How to Use Hashtags on Instagram in 2025

Instagram hashtag strategy has changed significantly over the past few years. What worked in 2019 (30 maximum hashtags, all popular) actively hurts your reach today. This guide covers the current best practices for hashtag strategy in 2025 — backed by what's actually working for accounts across every niche.

How Instagram Hashtags Work in 2025

Instagram uses hashtags as content classification signals. When you add #fitnessmotivation to your post, you're telling the algorithm: show this to people who engage with fitness motivation content.

The algorithm then decides whether your content is high-quality enough to show on that hashtag's page. It looks at:

- Engagement rate in the first hour
- How closely your content matches the hashtag topic
- Your account's history with that hashtag
- Whether users who see your post engage with it

This is why irrelevant hashtags hurt you — if you put #luxury on a fitness post and luxury fashion lovers see it, don't engage, and scroll past, the algorithm reads that as a negative signal.

How Many Hashtags to Use on Instagram

Instagram's own advice in 2025 is to use 3–5 highly relevant hashtags. However, many creators still see strong results with 15–20 when those hashtags are genuinely niche-specific.

The general consensus among high-growth accounts:

- Reels: 5–10 hashtags work best. Keep captions short.
- Feed posts: 15–20 hashtags in the caption or first comment
- Stories: 1–3 hashtags (or hide them behind a sticker)
- Carousels: 15–20 hashtags — carousels get the highest save rates so more hashtags = more discovery

Avoid using all 30 hashtags with generic tags like #love and #instagood. These tags have billions of posts and provide zero meaningful reach.

The Three-Tier Hashtag Strategy

This is the framework used by most growth-focused Instagram accounts:

Tier 1 — High Volume (3–5 tags, 1M+ posts):
Broad industry tags. Your post won't rank at the top of these — but being associated with them helps the algorithm understand your niche.
Examples: #fitness, #travel, #business, #fashion

Tier 2 — Mid Niche (8–10 tags, 50K–500K posts):
This is where most of your discovery happens. Specific enough to rank, large enough to matter.
Examples: #homegymworkout, #uktravel, #smallbusinessuk, #sustainablefashion

Tier 3 — Micro Niche (5–7 tags, under 50K posts):
Your content ranks at the top of these almost immediately. The audience is smaller but highly engaged and relevant.
Examples: #londonhomegym, #ukfemaletraveller, #sustainableukbrand

Hashtags to Avoid on Instagram

Some hashtags are banned or flagged as spam by Instagram. Using them — even unknowingly — can suppress your entire post's reach.

Banned hashtags include: #beautyblogger (periodically banned), #eggplant, #desk, #dirtygirl, #valentinesday (around holidays)

You can check if a hashtag is banned by searching it on Instagram. If the recent posts section is missing, the hashtag is likely restricted.

Spammy hashtags to avoid: #follow4follow, #like4like, #followme, #likeforlike — these attract bot accounts and tank your engagement rate.

Overly generic hashtags: #love (2.1 billion posts), #instagood, #photooftheday — too broad to drive any meaningful discovery.

Where to Put Hashtags: Caption vs Comments

Both work equally well for algorithmic reach. The choice is purely aesthetic:

In the caption: Hashtags index immediately when you post. Slightly more visible, which some accounts use to signal their niche.

In the first comment: Keeps your caption clean and readable. Post your comment within the first 60 seconds of publishing for the same indexing benefit.

A popular middle ground: write your caption, add a few line breaks, then add hashtags at the bottom of the caption so they're technically there but out of the reader's direct view.