How to Set Up Auto-Close & Reopen Rules in Gorgias

What auto-close and reopen rules actually do

Gorgias runs on Rules — small if-this-then-that automations that fire on tickets. An auto-close rule watches for tickets that match a condition (a subject line, a sender, an intent, a channel) and closes them automatically so a human never has to. The goal isn't to close everything faster; it's to keep tickets that don't need an agent from cluttering your queue, so the ones that do stand out. Gorgias' own Rules engine is the foundation here, and if you're still getting oriented on the platform, what Gorgias is covers the wider picture.

The reopen half is mostly automatic. When a customer replies to a closed ticket, Gorgias reopens it — but only inside a reopen window that varies by channel. That single behaviour is what makes auto-close safe: you can close aggressively knowing a genuine follow-up will pull the ticket back into the queue rather than vanish. The trick is understanding where that window ends, because past it, a reply spawns a brand-new ticket instead.

Step 1: Open the Rules builder

Everything lives under one menu. Per Gorgias' Create rules to take automatic actions on tickets documentation:

1. Click Settings in the bottom-left corner of Gorgias.
2. Under Ticket management, select Rules.
3. Click Create rule, then Create Custom Rule.
4. Build the logic with the WHEN / IF / THEN structure — WHEN is the trigger (the event that fires the rule), IF / AND / ELSE are optional conditions that narrow it, and THEN is the action (here, close the ticket, and usually add a tag).
5. Name the rule clearly (e.g. "Auto-close — OOO replies") and click Create Rule.

One thing to know before you build: rules trigger in order, first to last, and order matters. Per Gorgias' Best practices for Rules, a broad rule sitting near the top can act on a ticket before a more specific one below it ever gets a look — so keep narrow, high-stakes rules above sweeping ones.

Step 2: Choose a template or build the condition

You rarely have to start from scratch. Gorgias ships auto-close common rule templates for the usual suspects, documented in Auto-close common Rule templates:

• Automatic OOO Replies — closes tickets that are out-of-office auto-responders.
• Non-Support Tickets — closes system noise like Shopify order notifications and PayPal payment confirmations; you extend it by adding customer emails or subject lines.
• IG Story Mention / Social Comments / Instagram Giveaway — close Instagram mention notifications, throwaway social comments, and giveaway-post comments.
• No-Reply / Thanks — closes non-support one-liners that don't need a human.

Pick the template closest to your noise, or build a custom WHEN a new ticket is created → IF subject contains "Out of Office" → THEN close ticket + add tag auto-closed. Always add a tag in the THEN action. Tags are what let you audit later — you can filter a View to auto-closed and confirm the rule isn't eating real tickets. (If tags are new to you, Gorgias tags explained covers the setup.)

Step 3: Set your exclusion list and always-apply list

This is the guardrail step, and it's where the installed rule detail earns its keep. An auto-close rule detail gives you two lists that decide who the rule ignores and who it always fires on:

• The exclusion list — email addresses (or domains) the rule will never auto-close. Put your VIP customers, wholesale accounts, and anyone mid-escalation here, so a stray "thanks" from a high-value shopper doesn't slam their ticket shut.
• The always-apply list — senders the rule always closes on, regardless of other conditions. This is where known no-reply and notification addresses go (no-reply@…, order-confirmation senders).

Below those lists sits the Enable rule toggle — the rule does nothing until you flip it on — and a live preview of the tickets the rule has already closed. Read that preview before you trust the rule at scale. If you see a real customer question in there, your condition is too broad or your exclusion list is too thin. Fix it before the rule runs unattended.

Step 4: Understand the reopen window (so nothing goes missing)

Auto-close is only safe because of reopen-on-reply — but the window is channel-specific, and getting it wrong is how "premature close" complaints start. Based on Gorgias' Handle incoming tickets guidance, the defaults look like this:

The practical upshot for ecommerce: a WISMO ("where is my order?") ticket you auto-close after sending tracking will reopen fine if the shopper replies "still not here" the next day. But a returns thread that goes quiet for two weeks, then gets a "did you receive my package?" email, may land as a fresh ticket with none of the prior context — so your agent starts cold. Knowing the 10-day email window tells you when to lean on tags and customer history instead of assuming the thread will stitch itself back together.

Step 5: Snooze-and-reopen for tickets that need a wait

Auto-close is for tickets you're done with. Snooze is for tickets you'll be done with later — a backorder that ships Friday, a customer who said "I'll check tonight." Per Gorgias' Snooze tickets documentation, snoozing sets the ticket to closed and pulls it from your queue for a preset duration — 1 hour, 3 hours, 6 hours, 1 day, 3 days, or 1 week, or a custom date — and it reopens automatically when the timer expires, when the customer replies, or when an agent reopens it.

The automation payoff is a dedicated trigger. You can build a rule on WHEN TICKET SNOOZE DELAY ENDS so that the moment a snoozed ticket resurfaces, it's re-tagged, reassigned to the original rep, or given a nudge reply — no ticket quietly reappears unowned. You can also snooze automatically with the Snooze for action inside a rule, and gate rules on whether a ticket has ever been snoozed using the IF ticket unsnooze date IS / IS NOT EMPTY condition. A clean subscriptions example: WHEN a "pause my subscription until next month" ticket comes in → THEN snooze for 3 days and tag subscription-followup; WHEN the snooze delay ends → reopen and assign to the retention rep.

The honest limits — and where an AI layer picks up

Auto-close and reopen rules are deterministic and genuinely useful — Gorgias' native automation is doing exactly what a rule engine should. But be clear about the edges.

They close on patterns, not understanding. A rule that closes anything containing "thanks" will happily close "thanks, but this is the wrong size — I need to exchange it." The exclusion list and the closed-ticket preview are your only defence, and both need ongoing tuning. They don't answer anything. Auto-close removes noise; it never produces the reply that a real WISMO, return, or subscription question needs. And the reopen window is a cliff, not a ramp — past 3 or 10 days, context is gone and your agent starts from zero.

This is the seam where an AI agent layer fits. The broader category of AI agents for customer service exists to do the reasoning auto-close can't: reading the actual ticket, deciding whether it's noise or a real question, and drafting the answer. Macha is one such layer — it runs on top of the Gorgias you already use as a native connector, and it does not replace Gorgias, its Rules, or its built-in AI Agent. You connect Macha to Gorgias and it reads and writes the same tickets your rules already touch: triaging by intent so a disguised exchange request never gets auto-closed as a "thanks," and looking up live order or subscription status through a custom tool so the shopper gets a real answer instead of a closed ticket.

One honest billing contrast worth naming: Gorgias' native AI Agent is billed per resolution, and even a rule-sent reply counts as a billable ticket. Macha's credits are consumed per AI action — a lookup, a draft, a reply — not per resolution or per closed ticket, so the cost tracks the work done rather than an outcome label. There are no hard-coded prices to memorise here; the pricing page has the current breakdown. The clean division of labour: let Gorgias' rules keep the queue clean and time-boxed, and layer an agent on top for the part a rule can't do — actually answering the tickets that shouldn't have been closed.

FAQ

Where do I set up auto-close rules in Gorgias? Click Settings (bottom-left) → Ticket management → Rules → Create rule → Create Custom Rule, then build the logic with the WHEN / IF / THEN structure. Gorgias also ships auto-close templates for common cases like OOO replies, order notifications, and social-media noise.

Does Gorgias reopen a closed ticket when a customer replies? Yes, inside a channel-specific reopen window. Replies to chat, Messenger, and Instagram DM tickets reopen within about 3 days; email replies reopen within about 10 days (and a reply on the same email thread reopens regardless). After the window, a later reply creates a new ticket instead.

How do I stop auto-close from closing real tickets too early? Add high-value senders and anyone mid-escalation to the rule's exclusion list, always add a tag in the THEN action so you can audit, and read the rule's closed-ticket preview before you trust it. If a real question appears in the preview, tighten the condition.

What's the difference between auto-close and snooze? Auto-close is for tickets you're finished with; snooze is for tickets you'll handle later. Snooze closes the ticket for a set duration (1 hour up to 1 week, or custom) and reopens it when the timer ends, the customer replies, or an agent reopens it. You can automate follow-up with the WHEN TICKET SNOOZE DELAY ENDS trigger.

Can I add AI to Gorgias auto-close without replacing Gorgias? Yes. An AI agent layer like Macha connects to Gorgias as a native connector and runs on top of your existing help desk and its rules — it doesn't replace them. It triages by intent so real questions don't get auto-closed, and drafts or sends grounded replies, while Gorgias stays the system of record for what's open, closed, and snoozed.

Ready to keep the queue clean and answer the real tickets fast? Start a free trial of Macha and connect it to your Gorgias in minutes.