An Instagram Reel can run up to 20 minutes when you record it in the app, and 3 seconds to 15 minutes when it is published through Meta’s API, as every scheduler does. Only Reels of 3 minutes or less are recommended to new viewers. Type a length below to see which Reel, Short and Story formats it fits.
A video of 1 min 15 s fits 8 of 9 formats.
An Instagram Reel can be up to 20 minutes long when you record it in the Instagram app, as one clip or several that add up to 20 minutes. A Reel published through Meta’s API, which is how SkedCast and every other scheduling tool posts, runs 3 seconds to 15 minutes. Since July 2022, Instagram shares every new video post under 15 minutes as a Reel, so there is no separate feed-video length to plan for.
Two shorter limits matter more in practice. Reels over 3 minutes are not recommended to new viewers, and only Reels of 90 seconds or less can be boosted as ads. Each Story video, by contrast, runs 3 to 60 seconds. The table below lists every format with its window and the page it comes from.
Reels of 3 minutes or less. Instagram’s help page states that Reels over 3 minutes won’t be recommended to new audiences: they still reach your followers, but Instagram does not recommend them to people who do not follow you yet. If a Reel is meant to grow the account, keep it at 3 minutes or less and post the long version elsewhere, for example as a long video cut into Shorts, Reels and TikToks.
Between 45 and 60 seconds, if the goal is views and engagement. Socialinsider studied 9,771,822 Reels posted by brand accounts from January to June 2026. Reels of 45–60 seconds earned the most median views (10,374) and the highest engagement rate (0.35%). Reels over 3 minutes earned the least on both: a median of 4,428 views and a 0.15% engagement rate. Reels under 30 seconds had a median of 4,700 views, so very short is not automatically better either.
| Reel length | Engagement rate | Median views |
|---|---|---|
| Under 30 s | 0.28% | 4,700 |
| 30–45 s | 0.30% | 8,564 |
| 45–60 s | 0.35% | 10,374 |
| 60–90 s | 0.30% | 9,790 |
| 90–120 s | 0.30% | 8,000 |
| 2–3 min | 0.33% | 9,000 |
| Over 3 min | 0.15% | 4,428 |
Every short-form format has its own window, and the in-app limit is often longer than what a scheduling tool can publish through the platform’s API. Plan the edit around the format you post to, and check the video length limits for every platform for long-form video.
| Format | Length | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Instagram reel recommended to new viewers | Up to 3 minutes | Reels over 3 minutes are not recommended to people who do not follow you yet. |
| Instagram reel recorded in the app | Up to 20 minutes | Record one clip or several that add up to 20 minutes. |
| Instagram reel published through Meta’s API (scheduled) | 3 seconds to 15 minutes | The window every scheduler publishes Reels in, SkedCast included. |
| Instagram boosted Reel | Up to 1 min 30 s | Only Reels of 90 seconds or less, in full-screen 9:16, can be boosted. |
| Instagram story video | 3 seconds to 1 minute | Each Story video published through Meta’s API runs up to 60 seconds. |
| YouTube short | Up to 3 minutes | Square or vertical videos up to 3 minutes count as Shorts (since 15 October 2024). |
| TikTok video | 3 seconds to 10 minutes | TikTok sets the longest video each account may post; SkedCast checks every post against that account’s own limit. |
| Facebook reel published through Meta’s API (scheduled) | 3 seconds to 1 min 30 s | Meta’s Reels publishing API takes vertical videos of 3 to 90 seconds. |
| Facebook reel posted in the app | No maximum | Since 2025 every Facebook video is a reel, with no length or format restriction. |
Vertical 9:16, usually exported at 1080 × 1920 pixels. Meta’s publishing specification recommends 9:16 to avoid cropping or blank space, accepts up to 1,920 pixels across and 23 to 60 frames per second, and takes MP4 or MOV files. The same 9:16 export works for a YouTube Short, a TikTok and a Facebook Reel. Check a file against every platform’s format and size rules with the Instagram Reel video specs checker, or work out a crop with the aspect ratio calculator.
Record it in the Instagram app, where clips can add up to 20 minutes, or upload a longer file as a Reel. Through Meta’s API a Reel can run up to 15 minutes, so a scheduled Reel of several minutes is fine. Two things still stop at 90 seconds: boosting the Reel as an ad, and publishing a Facebook Reel through Meta’s API. For those, cut a 90-second version. Remember the 3-minute line too: past it, Instagram stops recommending the Reel to new viewers.
In SkedCast, upload the video, pick Reel as the content type and choose a time. The composer checks the length against each platform’s window before anything is scheduled, so a Reel that is too short or too long is flagged while you can still fix it. A Reel can also be shared to the feed, carry a custom cover and tag collaborators. The Instagram Reels scheduler explains how a scheduled Reel publishes, and the best time to post tool helps you pick the hour.
Fits every format on this page: an Instagram Reel that can reach new viewers, a boosted Reel, a YouTube Short, a TikTok and a Facebook Reel. It is also inside the 45–60 second bracket that earned the highest engagement rate in Socialinsider’s 2026 study of 9.77 million Reels.
Fits an Instagram Reel that is still recommended to new viewers, a YouTube Short and a TikTok. It is too long to boost on Instagram (90 seconds) and too long for a Facebook Reel published through Meta’s API (90 seconds), so cut a 90-second version for those two.
Fits an Instagram Reel, published in the app or through Meta’s API, and most TikTok accounts. Instagram will not recommend it to new viewers, it cannot be a YouTube Short, and it cannot be boosted. In the same study, Reels over 3 minutes had a median of 4,428 views, against 10,374 for 45–60 seconds.
Every limit and figure on this page was checked against these pages on 4 November 2026:
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