Instagram hashtags in 2026: how many to use, and what is still worth it

Two years ago the advice was to fill the caption with thirty tags. Now Instagram is going the other way, and a lot of old hashtag advice has stopped applying.

We could not reach Instagram's own announcement pages for this, so everything below comes from Social Media Today quoting Instagram, and we mark it as secondary. Where we could not confirm something, we say so.

How many hashtags can you use on Instagram now?

In December 2025 Social Media Today reported Instagram's plan: "Instagram will gradually update the number of hashtags that you can include in a caption for a reel or post to five." The word gradually matters. We could not confirm whether the limit has reached every account yet.

We also could not confirm whether the limit applies to comments, or to Stories. The report speaks about a caption on a reel or post, so that is all we state.

Do fewer hashtags work better?

The same report quotes Instagram's reasoning: "We find that using fewer (up to 5) more targeted hashtags, rather than many generic ones," can help your content. The quote continues past what we could extract, but the direction is clear: fewer and more specific beats many and generic.

What counts as targeted? Our view, not Instagram's: a tag that describes what is in the post, such as the topic or the place, rather than a tag that every account uses.

• Pick tags that describe this post, not your whole account.
• Keep to five or fewer, whatever the app currently allows.
• Leave out tags that a million unrelated posts also use.

Can you still follow hashtags?

In November 2024 Instagram said: "We're removing the ability to follow a hashtag on Instagram." It also said what still works: "You will still be able to use hashtags in your posts and search with a hashtag to discover related posts."

So a hashtag is now something people search for, not something they subscribe to. That is a reason to choose tags a person would actually type.

Do hashtags get you more reach?

The honest answer is that we found no Instagram statement saying hashtags raise your reach. What we found is older and from the head of Instagram. In 2022 Adam Mosseri said, as reported by Hootsuite: "no, I wouldn't try to think of hashtags as a way to get more distribution."

That was four years ago and the app has changed. We found a 2026 claim that he said something similar, but only on a secondary site with no link to the original, so we do not use it.

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