Hashtags are a central tool for building organic reach on Instagram. With the right hashtags, you can reach new audiences, make your content easier to discover, and strengthen your brand presence. No wonder many users wonder how many hashtags to use on Instagram. The question sounds simple, but numerous studies provide contradictory answers.

In this article, we bring clarity. We analyzed two and a half million posts to determine the optimal number of hashtags on Instagram. We will show you how hashtags affect interactions and reach – and how to strategically choose the best hashtags for your content.

How Many Hashtags Can I Use on Instagram?

Let’s start with a basic but crucial question. Is there a maximum number of hashtags on Instagram? The answer might surprise some: Yes, there is. You can use a maximum of 30 hashtags per Instagram post.

But just knowing how many hashtags are allowed on Instagram doesn’t answer the more important question: How many should you actually use?

 

How Many Hashtags Should You Use on Instagram? Different Perspectives

Opinions on how many hashtags to use on Instagram vary widely. Many social media managers assume they should use no more than 3–5 hashtags per post. There are two main reasons for this belief:

1. For years, the idea has circulated that using too many hashtags looks spammy or is penalized by the algorithm.
2. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri has publicly stated multiple times that hashtags no longer affect reach in 2025. In addition, Instagram removed the option to follow hashtags at the end of last year.

Instead of relying on data, many social media managers blindly follow these recommendations or simply go with their gut. Yes, long hashtag lists can look messy. But in the end, what matters most for brands, creators, and social media managers are measurable results. To deliver a data-based answer to the question of how many hashtags you should really use on Instagram, we have analyzed 2.4 million posts.

How Many Hashtags Do Instagram Users Actually Use?

At the beginning of our analysis, we looked at the average number of hashtags used per Instagram post. The result: more than 90% of all posts contained between 0 and 10 hashtags.

The chart above shows how conservatively most Instagram users employ hashtags in 2025. Here’s what we found out about overall hashtag usage on Instagram:

• Over 25% of posts used no hashtags at all.
• 48% used just 1–5 hashtags.
• 19% used 6–10 hashtags.
• Only 7% used more than 10 hashtags – despite the 30-hashtag limit.

As a result, the vast majority of brands and content creators are far from using the maximum number of hashtags on Instagram and tapping their full potential. In 2025, using 11+ hashtags is clearly a minority strategy.

While this distribution paints a realistic picture of current hashtag usage, it doesn’t yet reveal how successful these strategies really are.

Do More Hashtags Equal More Reach?

To evaluate the effectiveness of using hashtags, we examined how many people the average post reaches relative to the follower count. When it comes to achieving the highest reach, our analysis clearly shows that the best number of hashtags for Instagram posts lies between 21 and 25 hashtags (10.5%), closely followed by posts with 26–30 hashtags (10.1%).

Key insights:

• Posts with 0 hashtags reach 7.1% of followers.
• Posts with 1–5 hashtags reach only 5.8% – the lowest of all.
• Reach per follower steadily increases as the number of hashtags increases – especially between 6 and 25 hashtags.

This suggests that using just a few poorly chosen hashtags results in less visibility than not using any at all. These hashtags likely don’t send a clear thematic signal to the Instagram algorithm, nor do they attract a relevant audience via hashtag search. A positive correlation with reach only appears with a higher number of carefully selected hashtags.

However, it is important to consider that individuals or organizations strategically using the maximum number of hashtags on Instagram tend to employ more sophisticated social media and community management strategies, which positively impact reach regardless of the number of hashtags used.

Despite these methodological limitations, the overall pattern remains remarkably consistent. More hashtags tend to correlate with greater reach – across multiple scales. For social media managers and content creators, this is at least a strong signal not to dismiss the strategy of using the optimal number of hashtags for Instagram prematurely.

When it Comes to Engagement, the Ideal Number of Hashtags on Instagram Is Between 26 and 30

So even in 2025, using more hashtags still correlates with reaching a larger audience. However for most users, visibility is not the only relevant metric. That’s why we examined in a third chart how the number of hashtags affects the average post engagement (likes & comments per follower). The result is surprisingly clear – and it contradicts the common practices of many users.

Key findings:

• Posts without any hashtags achieve 0.26% engagement per follower.
• Posts with 1–5 hashtags perform worst at 0.20%.
• Posts with 26–30 hashtags generate the highest engagement at 0.39%.
• Posts using 21–25 hashtags also performed well at 0.32%.

The fact that 0 hashtags perform better than posts with 1–10 hashtags suggests that many posts using only a few hashtags are either poorly curated or randomly tagged – or rely on hashtags that don’t generate meaningful visibility. In other words, one or two irrelevant hashtags are not only useless, but they could even be counterproductive. 

Once again, however, caution is warranted. The high engagement among posts with 21–30 hashtags may not be caused solely by choosing the best number of hashtags for Instagram but rather, it may be due to other accompanying factors. These posts are very likely to come from professional accounts with strategically planned content.

Keep in mind that we’re looking at correlation, not proven causation. The strong performance of these posts could just as easily result from account quality, timing, or other unmeasured factors. Nevertheless, there appears to be an unmistakably consistent pattern. Those who use more hashtags in their Instagram posts – strategically and professionally – tend to have better chances of driving engagement. A thoughtful hashtag strategy remains an important tool for brands and social media managers alike.

The Value of a Hashtag Generator

Evidently, the number of hashtags used correlates with both reach and engagement. Using the best number of hashtags for Instagram remains a pivotal factor in determining the success of a social media post in 2025.

The fundamental point to take away from this article is: Don’t be put off by a visually overwhelming block of hashtags under your post. As we’ve seen, using relevant hashtags can boost both your reach and engagement.

But how do you know which hashtags are valuable additions to your caption? Irrelevant hashtags won’t connect you to your target audience. This is where Fanpage Karma’s Hashtag Composer comes in: Powered by AI, it provides up to 30 hashtags that are accurately selected and thematically relevant to your content, while also displaying their potential reach. Even better yet, the tool is completely free and easy to use.

Keep in mind that there are also useful methods you can use to research the best hashtags to use in your industry. This can also give you great insights not only into the highest performing hashtags for specific topics, but also what hashtags other profiles are using successfully.

Conclusion: How Many Hashtags You Should Use on Instagram

Our data-driven analysis clearly shows: More hashtags can lead to better results – both in terms of higher visibility and better engagement. In our analysis, posts using between 21 and 30 hashtags achieved more than double the interactions and reach compared to posts with 1–5 hashtags, which are currently the most common on Instagram.

This finding challenges the widespread belief that hashtags no longer have a real impact on Instagram. The data clearly shows: When used correctly, hashtags remain a powerful tool for increasing both your reach and your engagement. Of course, quantity isn’t everything – what matters most is that hashtags are relevant, targeted, and thematically appropriate. Using the right hashtag composer can help you find meaningful hashtags with a high potential reach.

What this means for you:

• Don’t blindly max out the 30-hashtag limit, but test larger, well-curated sets of hashtags.
• Focus on niche and community hashtags, but also utilize trending hashtags when they fit your content.
• Regularly track and evaluate your performance data.

For social media managers, this translates to one straightforward recommendation: Rethink and professionalize your hashtag strategies. Rather than using only a few or no hashtags at all, consider using up to 30 hashtags strategically – with a mix of trending, niche, and community hashtags. For the most accurate results, you should always validate these findings in your own A/B tests – tailored to your target audience, industry, and content strategy.

To determine which content is producing results, consider using a social media tool with powerful analytical insights, designed to monitor your progress and boost your performance. Fanpage Karma offers a free 14-day trial of its all-in-one social media tool that offers benchmarking, research, publishing, and community management features. 

Fanpage Karma also offers a free weekly webinar that can help you see how a social media tool can improve the performance of your profiles.