International SMM

Instagram

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Platform · this deep dive is built from the official pages of the platform itself and of the tools that support it.

Overview

Instagram is Meta's photo and video platform with four main formats: the feed (single shots and carousels), vertical Reels videos, stories and live broadcasts. There is no separate "text post" here: everything is built around an image or a video.

For practical work another distinction matters more — account types. A personal profile and a professional one (Business or Creator) differ not in appearance but in access: the platform's programming interface is designed for professional accounts — an Instagram Business or Creator Account. A personal profile is not mentioned as supported in the documentation.

The second feature: Instagram has two different APIs — one with Facebook login and one with Instagram login. Whether a linked Facebook page is needed depends on which you choose. This is the only reason why different scheduling tools give contradictory answers to the question "do I need Facebook?"

Who's here

Meta does not disclose Instagram-specific figures in its public reporting. In its report for the fourth quarter and full year 2025 the company states a Family daily active people figure: "DAP was 3.58 billion on average for December 2025" — 3.58 billion people per day on average for December 2025. This is a figure for the whole family of apps (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp), not for Instagram. There are no Instagram-specific figures in this release.

The about.instagram.com section publishes no numeric audience figures at all — we opened the page and found no statistics there.

The only numeric claim by the platform itself that we found in public form concerns a format: on its page for creators, Instagram writes that "Reels makes up over 50% of all time spent on Instagram" — Reels take up more than half of all time spent in the app. This is the platform's claim about its own product, without any measurement period.

Languages: in the language menu on the instagram.com home page we counted more than 60 options, including Russian. This is our count of the menu items, not a claim by the platform — it does not name a number of languages itself.

Getting started

A professional account

The key step is switching to a professional account. It comes in two kinds: Business and Creator. The developer documentation explicitly requires an «Instagram Business or Creator Account» for either API to work, so without switching, neither scheduling nor exporting statistics through a third-party service will work.

Which API your service will use

The documentation describes two options. The Instagram API with Facebook Login for Business requires a professional account linked to a Facebook page; in return it provides publishing and reading content, comment moderation, mention search, content search by hashtag and metrics on other professional accounts. The Instagram API with Instagram Login works with a professional account without requiring a Facebook page and provides publishing, comments, mentions and messaging.

The practical conclusion: before choosing a scheduling service, find out which of the two APIs it runs on. Whether you will have to create and maintain a Facebook page depends on that.

Age and rules

The minimum age for an account cannot be confirmed from outside: the help.instagram.com pages return only the "Help Center" heading, while the body of the article is assembled by script in the browser.

What you can publish

Images

Through the API the platform accepts JPEG only: "JPEG is the only image format supported. Extended JPEG formats such as MPO and JPS are not supported". PNG does not go through the API, although the app itself accepts it.

The technical frame for an image is set as follows: JPEG format, "8 MB maximum" by weight, an aspect ratio that "must be within a 4:5 to 1.91:1 range", and a width from 320 to 1440 pixels.

Carousels

A carousel is limited to ten items: "Carousels are limited to 10 images, videos, or a mix of the two". The same page states that all images in a carousel are cropped to match the first one, by default at a 1:1 ratio.

Reels

The requirements for vertical videos in the documentation: a MOV or MP4 container without edit lists and with the moov atom at the start of the file; HEVC or H264 video codec, progressive scan, closed GOP, 4:2:0 subsampling; AAC audio, up to 48 kHz, mono or stereo; a frame rate of "23-60 FPS"; a maximum of 1920 pixels horizontally; a duration of "15 mins maximum, 3 seconds minimum"; and a weight of "300MB maximum". The platform names 9:16 as the recommended aspect ratio, while formally permitting a range from 0.01:1 to 10:1.

Stories

For stories the documentation sets: an image — JPEG up to 8 MB, with a recommended ratio of 9:16; video — MOV or MP4, "60 seconds maximum, 3 seconds minimum" and "100MB maximum" by weight.

What is forbidden

Content is governed by Meta's Community Standards. The page states outright: "The Community Standards outline what is and isn't allowed on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads" — that is, there is no separate body of rules for Instagram alone. The sections include, among others, "Fraud, Scams, and Deceptive Practices", "Inauthentic Behavior", "Spam", "Account Integrity", "Authentic Identity Representation", "Misinformation" and "Third-Party Intellectual Property Infringement".

How to grow

What the platform says about ranking

Instagram has published a breakdown of ranking signals by section of the app — and stresses that every section has its own algorithm.

For the feed, the named signals are: your activity (what you have liked, saved, commented on, reshared), information about the post (popularity, posting time, attached location tag), information about the author ("how many times people have interacted with that person in the past few weeks") and your history of interaction with the author.

For stories — viewing history, interaction history and "closeness", that is, how likely it is that you are connected as friends or relatives. For Explore — the speed at which likes, comments, reshares and saves accumulate ("how many and how quickly other people are liking, commenting, sharing, and saving a post"). For Reels, the audio track and the visuals are taken into account as well.

The originality rule

On 30 April 2026 the platform announced an expansion of its originality rules: accounts that mainly publish unoriginal material not only in Reels but also in photos and carousels stop being shown in recommendations. Previously, since 2024, this rule applied to aggregators reposting other people's work. Eligibility for recommendations can be restored if posts over a rolling 30 days meet the originality requirements.

Statistics

The built-in analytics is called Insights. On its page for creators the platform describes it only in general terms — there is no specific list of metrics on that page, and the link leads to the help centre, which cannot be read with our means. Through the API, metrics for business accounts are available in the Facebook login variant.

Path to monetization

The platform lists the ways of earning on a separate page: subscriptions, Partnership Ads, Creator Marketplace, Gifts, Badges and bonuses. There are no thresholds or requirements on this overview page — they have to be gathered from individual pages, and they gather incompletely.

Badges in live broadcasts

The most transparent product in terms of numbers. The platform describes viewers buying badges during a live broadcast at prices of $0.99, $1.99 and $4.99, with a payout threshold of "Once you've earned at least $100, you'll get paid" — that is, $100, after which the money takes 1–7 business days depending on the bank.

On the same page the platform notes the app store commission: "Google and Apple deduct 30% of all in-app purchases in fees. Currently Instagram receives no portion of the fees" — 30% is withheld by Google and Apple, and the platform itself currently takes no share.

Subscriptions

The creator sets the subscription price. The platform promises payouts «on the 21st of the following month» — on the 21st of the following month: earnings for March are paid on 21 April. The payout threshold and the platform's commission are not stated on this page.

Gifts

Gifts are bought with the internal Stars currency and sent under Reels. On the product page the platform describes the mechanics but gives neither a Stars exchange rate, nor a payout threshold, nor account requirements.

Bonuses

The bonus programme is not open to everyone. The platform puts it plainly: «Bonuses are limited time and invite-only as we build toward a sustainable program» — the programme is time-limited and invite-only. Bonuses are awarded for the performance of Reels, carousels and single shots; the amounts and the payout schedule are not stated on the page.

Creator Marketplace

The platform describes Creator Marketplace as a way to be found by brands. The participation requirements and the country list are not given on this page — they have been moved to the help centre, which cannot be read with our means.

Tools and automation

The official API

Through Instagram Platform the following are available: publishing and reading content, managing comments and replying to them, mention search, sending and receiving messages, metadata and metrics for professional accounts, and content search by hashtag (in the Facebook Login variant). Sharing to Stories, Sharing to Feed and embedding posts on websites are documented separately.

The publishing limit

The main constraint on scheduling: «Instagram accounts are limited to 100 API-published posts within a 24-hour moving period» — no more than 100 posts through the API per rolling 24 hours per account, with a carousel counting as one post. A service can query the remaining allowance with a separate content_publishing_limit method.

A second practical point: a prepared post (a media container) lives for 24 hours. If it is not published within that time, the container is marked expired. This matters for services with scheduled publishing.

Third-party services

Instagram support is claimed on their own pages by Buffer and Hootsuite — Instagram is named in the channel list of both.

Limits and rules

The help centre is unreadable

The help.instagram.com pages return only the "Help Center" heading: article content is assembled by script in the browser. Thresholds by follower count, age requirements and country lists for monetization products live in those closed articles and cannot be read from outside.

Rules of conduct

The Community Standards applicable to Instagram contain separate sections on "Inauthentic Behavior", "Spam" and "Account Integrity" (the list). Buying activity and automated inflation of metrics are covered by these sections.

Technical limits worth remembering in advance

Three limits break processes most often: JPEG as the only image format through the API, 100 posts per rolling day, and the 24-hour life of a media container. All three are confirmed by the publishing documentation.

Who it's for

Instagram makes sense where there is visual material and a willingness to work with vertical video: by the platform's own claim, Reels take up more than half the time spent in the app.

The platform is convenient for brands and creators who need an integration layer: the API covers publishing, comments, mentions, messaging and metrics, and the limit of 100 posts per day per account is more than enough for a normal social media schedule.

It suits less well those who need predictability about money: of all the monetization products, clear numbers are published only for badges (a $100 threshold) and for the payout date for subscriptions. The thresholds, commissions and country lists for the other products are kept by the platform in the help centre, which cannot be read without a browser. It also will not suit those counting on publishing PNG through a third-party service — the API does not allow it.

Tools for this platform

The list is built from the tools' own facts: every line is a tool's statement that it supports the platform, with the source named. A tool missing from the list only means we have no such statement.

Scheduling and publishing:

Statistics and analytics:

Customer communication:

Automation:

Social listening:

Other tasks:

Verified data

The checked data this deep dive rests on.

Who's here

in its report for Q4 and full year 2025, Meta gives only the combined figure for the family of apps: «DAP was 3.58 billion on average for December 2025»; there are no Instagram-specific numbers in the release

The figure covers Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp together. It cannot be attributed to Instagram

source, checked 2026-07-28

the platform claims: «Reels makes up over 50% of all time spent on Instagram»

The platform's claim about its own product; no measurement period is given

source, checked 2026-07-28

What you can publish

for publishing through the API only JPEG is supported: «JPEG is the only image format supported»; extended variants (MPO, JPS) are not supported

PNG cannot be published through the API, although the platform's app accepts it

source, checked 2026-07-28

no more than 100 posts through the API per rolling 24 hours per account; the limit is applied when a media container is published

Threads has the same sequence of steps but a limit of 250

source, checked 2026-07-28

Images. image: JPEG format, «8 MB maximum», aspect ratio that «must be within a 4:5 to 1.91:1 range», width from 320 to 1440 pixels

Adds numeric bounds to the existing jpeg_only fact

source, checked 2026-07-28

Reels: a MOV or MP4 container without edit lists and with moov at the start; HEVC or H264 codec, closed GOP, 4:2:0; AAC audio up to 48 kHz; «23-60 FPS»; a maximum of 1920 pixels horizontally; «15 mins maximum, 3 seconds minimum»; «300MB maximum»; a recommended ratio of 9:16

source, checked 2026-07-28

stories: a JPEG image up to 8 MB, with a recommended ratio of 9:16; MOV or MP4 video, «60 seconds maximum, 3 seconds minimum», «100MB maximum»

source, checked 2026-07-28

a carousel is limited to ten items: «Carousels are limited to 10 images, videos, or a mix of the two»; all images are cropped to match the first, by default at 1:1

source, checked 2026-07-28

Content

Required for photorealistic video and realistic-sounding audio. Word for word: "We require people to disclose, using our AI-disclosure tool, whenever they post organic content with photorealistic video or realistic-sounding audio that was digitally created or altered, and we may apply penalties if they fail to do so." There is no such requirement for images: the platform promises to label them itself

The rule is common to Facebook, Instagram and Threads — Meta keeps it in the "Misinformation" section of the "Community Standards". The platform's own help article ("Label AI content on Instagram", help.instagram.com/761121959519495) is unavailable to an ordinary request: the domain returns HTTP 400 without a browser, and the robots.txt of help.instagram.com contains "User-agent: ClaudeBot / Disallow: /"

source, checked 2026-08-04

The label is called "AI info" (previously "Made with AI"): "Meta began adding labels to a wider range of video, audio and image content" (since May 2024), "These are displayed as “AI Info”". The creator uses a separate tool: "we’re adding a feature for people to disclose when they share AI-generated video or audio so we can add a label to it". The platform shows the origin of the label: "shares whether the content is labeled because of industry-shared signals or because someone self-disclosed"

The wording about the disclosure tool is from the Meta blog https://about.fb.com/news/2024/02/labeling-ai-generated-images-on-facebook-instagram-and-threads/. There is no step-by-step instruction (where exactly the toggle is in the posting form) in the available sources: Meta's help pages are closed, see the note to ai_disclosure_required

source, checked 2026-08-04

Yes, through industry metadata. Word for word: "we’re building industry-leading tools that can identify invisible markers at scale – specifically, the “AI generated” information in the C2PA and IPTC technical standards"; "in the coming months we will label images that users post to Facebook, Instagram and Threads when we can detect industry standard indicators that they are AI-generated". Also: "Our “Made with AI” labels on AI-generated video, audio and images will be based on our detection of industry-shared signals of AI images or people self-disclosing that they’re uploading AI-generated content"

Both standards are named directly — C2PA and IPTC. The second quotation is from https://about.fb.com/news/2024/04/metas-approach-to-labeling-ai-generated-content-and-manipulated-media/. Meta admits the count is incomplete: "labeling methodology is still evolving" and the data "may not capture labels on some content that is edited with AI"

source, checked 2026-08-04

There is no direct ban on AI content — there is a label and a ban on harm. Word for word: "We may place an informative label on the face of content – or reject content submitted as an advertisement – when the content is a photorealistic image or video, or realistic sounding audio, that was digitally created or altered and creates a particularly high risk of materially deceiving the public on a matter of public importance." Removed regardless of the way it was produced: "We remove misinformation or unverifiable rumors that expert partners have determined are likely to directly contribute to a risk of imminent violence or physical harm to people"; "We consult with leading health organizations to identify health misinformation likely to directly contribute to imminent harm to public health and safety"; on elections and the census — "We remove misinformation that is likely to directly contribute to a risk of interference with people’s ability to participate in those processes"

Meta has no list of "you may not make voices of real people / faces / elections / medical claims" separately for AI: the prohibitions are worded by harm, not by the way of production. Hence — partial

source, checked 2026-08-04

"…and we may apply penalties if they fail to do so" — the only wording about punishment for a missing label. What exactly the punishment is (removal, limited distribution, loss of monetization) the rule does not disclose

No terms, steps or thresholds are named in the rule — only "may apply penalties". No more detailed page about the consequences of a missing label was found on the available Meta resources

source, checked 2026-08-04

Promotion

Word for word: "Instagram doesn’t have a singular algorithm that oversees what people do and don’t see on the app. We use a variety of algorithms, classifiers, and processes, each with its own purpose"; "We call these “signals,” and there are thousands of them." Feed: "The most important signals across Feed, roughly in order of importance, are: Your activity. Posts you’ve liked, shared, saved or commented on... Information about the post... how many people have liked it and how quickly people are liking, commenting, sharing and saving a post... like when it was posted, and what location, if any, was attached to it. Information about the person who posted... Your history of interacting with someone." Predictions: "In Feed, the five interactions we look at most closely are how likely you are to spend a few seconds on a post, comment on it, like it, share it, and tap on the profile photo." Reels: "The most important predictions we make are how likely you are to reshare a reel, watch a reel all the way through, like it, and go to the audio page" · the source is dated 2023-05-31

a post by Adam Mosseri, "Instagram Ranking Explained", of 31 May 2023 on the platform's own site; Feed, Stories, Explore and Reels are analysed separately

source, checked 2026-08-05

There is a separate post by the platform, "Instagram Ranking Explained" (https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/instagram-ranking-explained), and a section for creators, "Tips for Improving Your Reach" (https://creators.instagram.com/blog/tips-for-improving-your-reach). Plus "Helping Creators Find New Audiences" (https://creators.instagram.com/blog/recommendations-and-originality) — the ranking changes of 30 April 2024. The help centre pages on help.instagram.com, "Recommendations on Instagram" (313829416281232) and "Recommendation eligibility on Instagram" (653964212890722), exist, but their text is loaded by a script and is not read by an ordinary GET

ranking is set out in more detail than at most platforms, but it lives in the blog rather than in the help centre

source, checked 2026-08-05

Word for word: "Add accounts to your Favorites list to make sure you don’t miss their content. New posts from your Favorites will appear higher in your Feed. You can also customize your feed to only show content from your Favorites or from accounts you follow (Following will show you the last 30 days of posts from those you follow in chronological order)"; "If you just want a break from recommendations, you can also snooze all suggested posts in your feed for 30 days"; "Adjust the Sensitive Content Control if you want to see more or less of some types of sensitive content from accounts you don’t follow. The “more” option is not available for people under the age of 18"; "you can indicate "Not Interested" on a recommended post so we can show you less of what you don’t like"; "Proactively hide suggested posts with captions that contain words, phrases or emojis you don’t want to see"; "if you’re ever curious why you’re seeing specific content, you can tap the three dots in the upper right corner next to the content, then tap “Why you’re seeing this post/ad”" · the source is dated 2024-04-30

the "political control" and the "control of sensitive content" are also named in the post of 30 April 2024: "using the sensitive content control or political content control"

source, checked 2026-08-05

Reduced distribution is promised directly and in various ways. For a breach of the recommendation rules: "Content that goes against our Recommendation Guidelines can still be distributed normally to your followers, but we try not to recommend it to non-followers"; "if you repeatedly post content that goes against our Recommendation Guidelines or have something in your profile (like your profile photo or bio) that goes against our Recommendation Guidelines, your entire account may become ineligible for recommendation, and none of your content will be recommended for a period of time". For the quality of a reel: "We aim to make certain reels less visible for other reasons, such as low-resolution or watermarked reels, reels that are muted or contain borders, reels that are majority text, or reels that have already been posted on Instagram". Categories are named as well: "Content that users broadly tell us they dislike, such as clickbait or engagement bait"; "Content that is associated with low-quality publishing, such as unoriginal content that is largely repurposed from another source without adding material value"

the list of categories not eligible for recommendation is from https://creators.instagram.com/blog/recommendations-and-originality (30 April 2024)

source, checked 2026-08-05

The rule about one's own and other people's content is set out in detail. Word for word: "when we find two or more identical pieces of content on Instagram, we will only recommend the original one. This means that the original content will directly replace the copied version in recommendations. We will only take this approach when the original content is relatively new, and we are confident that content is a match based on audio and visual signals. We won’t replace content if it has been changed in a significant way, for instance if it’s materially edited to become a meme, a parody compilation, narrated with a new voiceover or remixed to express a reaction." On collectors of other people's content: "accounts that repeatedly (10 or more times in the last 30 days) post content from other Instagram users that they didn’t create or enhance in a material way will not be shown in surfaces where we recommend content. These accounts can become eligible for recommendations again only when they drop below the threshold of 10 copies of original content in a 30 day period." Advice to creators: "We’re less likely to recommend reposts of a reel that’s already on Instagram, content with noticeable watermarks, or accounts that regularly collect and reshare others’ content on their feed"

the threshold is named as a number: 10 posts by other people within 30 days deprive an account of eligibility for recommendations; the count is rolling, there is an appeal through Account Status

source, checked 2026-08-05

The platform acknowledges the incompleteness of the disclosure and separately answers the talk of "shadow banning". Word for word: "We want to do a better job of explaining how Instagram works. There are a lot of misconceptions out there"; "We call these “signals,” and there are thousands of them" — only the most important ones are listed: "The most important signals across Feed, roughly in order of importance, are". On "shadow banning": "Though there isn’t one shared definition, we know some people use the term to imply that a user’s account or content is limited or hidden without a clear explanation or justification. When we rank content across Instagram, that’s not our intention"; "we don’t suppress content to encourage people to buy ads"; "If anything makes your content less visible, you should know about it and be able to appeal. That’s why we’ve built features like Account Status"

there are no direct words "we do not disclose the mechanics", but the disclosure is called partial: thousands of signals, only the most important ones listed

source, checked 2026-08-05

the platform publishes signals by section: the feed — your activity, information about the post (popularity, time, location tag), information about the author, and interaction history; stories — viewing history, interaction history and «closeness»; Explore — the speed at which likes, comments, reshares and saves accumulate; Reels — the audio track and the visuals in addition · the source is dated 2023-05-31

The platform stresses that each section of the app has its own algorithm

source, checked 2026-07-28

on 30 April 2026 the platform announced an expansion of its originality rules: accounts that mainly publish unoriginal material in photos and carousels (not only in Reels) stop being shown in recommendations. Eligibility for recommendations returns if posts over a rolling 30 days meet the requirements

Since 2024 the rule applied only to aggregators reposting other people's work

source, checked 2026-07-28

There is no separate rule about hashtags; hashtags are mentioned only as a means of getting into search. Word for word: "Get discovered via Search. Followers and non-followers can find you when they search for things on Instagram. Making sure you include relevant keywords in your content, your caption, your bio, and your hashtags"; "Use relevant keywords and hashtags in captions. To have your post found in Search, put these keywords and hashtags in the caption, not the comments." Neither a number of hashtags nor the statement "hashtags increase distribution" is stated on the official pages

https://creators.instagram.com/blog/instagram-recommendations-eligibility-tips-creators and https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/instagram-ranking-explained were also checked — there are no quantitative rules about hashtags

source, checked 2026-08-05

Analytics

Account metrics: accounts_engaged, comments, engaged_audience_demographics, follows_and_unfollows, follower_demographics, impressions, likes, profile_links_taps, reach, replies, reposts, saves, shares, total_interactions, views

developers.facebook.com is open to robots, checked on 5 August 2026

source, checked 2026-08-05

Metrics for an individual post: engagement, impressions, reach, comments, likes, views, and also total_comments, total_likes, total_views — the last three are "only available for Instagram API with Facebook Login"

some of the metrics are given only with one of the two login methods — that is already a tie to the means of access rather than to the account type

source, checked 2026-08-05

A threshold on the number of followers: "Some metrics are not available on Instagram accounts with fewer than 100 followers"; "follower_count and online_followers metrics are not available on Instagram business or creator accounts with fewer than 100 followers"

a directly named threshold is a rare case; usually platforms keep the threshold hidden

source, checked 2026-08-05

"You cannot get insights for Facebook Pages"; API access "cannot be used to get data for media owned by personal Instagram accounts"; "You can only get insights for a single user at a time"; "Live video Instagram Media can only be read while they are being broadcast"

once a live broadcast has ended it is given to nobody — the figure cannot be obtained after the fact

source, checked 2026-08-05

The impressions metric has been withdrawn: "deprecated for v22.0 and will be deprecated for all versions on April 21, 2025". For posts created on 2 July 2024 and later, a request for impressions after 21 April 2025 returns an error; the replacement is the views metric

impressions no longer exist as a concept: comparing old and new periods by impressions is impossible

source, checked 2026-08-05

"If insights data you are requesting does not exist or is currently unavailable the API will return an empty data set instead of 0 for individual metrics"

an empty response and a zero are different things; analytics tools often draw a zero here, and then the figures diverge

source, checked 2026-08-05

"User Metrics data is stored for up to 90 days"; "online_followers metric is only available for the last 30 days"

deeper than 90 days there is no data, neither for the creator nor for a tool

source, checked 2026-08-05

follower_demographics and engaged_audience_demographics; they accept only a timeframe from the set last_14_days, last_30_days, last_90_days, prev_month, this_month, this_week and "do not support since or until"; the threshold is no fewer than 100 followers

an arbitrary period for demographics cannot be set — only one of the six ready-made ones

source, checked 2026-08-05

Only "Instagram professional accounts" and an "Instagram Creator account"; personal accounts are not supported: API access "cannot be used to get data for media owned by personal Instagram accounts"

switching the account to a professional one is a mandatory condition for any analytics

source, checked 2026-08-05

Data processing takes "up to 48 hours"

the wording about the delay is given in a note to the metrics; the platform has no separate page about update times

source, checked 2026-08-05

How the money works here

Ways to earn. the ways of earning on the platform: Badges in live broadcasts, Gifts, Subscriptions, branded content, Creator Marketplace, Partnership Ads and bonuses

source, checked 2026-07-28

subscription payouts come on the 21st of the FOLLOWING month: «payouts for earnings in the month of March will be paid out on April 21st»; subscription payouts are combined with the other products

source, checked 2026-07-28

the payout threshold for badges is $100: «Once you've earned at least $100, you'll get paid»

source, checked 2026-07-28

bonuses are not available to everyone: «Bonuses are limited time and invite-only as we build toward a sustainable program» — the programme is time-limited and invite-only

source, checked 2026-07-28

badges are bought by viewers at $0.99, $1.99 and $4.99; the payout threshold is «Once you've earned at least $100, you'll get paid», and the money takes 1–7 business days. The platform notes separately: «Google and Apple deduct 30% of all in-app purchases in fees. Currently Instagram receives no portion of the fees»

Adds prices and the app store commission to the existing badges_threshold fact

source, checked 2026-07-28

the ways of earning on the overview page: subscriptions, Partnership Ads, Creator Marketplace, Gifts, Badges and bonuses. There are no thresholds or requirements on the overview page

source, checked 2026-07-28

The creator page lists: Subscriptions (subscriptions to closed content), Badges, Gifts (gifts from viewers), cooperation with brands through Creator Marketplace / branded content, Bonuses — "Boni belohnen dich für die Performance deiner Reels, Karussells und Einzelbild-Beiträge"

the page was served in German; only the tools are named, without thresholds, shares or amounts

source, checked 2026-08-04

Limits and restrictions

no more than 100 posts through the API per rolling 24 hours; current usage can be queried with the separate content_publishing_limit endpoint. A prepared post that is not published within 24 hours is marked as expired

The platform advises apps to observe this limit themselves, especially with scheduled publishing

source, checked 2026-07-28

Word for word: "Calls to the Instagram Platform endpoints, excluding messaging, are counted against the calling app’s call count. An app’s call count is unique for each app and app user pair, and is the number of calls the app has made in a rolling 24 hour window. It is calculated as follows: Calls within 24 hours = 4800 * Number of Impressions." The general limit of the Meta platform: "Calls within one hour = 200 * Number of Users". About the limit per user: "A user’s call count is the number of calls a user can make during a rolling one hour window" — the number itself is not published

The limit is not a constant number but a formula from the impressions per 24 hours: for a new account without impressions the reserve of calls is close to zero. The count is kept per "app + user" pair, and the window is a moving 24 hours. Meta deliberately does not disclose the number of calls per user

source, checked 2026-08-04

Word for word (the rate limits per Instagram professional account): the Conversations API — "Your app can make 2 calls per second per Instagram professional account"; the Send API for text, links, reactions and stickers — "Your app can make 100 calls per second per Instagram professional account"; for audio and video — "Your app can make 10 calls per second per Instagram professional account"; private replies to comments on live streams — "100 calls per second per Instagram professional account"; private replies to comments on posts and reels — "Your app can make 750 calls per hour per Instagram professional account"

These are the limits of programmatic correspondence; Meta does not publish limits on private messages from the application. Calls for correspondence are counted separately from the other calls of the Instagram Platform

source, checked 2026-08-04

Word for word: "If this limit is exceeded or if CPU or total time limits are exceeded, the app or user may be throttled. API requests made by a throttled user or app will fail." "Once a rate limit is reached, any subsequent requests made by your app will fail and the API will return an error code until enough time has passed for the call count to drop below the limit." The term of the slowdown is not named by a number; it is proposed that the current expenditure be looked at in the response headers X-App-Usage and X-Business-Use-Case-Usage

Meta does not announce the duration of the slowdown: its removal is tied to the counter falling below the limit, not to a fixed term. The temporary blocks on actions in the application are spoken of by the help centre, which is closed to Claude's agents

source, checked 2026-08-04

Sources diverge: For publication through programmatic access two different numbers are announced on one page. The "Rate Limit" section: "Instagram accounts are limited to 100 API-published posts within a 24-hour moving period. Carousels count as a single post." The "Create a Carousel Container" section on the same page: "Accounts are limited to 50 published posts within a 24-hour period. Publishing a carousel counts as a single post." For publication by hand in the application a daily limit is not announced

A direct contradiction within one Meta document: 100 and 50 posts per moving 24 hours. Publication by hand from the application is not described by this limit, and the help centre help.instagram.com is closed to Claude's agents by the robots.txt file (User-agent: ClaudeBot, Disallow: /), so there is nowhere to check the figure of the manual limit

source, checked 2026-08-04

the rules are shared across all Meta products: «The Community Standards outline what is and isn't allowed on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads». Among the sections are Fraud, Scams, and Deceptive Practices; Inauthentic Behavior; Spam; Account Integrity; Authentic Identity Representation; Misinformation

There is no separate body of rules for Instagram alone

source, checked 2026-07-28

API access

Capabilities. retrieving and publishing media; managing comments and replying; metadata and metrics on business accounts and creators; sending and receiving messages

source, checked 2026-07-27

an Instagram Business or Creator Account is required; personal accounts are not mentioned as supported

Matches Hootsuite's requirement: a business account is needed on the PLATFORM side, not the service side

source, checked 2026-07-27

the platform has TWO different APIs: the «Instagram API with Facebook Login» — «Requires an Instagram Business or Creator Account linked to a Facebook Page»; and the «Instagram API with Instagram Login» for professionals (businesses and creators), where no Facebook page requirement is stated

source, checked 2026-07-28

whether a Facebook page is needed is determined by WHICH of the two APIs a service uses, not by the service itself. This explains the contradiction: Buffer says the link is required, Planable says it is optional

source, checked 2026-07-28

the remaining daily allowance can be queried from the API with a separate content_publishing_limit method

A service can show the user the remaining allowance if this method is used

source, checked 2026-07-28

Sources diverge: both APIs are designed for professional accounts (Business and Creator); publishing from a personal profile through the API is not described in the documentation

source, checked 2026-07-28

Languages

the home page interface language is en; the language versions declared are af, am-et, ar, bg, bn, cs, da, de, el, en, en-gb, es and 63 more

The language is taken from the markup attribute, the versions from hreflang. The "and N more" figure is OUR count of the remaining hreflang links in the markup, not a claim by the source: that number does not appear on the page.

source, checked 2026-07-28

metrics

The views metric verbatim: «The number of times your content was played or displayed. Content includes reels, posts, stories» — that is, a view with no duration threshold: playback or display on screen. The former impressions metric verbatim: «The number of times your posts, stories, reels, videos and live videos were on screen, including in ads» — deprecated from v22.0 and for all versions after 21.04.2025

help.instagram.com is closed by name: robots.txt contains «User-agent: ClaudeBot Disallow: /» — the API documentation was used instead (developers.facebook.com, robots: Allow:/). The views metric is marked «in development». Meta has merged a video view and a post impression into the single views metric — there are no thresholds in seconds

source, checked 2026-08-07

Verbatim: «The number of unique accounts that have seen your content, at least once, including in ads» — unique accounts, including the reach of advertising; the metric is estimated and supports time_series aggregation (day/week/28 days)

Reach is counted by accounts rather than people (one person may have several accounts) and is explicitly marked as an estimate

source, checked 2026-08-07

accounts_engaged verbatim: «The number of accounts that have interacted with your content, including in ads» (estimated; the interactions are likes, saves, comments, shares and replies). total_interactions verbatim: «The total number of post interactions, story interactions, reels interactions, video interactions and live video interactions, including any interactions on boosted content»

Meta does not define an engagement rate — it gives absolute counters

source, checked 2026-08-07

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