This paper is devoted to the rational approximation of automatic real numbers, that is, real numbers whose expansion in an integer base can be generated by a finite automaton. We derive upper bounds for the irrationality exponent of famous automatic real numbers associated with the Thue–Morse, Rudin–Shapiro, paperfolding and Baum–Sweet sequences. These upper bounds arise from the construction of some explicit Padé or Padé type approximants for the generating functions of these sequences. In particular, we prove that the Thue–Morse–Mahler numbers have an irrationality exponent at most equal to 4. We also obtain an explicit description of infinitely many convergents to these numbers.

We investigate the β-expansion of an algebraic number in an algebraic base β. Using tools from Diophantine approximation, we prove several results that may suggest a strong difference between the asymptotic behaviour of eventually periodic expansions and that of non-eventually periodic expansions.

We study some Diophantine properties of automatic real numbers and we present a method to derive irrationality measures for such numbers. As a consequence, we prove that the $b$-adic expansion of a Liouville number cannot be generated by a finite automaton, a conjecture due to Shallit.

For any given real number $\alpha$ with bounded partial quotients, we construct explicitly continuum many real numbers $\beta$ with bounded partial quotients for which the pair $(\alpha, \beta)$ satisfies a strong form of the Littlewood conjecture. Our proof is elementary and rests on the basic theory of continued fractions.