How many hashtags can you use on Instagram?

For years the limit was 30, and it is still the figure in two Meta documents, covered below. In December 2025 Instagram’s @creators account posted on Threads: “Starting today, Instagram will allow up to 5 hashtags in a reel or post.” The statement that news reports quote says Instagram “will gradually update the number of hashtags that you can include in a caption for a reel or post to five.”

Social Media Today (18 December 2025) and Social Samosa (19 December) add that Instagram had been testing lower limits for about a year, with some people held to as few as 3. Both say the cap is aimed at spam, and Social Samosa adds that Instagram asked people to avoid generic tags such as #reels and #explore. Instagram’s own line, quoted in both, is that fewer, more targeted hashtags can improve a post’s performance and people’s experience of the app.

Instagram’s Help Center now says the same thing. Its article “Use hashtags on Instagram” puts it this way: “You can use up to 5 tags on a post. If you include more than 5 tags on a single photo/video, your comment won’t post.” So the five on this page rests on Instagram’s own help article as well as its post. The article doesn’t mention the old limit of 30 or the gradual rollout, so if your app shows a different number, go by what it lets you do.

Meta’s reference for creating Instagram media was updated on 28 September 2026. For the caption field it says: “Maximum 2200 characters, 30 hashtags, and 20 @ tags.” Meta’s ads guide gives 30 as the maximum number of hashtags for an Instagram feed image ad. Neither page mentions the cut to five. Instagram’s Help Center article gives 5, so the developer and advertiser figure of 30 stands beside it.

We could not establish why they differ. The old number may be out of date in pages written for developers and advertisers, or the API may follow rules of its own. Scheduling tools that publish through the API work from that reference, so a tool’s hashtag counter may allow more than the app does, or fewer. Count the tags yourself, and test one post before you schedule a batch.

The Help Center article says you can use up to 5 tags on a post, and that if you include more than 5 tags on a single photo or video, your comment won’t post. It doesn’t say what Instagram does with a sixth hashtag in a caption: whether the post is blocked, the extra tags are dropped or a warning appears. Count before you share, and if you need to know, try it on a test post in your own account.

Hashtags can go in comments as well as the caption. The Help Center says you can add hashtags “in the caption or comments of your post”, and that to tag a post you have already shared you can edit the caption or include the hashtag in a comment on your photo. It gives five as the limit for a post and doesn’t say whether the caption and comments are counted separately, so treat five as the total across the caption and any comment you add. That keeps you inside the limit whichever way it works.

Tip: Count the # signs, not the words. A tag such as #weekendbaking is one hashtag however long it is, while #weekend #baking is two.

Each # that starts a tag is one hashtag, so count those. The Help Center says to type # followed by text or an emoji, that numbers are allowed, and that spaces and special characters, like $ or %, won’t work. It also says you can only tag your own posts, not other people’s photos or videos, and that posts from private profiles don’t appear publicly on hashtag pages. Letters and numbers are the safe choice.

Mentions are counted separately in Meta’s API reference, which gives 20 @ tags beside its 30 hashtags. An @ mention is not a hashtag, so naming a collaborator or a supplier should not use up one of your five. Tags do sit inside the caption’s 2,200 characters, though five short ones take up very little of that.

With five slots, every tag needs a job. A mix that suits most posts is one tag for the subject, one for the community or niche, one for the place, one for the moment or season, and one branded tag that only you use. A bakery in Leeds posting a sourdough reel might choose #sourdough, #leedsfood, #bakingday, #weekendbake and its own shop tag.

• Prefer tags that describe the post exactly. Social Samosa reports that Instagram asked people to avoid generic tags such as #reels and #explore.
• Use the same branded tag every time, so your posts can be found together under it.
• Write long tags with capitals, #SundayRoast rather than #sundayroast, so screen readers and people can tell the words apart.
• Open a tag’s page before using it. If the posts there have nothing to do with yours, the tag won’t bring the right viewers.
• Say what the post is about in the caption itself rather than leaving the tags to do it.

The announcement is about “a reel or post”, and the Help Center article is about posts. None of the pages we read gives a figure for Stories, where a tag can be added with the hashtag sticker, so we can’t say what the limit is there, or whether there is one.

So 30 has not disappeared from Meta’s own documents. It is just not the number Instagram’s help article and announcement give for the posts and reels you publish yourself.