Hey guys!
In this article I am going to share with you all I know about Instagram limits. I decided to gather all information in one place and make it a reference page where you can find the answer to practically any question you have about Instagram limits. So, whether you’re wondering about hashtag limits per post or wondering how many people you can follow in an hour without being suspended, you will find it all here. Additionally, I will cover Instagram automation limits.
I’ve been using and teaching Instagram automation since 2014, so I know a thing or two about the limits. In this article, I am here sharing with you my reference guide that I am using. Instagram limits (likes, comments, follows etc.) are of course subject to change, but I intend to keep the info as reliable and up-to-date as possible. In other words, you might want to bookmark this page and visit it when in doubt.
All right. Let’s move on to the limits.
Know Your Limits: The Maximum Length of Everything on Instagram
How Many Characters Can I Have in My Instagram Username?
An Instagram username can contain up to 30 symbols. It can consist of letters, numbers and underscores.
Instagram is a 9-year-old app and many good usernames are already taken. So, most of the time you will have to get quite creative to secure yourself a nice and readable username. In case you are at the stage of creating a new Instagram account, you can use this Instagram Username Availability tool to help you find the best username.
How Many Characters Am I Allowed to Have in My Instagram Account’s Name?
An Instagram name is…umm…well, it’s your name on Instagram 🙂 It is, however, NOT your username. Your Instagram name is seen in your profile and in the search. In both cases it is shown next to (or under) your username. It can contain max. 30 symbols including spaces.
How Many Characters Are Allowed in My Instagram Bio?
You only have 150 characters to tell the world about yourself or your business. This isn’t much, but it is enough to give your audience some basic information such as who you are, what you stand for and what you want the reader to do (call-to-action). Remember to include emojis and break the information onto several lines. Emoticons and spaces eat up the already limited character count but they make your bio more readable and attractive.
What Is the Character Limit to an Instagram Post?
When posting a photo or video on Instagram, you can add a caption. People use the captions to describe the photo or to simply tell a story related to the content they posted. So, what is the max length, or character limit, of the caption? Well, currently the maximum length of the post is 2 200 characters. However, only the 40 first characters including spaces are seen in the feed. So, you have very little room to capture your reader’s attention. Use the first sentence smartly.
What Is the Daily Posting Limit on Instagram?
Few people know this, but there is actually a limit to how many posts you can publish on Instagram in one day. The limit is 100 posts a day. Sounds crazy, right? Who can post so much?
So, if you use Instagram somewhat normally, you would hardly surpass such a limit. However, there are accounts that are managed automatically. With a help of Instagram scheduling tools, you can easily mass upload a bunch of photos and videos and post them without ever pushing a button. So in case this is something you do, know that you shouldn’t post more than 100 times a day/per account. Otherwise, you might attract attention of Instagram and get your account suspended.
How Many Hashtags Can I Add to a Post on Instagram?
You can add a maximum of 30 hashtags per post on Instagram. If you don’t want your hashtags to look spammy, you can “hide” them by commenting on your own post using the hashtags. Even though you are allowed to use 30 hashtags per post, TrackMaven’s research shows that using eleven well-targeted hashtags in each post is optimal for boosting engagement on Instagram. Feel free to do your own research, but I’d say it is better go for quality over quantity when it comes to hashtags.
What is the Maximum Amount of Hashtags Allowed in an Instagram Story?
Instagram Stories have their own limits. You can add up to 10 hashtags per story. Before posting, make sure that you have counted the hashtags. If you surpassed the limit, your caption simply won’t be posted.
How Long Should My Instagram Video Be?
If you want to publish a video on Instagram, it has to be between a minimum of 3 seconds and a maximum of 60 seconds long. Do you need more time to tell your followers something important? Use IGTV or Instagram Live instead. There you won’t be as restricted when it comes to time limits. You will find the limits for these types of video content below.
How Long Should My Instagram IGTV Video Be?
If you use IGTV, you can post rather long videos on Instagram. Doing this makes sense, because you get way more exposure this way. Some people say that if you post an IGTV preview, the likelihood that your video gets seen can increase by up to 400 times! The IGTV limits are the following:
- minimum length of the video is 1 minute
- if you are uploading a video from your mobile device, the limit is 15 minutes
- if you use a computer to upload an IGTV video you can upload longer videos – up to 60 minutes
How Long Can My Instagram LIVE Video Be?
Instagram LIVE broadcasts are limited to one hour. At 60 minutes, you will be cut off. Remember to save your LIVE video before you hit publish. Otherwise, you lose it forever. Also keep in mind that only the video is saved, and not interactions like comments, likes, and views.
How Long Can My Instagram Story Video Be?
People often wonder how long their Instagram story videos can be. The answer is: 15 seconds/story. Longer videos should be posted on IGTV or perhaps you can just go LIVE?
How Many Stories Can I Post?
If you are worried that you might be posting too many Stories on Instagram, you can breathe a sigh of relief. It is rather difficult to post too many Instagram stories and the limit is currently at 100 stories a day.
How Many Instagram Story Highlights Can I Post?
Currently there are no limits for how many Story Highlights you can add to your account. However, you can add up to 100 photos or videos to each of your Instagram Stories Highlights. If you, let’s say, add a 101th photo, the first one will be removed.
How Many People Can I Tag or Mention?
If you are tagging people in comments, you note that the maximum number is 20. Usually, that’s enough.
You can mention up to 10 Instagram users per one post or story. Again, this should be more than enough for most needs.
If you tag people in automatic comments using automation (see all limits in the next section), don’t use more than 5 usernames in one comment. A recommended delay between such comments is 350-450 seconds. If you are interested, you can find more information about automation in the next part of this article.
Know Your Limits: The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Automation Limits
Instagram used to publish official limits for developers who use their API. In case you don’t know, API is needed for developers of third-party apps and tools to access Instagram and its data. This year, Instagram stopped publishing the recommended limits so we don’t have any official information on that matter.
The limits I am sharing with you in this section are approximate and might not apply to you. They are based on my own experience and the experience of automation services I personally use and recommend to my readers. I usually follow the rule “better safe than sorry”. So, if you use Instagram automation tools to amplify your Instagram growth, stay on the safer side and don’t exceed the limits.
When you are just starting out with Instagram automation, you might think that all these limits are like rocket science. How can anyone understand all these numbers? It might look crazy at first, but it really isn’t that complicated. All you need to do is just set up your first account and input the daily limits for the first week or two. After that you can just follow the upper limits and you will be fine.
One important thing I want you to keep in mind is that overall Instagram limits depend on many factors like:
- The age of your Instagram account. The older your account is, more automation activity you can do.
- The number of your followers. The bigger your account growths, more things you can get away with.
- Your account’s engagement and activity. If you have a vivid, active account, then limits will be higher for you.
- If you post a lot of original content, then again Instagram will be less suspicious about what you do.
- If you have linked your Instagram account to a Facebook page, filled it in, posted photos and made it look real, it is also a good sign that you are not a spammer.
The beauty of automation is that you can easily get additional 500-2500 organic followers a month even if you take it slow and carefully follow all the limits. The end results will always depend on how interesting your account is to the audience you are targeting. If you go all-in with automation and set up secondary accounts, then you can multiply your impact by the number of the accounts you have. It’s really just math.
Now let’s move on to the automation limits.
Limits for Auto Likes and Auto Follows on Instagram
Let’s start by breaking down Instagram limits by the account’s age.
Instagram accounts that are 21 days to 3 months old
Instagram is more suspicious and strict when it comes to new or young accounts. The older and bigger grows your Instagram page, more things you can get away with.
You should always start slowly with new accounts and increase automation speed gradually. You need to be especially careful if you start automation with your main account. Better safe than sorry.
Side note: If you have no patience to wait or need to get quick results, there are pages where you can buy some older accounts and promote your main account with their help. Just be careful – not all such pages can be relied on.
What are then the limits for new Instagram accounts?
| Days | Max Daily Follows | Max Daily Likes |
| 1 | 50 | 100 |
| 2 | 50 | 150 |
| 3 | 50 | 200 |
| 4 | 50 | 250 |
| 5 | 50 | 300 |
| 6 | 50 | 350 |
| 7 | 50 | 400 |
Starting from day 8, you can increase the number of daily likes and follows by +50. The absolute maximum limit for daily likes is 1000. For auto follows: 300.
Instagram accounts that are 3-6 months old
| Days | Max Daily Follows | Max Daily Likes |
| 1 | 50 | 150 |
| 2 | 50 | 250 |
| 3 | 100 | 300 |
| 4 | 100 | 350 |
| 5 | 150 | 400 |
| 6 | 150 | 450 |
| 7 | 200 | 500 |
Starting from day 8, increase the number of daily likes and follows by +50. The absolute maximum limit for daily likes is 1000. For auto follows: 300.
Instagram accounts that are 6+ months old
| Days | Max Daily Follows | Max Daily Likes |
| 1 | 100 | 200 |
| 2 | 150 | 300 |
| 3 | 200 | 400 |
| 4 | 200 | 500 |
| 5 | 250 | 600 |
| 6 | 250 | 700 |
| 7 | 300 | 800 |
Starting from day 8, increase the number of daily likes by +50. The absolute maximum limit for daily likes is 1000. For auto follows: 300.
IMPORTANT! New Limits for Auto Follows/Unfollows on Instagram
If you want to be on the safe side, limit your following/unfollowing activity to 300/day or 6000/month. That means no more than 12-13 auto follows/unfollows per hour. It is easier to keep track of automation if you focus on the monthly limits rather than daily or hourly ones.
IMPORTANT! Info About Delays Between Tasks
- When you have completed an unfollowing task, wait for at least 12 hours before you start following people. Otherwise you might get a temporary ban, especially if you haven’t linked your Instagram account to a Facebook page.
- Don’t auto follow and auto unfollow on the same day. Choose just one type of automated activity per day.
- Make a 24 hour pause when you reached a daily limit for any automated task. For example, if you made 800 follows in a day, wait for 24 hours before you do the next sequence of 800 follows.
Limits for Auto Comments on Instagram
I would generally recommend that you start with 20 auto comments a day and then increase this number by +10 every day. The max amount of daily comments is 200. The recommended speed is about 10-20 comments/hour.
In other words you would have something like that:
- 1st day: 20 comments
- 2nd day: 30 comments
- 3d day: 40 comments
- ….
- 19th day and continue with 119 daily comments
- Limits for Auto Comments on Instagram
Limits for Auto DMs on Instagram
Just like with other automated tasks, you should start with a smaller amount and then steadily increase from there. When it comes to direct messages, you can start with 50 daily. You can increase the amount of messages sent by 20 every day. You shouldn’t send over 200 DMs/day. The recommended max is 12-15 messages an hour, but notice that you are then not supposed to run the automatic DMs for more than 12-13 hours a day.
So the pace would looks something like that:
- 1st day: 50 DMs
- 2nd day: 70 DMs
- 3d day: 90 DMs
- ….
- 8th day 190 DMs
- then continue with 200 daily
Even though it is possible to send DMs to non-followers, think twice before you do that. This is practically spam and you can get your account suspended in no time. Never send messages to non-followers from your main account. If you use secondary account to automate you DMs, don’t pass the limit of 30-40 a day.
I hope you found this information useful. I would appreciate if you forwarded this information to your friends/colleagues/followers who could benefit from knowing the Instagram restrictions and limits.
Have a great day and happy instagramming! 🙌🏼📸
