Instagram has some daily limits to detect bots and spam users and prevent them from automated activities for the app’s safety. Instagram wants real people and real engagements. So, if you are using Instagram to grow your business, you should know these rules and limitations to keep your IG account safe and make good progress on this powerful platform.
If you do not pay attention to these simple Instagram limits in your marketing strategies, Instagram’s algorithm will detect you as a bot or spam. Consequently, Instagram will ban or block your account, which is a real pain.
Therefore, it is necessary to know answers to questions like how many actions does Instagram allow per day? What is Instagram following/unfollowing limit per hour? How many accounts can you unfollow per day? How many photos can you post on Instagram? No worries, we are here to answer all these questions and more on Instagram limits. But first, let’s see what Instagram’s daily limits exactly are and why you should be concerned about them.
While Instagram’s daily limits are implemented to try and combat spam and abuse, honest marketers are also impacted. The good news is that you can beat Instagram’s daily limits with a bit of creativity. How? Keep reading this article to find out.
Note: Note: Grow your IG account with AiGrow organically.
Instagram’s Daily Limits Explained
Let’s take a moment to discuss precisely what Instagram’s daily limits are. Sometimes, you may receive the above message, ‘try again later. We limit how often you can do certain things on Instagram to protect our community,’ meaning that you have violated Instagram’s daily limits.
In most cases, the freeze or suspension lifts in a couple of hours, but users should wait at least 48 hours if it doesn’t happen. Nevertheless, some accounts may experience longer suspensions (up to two weeks) for Instagram to remove the blocked actions.
Now, we will examine Instagram’s limitations that caused this message to appear. Then we will talk about Instagram’s new rules in 2023.
Instagram Limits for Established and Trusted Accounts
If you have had your Instagram account for months or years, you still need to be aware of its limitations and rules. Listed below are some possible reasons why Instagram limits your already established account. Let us explore them together.
Instagram’s Daily Limits – Like
Instagram allows you to like 300 to 400 photos each day, but we don’t recommend doing more than 200 likes a day. If you want to keep up with the Instagram like limit, you’d better not do more than 30 likes per hour.
Instagram Follow/Unfollow Limits
It is similar to likes. You are Instagram follow limit per day, every 28 – 38 seconds. But also under 200 an hour.
Note: If you are using follow/unfollow method to build your brand on Instagram, it’s best to start slowly and then gradually increase the number of following and unfollowing over time.
As an example:
- In week 1: 50 follows/unfollows per day
- In week 2: 100 follows/unfollows per day
- In week 3: 150 follows/unfollows per day
Instagram Comment Limits
You need to keep those under 12-14 an hour, with a 350 – 400 second break between each one.
Do not comment on other IG users’ posts too fast because Instagram might consider you a bot and block your account. Therefore, wait between 20-30 seconds between each like or comment.
Instagram Message Limit
There is no publicly known limit for sending DMs; however, trusted accounts are expected to send 50-100 DMs/day.
Here are some other tips to not get blocked because of the Instagram DM limit:
- Don’t send the same Instagram messages to multiple people. Write and send different text versions of the same message.
- Send personalized messages to avoid sounding like Instagram spam messages.
- If you receive a lot of DMs, reply to them gradually (a few in the morning, mid-day, and afternoon, to avoid getting action-blocked).
Instagram’s Daily Limits for New Accounts
If you have a new IG account, the situation is slightly different, and Instagram has more limitations for you. Therefore, you must be more cautious to prove to Instagram that you are not an Instagram bot. To be safe, you should follow these Instagram rules for a new account:
- In the first 12-20 days, you must wait 36-48 seconds between actions.
- In addition, the most significant Instagram daily limit is that you can only make a total of 500 actions in a day. The total Instagram limit is 500 actions a day (including following, unfollowing, and liking).
- New accounts should not send more than 20-50 DMs/day.
- To be safe, post no more than five times a day. Consider waiting 10-15 minutes between each post (or a few hours). For extra safety, it is best to post only once per day.
Note: Four weeks after creating your IG account, you can take action and send more DMs.
Instagram’s Daily Limits in 2023
Let’s review Instagram’s daily limits in brief:
- 7-13 follows per hour or 100-150 follows per day
- 300-400 likes per day (of followed accounts)
- 2-5comments per hour or 20-30 comments per day
- up to 10 DMs per hour under strict considerations
As time passes, Instagram is trying more and more to stop bots and automation. That’s why you have to look and act naturally to avoid getting banned. The numbers mentioned below are just an anchor. But the exact numbers depend on your account and your history so far.
Instagram Follow Limit in 2023
Let’s see how many people can you follow on Instagram per hour? You can follow about ten accounts per hour during your awake time, leading to a maximum of 100-150 follows per day. However, be careful not to follow them at once, as it may result in getting shadowbanned on Instagram.
Pro Tip: Instagram won’t let you follow more than 7,500 people. Anyone who’s currently following more than 7,500 people did so before this change.
Instagram Unfollow Limit in 2023
If you want to mass unfollow on Instagram, don’t do it at once for the safety of your account! You can unfollow 60 accounts per hour and 150 accounts per day. If you surpass this Instagram unfollow limit, you may temporarily lose access to your account.
Instagram Like Limits in 2023
When liking posts, make sure you like posts from the accounts you follow; otherwise, you increase the chance of getting banned. The best practice would be to like three last posts of each new account you follow, which will result in a total number of 300-400 likes per day.
Instagram Comment Limit in 2023
Comments and DMs are more critical. Instagram is much stricter about commenting, especially if you comment on posts you don’t know. You can start with 3-5 comments per day and gradually increase it to a maximum of 30 comments per day.
Instagram Direct Message Limits in 2023
Numbers are almost the same as Instagram comment limits (i.e., 30 DMs per day). But when sending DMs, you have to consider some other notes:
- Never send the same message to many accounts. (what bots and automation do)
- Try to rotate between several DM formats.
- Personalize your direct messages. (make sure to include the name and ID of your audience)
- Never attach a link to your DM if it’s your first interaction with that user.
- Try to plan your DM activities during the whole day.
How to Beat Instagram Limits
Instagram has many limitations for eager marketers. We have already explained how to beat the URL limit, but what can we do against action limits?
To succeed in growing your community on Instagram, here are a few tips to follow:
#1. Go Targeted to Avoid Exceeding Instagram’s Daily Limits
If you want the most return on your invested time, you should go after your target audience. If you have a fitness page, interact with people interested in fitness. You can find your target users (who are your potential followers) in your competitors’ follower list by liking some fitness posts, commenting on some questions, providing valuable answers, and so on.
AiGrow is an all-in-one Instagram management tool powered by AI technology to help you extract a list of your potential followers. With AiGrow, you don’t need to worry about breaking Instagram’s rules and limitations. Just set your target accounts and let AiGrow generate the list.
#2. Go Organic to Avoid Exceeding Instagram’s Daily Limits
If you want to take many actions and still don’t get arrested (shadowbanned or action-blocked) by Instagram, you have to do your marketing activities in a natural manner. A normal user will search for hashtags, visit posts, like them, leave meaningful comments, visit accounts, watch videos to the end, send DMs to accepted lists, etc. All this requires you to spend 10-14 hours a day interacting with people and influencers in your niche.
Alternatively, you can use the best Instagram account management service. After signing up with AiGrow, a dedicated Instagram account manager will take action on your behalf to grow your followers organically and safely. AiGrow’s growth packages will cost only a few dollars a day. Here’s the list of all the packages and their features:
Your Main Options to Get Around Instagram’s Daily Limits
Many Instagram gurus recommend starting slower, around the new account range, then working your way up as your page gets more established.
Also, spreading out your Instagram tasks is a good idea. For example, reply to your DMs in the mornings and in the afternoons, comment, or like other users’ accounts. Doing so can help you avoid going over Instagram limitations.
But what if you don’t have time to wait? What if you already have one established Instagram brand and want to work towards another?
Here are some things you can do.
1. Get an Instagram Account Manager
An Instagram account manager keeps you updated on the platform news and is aware of any updates to Instagram algorithms.
He is also professional in getting close to Instagram’s daily limits but not exceeding them. Some platforms like AiGrow offer account management services for those looking for organic and rapid growth for their Instagram page. All you have to sign up on AiGrow for free and leave the work to your dedicated account manager.
An AI-powered system helps the team of Instagram experts to detect the best audience for your page (interested in your niche, around your location, using the same hashtags, etc.) who are potential followers for you. Then your account manager will start interacting with your target audience to get more followers. Besides the professional growth service, AiGrow offers some helpful tools, including:
- Instagram growth service completely manually
- Very reliable mass unfollow tool
- link-in-bio tool
To better understand how AiGrow performs, set up a free account on their platform and see the results yourself.
2. Using Multiple Pages
It is also known as the mother-child growth method. The chances are that you’ve probably seen many other pages using this strategy. By creating several Instagram accounts with links in their bios to your main account and reaching Instagram’s daily limits for all of those accounts, you can effectively supersede the originally intended limit while still directing traffic to your main page.
You can create your own mother-child system and drive Instagram traffic toward your main (or mother) page. For example, let’s say you’re a sports company. You have multiple departments – basketball, baseball, and hockey. For every department, you create a different Instagram page (children accounts).
There are a couple of different options you can pursue from here:
- If you’re trying to drive traffic to your website, you can link to your store in the bio of each of your specialized Instagram pages.
- If you’re trying to build up your following on your main Instagram page, you can link to your main page in the bios of all your specialized pages.
3. Using The Same Account Daily
As we mentioned, there’s a significant difference between a trusted account and a brand new account. In general, the older and more active your Instagram account is, the more actions you will be allowed to perform daily. This is a rare case where slow and steady can win the race if you use your limited actions wisely early on.
Put simply, the longer you own your Instagram page, and the more you use it regularly, the more actions you will be able to perform daily.
If you have a personal Instagram account, you could convert your personal account into a business account. This way, you can perform more actions from your business account right away.
It is easier if your business is tied to your name (self-help, fitness trainer, consultant, etc.). Otherwise, if you know that you will soon be creating your own business, create an Instagram account and begin warming it up as quickly as possible.
FAQs On Instagram’s Daily Limits
Below are some of the most frequently asked questions about Instagram’s daily limit. Take a look and get your questions answered!
Q1. What Happens If You Exceed Instagram’s Daily Limits?
While you may find these Instagram limitations annoying, this is all for our sake. Doing lots of actions in a short time is a sign of bot and spam activity. Instagram bans these actions to keep the platform safe and our accounts secure.
For a while, a username would experience an account ban without getting even notified. One can have almost no activity on the platform except for scrolling the feed in such a case. The good news is that from July 2019, Instagram has updated its policy. From the time Instagram sends a pre-ban notification to the user and tells them that they are at the risk of being shut down. The message also instructs the user on how to prevent Instagram from shutting down their account.
Q2. Is There A Limit to How Many People You Can Tag on Instagram?
You can tag up to 20 people in a post on Instagram.
Q3. What Is the Hashtag Limit on Instagram?
You can use up to 30 hashtags on a regular post, and up to 10 hashtags on a Story. If you try to include more hashtags, your comment or caption won’t post.
Also, avoid using banned hashtags on Instagram; otherwise, Instagram will limit your posts, and your followers won’t see them in hashtag searches.
Additionally, here is a list of top Instagram hashtags to boost engagement in 2023.
Q4. Does Instagram Have a Post Limit?
Instagram doesn’t have any post limits. In other words, you can post as many times as you wish during the day. Also, there is no limit on the all-time total post numbers.
Pro Tip: Although there is no Instagram post limit per hour, we recommend leaving time between each post (ideally, a few minutes or even hours). Make sure to schedule your Instagram posts at least five minutes apart if you plan to auto-post to Instagram. Keep in mind the lesser you look like a spammer, the better.
Q5. What Are the Limits to How Many Photos You Can Save on Instagram?
There is no limit to the number of posts, photos, or even videos you save on Instagram.
Q6. How Many Photos Can You Share Per Post on Instagram?
If you want to share an Instagram post with multiple photos or videos, you can only have up to 10 images and videos in a single post.
Q7. When Will You Get Banned for Unfollowing on Instagram?
However, it’s temporary, but Instagram will ban your account for a short time once your unfollow number exceeds 100-150 per day. That’s why many say, ‘Instagram is blocking me from unfollowing’. It’s simple: whenever you act like a bot, Instagram will limit you. In other words, there will be no certain Instagram limits for those IG users as long as Instagram does not detect your behavior as spammy or unusual.
Q8. How Long Is the Instagram UnFollow Ban? What about Instagram Follow and Like Ban?
Based on your actions, Instagram’s temporary ban can be from 1 to 48 hours. But the usual banning time is 24 to 48 hours. The follow-up actions can make this time shorter or longer.
Q9. Will Instagram Ban You Permanently If You Ignore the Warnings?
Yes, the new Instagram algorithm will remove any account that shows a sign of spam or bot. For example, mass following or unfollowing in a short period of time is one of the known signs of spammers. First, you will get banned temporarily for up to 48 hours, and ignorance will make Instagram ban you permanently.
Q10. Are There Daily Limits for Mass Deleting Instagram Posts?
No, there is no limit to deleting all Instagram posts at once if you have created your IG account for more than a month. So, feel free to mass delete your posts whenever needed!
Q11. What Is an Instagram Caption/Comment Character Limit?
You are free to use up to 2200 characters in captions and comments.
Final Thought on Instagram’s Daily Limits
In this post, we talked about Instagram’s daily limits in 2023 that every Instagrammer needs to know. If you do not follow these Instagram limitations or rules, you are more likely to see the notifications like ‘Action Block’ or get temporarily or permanently banned by Instagram.
Being creative can help you circumvent some of Instagram’s daily limits you may encounter, but it is only one small part of effective Instagram marketing. With the new updates on the Instagram algorithm, using proven Instagram growth tools has almost become impossible. Thus, people and businesses are using human-managed services like AiGrow, where an Instagram expert will take care of your account and grow it safely and organically. Since AiGrow follows all Instagram rules and policies, it will keep your IG account secure and flourishing.