Are you unsure of how long Instagram reels should be?
Instagram reels have a maximum length of three minutes, but should your reels really be that long?
In this post, we discuss Instagram reels length and reveal data on what role the length of your reels have on engagements.
We came to the conclusion that longer reels that are about one minute long are best for views and engagement, but let’s see how we got there.
How long can Instagram reels be?
Instagram reels had a maximum length of 90 seconds, or 1 minute and 30 seconds, for the longest time.
However, you can now publish reels that are as long as three minutes, or 180 seconds.
Videos do not need to be recorded in one take.
You can record a reel in multiple takes using multiple clips spliced together.
As you create the reel, Instagram will display a progress timer letting you see the current video length and how close you are to its length limits.
How long should Instagram reels be?
Reels can be up to three minutes in length, but do they need to have a specific video length in order to succeed?
According to an event hosted by Meta, which included an appearance by Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, reels that are longer than 90 seconds can hurt distribution.
There’s also an outdated figure from a Hootsuite study that’s no longer accessible that states that the ideal Instagram reel length is between seven and 15 seconds for high-performing reels.
Unfortunately, many blogs still quote this figure even though it no longer has a traceable source.
There’s not much video content you can pack into a reel that’s only 15 seconds long.
Longer videos give you the freedom to create whatever type of content you’d like for Instagram, all while still using a short-form video format.
How long is a typical Instagram reel?
I used a small pool of data for these figures, but even so, they demonstrate how the majority of Instagram reels are longer than 30 seconds.
I looked at 10 reels that were posted in a row on each account. I also used accounts of different sizes:
- @joshandjase – 578,000 followers
- @dylanpage.ning – 1.3 million followers
- @mythical – 3.7 million followers
The average video length for @joshandjase and @dylanpage.ning’s was one minute and nine seconds each while @mythical’s average video length was 42 seconds.
Here are a few additional statistics for each account:
| Avg. Views | Avg. Likes | Avg. Comments | Avg. Shares | Avg. Engagement Rate | |
| @joshandjase | 667,800 | 42,310 | 1,518 | 1,401 | 7.07% |
| @dylanpage.ning | 1,152,100 | 64,380 | 780 | 1,277 | 5.63% |
| @mythical | 955,000 | 54,817 | 224 | 9,366 | 5.13% |
The most interesting thing about this data is the correlation between follower count and engagement, specifically, that a lower follower count leads to a higher engagement rate.
But that’s not why we’re here. We’re here to see how video length plays a role in these numbers.
Honestly? It doesn’t play a huge role.
These are the statistics for each account’s longest videos:
| Length | Views | Likes | Comments | Shares | Engagement Rate | |
| @joshandjase | 1:23 | 360,000 | 21,300 | 672 | 273 | 6.18% |
| @dylanpage.ning | 1:30 | 1,400,000 | 77,500 | 1,656 | 2,481 | 5.83% |
| @mythical | 1:08 | 681,000 | 40,600 | 210 | 1,989 | 6.29% |
And these are the statistics for the shortest:
| Length | Views | Likes | Comments | Shares | Engagement Rate | |
| @joshandjase | 1:00 | 411,000 | 39,900 | 2,265 | 1,150 | 5.26% |
| @dylanpage.ning | 0:28 | 1,100,000 | 63,800 | 754 | 1,661 | 6.02% |
| @mythical | 0:05 | 162,000 | 2,413 | 18 | 51 | 1.53% |
Dylan actually had a few videos that hit the one minute and 30 second mark.
The others had view counts of 1.3 million, 833k and 812k, respectively. Their engagement rates were 7.9%, 5.02% and 5.79%.
The videos with the highest view counts of 1.6 million for Josh & Jase, 2 million for Dylan and 2.2 million for Good Mythical Morning had video lengths of 1:10, 1:03 and 0:53, respectively.
Their engagement rates were 9.36%, 5.79% and 10.34%.
It’s this reason that I believe the optimal Instagram reel length to be around one minute long.
How long should your videos be?
Does this mean every reel you post needs to have a specific video length?
No. It’s just a guideline to follow in case you have a lot of footage to work with and aren’t sure of when to stop.
Like Instagram themselves say, if you upload longer Instagram reels of 90 seconds or more hurt distribution, and it’s likely because dwindling attention spans lead to fewer engagements on these videos.
You’re better off choosing a video length on a case by case basis while finding clever ways to make videos shorter.
For example, if you’re posting a recipe video, you don’t need to record a clip of you gathering each ingredient. You can simply record a short one to two-second clip of you holding each ingredient up to the camera or adding it to your dish.
Use background music and voiceovers to make splicing multiple clips together appear cleaner if the original audio gets too jagged.
You can even edit your videos with phone-based video editing tools like CapCut, then upload them from your camera roll when you want to post them.
At Meta’s event, they said the best way to succeed on Instagram is by creating engaging reels, and we fully agree.
Try to come up with ideas for reels that lead to funny or outrageous moments or captivating stories.
When is the best time to post Instagram reels?
In reality, it doesn’t really matter when you post on Instagram. This is because of the way the app is set up.
There are multiple places within the app to consume content, including the Instagram feed, which showcases the best content from accounts you follow and accounts that are similar to the ones you follow.
Your latest Instagram story appears at the top of the app.
If a user views your profile, they’ll see your reels in a special reels tab.
The algorithm either chooses which content to show to you based on which accounts you’ve interacted with on the app or you go to an account’s profile directly to consume content.
Unfortunately, chronological social media feeds are a thing of the past.
However, in our post on the optimal time to post Instagram reels, we came across a fairly reliable statistic from RivalIQ that says the best time to post reels is between 10PM and 7AM most days but especially on Saturdays.
Why Instagram reels are important
Instagram Reels isn’t only an important component of the Instagram app, it’s also an important component of social media in general.
In our article on statistics for Instagram reels, we featured data from a Metricool study that stated how the average Instagram reel receives 16,152.88 views each on average.
Here’s how this figure compares to short videos from other platforms:
- TikTok: Videos on this platform receive 18,173.32 views each on average
- Instagram Reels: 16,152.88 views
- Facebook Reels: 8,553.37 views
- YouTube Shorts: 646.89 views
Metricool also broke this data up into groups based on follower count.
They found that Instagram accounts with more than 50,000 followers received an average of 65,800 views per reel.
Here’s how this figure compares to similar accounts on other platforms:
- TikTok: TikTok accounts with more than 50,000 followers receive an average of 91,400 views per video
- Instagram Reels: 65,800 views
- Facebook Reels: 37,500 views
- YouTube Shorts: 5,700 views
This is the rest of the data for different account types on Instagram:
- 50,000+ followers (Huge): Accounts of this size receive an average of 65,800 views per reel on Instagram
- 10,001 to 50,000 followers (Big): 9,000 views
- 2,001 to 10,000 followers (Medium): 2,900 views
- 501 to 2,000 followers (Small): 1,200 views
- 0 to 500 followers (Tiny): 558 views
Instagram reels also have a similar engagement rate as other social media platforms that offer the short-form video format.
This can be seen from statistics that were revealed in Metricool’s study on the average engagement rate of short-form videos:
- YouTube Shorts: Short-form videos on this platform have an average engagement rate of 5.91% per video
- TikTok: 5.75%
- Instagram Reels: 5.53%
- Facebook Reels: 2.07%
A separate study conducted by SocialInsider revealed how Instagram reels have the highest engagement rate among most content types on Instagram:
- Reels: This content type has an average engagement rate of 1.48%
- Carousel posts: 0.91%
- Image posts: 0.69%
These statistics prove how high usage of Instagram reels, and Instagram in general, are among internet users.
They receive the second-highest number of views on average, only falling short to TikTok, which is constantly facing bans across several jurisdictions around the world.
They also receive just as many engagements as they do on competing platforms.
Related reading:
