---
title: "How to Test Your Automation"
description: "Before an automation goes live — or after you change its settings — try it in the Test chat."
canonical_url: https://chatfuel.com/docs/ai-features/how-to-test-your-automation
markdown_url: https://chatfuel.com/docs/ai-features/how-to-test-your-automation.md
last_updated: 2026-08-12
lang: en
site: https://chatfuel.com/docs
llms_txt: https://chatfuel.com/llms.txt
---

# How to Test Your Automation

Before an automation goes live — or after you change its settings — try it in the Test chat.

Before an [automation](https://chatfuel.com/docs/ai-features/automations) goes live — or after you change its settings — try it in the **Test chat**. It simulates a conversation using exactly the settings of the automation you picked, so you see what a customer coming from that source would get.

## Test in Automations [#test-in-automations]

1. Go to **Fuely AI** → **Automations**.
2. Open the automation you want to check — a channel's direct messages, a comment rule for a specific post, Main bot.
3. Open the **Test chat** sidebar and write as if you were the customer.

The Test chat uses that automation's own settings — its instructions, delays, booking rules, handoff rules. If a setting is inherited from Main bot, you're testing the inherited value; if it's overridden, you're testing the override. This makes it easy to check that [the right rule answers the right content](https://chatfuel.com/docs/ai-features/which-automation-replies-to-a-message-or-comment) before a campaign starts.

## Or ask the AI Co-Worker [#or-ask-the-ai-co-worker]

Tell it what you want in chat:

*"Open the test chat for my Instagram ad comments automation"*

It takes you straight there.

## What the Test chat does and doesn't simulate [#what-the-test-chat-does-and-doesnt-simulate]

* It **does** use your real [Knowledge Base](https://chatfuel.com/docs/ai-features/how-to-set-up-knowledge-base), catalog, and the automation's settings — answers match what customers will get.
* It **doesn't** message any real customer, appear in your [Leads](https://chatfuel.com/docs/leads/leads) pipeline, or count against channel messaging limits.
* Channel-side rules (like Instagram's messaging windows) don't apply in a test — they only matter in real conversations.

> **Note:** You can test automations for a channel that isn't connected yet — the configuration works as a draft and [goes live once the channel is connected](https://chatfuel.com/docs/whatsapp/can-i-test-before-connecting-whatsapp-number).