How many hashtags to use on each social network in 2026

Use a few hashtags that say what the post is about, not a long list: up to five on Instagram, which no longer takes more, three to five on TikTok and YouTube, one to three on LinkedIn, one or two on X and Bluesky, and one on Threads, which keeps a single topic per post. Hashtags help a post get sorted and found in search; on their own they rarely bring reach. Choose specific ones over the most popular, and change them from post to post.

A hashtag is a label. It tells the network, and the people searching it, what the post is about, so the post can turn up under that topic. Most networks now decide who sees a post mainly from what it shows and how people react to it, so a hashtag rarely brings reach on its own.

That changes how to choose them. A hashtag earns its place when someone would search for it and be glad to find your post there.

The number that works on each network, and what to know about it:

1. 1

   Describe the post, not the account. Start from what this post is about: the dish, the place, the topic. A hashtag that would fit every post you make fits none of them well.

2. 2

   Mix one broad hashtag with a few specific ones. Under a broad one, your post is gone in minutes. A specific one, such as a place, a niche or an event, has fewer posts, and the people who follow it care.

3. 3

   Look at each one before you use it. Open the hashtag and read the latest posts under it. If they have nothing to do with yours, or the network shows none, leave it out.

4. 4

   Write them in CamelCase, like #SmallBusiness: search finds them either way, and screen readers read the words instead of one long word.

5. 5

   Change them from post to post. Keep a short list for each topic you post about and pick from it, instead of pasting the same block under everything.

The usual mistakes:

• A wall of hashtags. Instagram no longer allows more than five, and elsewhere a long list reads as spam.
• Trending hashtags that have nothing to do with the post. The people following them are not looking for you, and they scroll on.
• A hashtag on every other word. The sentence becomes hard to read; put them at the end, or in the first comment on Instagram.
• The same hashtags on every network. What suits TikTok looks out of place on LinkedIn and X: choose them for each network.

In the composer, the assistant's Suggest hashtags reads the main text and offers five to twelve hashtags as chips. Keep the ones you want and press Add to caption; any already in the text are not added twice. On Instagram, you can write them in the account's First comment instead, so the caption stays clean. How to schedule the first comment on Instagram, and the first reply on Threads.

To decide how many hashtags each network gets, open Settings, then Writing styles, and choose Hashtags for each network: none, 3, 5 or 10. With 3 or 5 in the caption, Adapt to each network writes that many on the last line of the network's version; with none, it takes them out, which suits X, Threads and Bluesky, where you can add the one that matters by hand.

Networks that take tags in a field of their own have it in the account's tab: up to 30 tags on Tumblr, 15 on Hashnode, 12 on Dribbble and 4 on DEV Community. On Nostr, Extra hashtags adds hashtags without writing them in the text.

For a month, post half of your posts on one network with hashtags and half without, and give each half a campaign, such as With hashtags and Without. Then open Analytics, filter by each campaign, and compare reach and engagement. If there is no difference, spend that time on the first line of the post instead. How to plan and track a social media campaign, from the first post to the results.

Take the next post in your queue, cut its hashtags to the three to five that someone would actually search for, and keep just one for Threads. Every plan starts with a 7-day trial. How to set the tone for each social network once, and let every post follow it.