How many hashtags to use in 2026, platform by platform

Ask how many hashtags to use and you will still find guides that say 20 to 30 for Instagram. That advice stopped working on December 18, 2025, when Instagram began limiting posts and reels to five hashtags. The other networks set their own rules: Threads takes one topic per post, X suggests two, YouTube ignores every hashtag on a video that has more than 60, and several platforms publish no number at all.

The studies do not settle it either. They come from companies that sell social media software, as eksis does, and one of the best known was run while Instagram still allowed 30. This guide puts the limits and each platform's own advice side by side as they read on October 21, 2026.

The short answer

On Instagram, use five hashtags at most on a post or reel.
On Threads, add one topic tag. A post can carry only one.
On X, use one or two. X recommends "no more than 2 hashtags per post."
On YouTube, add a few relevant hashtags to the title or description. Above 60, YouTube ignores all of them.
TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, and Bluesky publish no count. Use a small set that names the topic.
Everywhere, write the caption in the words people search for. Instagram says captions help people find your content.

Hashtag limits by platform

Platform	Hard limit	What the platform recommends	Source
Instagram	5 per post or reel	Fewer, more targeted hashtags instead of many generic ones	Instagram Help Center; @creators on Threads, Dec 18, 2025
Threads	1 topic tag per post	A topic of 1 to 50 characters, no periods or ampersands	Meta Threads API docs
X	None beyond the post length	No more than 2 per post	X Help Center
YouTube	More than 60 and every hashtag on the video is ignored	Don't over-tag; only hashtags related to the video	YouTube Help
TikTok	No count published; 2,200-character caption through its posting API	No number published	TikTok for Developers
LinkedIn	None found	None found	No current LinkedIn page found
Facebook	None stated	No number; one word, no spaces	Facebook Help Center
Pinterest	None stated for hashtags; up to 10 topic tags	Keywords in Pin titles and descriptions	Pinterest Help Center
Bluesky	None stated	No number	Bluesky developer docs

Instagram: five, and two Meta pages that disagree

Instagram's @creators account announced the change on Threads on December 18, 2025: "Starting today, Instagram will allow up to 5 hashtags in a reel or post." Social Samosa quoted Instagram's reason, that "using fewer (up to 5) more targeted hashtags, rather than many generic ones" can improve "both your content's performance and people's experience on Instagram," and reported that Instagram asked creators to avoid generic tags such as #reels and #explore.

The Help Center now reads: "You can use up to 5 tags on a post. If you include more than 5 tags on a single photo/video, your comment won't post." In June 2025, Later quoted the older wording: "You can use up to 30 tags on a post." Read plainly, the new second sentence ties the cap to the photo or video, so moving extra tags into the first comment is not a way around it.

One Meta page still lists the old number. The developer reference for publishing through the API says a caption allows "Maximum 2200 characters, 30 hashtags, and 20 @ tags." Plan for five anyway: that is the number Instagram announced and the one its Help Center gives.

Threads: one topic per post

Threads uses topic tags instead of a hashtag list. TechCrunch reported on December 8, 2023 that "Users will be able to tag only one topic per post to avoid tag spam." Meta's developer docs say the same today: one topic tag per post, and if the text holds several tags, the first valid one becomes the topic.

X: two at most

X's Help Center says: "We recommend using no more than 2 hashtags per post as best practice, but you may use as many hashtags in a post as you like." It adds that hashtags help posts "show more easily in X search."

YouTube: the 60 rule

YouTube's Help page says: "If a video or playlist has more than 60 hashtags, we'll ignore each hashtag on that content." It warns that "Over-tagging may result in the removal of your video from your uploads or from search," and that unrelated hashtags can get a video removed. Hashtags can go in the title or the description, and "up to three hashtags that are considered most engaging will appear by your video title."

Older guides give 15 instead of 60. That was YouTube's figure in 2018, when Tubefilter quoted it, and Hootsuite's hashtag guide from May 2024 still says "Don't use more than 15 hashtags." YouTube Help says 60 today.

TikTok: no published number

We found no hashtag count or recommended number from TikTok. Its Content Posting API caps a video caption at 2,200 characters ("The maximum length is 2200 in UTF-16 runes"), and hashtags sit inside that caption. TikTok's newsroom lists video information among the signals behind the For You feed, which "might include details like captions, sounds, and hashtags."

LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, and Bluesky

None of these four publishes a hashtag cap. We found no current limit or recommended count in LinkedIn's Help Center. Facebook's Help Center says hashtags "turn topics and phrases into clickable links," must be one word without spaces, and gives no number.

Pinterest lets you put hashtags in a Pin description, but its distribution advice is about keywords: "Include relevant keywords in your Pin title, Pin descriptions, board titles, board descriptions." You can also tag up to 10 related topics on a Pin. Bluesky's developer docs describe a hashtag as a rich-text tag and set no count.

What the studies found

Most hashtag studies look at Instagram, and they disagree.

Study	Data	Finding
Later (article dated June 4, 2025)	18.1 million Instagram feed posts published through Later	Posts with 20 hashtags had the highest average reach; posts with 30 had the most likes and comments
Socialinsider (April 18, 2022)	Over 75 million Instagram posts, March 2021 to March 2022	Hashtag count "does not influence post distribution"; 3 to 4 hashtags had the highest engagement rate by impressions, 3.41%
Fanpage Karma (undated)	1.6 million Instagram posts	5 hashtags reached the most people, 2% more than none; 1 to 3 did slightly worse than none; more than 5 did worst

All three companies sell social media tools. Two of the three found the best results at three to five hashtags. Later's 20 to 30 advice predates the five-tag cap, so you cannot follow it now. Fanpage Karma's page gives no date or method, and Socialinsider's data is more than four years old.

Hootsuite, another social media software company, gives per-platform ranges in its May 2024 guide: 1 to 2 for X, 2 to 3 for Facebook, 1 to 5 for LinkedIn, 2 to 5 for Pinterest, and 3 to 5 for Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Those are recommendations, not dataset results.

Hashtags, keywords, and reach

Instagram has said that hashtags sort posts more than they spread them. Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, captioned a May 31, 2024 video: "While hashtags can help people interested in specific topics find your content, they won't necessarily increase your content's visibility."

In August 2026, Instagram's @creators account posted caption tips saying a caption "helps people find your content." Social Media Today quoted the slides: "Captions add relevant context, spark conversation, and tell search engines what your content is about." Read with the five-tag cap, the advice is to let the caption do the search work and use hashtags to label the topic.

YouTube points the same way: "The more tags you add, the less relevant they become for viewers or listeners who are searching." Pinterest's distribution advice, quoted above, asks for keywords. So write the caption first, in the words a person would type into search, then add the few hashtags that name the topic precisely.

Hashtags in eksis

In the composer (Create post on the Posts page), write a line or two, then click the tag icon in the toolbar, Suggest hashtags. The panel, Suggested for this caption, reads your caption and offers tags; with fewer than 10 characters written, it asks you to write a little first. Click a tag to insert it at the cursor, or click Add all to put the remaining tags on their own line at the end. Tags already in the caption are marked Already in this caption.

The list holds up to 12 tags when Instagram is the only network selected and up to 10 when another network is in the mix, so for Instagram pick five or fewer. Each request uses one AI request from your monthly allowance: 15 on Free, 300 on Starter, 1,000 on Premium, and 3,000 on Agency (Compare plans).

eksis checks hashtag counts as you type only for Instagram, and as of October 2026 that check still uses 30, the number in Meta's developer reference. It will not flag a post with six, so count to five yourself. It does not count hashtags in the first comment.

To give each network its own tags, select several channels and open a channel's tab next to All channels to tailor that channel's text. That is where Threads gets its one topic and X its two.

The First comment field works for Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Threads, X, and Bluesky, but not TikTok, LinkedIn, or Pinterest. On X it goes out as a second post and uses one more X credit. Hashtag sets you reuse can live in Saved snippets, shared across the workspace. eksis has no hashtag performance report.

Caption length limits for 9 platforms: hashtags count toward every limit.
How the first comment works on each platform
How to use AI for social media posts

Sources

All were read on October 21, 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many hashtags can I use on Instagram in 2026?

Five on a post or reel. Instagram announced the cap on December 18, 2025, and its Help Center says "You can use up to 5 tags on a post." Meta's developer reference still lists 30, but plan for five.

Can I put extra hashtags in the first comment on Instagram?

Not as a way past the cap. Instagram's Help Center says that if you include more than five tags on a single photo or video, "your comment won't post." Keep the total for the whole post at five.

Do hashtags still increase reach?

Not much, by Instagram's own account. Adam Mosseri said in May 2024 that hashtags help people find a post but "won't necessarily increase your content's visibility." Socialinsider found hashtag count did not affect distribution, while Fanpage Karma found five hashtags reached 2% more people than none.

How many hashtags should I use on TikTok?

TikTok publishes no number. Its posting API allows a 2,200-character caption with the hashtags inside it. Hootsuite suggests 3 to 5, so start there.

What happens if a YouTube video has too many hashtags?

If a video has more than 60 hashtags, YouTube ignores every hashtag on it. YouTube also warns that over-tagging can remove a video from your uploads or from search.

Can a Threads post have more than one tag?

No. Threads allows one topic tag per post. If the text contains several tags, Meta's developer docs say the first valid one becomes the topic.

How many hashtags to use on each platform in 2026

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