Instagram reels have become a dominant segment of Instagram’s video marketing sector. According to wyzowl, 79% of the previous feed and longer video marketers have shifted or chosen to adapt to reels for their marketing.
Apart from marketing, 2.5 billion people have been directly in touch with the reels. They owe their content creation, entertainment, business, promotion, etc. to this medium.
| 22% rise in interaction and views has resulted since the introduction of reels on Instagram. |
As it is a short video format, you can only upload videos that are 90 seconds in length. Within this timeframe, you can edit as you need. You can both shoot and upload a pre-loaded one from your phone.
Key Takeaways: Instagram Reels Duration
| The maximum length of Instagram reels is 90 seconds. For the best audience engagement, it is recommended to make the content between 15 seconds to 60 seconds. An Instagram video can be as long as 60 minutesAn Instagram story can be as long as 60 secondsAn Instagram Live can be as long as 4 hours |
Instagram Reels: New Wave Of Expressions
Instagram reels are just short videos on Instagram. It can be anything; from promoting your brand to elevating your talent or product. Also, it has become a good source of entertainment for the viewers.
You just shoot a video using the reel options and upload it simply. There is the option of uploading a pre-recorded or downloaded video as well.
You can even complete all sorts of editing, filtering, and other things you need to make your video an amazing one. The rest depends on the quality of your content.
How Long Can An Instagram Reel Be?
When you are making a reel on Instagram, make sure that it’s a short video format of the platform.
Instagram reels should be within 15 seconds to 90 seconds. Within that period, you can put your content or anything related to that. Even if you want to exceed the time, you simply can not. The system is built accordingly.
Users on Instagram won’t just waste hours watching many videos, especially when YouTube and Facebook predomination exist with such purposes. So, your focus would be to grab your viewers’ attention with the very first hook.
Making a video full of information within 20 seconds can be more productive and useful than dragging it longer and longer with fillers. Reels are considered one of the best means of commercial advertisement and product upliftment.
Understand the purpose of reels, it’s just a short video portraying the main subject matter of your goal. You can make long videos on Instagram.
There are options to make such. But not as reels.
Outside the reels, there are many other ways to uphold your videos in such respective manners on Instagram. Let’s take a glimpse at such formats and how long can they be.
How Long Can An Instagram Video Be?
Now coming to the videos, it can be huge, really high to what you have known about reels. You’re getting 90 seconds for Instagram reels, but an Instagram video can be as long as 60 minutes, starting from at least 3 seconds.
Got videos longer than that but pondering how to upload? No worries, Instagram also has a solution for that.
Firstly, you can trim and edit a pre-recorded video on Instagram. That won’t cause you the hassle of using an external app or software for the purpose. Just trim, edit, and join the video to make it as a whole.
Secondly, there is an option to upload as a carousel post in segments. A carousel post enables you to break a long post into multiple segments. It can be two or more than two segments of a particular content. Viewers can just swipe it over and complete the segmented video sequentially.
How Long Can An Instagram Story Be?
You already know about Instagram stories, don’t you?
They stay for only 24 hours. Now if you make a video through the story segment or upload a pre-recorded video there, you can’t exceed the length of more than 60 seconds.
As the purpose of the story is to portray a little portion of your life story to your followers, it has been kept in a short and precise manner. Nobody wants to see your whole long day story there obviously.
Also, stories are an amazing way of making brand promotion or self-promotion. Celebrities and influencers make their promotion to their followers in such a manner.
Moreover, trailers and other promo videos also took a good place in the Instagram stories. Besides the feed video, people upload such short videos there and direct the main video link through that.
How Long Can An IGTV Be?
IGTV or Instagram TV is the latest innovation of the platform. The makers introduced this feature to elevate the video content to the next level. More like it’s a TV on Instagram showing pre-recorded content.
More such content gets up with more and more followers and engagements, especially for the influencers. That’s why, the limitation of the video has been kept 60 minutes in maximum length. A 15-second preview video is included at the beginning of the content. Then clicking upon the IGTV content, you get the rest of the video.
A new separate tab gets introduced once you go on with the IGTV content. There, you can find many other such content from content creators or users. Such video comes to you using algorithms like what you like, what type of content you see or love to see mostly on Instagram, the people you follow, and whatnot.
It has become a good source of promoting your brand, creating advertisements, and earning money.
How Long Can An Instagram Live Be?
Live is one of the best features of Instagram video segments. The creator comes on live, does the activity or promotion, or talks about content and whatnot here. In the meantime, the viewers can comment live in the video and the creator reads out and replies to those comments.
The limit of the life is 4 hours max. In the meantime, you can pause the live and continue from the point initially. This has been made to ensure the best feasibility of the creators as well as the viewers.
Once the live ends, it stays as a pre-recorded video for 24 hours. That means you can rewatch the live or certain portions of the live going there again within the 24 hours after it ends.
Let’s Know The Specifications On Instagram Uploads
Making the reels doesn’t end with filming or making the video only. You have to ensure that it gets properly fit to the audiences’ demand and compatibility.
Reels
| Dimension | Size | Aspect Ratio | Duration (Max) | Resolution | Formats |
| 1080 x 1920p | Up to 650 MB | 9:16 | 90 seconds | HD or 1080p | MP4, MOV, GIF |
For the size aspect, the Instagram reel is 1080 pixels wide and 1920 pixels tall. The aspect ratio is 9:16 on the screen. This size is suitable for the audience to get quick access to what they want from the video. You have to put everything within these dimensions.
Instagram Video
| Dimension | Size | Aspect Ratio | Duration (Max) | Resolution | Formats |
| 1080 x 1350p | Up to 4 GB | 9:16 (16:9 in landscape mode) | 60 minutes | HD or 1080p | MP4, MOV, GIF |
Instagram posts accordingly are bigger than the rest. So, the size has been kept according to that. Moreover, the formats and resolution got a good upgrade. And owing to your requirements, you can make various edits and everything through that.
Instagram Stories
| Dimension | Size | Aspect Ratio | Duration (Max) | Resolution | Formats |
| 1080 x 1920p | Up to 4GB | 9:16 (16:9 in landscape mode) | 60 seconds | HD or 1080p | MP4, MOV, GIF |
Although Insta stories come for just 60 seconds, the quality and enrichment have been kept high for the perfect audience engagement. Also, the quality ensures a good and proper picture quality and perfect filterings.
Instagram Carousel Video
| Dimension | Size | Aspect Ratio | Duration (Max) | Resolution | Formats |
| 1080 x 1920p | Up to 3.6 GB | 9:16 (16:9 in landscape mode) | 10 Minutes | HD or 1080p | MP4, MOV, GIF |
Instagram carousel is the longer videos in instagram made segmented accordingly. So, the quality and everything has been kept accordingly, for the betterment of the viewers.
How To Post Long Videos On Instagram?
Posting longer videos on Instagram is never an issue now. With so many updates coming all these years, it has become easier than ever to do so. Let us show you the easiest ways to upload long videos on Instagram.
- Tap the “+” sign you see on the Instagram app after opening it.
- There, you’ll see an option named “Post”. It will direct you to upload a video of a longer length. Also, a reel option is there for you to upload reels specifically. Select the video you want to upload.
- There are many options like trimming the video length, adding captions, implementing filters, stickers, fonts, etc. you want in your video.
- Preparing your whole video, you are just minutes and steps away from uploading it by tapping the “next” icon. There, you can add a caption maybe along with your location and necessary hashtags if needed.
- Finally, publish it after tapping the “share” button, and within a few seconds, it’ll be uploaded.
Get Into Instagram Reels (With The Time Limit)
Just like the intention and the purpose of the introduction of the reel, its length, and other convenience have been set accordingly. Within a short time, reels enable you to make the best engagement of your video there. But, you have to make quality content, it can only elevate and engage your audience here.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Once you open the reel section on Instagram, you can set the length of the shooting video according. There will be an option to set the length as 15, 30, 60, and 90 seconds. You can even end the video after the shoot whenever you want.
Similar to Instagram, a reel on Facebook can be 90 seconds. You can cut, edit, or trim the reels according to your needs.
Unfortunately, you can’t post a 3-minute reel on Instagram; it will turn into an Instagram feed video.
Founder at LocalEyes Video Production | Inc. 5000 CEO | Emmy Award Winning Producer
