps its own schedule, so a post you add yourself is extra, not a replacement for that day's.

Can I run it for more than one brand?

Growth covers 5 brands and Agency 10, each with its own Instagram account, themes and schedule.

Instagram auto-posting: Automatically create and publish Instagram posts

Scheduling a post takes a minute. Having a post to schedule, every week, is the part that falls off. Autopilot handles that part: pick your content themes, days and times once, and before each posting time best-in-slot makes the post (the image, and for feed posts the caption and hashtags) from what it learned reading your website. Then it publishes on time, or holds it for your yes.

Set up automatic posting See what happens before each post

Autopilot is on Growth and Agency, from $79 a month. Before you pay, 50 free credits (no card) make about 5 posts you publish yourself, so you can judge what it would post for you. Needs an Instagram Business or Creator account linked to a Facebook Page.

You, onceYour websitePaste your site, check what it learned, connect Instagram through Facebook.
You, onceThemes and scheduleWhich content themes, which days and times, which formats.
best-in-slotMaking the postA day before each posting time: the image, caption and hashtags.
You, if you want itApprovalEach post waits for your yes, or skips this step.
best-in-slotPublishingAt the posting time, to your Instagram profile.

What you set once

Set up Autopilot once. Every setting has a default.

Autopilot starts from what best-in-slot learned reading your website, including four to six content themes: recurring topics your feed can keep coming back to, not a visual template. The ones in the schedule panel were written for Brassmoth Coffee Roasters, the invented coffee roaster on our Instagram post generator page. You don't write a content calendar. You choose which themes are in the rotation and which days it posts; it decides which theme goes where.

ThemesAll of them
Which of your content themes are in the rotation. It decides which one goes where, never the same one twice running.
DaysMonday to Friday
Any days of the week.
TimesThe suggested time
Up to 3 a day, in your brand's timezone. It suggests one, from published engagement studies.
Formats50% / 35% / 15%
The share of single images, carousels and stories.
Story teaserOn
A free story pointing to each feed post, published right after it.
ApprovalWait for approval
“Wait for my approval” or “Publish automatically”, for the whole schedule.
ProductsAll, in rotation
Which products from your library take turns being featured.
How far ahead24 hours
Each post is made 1 to 72 hours before its posting time.
Review limit3
Approval mode only: how many posts can wait for you before it stops making more (1–10). It protects your credits while you're away.

You choose	Your options	If you leave it
Themes	Which of your content themes are in the rotation. It decides which one goes where, never the same one twice running.	All of them
Days	Any days of the week.	Monday to Friday
Times	Up to 3 a day, in your brand's timezone. It suggests one, from published engagement studies.	The suggested time
Formats	The share of single images, carousels and stories.	50% / 35% / 15%
Story teaser	A free story pointing to each feed post, published right after it.	On
Approval	“Wait for my approval” or “Publish automatically”, for the whole schedule.	Wait for approval
Products	Which products from your library take turns being featured.	All, in rotation
How far ahead	Each post is made 1 to 72 hours before its posting time.	24 hours
Review limit	Approval mode only: how many posts can wait for you before it stops making more (1–10). It protects your credits while you're away.	3

Or start from a preset

Setup opens with three, each at the suggested time. Pick one and change anything later.

Light
Tuesday and Thursday
2 posts a week
Steady
Monday to Friday
5 posts a week
Busy
every day
7 posts a week

Hashtags, your caption sign-off, the call to action, emoji level, image shape, and whether Instagram is told each image is AI-generated (on by default) are set once for the brand. They apply to every post, whether Autopilot made it or you did.

What happens before each post

When each post is created, reviewed and published

Take a Friday 11:00 posting time with the default settings. Here is everything that happens to it, and when.

Thursday 11:00 · 24 hours before
The post is made
best-in-slot decides what this post should be:
- the format, drawn from your mix, never two carousels in a row;
- the content theme, never the one it used last time;
- the product, next in the rotation.
It's shown the first lines of the last 30 posts it made for you and told not to reuse them, along with the reasons you gave for any you rejected. Then it writes the idea, draws the image, and writes the caption and hashtags to match the image it drew.
Credits are spent now, not at publishing: 10 credits for a single image or carousel, 7 credits for a story.
If a post fails to generate, its credits come back automatically and that day has no post.
Thursday 11:00 to Friday 10:59
Your window
What happens next depends on the approval setting.
Wait for my approval
The post lands in Needs review and you get an email (posts that finish close together share one). Edit it, approve it or reject it. Rejecting doesn't refund the credits; your reason goes into planning the next ones.
Publish automatically
The post lands in your queue, scheduled. No email. Until the posting time you can still edit it, reschedule it, pull it back to a draft, archive it or publish it now.
A carousel from our Instagram post generator demo, as it would wait for you.
What to look at, in either mode: anything that states a figure. The image is drawn by an image model, which can add details your website never gave it. On the post generator page it printed made-up prices on a coffee bag, twice. Swapping in your own photo is free.
Friday 11:00
It publishes
The post goes to your Instagram profile, followed by its story teaser if you left that on.
If you haven't approved it by then, it doesn't go out. The posting time passes, the post keeps waiting, and when you do approve it, it takes the next free day on your schedule or a time you pick. You get at most one “slot skipped” email per brand per day.

Dates worth breaking the rhythm for

best-in-slot also knows 94 holidays and observances and switches on the ones that fit your business, but never a religious or political date by itself. It plans them up to 3 weeks out, and a date post takes that day's place rather than adding a second post. The list is in your settings, where you can switch any of them off or add your own, like an anniversary or a yearly sale.

Where you step in

Approve, edit or pause

Most of the control sits in the gap between a post being made and a post going out.

Before anything is made
- Change content themes, days, times or the format mix, any time.
- Add a product to the rotation, or take one out.
Once a post exists, before it goes out
- Edit the caption, hashtags or the words on carousel slides after the coverFree
- Swap the image for one of your own photosFree
- Ask for a new image, with an instruction if you like3 credits
- Rewrite the caption: “make it shorter”2 credits
- Approve it, reject it, archive it, or publish it now
After it's published
- It's on your profile. To take it down, delete it in Instagram.

Pause: one button, for the whole schedule

Pause stops: planning and making new posts.
Pause doesn't stop: posts already scheduled. With default settings that's at most the next day's post, plus anything you've approved; unschedule them too if you want nothing to appear.
When it starts again: “Start it again”, or saving a change to the schedule, carries on from the next posting time. Times you paused through are skipped, not posted in a burst.
It also pauses by itself: if your credits run out or your Instagram connection lapses, and emails you when it does.

While you're away: in approval mode, the review limit is your safety catch. With the default of 3, once 3 posts are waiting for you it stops making more, so a fortnight away on the Steady preset costs 3 posts' worth of credits, not 10.

What's left for you

How much work is actually left

Autopilot takes the making and the publishing off your plate. It doesn't take you out of it entirely, and the difference between the two modes is mostly how often you look.

When	Wait for my approval	Publish automatically
Once, at the start	Both modesPaste your website and check what it learned (a couple of minutes). Connect Instagram through Facebook. Pick a cadence.
Each post	Read it, then approve, edit or reject it. It's waiting in the app, with an email, a day before it's due.	Nothing required to publish, but nobody checks it before it goes out. It's in the queue a day ahead; skim anything in the image that states a figure.
Each month	Both modesPlan credits reset each billing cycle and don't roll over. Top up if you run through them.
About every 60 days	Both modesReconnect Instagram through Facebook. Meta's access lasts about 60 days; if it lapses, the schedule pauses, emails you, and restarts once you reconnect.
When something fails	Both modesMost failures email you; press Retry or reschedule the post. The ones that don't are marked in the list below.
If you go quiet	It stops at your review limit and waits for you.	It keeps posting.

Once, at the start
Paste your website and check what it learned (a couple of minutes). Connect Instagram through Facebook. Pick a cadence.
Each post
Wait for my approval
Read it, then approve, edit or reject it. It's waiting in the app, with an email, a day before it's due.
Publish automatically
Nothing required to publish, but nobody checks it before it goes out. It's in the queue a day ahead; skim anything in the image that states a figure.
Each month
Plan credits reset each billing cycle and don't roll over. Top up if you run through them.
About every 60 days
Reconnect Instagram through Facebook. Meta's access lasts about 60 days; if it lapses, the schedule pauses, emails you, and restarts once you reconnect.
When something fails
Most failures email you; press Retry or reschedule the post. The ones that don't are marked in the list below.
If you go quiet
Wait for my approval
It stops at your review limit and waits for you.
Publish automatically
It keeps posting.

What a month costs in credits

At the default mix a post averages about 9.6 credits, before any new images, rewrites or rejected posts. Growth includes 2,100 credits a month, which also cover up to 5 brands with a schedule each, plus new images, rewrites and ads.

Light · 2 a weekabout 80
Steady · 5 a weekabout 210
Busy · 7 a weekabout 290

Bars are drawn against Growth's 2,100 monthly credits.

When something goes wrong

When a post fails or credits run out

Each way a scheduled post can go wrong, what best-in-slot does about it, and what's left for you.

Instagram rejects a post: Emails you; It's marked Failed with Instagram's message. A few temporary problems, like Meta failing to fetch the image, are retried automatically first.; You: Press Retry.
You hit Instagram's publishing limit: Instagram allows 100 posts through its API in 24 hours. The post waits and retries every hour for up to a day.; You: Nothing, while it retries.
Your Instagram connection expires or is removed: Pauses the scheduleEmails you; The schedule pauses at once.; You: Reconnect; it restarts by itself.
Three publishes fail in a row, or Instagram restricts the account: Pauses the scheduleEmails you; The schedule pauses.; You: Fix the cause, then press Start it again.
Your credits run out: Pauses the scheduleEmails you; The schedule pauses and sends one email.; You: Top up; it restarts by itself once your balance covers the most expensive format in your mix.
Our servers were down at posting time: Emails you; A post more than 2 hours late is marked missed. It isn't posted at 3 a.m. the next morning.; You: Retry or reschedule it, or let it go.
A post can't be made: No email; Its credits are refunded and that day has no post.; You: Nothing; you'll see the gap in your queue.
We can't tell whether a publish went through: No email; The post is marked Needs attention and is never re-sent automatically. A duplicate on your profile is worse than a gap.; You: Check your profile to see whether it went out.

What it posts

What it can auto-post

Single images
4:5 portrait or square, with a caption and hashtags.
10 credits each
Carousels
3 to 10 slides. The cover is a generated image; the slides after it are set as real text in your brand's colours, so the words are exact and editable.
10 credits each
Stories
9:16, with the words drawn into the frame. Instagram gives stories no caption, so there isn't one.
7 credits each

By default each feed post is followed by a free story that points to it. Reels aren't supported.

See the kinds of posts it creates

What you need

An Instagram professional account, Business or Creator. Switching is free, in the Instagram app.
That account linked to a Facebook Page you manage. You connect through Facebook for each brand, and again about every 60 days when Meta's access runs out.
Growth or above for Autopilot. Starter lets you schedule posts you've made yourself, one at a time. Every plan, including Free, can make a post and publish it with a button.

Questions

Do I approve every post?: Only if you choose to, and by default you do. Autopilot starts in “Wait for my approval”: every post waits in Needs review until you say yes, and a post you haven't approved never goes out. Switch the schedule to “Publish automatically” and posts go out at their scheduled time without asking, though you can still open any of them and edit, reschedule or archive it before then. Approval is the default for a reason: the image is drawn by an image model, which can add details your website never gave it, such as a price.
When are posts created?: 24 hours before each scheduled time by default; you can set anywhere from 1 to 72 hours. The post is made, and its credits spent, at that moment, not when it publishes. A day ahead gives you a full day to look at each post, without writing on Monday about a Friday that will have changed by then.
Can I pause auto-posting?: Yes, with one button. Pausing stops new posts being planned and made. Posts that are already scheduled still publish unless you unschedule them. Press “Start it again”, or save a change to the schedule, and it carries on from the next posting time, skipping the ones you paused through rather than catching up all at once. The schedule also pauses by itself if your credits run out or your Instagram connection lapses, and emails you when it does.
What happens if publishing fails or credits run out?: A post Instagram rejects is marked Failed, emailed to you, and can be retried with one click. A few temporary problems, such as Meta failing to fetch the image or hitting Instagram's daily publishing limit, are retried automatically first. If your Instagram connection expires, the schedule pauses and picks up again once you reconnect. If credits run out, the schedule pauses, emails you once, and restarts by itself when your balance covers the most expensive format in your mix. A post that fails to generate refunds its credits, and that day simply has no post.
Is auto-posting allowed on Instagram?: best-in-slot publishes through the Instagram API, the route Meta provides for apps that post to professional accounts, using permission you grant with a Facebook login. It never asks for your Instagram password, and it stays within the API's limit of 100 posts per 24 hours. By default it also tells Instagram that each image is AI-generated.
Does it work with a personal Instagram account?: No. It needs an Instagram professional account, Business or Creator (switching is free, in the Instagram app), linked to a Facebook Page you manage.
Which plan do I need?: Autopilot is on Growth and Agency; Growth is $79 a month for 2,100 credits. Starter, Growth and Agency can schedule posts you've made yourself, one at a time. Every plan, including Free, can make a post and publish it with a button, and the 50 free credits (no card) are the way to see the posts before paying for the schedule.
Can it auto-post carousels, stories or Reels?: Single images, carousels of 3 to 10 slides, and stories, in whatever mix you set. By default each feed post is also followed by a free story that points to it. Reels aren't supported.
Can I still post things myself?: Yes. Make a post whenever you like and publish it straight away, on any plan. From Starter up you can schedule it too: from five minutes to 90 days ahead, up to 30 scheduled posts per brand, on a calendar you can drag to reschedule. Autopilot keeps its own schedule, so a post you add yourself is extra, not a replacement for that day's.
Can I run it for more than one brand?: Growth covers 5 brands and Agency 10, each with its own Instagram account, themes and schedule.

Hand over the posting. Keep the final say.

Pick your content themes, days and times, and choose whether posts wait for you. best-in-slot handles the rest, a day ahead.

Set up automatic posting

Autopilot is on Growth and Agency, from $79 a month. Before you pay, 50 free credits (no card) make about 5 posts you publish yourself, so you can judge what it would post for you.

Instagram auto-posting: Automatically create and publish Instagram posts

Set up Autopilot once. Every setting has a default.

When each post is created, reviewed and published

The post is made

Your window

It publishes