---
title: "How Fuely AI Sessions Work"
description: "A session is the window during which Fuely AI stays active for one contact and keeps answering their messages."
canonical_url: https://chatfuel.com/docs/ai-features/how-fuely-ai-sessions-work
markdown_url: https://chatfuel.com/docs/ai-features/how-fuely-ai-sessions-work.md
last_updated: 2026-08-12
lang: en
site: https://chatfuel.com/docs
llms_txt: https://chatfuel.com/llms.txt
---

# How Fuely AI Sessions Work

A session is the window during which Fuely AI stays active for one contact and keeps answering their messages.

A **session** is the window during which [Fuely AI](https://chatfuel.com/docs/ai-features/what-is-fuely-ai) stays active for one contact and keeps answering their messages. Understanding sessions explains why the bot sometimes keeps a conversation going and other times stays silent.

## What a session is [#what-a-session-is]

When Fuely AI answers a contact, it opens a session — a **24-hour window** during which the bot continues responding to that contact instead of treating each new message as a stranger. The timer is what lets a conversation flow naturally across several messages.

## When a session opens [#when-a-session-opens]

A session opens only when **both** of these are true:

1. **The source is enabled.** The contact reached you through a source you've turned on — a direct message, a comment on a post or reel, a comment on an ad, a story reply, or a message after clicking an ad. You control these through your [automations](https://chatfuel.com/docs/ai-features/automations). Each source carries its own [source properties](https://chatfuel.com/docs/instagram/instagram-tasks) so you can see where a contact came from.
2. **An automation actually replied.** An automation matched the contact's message — [priority rules decide which one](https://chatfuel.com/docs/ai-features/which-automation-replies-to-a-message-or-comment) — and Fuely AI sent a reply.

If a contact interacts but nothing matches — for example, a comment that triggers no keyword or rule — **no session opens and the bot stays silent**. Simply interacting isn't enough; the bot has to actually have something to say.

## The source a session is tied to [#the-source-a-session-is-tied-to]

Each session belongs to the source that opened it — a comment session, a DM session, and so on. Two rules follow from this:

* **Sessions don't replace each other.** If a contact has an active comment session and then sends you a DM, that DM is still handled under the comment session's settings and keeps that session going. A new source doesn't override the one already running.
* **The session type stays the same** until the session ends.

## How a session is extended [#how-a-session-is-extended]

The 24-hour timer resets **only when Fuely AI answers again** under that session's rules. An interaction the bot doesn't answer changes nothing — the timer doesn't move and the session type doesn't change.

The bot will **not** extend a session — and stays silent — when:

* The source that opened the session has since been **turned off**. The bot goes quiet there, and the session isn't kept alive.
* A new interaction **matches no automation**. The session is left untouched.
* The chat is **being handled manually**. While a chat is assigned to you or you've replied yourself, Fuely AI stays quiet even if the session is still alive — see [how to take over from AI](https://chatfuel.com/docs/ai-features/how-to-stop-ai-during-active-conversations).

## Manual replies don't open or extend sessions [#manual-replies-dont-open-or-extend-sessions]

Replying to a contact yourself from the Chats tab does **not** open or extend a Fuely AI session. Manual conversations follow the longer 7-day live-chat window and the [chat auto-return timeout](https://chatfuel.com/docs/ai-features/how-to-automatically-return-chat-to-ai) instead — see the [Instagram messaging rules](https://chatfuel.com/docs/instagram/messaging-rules-for-instagram) for how the AI and live-chat windows differ.

## When a session ends [#when-a-session-ends]

A session ends when either of these happens:

* **24 hours pass** with no answered interaction.
* **You close the chat** — moving a lead to Won or Lost ends the active session, so the bot won't keep replying off an earlier interaction. See [how to close live chat](https://chatfuel.com/docs/leads/how-to-close-live-chat).

Once a session ends, the next interaction is judged from scratch: a fresh session opens only if the source is still enabled and an automation matches again.