How many hashtags should you use on Instagram? Five.

Instagram's Help Centre puts it in one line: "You can use up to 5 tags on a post." ^[1] Add a sixth and, in the same page's words, your comment won't post ^[1].

Older guides still say 30. That was the old limit, and two Meta pages haven't caught up: the developer docs for apps that publish to Instagram list 30 hashtags a caption ^[2], and an older Help Centre page on comment errors says 30 a comment ^[3]. Go by the app's current limit: 5.

A hashtag files your post under that tag. On a public account, the post shows on the tag's page ^[1]. So pick tags a person looking for your kind of help would actually open.

1. One for what you do, the way a client would say it.
2. One for where you work, if your clients are local.
3. One or two for the topic of this post.
4. One you own: your name or your series, used on every post.

Numbers are fine in a hashtag ^[1], so a year or a step number works.

Both work. Instagram says you can add hashtags in the caption or the comments of your post ^[1]. Put them at the end of the caption, so the first lines stay for what you're saying.

Counting tags by eye is where a sixth slips in. The free character counter shows your caption against Instagram's limits and flags a sixth hashtag.

In Postmosis, a post for Instagram or TikTok keeps 5 hashtags at most: Write warns you when you go over and takes the extra ones out. See the post writer