How many hashtags should you use on Instagram?
There is no single right number. The hard cap is 30. Instagram's creators account has pushed people towards three to five relevant ones.
Both approaches work. Smaller accounts often do better with more tags, because each tag is another small page they can show up on. Bigger accounts get plenty of reach without them and use a handful for labelling.
Pick a number, stick near it for a month, and watch your reach in Instagram Insights. That will tell you more than any guide, including this one.
Mix big hashtags with small ones
A hashtag with 200 million posts sounds great until you see how fast the page moves. Your post sits at the top for a second and then it is gone. Smaller tags move slowly, so people still scroll past your post hours later.
| Tag size | Rough post count | What it does for you |
|---|---|---|
| Huge | Over 10 million | Buried almost instantly |
| Big | 1 to 10 million | A little reach, heavy competition |
| Medium | 100k to 1 million | The useful middle for most accounts |
| Small | Under 100k | You stay visible for hours |
| Niche or branded | Under 10k | Few viewers, but the right ones |
Spread your set across the rows. If you use ten tags, two big, five medium and three small is a sensible shape. Instagram shows the post count under each tag when you search it, so this takes a minute to check.
What a good set looks like
A set that works
- Every tag describes what is in the post
- A mix of sizes, from broad to niche
- Words a real person would type into search
- A different set for each post
A set that wastes space
- #follow4follow, #likeforlike, #instagood
- Thirty tags that all sit in the millions
- Tags with nothing to do with the photo
- The same block pasted onto everything
Why banned and overused tags hurt
Instagram restricts some hashtags because people abused them. A few are blocked outright. Others still work, but their pages hide most recent posts, so anything you add there goes nowhere.
Overused tags are a quieter problem. Follow-for-follow tags are full of accounts hunting for follows, not for your content. They may like your post within seconds and never look at your profile again. That kind of attention teaches Instagram nothing useful about who your post is for.
Tags that do not match the post are worse still. If your photo of a coffee shop carries fitness tags, people swipe away fast, and fast exits are the signal Instagram watches most closely.
Caption or first comment?
Both work. Instagram picks up hashtags either way, and there is no reach penalty for putting them in a comment.
The real difference is how the post looks. A wall of tags under two lines of caption is ugly and pushes your actual words out of view. Moving them to the first comment keeps the caption clean.
One catch: post that comment straight away. If you add it an hour later, the post has already had its first push and you have missed it. If you prefer to keep everything in the caption, drop five line breaks in first so the tags fall below the More button.
How to find the best hashtags for Instagram
- 1Describe the post plainly
Write what is actually in it. "Homemade sourdough loaf" beats "food content" every time.
- 2Generate a list
Use the tool above. You get a set built from your description rather than a generic top ten.
- 3Cut it down
Delete anything that does not match the photo or video. A shorter honest set beats a long padded one.
- 4Check the sizes
Search two or three of the tags in Instagram and look at the post count. Swap out anything far too big.
- Every tag matches what is in the post
- No follow-for-follow or like-for-like tags
- A mix of sizes, not all giants
- Different from the set you used last time
- Your account is public, or the tags do nothing
Hashtags are one small lever among several. Good hashtags on a dull post will not save it. Good hashtags on a post people want to watch help the right people find it a bit sooner, and that is all they were ever meant to do.