In this post, we will discuss the many Instagram limits that you may or may not be aware of. From small character limits to violations that could cause your account to be suspended, deleted or "shadowbanned".
Learn the Instagram Limits so you can prevent getting your account flagged or from receiving error messages from Instagram. Instagram’s daily limits are implemented to try and combat spam and abuse. Even if you are being honest, you too can be impacted. No matter how fast you want to promote your account, try your hardest to not make these mistakes and observe the restrictions and limits. Read more about Instagram Community Guidelines here.
Please note these statements are not confirmed by Instagram, but from experience, it applies once you go past these limits intentionally or unintentionally. Although you may get away some things once or twice, Instagram is watching and will eventually get to your page:
RECOMMENDATIONS
- If you are a new user, share a photo or two per day to gain the trust of Instagram administrators. After about a week or two, you can start posting more without being flagged by Instagram
- Share only photos and videos that you’ve taken or have the right to share (or give credit appropriately)
- Foster meaningful and genuine interactions.
- Stay away from artificially collecting likes, followers, or shares, posting repetitive comments or content, or repeatedly contacting people. Your account will begin to get flagged and in some cases not able to post a comment for a few minutes.
LIMITS
- According to Instagram, in order to “reduce spam”, you can not follow more than 7500 people.
- You are allowed only 30 hashtags per post. If you go over the limit and post your photo, the photo will still post, however the entire caption and hashtags will be missing. Use all 30, but be sure to mix different hashtags to connect with other audiences as well as use maybe 20 on one post, 30 on the next two, 4 on the next, etc. Just to give your account a break and realistic feel.
- You are allowed only 10 hashtags per story.
- Your Instagram username can not exceed 30 characters
- Your Instagram bio cannot exceed 150 characters.
- The text limit for captions on the photo and subsequent comments caps at around 2200 characters. Note: The caption will cuts off after the first three lines which is around 125 characters. If you do not want to see these dots, limit your caption to no more than 125 characters if possible. Include call-to-action near the front of your caption.
- You are allowed to post up to 10 pictures in a single post.
- Like Limit is around 350 likes per hour. Aim for a number much lower than this to be safe from a shadowban.
- You are allowed to tag up to 20 users in a post
- You are allowed to tag up to 10 users in a comment
- Instagram allows 100 posts in your stories. When you add 101th story, the oldest image or video will be archived.
OPTIMAL ENGAGEMENT CHARACTER COUNT
- Ideal Length of Instagram Captions: 138-150 Characters
- Ideal Length of Instagram Ads Captions: 125 Characters
- Ideal Number of Hashtags for Instagram Captions: 5-10
- Ideal Number of Characters in an Instagram Hashtag: 24 or less
In some cases, you are literally stopped in your tracks once you have reached the limit and others are easily able to "get away with" until Instagram realizes it and can ban your account.
BONUS TIP: Make multiple accounts with different niches all found on your website. Add your website to the bio of each one to increase web traffic. This is an idustry tip many brands use.
For example, let's say you have a fashion boutique that sells womens clothing, plus size clothing, heels and jewelry. In addition to your main Instagram page, you could also make pages dedicatied to each section:
- Plus size fashion inspo page
- shoe collages and where to get them
- fashion trends page
- jewelry lover page
- and more
Simply add your website in each bio and you instantly have additional traffic sources as well as more opportunity to use unique hashtags narrowing down your target customers.
Source: https://www.instafollowers.co/blog/limits-on-instagram
