What is the Best Instagram Caption length?

How long should your Instagram caption be? What’s the best caption length? We offer you this, plus quick tips in today’s toolkit.

Posted 3 years ago

Written by

Julia Cohen

Posted 3 years ago

Nailing the right Instagram caption can be tough, especially when there’s so much you want to say, but have to condense it into a small paragraph, or even just one sentence. Like everything on Instagram, you can apply a strategy to your Instagram captions, namely, how long they should be. But, what is the best Instagram caption length, and how long can they be in the first place? In today’s Instagram toolkit, we give you the run-down on all things caption-related, so let’s go!

Want to learn how to craft the most engaging captions? We’ve got a course for that!

What is the Best Instagram Caption length?

First thing’s first, how long can an Instagram caption even be? ✍️

The answer: 2,200 characters. That’s a lot of characters, especially when you compare it to TikTok (100 characters) or Twitter (280 characters). However, even though you have 2,200 characters doesn’t mean you should, or have to use all of them. As Instagram is such a fast-moving platform, it’s likely people won’t read your entire caption, unless they are really engaged with and invested in you.

How much of your Instagram caption is visible? 👀

When scrolling through Instagram, 125 characters are visible per post, before you have to click the ‘…’ icon to expand the text. You can use this to your advantage, by creating a hook in the first line of your caption, that will make people want to read the rest.

So, what’s the sweet spot? ✅

The first thing to think about is the type of content you are posting. Is it purely visual/entertaining, or is it educational? If it is more for entertainment, it’s best to let your content do the talking and create a short snappy caption to go with it. The average attention span is just 8 seconds, so your first caption line should be engaging and interesting enough to encourage people to read on. For shorter captions, the ideal length is around 138-150 characters.

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However, if you opt for more educational content, or content that teaches your community, you might want to opt for a longer caption in order to drive engagement. Long captions tend to work better with self-help, mindfulness, beauty blogs and travel accounts. If you want to create a conversation or provide more information, aim for longer captions (400-500 characters) in order to promote more comments and replies and up your engagement.

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💡 Remember: A caption shouldn’t just be long because you have the characters to spare. Think about it, and make sure that you are telling a story, or at least adding value, and don’t make your caption too long.

Quick caption tips and tricks to apply 👍

Create a hook that will make your audience want to read on. Think of it like click-baiting, but for Instagram captions.
Be descriptive in your captions and think about the content you are posting. Instagram uses machine-learning technology to understand exactly what is in your photos, so using descriptive words will get you on side.
Need to save space? Put your hashtags as a first comment, so you still gain reach, without compromising what you’ve written.
Schedule your content in advance, to take advantage of your creative juices when they are flowing. You can write your captions ahead of time, pop them into Flick’s scheduler and let them go out as needed.
If you do add hashtags in your caption, separate them using line breaks. It’s important to use the right hashtags in order to expand your reach.
Struggle with writing? Take our free caption writing course!