Guide
How many hashtags should you use?
Fewer than you think. Instagram now allows at most five, Facebook’s own advice is five or fewer, and on X, Threads and Reddit you need one or none. Hashtags today tell a platform what a post is about; they are not a lever for extra reach. Here is the number for each platform, what each one says, and how to choose tags that help, as gathered in Bloom’s research in September 2026.
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The short answer, platform by platform
| Platform | How many | What they do there |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 5 (the limit) | Tell Instagram the topic and help search | |
| TikTok | A few, 3 to 5 | One of the things TikTok reads about a video, with the caption and sound |
| 0 to 5 | Light context; Meta says no more than five | |
| YouTube Shorts | Optional, 2 or 3 | The title does the search work |
| X | None or one | A tag on every post reads as noise |
| Threads | One topic tag | Files the post under a topic |
| Bluesky | 1 to 3 | Some custom feeds collect posts by tag |
| None | Reddit doesn’t use them; the title and community do the work |
Instagram: five at most, and they are not a reach lever
Instagram allows at most five hashtags. They help Instagram understand your topic; they are not a way to get more reach. The limit was announced by Instagram’s @creators account in December 2025, and it covers posts and reels.
The old trick of putting 30 tags in the first comment doesn’t get around it: the five-tag limit counts the caption and the comment together. Instagram’s head, Adam Mosseri, has said for years that hashtags are for context and search, not for reach, and that fewer, targeted tags do better than many generic ones. Instagram’s creator FAQ still says a relevant trending tag can help people interested in a topic find a post. Read together: a few specific tags help Instagram file the post correctly, and that is about all they do.
What matters more for reach, according to Mosseri in January 2025, is watch time, likes per reach and sends per reach. A good tag can’t make up for a post people scroll past.
TikTok: a few that describe the video
TikTok’s own explanation of its For You feed lists hashtags among the information it reads about a video, alongside captions and sounds. That makes them a description, so describe: #sourdough and #breadbaking tell TikTok something; #fyp and #viral don’t, because they are on millions of unrelated videos.
The caption matters as much as the tags. Plenty of people search TikTok for how-tos, so say plainly what the video is. TikTok weights how people watch most heavily: follower count is not a direct ranking factor. Whether people watch to the end counts heavily.
Facebook and X: a light touch
Meta’s creator guidance from July 2025 lists the captions that perform best on Facebook: no links, little capitalisation and no more than five hashtags.
On X a hashtag costs characters you could spend on the post itself. On X, conversation is what the published ranking code rewards most: replies, and you answering the replies you get. Blocks, mutes and reports count heavily against you. One tag for an event or a running conversation is plenty; most posts need none.
Threads and Bluesky: one tag, or a few for feeds
Threads lets a post carry one topic tag, which files it under that topic for people browsing it. Choose the most specific topic that fits.
Bluesky has no single algorithm; people subscribe to custom feeds, and some of those collect posts by hashtag. One to three tags that match feeds in your area can put a post in front of people who chose that topic. A technical catch: a hashtag on Bluesky is only clickable if the app that posted it marks it up properly, so a tag pasted as plain text by some tools does nothing.
How to pick good hashtags
- Describe the post, not the hope. #ceramicmugs, not #art or #instagood.
- Mix one broad and a few specific. #houston and #houstonmovers say more together than either alone.
- Look before you use one. Open the tag and see what is there. If it is spam or something unrelated, your post will sit next to it.
- Drop the empty ones. #fyp, #explore, #like4like and #viral describe nothing.
- Keep a few sets. Most people post about a handful of topics. Save a set for each and reuse it.
Getting the number right in Bloom
Write your hashtags once at the end of your caption and press Fit to each platform. Bloom keeps your tags in your order up to each platform’s number: five for Instagram and TikTok, three for YouTube, two for Facebook, one for X, Threads and Bluesky, and none for Reddit and Google Business Profile. It drops #fyp-style tags, lists every change it made, and you can edit any version. It uses fixed rules, not AI.
Save the tags you use often as hashtag sets and insert them with a tap. The composer also warns you when an Instagram caption has more than five. For Bluesky, Bloom sends hashtags marked up so they are clickable.
Frequently asked questions
How many hashtags should I use on Instagram in 2026?
Up to five, which is Instagram’s limit for posts and reels since December 2025. Fewer, specific tags work better than generic ones.
Do hashtags still work?
They help a platform understand what a post is about and help people find it in search. They are not a way to get extra reach on their own.
Should I put hashtags in the first comment?
It makes no difference on Instagram: the five-tag limit counts the caption and the first comment together.
How many hashtags should I use on TikTok?
Three to five that describe the video. Tags like #fyp and #viral describe nothing.
Do hashtags work on Threads and Bluesky?
Threads takes one topic tag per post. On Bluesky, one to three tags can put a post into custom feeds that collect them.
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