Billed for growing
GRO.co prices on your follower count. inDM prices on messages sent. That single difference decides which one is cheaper for you — and it changes as you grow.
Table of contents
GRO.co (formerly Grocers List) meters something no other tool in this comparison does: your audience size. Sending is unlimited within a band; what moves the bill is how many followers you have.
For a small account that is a genuinely good deal. Under 15,000 followers their plan is free, with unlimited posts — and that band covers most creators at the point where they are first automating anything.
The shape has a consequence worth naming plainly. A tool priced on follower count bills you more for succeeding, even in a month where you sent less. Cross 500K and Plus goes from $30 to $60; cross 2M and it is $100. The growth you are using the tool to produce is the thing that raises the price.
inDM meters messages sent. 1,000 free a month, then $9.99 for 10,000 or $19.99 for 30,000. Your follower count is not an input to our billing at any point — a viral month that adds 40,000 followers changes nothing about what you pay unless you actually sent more DMs.
The other thing to weigh: their free tier, like most in this category, carries GRO branding on your messages. Removing it means Plus at $30.
Why creators switch
Growing doesn't raise the bill
GRO.co's price steps up as your audience does — $30 becomes $60 at 500K followers and $100 at 2M on Plus. inDM never reads your follower count. The only thing that moves our bill is how many messages you actually sent.
No branding on your messages
GRO's free tier carries GRO branding; "Branding removed" is what Plus at $30 buys. inDM adds no badge at all — and if you switch ours on for one automation, that automation's messages stop counting toward your allowance.
One number to forecast
Their pricing is a grid: two plan tiers across four audience bands, plus Facebook add-ons above 500K combined followers. Ours is one plan at two volumes with the same features on both.
Feature by feature
| Feature | inDM | GRO.co |
|---|---|---|
| Comment-to-DMSomeone comments a keyword on a post or reel; they get your link in a DM, instantly. | Yes | Yes |
| Story repliesA reply to your story triggers an automatic DM back. | Yes | Yes Story automations on Plus and above |
| Keyword DMsA DM containing a keyword gets an instant, useful answer. | Yes | Yes Custom keywords on the free tier |
| Follow gateAsk for a follow before the link is delivered — every link grows your following. | Yes | Partial Verify current gate behaviour on their site |
| Email captureCollect an email address inside the DM thread, attached to the contact. | Yes | Yes Save-to-email on Plus and above |
| Live DM previewSee the exact DM — bubbles, buttons, link card — before anything goes live. | Yes Always on screen while you build | Partial Verify current builder on their site |
| Built on your real contentAutomations attach to actual posts, reels, and stories — not an abstract flowchart. | Yes The spine of the product | Yes |
| Unified inboxEvery conversation your automations create, in one view. | Yes | Partial Verify current inbox scope on their site |
| ContactsEvery engaged person becomes a tracked contact — leads, hot leads, customers, superfans — exportable anytime. | Yes Light by design, not a sales CRM | Yes Follower count drives the bill, not contacts |
| AnalyticsTrigger rate, DM click-through, keyword performance, best hours to post. | Yes | Yes |
| Predictable pricingYou can say what next month costs before the month happens. | Yes One plan, two sizes; no overage below 30,000 DMs | Partial Predictable within a band, but the bill steps up as the audience grows |
| Free foreverA free plan that renews every month, not a trial that runs out. | Yes 1,000 DMs a month, no card — or unmetered with the badge on | Yes Free below 15K followers, with GRO branding on messages |
Feature support as of August 2026. Something changed? Tell us and we'll fix it.
The pricing math
Free forever: $0, no card, 1,000 messages a month, with every automation type, unlimited automations and keywords, the follow gate, full analytics and the unified inbox. Then Growth at $9.99 a month for 10,000 DMs, or $19.99 for 30,000 with $1 per extra 1,000 above. Follower count is never an input — the bill responds only to messages sent. No account cap. The Powered by inDM badge is opt-in per automation and makes that automation's messages free. inDM bills in USD — $9.99 a month wherever you are.
Priced on follower count, checked 2026-08-14. Free $0 forever for accounts below 15K followers, Instagram only, unlimited posts, no card, GRO branding on messages. Plus $30/mo, rising with audience: $60 up to 500K, $100 up to 2M, $200 up to 3M — adds branding removal, carousel DMs, story automations and save-to-email. Pro $80/mo, rising $110 / $150 / $250 on the same bands — adds scheduled automations, broadcast DMs, lead-magnet DMs, Klaviyo, and Facebook and Amazon deep links. Annual billing saves $60 on Plus and $160 on Pro. Facebook is a $20-30/mo add-on above 500K combined followers, and Paid Memberships carry 15% per transaction on the storefront side. USD only.
The two meters are not comparable by division, because they measure different things — so compare by scenario instead. A creator with 8,000 followers sending 6,000 DMs a month: GRO is $0 (under 15K, with GRO branding on the messages) and inDM is $0 too, except our free plan is 1,000 messages so that creator would be on Growth at $9.99 with no branding. A creator with 120,000 followers sending 4,000 DMs a month: GRO Plus is $30, inDM is $9.99 — because we never see the 120,000. A creator with 12,000 followers sending 40,000 DMs a month: GRO is $0 and inDM is $19.99 plus overage, so they win clearly. The rule of thumb is that GRO gets cheaper the more you send relative to your audience, and inDM gets cheaper the larger your audience is relative to what you send. Figures as of 2026-08-14 for GRO.co and 2026-08-12 for inDM.
Their pricing, from the source: GRO.co's pricing page (checked August 2026).
Where GRO.co is genuinely strong
Three places GRO.co is the better answer:
- A free tier that covers most creators. Free for any account under 15,000 followers, with unlimited posts, is the most generous entry point in this comparison for a small account that sends a lot. If you are under 15K and sending heavily, they will be cheaper than us and it is not close.
- Broadcast DMs. They ship them; we deliberately do not build them. If broadcasting to your existing DM contacts is part of your plan, inDM does not replace that and is not going to.
- A wider commerce surface. Klaviyo, Amazon and Facebook deep links, lead-magnet DMs and paid memberships make them a fuller stack for an affiliate or storefront creator than an Instagram DM tool alone.
What is GRO.co?
GRO.co — formerly Grocers List — is an Instagram DM automation tool aimed at creators who monetise through links, affiliate revenue and email lists. It runs comment triggers with custom keywords, story automations, carousel DMs, lead-magnet DMs and save-to-email, and it integrates with Klaviyo along with Amazon and Facebook deep links on its higher tier.
What makes it structurally different from everything else here is the meter. GRO does not price on messages, contacts or credits. It prices on how many followers you have.
How follower-count pricing actually behaves
Their published structure, checked 2026-08-14:
- Free — $0 forever, for accounts below 15,000 followers. Instagram only, unlimited posts, no card. GRO branding on your messages.
- Plus — $30/mo under 15K, then $60 to 500K, $100 to 2M, $200 to 3M. Adds branding removal, carousel DMs, story automations, save-to-email.
- Pro — $80/mo, then $110 / $150 / $250 on the same bands. Adds scheduled automations, broadcast DMs, lead-magnet DMs, Klaviyo, and Facebook and Amazon deep links.
Annual billing saves $60 on Plus and $160 on Pro. Facebook is a $20–30/mo add-on above 500K combined followers.
Two things follow from this shape, and they pull in opposite directions.
In your favour: sending is effectively unlimited within a band. If you have a modest audience that engages heavily, you can run enormous DM volume without the bill moving at all. Under 15K followers that volume costs nothing.
Against you: the bill goes up when you grow. Not when you send more — when your audience gets larger. Crossing 500,000 followers doubles Plus from $30 to $60 in a month where your sending might have been flat or lower. The metric being billed is the outcome the tool exists to produce.
Neither of those is a criticism of the product. It is just a shape, and it suits some accounts and not others.
How inDM's meter differs
inDM prices on messages sent, and nothing else. Not followers, not contacts, not credits, not connected accounts.
Free forever is 1,000 messages a month with the full product — every automation type, unlimited automations and keywords, the follow gate, analytics, unified inbox and contacts, no card. Growth is $9.99 for 10,000 or $19.99 for 30,000, with $1 per extra 1,000 above that and no overage on the entry plan.
Your follower count never enters the calculation. An account at 2,000 followers and an account at 2,000,000 pay the same for the same volume of DMs. A viral week that adds 40,000 followers does not change the bill unless it also produced more sends.
One adjustment for fair comparison: a link delivery here spends two messages, the invite and then the link. Follow-gate prompts are never counted at all.
Working out which is cheaper for you
Because the meters measure different things, division does not settle it. Three real scenarios do:
- 8,000 followers, 6,000 DMs a month. GRO: $0, with GRO branding on the messages. inDM: $9.99, no branding. They win on price; we win on what the message looks like.
- 120,000 followers, 4,000 DMs a month. GRO Plus: $30. inDM: $9.99, because we never see the 120,000. We win clearly.
- 12,000 followers, 40,000 DMs a month. GRO: $0. inDM: $19.99 plus overage. They win clearly.
The pattern: GRO gets cheaper the more you send relative to your audience. inDM gets cheaper the bigger your audience is relative to what you send. Find yourself on that axis and the answer is usually obvious.
Branding, and the thing we don't build
GRO's free tier carries their branding on your messages — "Branding removed" is one of the things $30 Plus buys. That is the norm across this category rather than anything unusual.
inDM inverts it. No badge on any message unless you switch it on, and switching it on for an automation means that automation's messages stop counting toward your allowance entirely. Opt-in, per automation, off by default, never on a follow-gate prompt or a public comment reply.
One capability worth being straight about: GRO ships Broadcast DMs and we do not. That is a deliberate choice on our side rather than a gap we are working on. If broadcasting to your existing contacts is central to how you sell, GRO does something inDM will not.
Both tools run on Instagram's official API, so both sit under the same DM limits Meta enforces per account, and the underlying comment-to-DM mechanic is the same on either.
Already using it?
Switch from GRO.co — what carries over, what doesn't, and what the move actually costs.
Questions, answered plainly
Is GRO.co free?
Yes, for accounts below 15,000 followers — unlimited posts, Instagram only, no card. GRO branding appears on your messages on that tier; removing it means Plus at $30/mo. Above 15K followers the paid bands begin. Checked 2026-08-14.
Why does GRO.co charge more as I grow?
Because follower count is their billing meter rather than message volume. Plus is $30 under 15K, $60 to 500K, $100 to 2M and $200 to 3M. The bill responds to audience size, so it can rise in a month where you sent fewer DMs. inDM meters messages sent and never reads your follower count.
Which is cheaper, GRO.co or inDM?
It depends on the ratio between your audience and your sending. At 120,000 followers sending 4,000 DMs a month, inDM is $9.99 against GRO Plus at $30. At 12,000 followers sending 40,000 DMs, GRO is $0 and inDM is $19.99 plus overage. GRO gets cheaper the more you send relative to your audience; inDM gets cheaper the larger your audience is relative to your sending.
Does inDM do broadcast DMs like GRO.co?
No, and not by oversight — we deliberately do not build broadcast DMs. GRO includes them on their Pro tier. If broadcasting to your existing DM contacts is part of how you sell, inDM does not replace that.
Can I switch from ManyChat or another tool?
Yes. Disconnect isn't even required first — connect your Instagram to inDM, rebuild your key automations (most creators have three or four that matter), preview, and set them live. Conversation history doesn't transfer between tools — no tool can import another's — so export your contacts from the old tool for your records. The switch guides walk through the order of operations.
Is Instagram DM automation allowed?
Yes — when it runs through Meta's official Instagram API on a professional account, and only messages people whose own action invited it, like commenting a keyword or replying to a story. That's exactly how inDM works. What breaks the rules is different: unofficial apps that ask for your password, scraping, purchased engagement, and cold outreach to people who never engaged.