Instagram’s limits stop you from performing certain actions too many times. As one of the leading social platforms in the world, the site is a prime target for spammers and people who abuse features.
We all suffer from some of the limits that are in place to make the platform safe, less spammy and available for everyone.
If you’ve hit a limit or were always curious why you can only follow a certain number or people or send a certain number of DMs, it’s because you hit an internal limit. We’re going to share the 2024 limits that we know – some may be unknown – to keep your account in good standing.
Instagram Limits – And Some Hourly Ones, Too
Instagram has a lot of limits, and while some are daily, others are hourly. Imagine if you went through someone’s account and liked hundreds of photos in 20 minutes. You’re definitely going to hit one of the algorithm’s internal limits.
You’ll read a lot of different figures when looking up limits because they seem to be different for:
- New accounts
- Aged accounts
Let’s see some of the limits that you may hit:
1. Posting Limits
We’ve heard, and we cannot verify it without a lot of work, that you can post an unlimited number of posts in a day on Instagram. Some sources state that the daily limit for posts is 1,000.
Instagram has not confirmed either of these figures.
However, if you post normally, you should be fine. Even 20 posts per day is a lot yet still very far off from the internal limits.
How many posts should you be posting?
- 2 – 4 Reels a week
- 2 photos a week
- 1 carousel a week
2. “Like” Limits👍
“Likes” have two hard limits that you may hit, especially if you’re just scrolling through your phone:
- 120 likes per hour
- 700 – 1,000 limits per day
If you want to be on the safe side, don’t like hundreds of photos or comments at a time. You’ll want to use Instagram naturally, and then you never have to worry about limits. Very few people hit limits naturally, and if they do, it’s not a big deal.
Hitting these limits one or two times won’t get your account banned.
3. Follow Limits
Do you have a tendency to follow every account that you see? If so, you’ll be upset to know that there are two main limits:
- Total follow limits (more on that below)
- Daily limits
Instagram will limit your ability to follow people to 200 per day.
4. Unfollow Limits
Unfollowing people, especially bots or ghost followers, is a common practice. You want to keep your engagement high, but you also have to adhere to Instagram’s guidelines. You’ll be limited to:
- 180 – 200 unfollows per day
- 60 unfollows per hour
Instagram has these limits to prevent people from unfollowing all of an account’s followers. For example, if your friend has access to your account, being able to delete more than 60 people per hour limits the damage of them unfollowing everyone you follow.
5. Comments Limits
If you hit the comment limit, you’ll be met with a message that states, “Comment blocked.” We recommend not trying to comment again for a few hours or a day to see if the block has been lifted.
Limits are:
- 30 per hour
- 200 per day
You’ll find that the number of comments you can make will vary. Some users do seem to have higher limits, but we’ve seen influencers mention that they were blocked from commenting back to people on their own posts.
Instagram will also limit your comments if you copy and paste comments on too many posts.
6. DM Limits
We have very in-depth posts on DM limits, and it’s something we recommend everyone read. You can be banned if you abuse the system, so be sure to brush up on the rules.
However, we’ve found two main DM limits:
- 100 – 200 per day for aged accounts
- 30 – 50 DMs per day for new accounts
We were shocked to see these low DM limits, which explains why more celebrities are not DMing random fans back – they can’t.
7. Stories Limits
Stories are a great way to engage with your followers and keep them updated on what’s going on in your life.
Most experts recommend posting at least two Stories per day. But don’t go overboard. Why? Because Instagram only allows you to post:
- 100 Stories per day
While your account is unlikely to be banned for any of the reasons above, you do want to avoid automation at all costs. App users who have spam “liked” or “followed” or “unfollowed” people have been banned.
Instagram aims to provide a safe environment for all users, and you need to avoid spamming to keep the platform safe and spam-free.
Now that you know some of the limits in place, let’s look at some of the other, lesser-known restrictions in 2024.
Instagram Limits You Didn’t Know Existed
Along with the daily limits listed above, Instagram also has other restrictions that you didn’t know existed. These are hard limits, meaning that they don’t refresh every day. For example, you can only have a certain number of characters in your bio, and this limit never changes.
Here are some other restrictions that you should know:
1. Age Limits
Many Instagram users don’t realize that the platform has a minimum age requirement for creating an account.
To open an account, you have to be at least:
- 13 years old
In some areas, like Spain, South Korea and Quebec, the age limit is higher. If you sign up for a new account, Instagram will now ask you to provide your age.
2. Link Limits
Instagram allows you to add links to your bio. Initially, you were limited to adding a single link.
Now, you can add:
- Up to five links to your bio
You can also use special link tools, like Linktree, Lnk.Bio, Mona or Campsite to add even more links from your bio.
3. Hashtag Limits
Adding hashtags to your posts can help people find your content and tell your audience what your image or video is about.
But you can only add so many hashtags to your posts.
- You can add up to 30 hashtags per post
While 30 is the limit for tags, we’ve found that adding just 3-5 hashtags gets the best results for engagement and reach.
4. Mention/Tag Limits
Do you like to tag or mention other users in your posts? If so, you may not know that you can only tag up to a certain number of accounts in any given post or comment.
- You can tag up to 20 people in a post
So, if you’re posting a pic with 30 of your friends, you’ll only be able to tag 20 of them.
5. Follow Limits
One thing that may surprise people is that Instagram limits how many people can you follow. There’s a hard limit on how many accounts you can follow, period – not just in a single day.
- The maximum number of people you can follow is 7,500
Most people will never reach this limit, but mega influencers may.
6. Story Length Limits
Instagram not only limits how many Stories you can post per day, but it also limits their length if you’re posting a video.
Currently, videos in Stories can only be:
- 60 seconds long
If you have a video that you want to post to your Stories that’s longer than 60 seconds, you can use the platform’s trim tool to chop your clip to the right length.
7. Video Length Limits
Reels and feed videos are two of the most popular types of content on Instagram, but even they have limits.
- Reels are limited to just one minute. These short-form videos are Instagram’s answer to TikTok, so they’re meant to be brief.
- Feed videos are limited to one hour. With regular videos that you post to your feed, you have a lot more freedom in terms of length and can post videos up to 60 minutes long.
8. Caption Limits
Captions keep your audience engaged, but Instagram does limit the length of a caption to:
- 2,200 characters
To put that into perspective, 2,200 characters is about 314-550 words (spaces included). That’s more than enough space to get your message across and even include a few hashtags.
9. Bio and Display Name Limits
Instagram also limits the length of your bio and display name.
- Your bio can have up to 150 characters
- Your display name can’t be more than 30 characters
Make sure you use your space wisely in these two key spots of your Instagram profile. Your bio tells people what you’re all about, so be sure to follow our guide to creating a killer bio to make the most of it.
Summary
Instagram places limits on certain features of their platform to prevent users from abusing them. These are all of the daily and overall limits that we know of. It’s important to be aware of them and to follow the rules if you want to keep your account in good standing.
