How to schedule Instagram posts, Reels and Stories

You can schedule Instagram posts for free, in two places. The Instagram app schedules feed posts, carousels and Reels up to 75 days ahead, as long as you have a professional account (Creator or Business). Meta Business Suite, Meta's free tool for running Instagram and Facebook accounts, schedules those too and adds Stories, plus posting to a Facebook Page at the same time. Third-party schedulers can do all of it, usually for a monthly fee.

Personal accounts can't use Instagram's built-in scheduler, and Meta's tools and API only publish to professional accounts. If you're on a personal account, switching takes a minute in your settings and costs nothing; your posts and followers stay as they are.

Scheduling is part of the normal posting flow. The only extra step comes on the last screen, just before you'd tap Share.

1. Tap the + button and choose Post or Reel. Pick your photos or video and edit them as usual.
2. Write the caption and add everything else the post needs: tagged people, a location, alt text, and a cover for a Reel.
3. On the final screen, open the extra settings. Depending on your app version they're under More options or Advanced settings.
4. Turn on the option to schedule, then choose a date and time up to 75 days away.
5. Go back and tap Schedule, which takes the place of Share. The post is now in the queue.

The post goes out at the time you chose, whether or not your phone is on. Times follow your phone's time zone, which matters if your followers live elsewhere: a post set for 7 p.m. in Delhi appears at 2:30 p.m. in London during British summer time, and at 1:30 p.m. in winter.

Tip: The first time, schedule a test post ten minutes ahead and watch it publish. You'll find where your version of the app keeps the option, and you'll know scheduling works on your account before you rely on it for a launch.

Queued posts sit in a list called Scheduled content, which you reach from your profile. Where the link sits depends on your app version, and each item in the list shows when it will publish. From that list you can usually:

• Reschedule: pick a new date and time without rebuilding the post.
• Edit: change the caption and other details before it goes out.
• Share now: publish straight away instead of waiting.
• Delete: take it out of the queue, so nothing is published.

Options differ a little between app versions. If you need to replace the photo or video itself, the reliable route is to delete the scheduled post and create it again.

Tip: Re-read the caption whenever you move the date. “Last day of the sale” or “see you tomorrow” is wrong once the post goes out a week later.

The Instagram app can't schedule Stories. Meta Business Suite can. It's free, runs in a web browser at business.facebook.com and as a mobile app, and manages an Instagram professional account and a Facebook Page side by side. Its Planner shows everything you've queued on a calendar.

1. Open Meta Business Suite and check that your Instagram professional account is connected. If you also run a Facebook Page, connect the two so you can post to both.
2. Start a new Story from the Create button or from the Planner. Labels vary between versions.
3. Choose where it goes: Instagram, your Facebook Page, or both.
4. Add your image or video and any text.
5. Instead of sharing now, choose to schedule (in the mobile app it's Schedule for later), set the date and time, and confirm.

Stories can't be booked as far ahead as posts. Recent guides put the Story limit in Business Suite at 29 days, against 75 for posts and Reels, so for a launch more than four weeks away, schedule the posts now and add the Stories nearer the date.

Posts and Reels schedule the same way, and Business Suite on a computer is the easiest free way to plan from a desk. If one post goes to both Instagram and Facebook, adjust the caption for each: a block of hashtags that suits Instagram looks out of place on a Facebook Page.

Tip: Queue each post in one place only. A post scheduled in both the Instagram app and Business Suite, or in a third-party tool as well, will publish twice, because neither tool knows about the other.

Paid schedulers add what Meta's free tools leave out: a preview of how your grid will look, a shared library of images and captions, approval steps for teams, and one calendar across several social networks. They all publish to Instagram through Meta's content publishing API, which has rules of its own.

• Only professional accounts can be published to. For personal accounts, many tools send you a reminder at the chosen time instead, and you post by hand.
• Photos must be JPEGs, and the tallest shape the API accepts is 4:5. A 3:4 photo that posts fine from the app may be cropped or rejected.
• A carousel published through the API holds up to 10 items, while the app allows 20.
• Extras that live in the app, such as Instagram's music library, stickers and effects, generally aren't available to outside tools.
• The tool keeps your post on its own servers and publishes it when it's due, so how far ahead you can plan is up to the tool, not Instagram's 75-day window.

Tip: Connecting a scheduler should send you to Instagram's or Facebook's own sign-in page. A tool that wants your Instagram password typed into its own form is working outside Meta's API, and it puts your account at risk. Don't use it.

Scheduling doesn't change what gets published. A Reel that goes out from the queue at 6 p.m. is the same Reel you'd have shared by hand at 6 p.m. What can hurt is what scheduling makes easy: posting at an hour when your followers are asleep, and being away when the first comments arrive.

So schedule for your audience's waking hours, using the active-times figures in your insights or a few weeks of your own results, and plan to be around for the first hour to reply. If the post asks people to comment a word for something, such as a guide or a price list, set up the automatic reply first. With a comment-to-DM tool like DMFast in place, people who comment get their message even while you're offline.

• There's no schedule option: you're on a personal account, or the app needs an update. Switch to a professional account and update the app.
• It went out at the wrong time: the time was set by your clock, not your followers'. Work out their local time before you schedule.
• You can't schedule a Story in the app: the app doesn't offer it. Use Meta Business Suite instead.
• The post published twice: it was queued in two tools. Delete the extra copy and keep one queue.
• A third-party tool stopped posting: its connection to Instagram lapsed or was removed, which can happen after a password change or a switch back to a personal account. Reconnect the account in the tool.
• The photo came out cropped: a third-party tool can't post shapes taller than 4:5. Export 1080 × 1350 for tools, and keep 3:4 for posts you schedule in the app.