Systems and techniques for adaptive automatic acknowledgment handling are described. A described system includes a memory structure to store a data rate (DR) adaptation mode indicator, a frame check sequence (FCS) adaptation mode indicator, a preset DR parameter, and a preset FCS parameter; an extractor to extract a DR parameter from a received frame to produce an extracted DR parameter and extract a FCS parameter from the received frame to produce an extracted FCS parameter; a selector to select between the preset DR parameter and the extracted DR parameter based on the DR adaptation mode indicator to produce a selected DR parameter and select between the preset FCS parameter and the extracted FCS parameter based on the FCS adaptation mode indicator to produce a selected FCS parameter; and a generator to generate an acknowledgment to the received frame based on the selected DR parameter and the selected FCS parameter.