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Discover the Best Length For Instagram Reels for 2024

Are you making Instagram Reels too long? Discover the ideal length for Reels and why your engagement may plummet if your content isn’t within this range.
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Best Length For Instagram Reels
Table of Contents

Key Takeaways

7 – 15 seconds is the ideal Reel length

17.6 million hours of Reels are viewed daily

Reels can be up to 90 seconds long

Experiment with your Reel length to learn your audience’s preferences

Instagram Reels are all about video. Your followers want you to tell a story. While pictures may get shares, likes and comments, it’s no secret that Reels are more engaging. Daily, 17.6 million hours of Reels are consumed.

If you want to vary your content, it’s time to consider the best length for Instagram Reels.

It makes no sense to spend time filming and editing a long Reel if a shorter one performs better.

Why Reel Length is Important For Instagram

Reels are engaging, and they’re viewed a lot. Instagram rewards engagement and should be a major focus of your social media content strategy. Like most social platforms, Instagram prefers Reels that are:

  • Watched for long durations
  • Rewatched

Longer view times keep users on the platform. However, the right Reel length will allow you to do a few things:

1. Maintain High Engagement

Engagement helps you get your account noticed. If you choose the right Reel length, you’ll increase your chances of the Reel being:

  • Viewed
  • Liked
  • Shared

Instagram’s algorithm prefers a high level of engagement and will promote it more and help you gain followers.

2. Reduce Editing Time

Editing long videos is time-consuming and resource-intensive. If your video is too long and loses the viewer’s interest, it will attract less engagement and waste resources. 

3. Keep Viewer Attention 

Viewer attention is crucial to your Reels’ success. If people click off of your video quickly and don’t watch it again, it will lead to the algorithm showing your Reel less often. Reels that are just the right length will allow you to keep the viewer’s attention and allow for longer watch time.

The longer the watch time, the better.

4. Gain a Larger Following

Showing up on the “Explore” page on Instagram can help your Reel go viral and attract a larger following. Many of the influencers that you follow were on the Explore page at some point. If you have a Reel that is just the right length that users consume almost the entire Reel, you increase your chance of:

  • Likes
  • Shares
  • Organic followers

Best Length For Instagram Reels

Reels are a great way to build your following and boost user engagement. But how long should they be? Some Reels perform better than others simply because they are just the right length to keep people interested.

However, the truth is that there is no ideal length for Reels. Online data suggests that 7-15 seconds is a good length for most Reels.

Why?

Because these Reels get straight to the point and keep the user’s attention.

But keep in mind that while 7-15 seconds is considered ideal, it’s not a hard and fast rule. You can create shorter or longer Reels if you know that they will appeal to your audience.

For example, This Reel from pastry chef Pierre-Jean Quino is 31 seconds long, but it amassed 1.4 million views, over 59K likes and more than 400 comments. Those are impressive stats considering he has just 133K followers. This is a reel that breaks the suggested length rule and has performed very well simply because of the nature of the creator’s content.

Testing Reels Length For Your Audience

Every niche and industry will have its own nuances. Testing out different Reel lengths for your audience will allow you to discover the attention span of your audience. However, you’ll want to monitor:

  • Total views
  • Watch time
  • Engagement

If you find that shorter Reels work better than long ones, continue testing these Reels out for yourself and see what you can do to improve engagement.

How Long Can Reels Be on Instagram?

How Long Can Reels Be on Instagram

Reels allow users to create longer content. The default time limit is 30 seconds, but you also have the option to adjust the maximum time limit to:

  • 15 seconds
  • 1 minute
  • 90 seconds

For all Reels recorded on Instagram’s camera, the maximum length is 90 seconds. 

If You Want To Adjust the Length of Your Reels:

Step #1: Open the Instagram app.

Step #2: Tap the Reels icon at the bottom of the interface.

Reels Icon

Step #3: Tap the camera icon at the top right of the screen.

Camera Icon

Step #4: On the left side of the screen, you’ll see an icon with the number “30” in it.

Number 30

Step #5: Tap the icon to adjust the length of your Reels.

Adjust the length

Once you’ve selected your preferred time, you can start recording and posting Reels using the Instagram app.

Reels that are uploaded using a third-party scheduling tool can be much longer. For example, if you use Hootsuite, your Reel can be anywhere from 3 seconds to a maximum of 15 minutes.

Final Thoughts

The best length for Instagram Reels will depend on your audience and the content you create. But as a general rule of thumb, 7-15 seconds is the ideal length for Reels. Experiment with different lengths to see which ones perform best with your followers and audience.

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