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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Recall’s bots can join meetings and webinars, send and receive chat messages in the live webinar, and access recordings and meeting data after the session ends.

The bot is managed by Recall so you don’t need to worry about managing browser automations, large audiences, or keeping your computer open.

Hi Amanda,

Thank you for your clarification. This is very helpful and gives us confidence that Recall.ai may be the right solution for our use case.

We would now like to move forward with a proof of concept.

Our goal is:

Zoom Webinar
→ Recall Bot joins automatically
→ Bot receives attendee chat messages
→ Pabbly/OpenAI processes the message
→ AI generates a response
→ Recall Bot sends the response back into the same Webinar chat

Since we are a non-technical team and primarily use no-code tools like Pabbly, we would appreciate some guidance on the best way to get started.

Could you please help us with the following:

  1. What is the recommended first step to set up Recall.ai for this use case?

  2. Do you have any beginner-friendly guide specifically for:

    • Zoom Webinar

    • Chat message capture

    • Webhook integration

    • Sending chat replies back to the Webinar

  3. Is there a way to schedule a demo call or technical onboarding session with your team?

  4. Do you have implementation partners or recommended developers who have already built similar Webinar chatbot workflows using Recall.ai?

  5. For our exact use case, what would be the simplest architecture you would recommend?

  6. Is it possible to start with a small proof-of-concept before moving to a production setup?

We would love to understand the fastest path from where we are today to a working Zoom Webinar AI chatbot.

Thank you again for your help.

That’s great to hear! Happy to help wherever we can. I recommend reaching out to us and we’ll get back to you with a response to your questions within 24 hours!

You might want to check out simulive.us, which handles this without any API wiring or bots.

It plays your pre-recorded video up to 1080p directly inside a Zoom Webinar, making it look completely live. It automates chat using a pre-scripted messages.json file where each message fires automatically at a defined timestamp during your event.

It also supports social proof via pre-joined participants using a participant-names.json file, bulk registrant uploads via spreadsheet with auto-sync, multi-platform live streaming up to 4K to YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, TikTok, and custom RTMP, recurring event scheduling, and 32kHz audio.

No code or no-code tools needed. You can find a full step-by-step guide here:

Thanks,
Naeem Ahmed

this is a real blocker. the “read chat” side and the “reply back into webinar chat” side are two different problems. i’d debug the webhook first with a raw endpoint/webhook.site style receiver before pabbly, just to confirm whether zoom is sending webinar.chat_message_sent at all. after that the reply side may need a bot/panelist style approach since REST api posting into live webinar chat seems limited.