What are the requirements to directly publish images and videos to Instagram?

Here are some limitations and requirements of the Instagram API that you need to keep in mind:

  • Account type: Only Instagram Business accounts (linked to Facebook) are supported.
  • A number of posts: Each Instagram Business account will be limited to 25 API-published posts within a 24-hour moving period. This rate limit will not impact the mobile notification method.
  • Content-type: Multiple-image posts, single-video posts, User Tags, and Locations are supported (IGTV, Stories, Shopping tags, Branded content tags, and Filters, are not supported).
  • Hashtags: up to 30 hashtags per post are allowed.
  • @mentions: up to 20 mentions per post are allowed.

IMAGES MUST BE IN JPEG FORMAT and follow these standards:

  • Maximum file size: 8MB
  • Aspect ratio: Must be within a 4:5 to 1.91:1 range
  • Minimum width: 320 (will be scaled up to the minimum if necessary)
  • Maximum width: 1440 (will be scaled down to the maximum if necessary)
  • Height: Varies, depending on width and aspect ratio

VIDEOS IN MOV or MP4 FORMAT and following these requirements:

  • Container: MOV or MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14), no edit lists, MOOV atom at the front of the file.
  • Audio codec: AAC, 48khz sample rate maximum, 1 or 2 channels (mono or stereo).
  • Video codec: HEVC or H264, progressive scan, closed GOP, 4:2:0 chroma subsampling.
  • Frame rate: 23-60 FPS.

Specifications for Instagram Reels:

  • Container: MOV or MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14), no edit lists, Moov atom at the front of the file.
  • Audio codec: AAC, 48khz sample rate maximum, 1 or 2 channels (mono or stereo).
  • Video codec: HEVC or H264, progressive scan, closed GOP, 4:2:0 chroma subsampling.
  • Frame rate: 23-60 FPS.
  • Picture size:
    • Maximum columns (horizontal pixels): 1920
    • The required aspect ratio is between 0.01:1 and 10:1 but we recommend 9:16 to avoid cropping or blank spaces.
  • Video bitrate: VBR, 5Mbps maximum
  • Audio bitrate: 128kbps
  • Duration: 15 mins maximum, 3 seconds minimum
  • File size: 100MB maximum
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