How Do Auto-Responders Work in Gorgias in 2026? Auto-Reply, Out-of-Office and Auto-Close Rules

In Gorgias, an auto-responder is a Rule you build under Settings → Ticket management → Rules → Create rule, triggered on Ticket created with a Reply to customer action. The old standalone Autoresponder Rules feature stopped working on January 30, 2026, so Rules are now the only native way to send a fixed automated reply.

What happened to the Gorgias Autoresponder feature?

"Auto-responder" in Gorgias isn't one button. It's a pattern you build. Gorgias used to ship a dedicated Autoresponder Rules library, and its own Autoresponder Rules (deprecated) documentation says the feature was not available to accounts created after September 2024, and that older accounts could use it only until January 30, 2026, after which it stopped working. Those templates needed an active AI Agent subscription anyway. The official guidance: Shopify brands should move automated responses to AI Agent, and everyone else builds auto-replies with Rules.

So when we say "auto-responder" today, we mean a Rule: Gorgias' if-this-then-that automation engine, configured to reply, or to close, without a human touching the ticket. If you want the full mechanics of the engine itself, Gorgias Rules explained covers the trigger → condition → action model end to end; this post is the applied version for automated replies. And if you're still getting oriented on the platform, what is Gorgias is the primer.

Which auto-responder patterns can you build with Rules?

There are really three jobs people mean when they say "automation," and each maps to a Rule shape:

• First-response auto-reply: the instant "thanks, we've received your message" acknowledgement on every new ticket, so no shopper waits in silence.
• Out-of-office (after-hours) reply: a holding message that only fires when a ticket arrives outside your business hours, setting expectations for when a human will follow up.
• Auto-close: silently closing tickets that never needed a reply at all: out-of-office bounce-backs, newsletters, order-confirmation notifications, and obvious spam.

The first two send something; the third removes noise. All three are Rules, and Gorgias ships template versions of each. The difference matters for your bill, which we'll get to in the auto-close section.

How do you build a first-response auto-reply?

Per Gorgias' Rules documentation, you create rules under Settings (bottom-left) → Ticket management → Rules → Create rule. A basic acknowledgement auto-reply looks like this:

1. Click Create rule and pick the Autoresponder template, or start from scratch.
2. Set the trigger to WHEN → Ticket created.
3. Optionally narrow with an IF condition: for example, channel is Email, so you don't auto-reply to live chat.
4. Add the action THEN → Reply to customer, and write your message (WISMO-savvy stores often include a line like "if this is about an existing order, reply with your order number").
5. Save and activate the rule.

From that point, the rule replies to the first message on every matching new ticket. The Auto-Reply common Rule templates doc lists ready-made variants, including Shopify Order Status templates that reply with a tracking link and auto-close for recent orders that have shipped. That's the closest native thing to a WISMO deflection.

One cost to know before you switch it on. Gorgias' billing documentation counts a ticket as billable when at least one message is sent from your helpdesk, whether it comes from a human agent, AI Agent, or an automatic reply from a Rule. A blanket acknowledgement therefore turns every inbound ticket, spam included, into a billable one. On a plan with 300 included tickets, that adds up quickly, so scope the auto-reply with conditions and let auto-close catch the noise first.

How do you set up an out-of-office (after-hours) reply?

The out-of-office pattern is the same Rule with one extra condition: it should only fire when you're actually closed. Gorgias exposes an "Emails received outside business hours" condition, but it requires you to have set your business hours first.

1. Create a new Rule from the Outside Business Hours template.
2. Trigger: WHEN → Ticket created.
3. Condition: IF → emails received outside business hours.
4. Action: THEN → Reply to customer with your after-hours message ("Thanks for reaching out. Our team is offline until Monday 9am ET and will reply then").
5. Save and activate.

A common refinement is to run two rules: a during-hours acknowledgement and a separate after-hours message, so the tone matches the moment. Just make sure their conditions are mutually exclusive so a ticket can't trip both.

How do you build an auto-close rule, and does it save money?

Auto-close is the unglamorous workhorse. Its whole point is to keep tickets that never needed attention from cluttering the queue and, helpfully, from counting toward billing. Because Gorgias bills a ticket only once a message goes out from your helpdesk, a ticket that's closed without any agent, AI Agent or Rule reply isn't billable. That makes auto-close a genuinely economical way to handle out-of-office bounce-backs and non-support noise, and it's why the auto-close Rule should run before any auto-reply Rule touches the same ticket.

The Auto-Close common Rule templates doc (updated January 22, 2026) lists six templates: Automatic OOO replies, Non-support tickets (notifications from Shopify when an order is placed or from PayPal when a payment is made), Social Media IG Story Mention, Social comments, Instagram Giveaway and No-reply/Thanks. You extend Non-support tickets by adding sender emails or subject-line patterns to its list.

The rule above is an installed [Auto Close] template, "Auto-close spam emails," that closes irrelevant email like newsletters and promotions. Note the two lists it exposes: an exclusion list (senders it should never auto-close, so a real customer using Gmail's promotions tab isn't silenced) and an always-apply list. Those lists are the difference between a tidy inbox and one that quietly buries real tickets.

How do you stop auto-reply loops in Gorgias?

The classic auto-responder failure is the email loop: your auto-reply hits an automated inbox, that inbox auto-replies back, your rule fires again, and two robots ping-pong forever. Gorgias' documentation bakes in several guardrails, and a couple more are on you:

• Auto-close OOO before you auto-reply to it. The Automatic OOO replies auto-close template exists precisely so out-of-office bounce-backs get closed rather than answered. They're the single biggest loop source.
• Exclude no-reply and automated senders. Use the exclusion list on your auto-close rule (and condition checks on your auto-reply rule) so no-reply@, notifications@, and platform emails never trigger a reply.
• Auto-reply Rules can't apply to ChannelReply tickets or tickets with only an internal note, per Gorgias' auto-reply best practices, which quietly removes a class of accidental triggers.
• Don't point outside-hours auto-replies at Facebook or Instagram comments. Gorgias says it doesn't recommend it because those replies can be flagged as spam. Keep social comments out of your OOO rule's scope.
• Fire on first contact, not every message. Trigger on Ticket created rather than New message in ticket for acknowledgements, so a long back-and-forth doesn't re-send the greeting on every customer reply.

Where do Gorgias auto-responders stop, and what picks up?

Gorgias' auto-responders are good at what they are: fast, deterministic, cheap. A Rule will always fire on the same condition and send the same text, which is exactly what you want for an acknowledgement or a spam sweep. But notice the ceiling. An auto-reply is static. It sends the words you wrote, regardless of what the shopper actually asked. It can say "we got your message about your order"; it can't read the message, look up order #4471, see it shipped yesterday, and reply with the tracking link and a real answer. The template that comes closest (Shopify Order Status) is Shopify-gated and rule-rigid: it works only for the exact order states you pre-wired.

For anything genuinely dynamic, Gorgias points you at AI Agent, which it builds per connected Shopify store. It's a paid add-on billed per automated interaction: $190 a month for 190 interactions on the Pro plan, then $1.50 for each one past that, per gorgias.com/pricing. When AI Agent resolves a ticket without a human, Gorgias charges the automation fee and the helpdesk ticket fee on the same ticket. The incentive is plain: the more tickets the agent closes, the more Gorgias earns twice. That's a fine model for some teams; it's worth understanding before you commit, which is why Gorgias AI Agent explained exists.

This is the seam where an AI agent layer fits, and it's the broader category of AI agents for customer service that does the reasoning a static rule can't. Macha is one such layer: it runs on top of the Gorgias you already use through a live native connector. It does not replace Gorgias, your Rules, or your macros. You keep your acknowledgement and auto-close Rules exactly as they are; Macha handles the tickets a static reply can't, drafting or sending grounded answers to WISMO, returns, and refund questions by reading live order data through a custom tool that turns your APIs into something the agent can call. The economics differ too: Macha bills per ticket, not per resolution, one conversation charged once however many messages it takes, starting at $299 a month for up to 750 tickets. See the pricing breakdown for the tiers, and connecting Macha to Gorgias for the setup. The clean division of labor: keep Gorgias Rules as the source of truth for acknowledge, route, and close, and layer an agent on top for actually answering. If your Rules also do a lot of canned-text sending, Gorgias macros explained pairs naturally with this.

FAQ

Does Gorgias still have an "Autoresponder" feature? No. The legacy Autoresponder Rules feature was never available to accounts created after September 2024, and it stopped working for older accounts on January 30, 2026. Today you build auto-responders as Rules, and Shopify brands are pointed toward AI Agent for automated responses.

Where do I create an auto-reply rule in Gorgias? Go to Settings (bottom-left) → Ticket management → Rules → Create rule. Use the Autoresponder or Outside Business Hours template, set the trigger to WHEN → Ticket created, add a Reply to customer action, and activate it.

Do auto-closed tickets count toward my Gorgias bill? Not if nothing was ever sent. Gorgias counts a ticket as billable once an agent, AI Agent or a Rule sends a message on it, so a ticket closed without a reply doesn't count. An auto-reply followed by an auto-close does count, which is why auto-close rules should run first.

How do I stop auto-reply loops in Gorgias? Auto-close out-of-office and no-reply/notification emails before they get answered, exclude automated senders on your rules, trigger acknowledgements on Ticket created (not every new message), and keep outside-hours auto-replies off Facebook and Instagram comments, which can be flagged as spam.

Can I add AI replies without replacing Gorgias? Yes. An AI agent layer like Macha connects to Gorgias through a live native connector and runs on top of your existing help desk, Rules, and macros. It doesn't replace them. It handles the dynamic answers a static auto-reply can't, and it bills per ticket, one conversation charged once, rather than per resolution.

Ready to move from "we got your message" to an actual answer? Start a free trial of Macha with $50 of free usage and no credit card, and connect it to your Gorgias.