Can Zoom Webinar live chat messages be read and replied to automatically using API/Webhook/SDK?

API and Webhooks Chat
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1

Hi Zoom Developer Team,

I want to build an AI automation system for Zoom Webinars.

Use case:

During a live Zoom Webinar, attendees may write messages like:

  • “Recording milegi?”

  • “PDF milegi?”

  • “Price kya hai?”

  • “Certificate milega?”

  • “Workshop kitne time ki hai?”

I want my system to:

  1. Capture live Zoom Webinar chat messages in real time

  2. Send the message to my automation workflow/AI/FAQ database

  3. Generate the correct response

  4. Send the reply back automatically into the same live Zoom Webinar chat

I am planning to use:

  • Zoom Webinar

  • Zoom Marketplace App

  • Webhook/API

  • Pabbly/OpenAI/Google Sheet

  • Possibly Meeting SDK/Web SDK if required

My questions:

  1. Does Zoom officially support real-time Webinar chat message extraction using webhook webinar.chat_message_sent?

  2. What exact webhook event should I use for live Webinar attendee chat?

  3. What payload fields are available? For example:

    • message_content

    • sender_name

    • sender_id

    • recipient

    • webinar_id

    • timestamp

  4. Is there any official Zoom API or SDK method to send an AI-generated reply back into the same live Webinar chat?

  5. Does Meeting SDK/Web SDK sendChat() support Zoom Webinars, or only Meetings?

  6. If direct API reply to Webinar chat is not supported, what is the officially recommended workaround?

  7. Can a bot/panelist account join the Webinar and send chat messages programmatically?

  8. Are there rate limits or restrictions if the Webinar has a large audience and many chat messages?

My final goal is simple:

Live Webinar Chat → AI/FAQ Processing → Automatic Reply in the Same Webinar Chat

Please confirm the officially supported approach for both reading and sending Webinar chat messages.

2

Hi Zoom Team,

This is an urgent business use case for us.

We are trying to build an AI assistant for Zoom Webinars that can:

Attendee message → AI reads → AI generates response → AI replies back in the SAME Webinar chat automatically.

The main thing we need help with:

Can Zoom officially support automatic replies back into Webinar live chat?

This is the key blocker for us. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

3

Interesting use case, I was wondering something similar. From what I could find, reading live webinar chat might be possible through webhooks or SDK events, but the bigger question seems to be sending replies back automatically into the same webinar chat. Is that officially supported for webinars, or would it require a bot/panelist account joining the session and replying from there? Would love clarification from the Zoom team because this could be really useful for AI based webinar support.

4

Reading live webinar chat is the supported half of this flow. You can do this by subscribing to Zoom’s webinar.chat_message_sent event and process the payload under chat_message.

Sending the AI reply back is the constrained half. I don’t see an official Zoom REST endpoint that posts into live webinar chat. Also, Zoom’s Web Meeting SDK sendChat explicitly says it does not support sending chat messages in a webinar.

If you’d rather avoid building and operating the bot layer yourself, Recall.ai’s Meeting Bot API can handle joining meetings and webinars, capturing chat, and sending chat messages back into the webinar.

5

Hi Amanda,

Thank you, this is very helpful.

Just to confirm:

Can Recall.ai Meeting Bot API join a Zoom Webinar as a bot participant/panelist and automatically send AI-generated replies into the SAME Webinar live chat?

Our use case is:

Zoom Webinar → FAQ/OpenAI/Pabbly → automatic reply in Webinar chat.

If yes:

  1. Does it work with Zoom Webinars specifically?

  2. Does it require browser automation?

  3. Can it handle large webinar audiences?

  4. Does it require keeping a browser/laptop open?

Thank you.

6

Hi Amanda,

Thank you for the clarification.

We actually already tried using the webinar.chat_message_sent event with Zoom + Pabbly webhook integration.

Our setup was:

Zoom Webinar → webinar.chat_message_sent webhook → Pabbly webhook → automation flow

However, in our case the data is not reaching Pabbly at all. We are not receiving any webinar chat payload from Zoom, so we could not proceed further with the automation.

Could you please help clarify:

  1. Is there any additional setup or permission required for webinar.chat_message_sent?

  2. Does it work specifically for Webinar attendee chat?

  3. Do we need any specific app type or webhook configuration?

  4. Is there a known limitation with Webinar chat events?

Since this step itself is failing for us, we are currently blocked.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.