How Long Can Instagram Reels Be: 20 Minutes to Record, 3 Minutes to Get Recommended, Separate Rules for Ads

People searching for Reels length have usually cut a video and want to know whether it will post and whether it will be held back. Instagram's own pages actually carry three different numbers: how long you can record, how long a Reel can be and still get recommended, and how long a Reels ad can run. Blend them together and you get the classic question: "I posted a 5-minute Reel, why did only my few hundred followers see it?"

1. Three numbers, kept apart

Question	Number	Source (checked 2026-10-31)
Longest Reel you can record and edit	20 minutes	Instagram's official Reels page
Longest Reel that gets recommended to new audiences	3 minutes	Same page: "Reels over 3 minutes won't be recommended to new audiences"
Longest ad in the Reels placement	0 seconds to 15 minutes	Meta ads guide, Instagram Reels placement

When we opened Instagram's official Reels page (about.instagram.com/features/reels) on 31 October 2026, it carried both versions at once: the feature blurb near the top still said "multi-clip videos up to 3 minutes", while the how-to section said you can "record and edit videos up to 20 minutes", followed straight away by the line that Reels over 3 minutes won't be recommended to new audiences. The old copy was never updated, which is why both "3 minutes" and "20 minutes" circulate online, and both were copied from an official page.

The limit that applies to you is whatever the progress bar at the top of the recording screen allows. New features often roll out in batches, so two accounts can see different limits on the same day.

2. Three minutes is the line that matters for reach

Being able to post 20 minutes does not mean you should. What Instagram's sentence means in practice: a Reel over 3 minutes only appears for your followers and is not placed in Explore or the Reels tab for people who do not follow you.

So start with what the video is for:

1. New followers and reach: under 3 minutes. Going over switches recommendation off by your own hand.
2. Full content for existing followers (a whole tutorial, live-stream highlights): can run past 3 minutes, as long as you accept that reach stops at your followers.
3. Both: cut a highlight under 3 minutes to pull people in, and post the full version afterwards for followers.

The usual mistake on a young account is doing option 3 backwards: post the full version first and leave the highlight for later. With few followers, a video over 3 minutes is seen by almost nobody but you and your friends. It looks like a shadowban, but the length is what caused it.

3. Reels ads run on a separate spec

Ads in the Reels placement are governed by Meta's ads guide and are not affected by the 3-minute recommendation threshold, because their reach is paid for.

Item	What Meta's ads guide lists (checked 2026-10-31)
Video duration	0 seconds to 15 minutes
Aspect ratio	9:16
Resolution	1440 × 2560 pixels
Maximum file size	4GB
File type	MP4, MOV
Minimum width	250 pixels under 30 seconds; 500 pixels at 30 seconds or longer
Primary text	44 characters
Safe zone	Keep the top 14%, about the bottom 35% and about 6% on each side free of text and logos

A 15-minute ceiling does not mean an ad should run that long. Reels is a placement people swipe through, and the decision to stop happens in the first second or two, so the length that matters is the second at which your point appears: product, offer and price belong at the start, and the rest of the running time is for people who already stopped and want details. An ad whose point arrives at second 20 is unseen however long it is.

The creative-size table in our Facebook ads guide lists 1080 × 1920. That is also 9:16, exactly the same ratio, just one step below the 1440 × 2560 the ads guide now lists. Creative already at 1080 × 1920 does not need redoing; export new shoots at 1440 × 2560.

4. The bottom 35% is what gets covered

The bottom of a Reel carries the account name, caption, audio label and the call-to-action button, which is why Meta suggests keeping roughly the bottom 35% clear. What gets covered most in practice is prices, URLs and words like "limited time", because editors habitually put subtitles and information low in the frame. That habit comes from TV and YouTube, and on Reels it puts text exactly where it gets covered.

A check before upload: take a screenshot of the video, draw one line 14% down from the top and one 35% up from the bottom, and keep important text between them. Leave about 6% on each side for curved screen edges and cropping.

5. Before posting Reels from a new account

Length is only one part of it. Do not post during the first week on a freshly logged-in account; start once it has been used normally for a while, at the pace in section 5 of our Instagram warm-up SOP: post one, watch how it does, then build up. Keep that first Reel under 3 minutes, so if it underperforms you can at least rule out the recommendation threshold and are left checking only the content and the account itself.

Content accounts and ad accounts are chosen differently. For content, what matters is account age and a record of normal use. For ads, what matters is whether it can be linked to an ad account and whether it has been restricted before. The Instagram section of the catalog lists the two separately, and each product page says which use it suits.

6. Low views: three things to rule out first

When a Reel underperforms, most people suspect a shadowban first. Rule things out in this order; the first two you can check yourself in minutes.

1. Is it over 3 minutes? Open the Reel's insights. If nearly all viewers are followers, non-followers are close to zero, and the video runs past 3 minutes, the answer is length, not a restriction. Re-cut a version under 3 minutes and post that.
2. Is it full-screen 9:16? A landscape or 1:1 video in the Reels tab leaves a large blank band above and below, and anyone swiping past can tell it was not made for the placement, so fewer people stop. Re-export at 9:16, the same ratio as the ad spec in section 3.
3. Does the account itself have a problem? Only once the first two are ruled out, check Account Status for violations. That is the real restriction, and its fix has nothing to do with length; see the quiet form of restriction described in section 5 of the warm-up SOP.

The reason for the order is cost. The first check needs one re-cut, the second one re-export, and the third takes weeks to show any change. Check the cheap ones first, so a normal account is not swapped out as broken because of one video that ran too long.

To run Reels ads, see Facebook ads setup for how the account and ad account fit together and how placements are chosen. To see how others in your niche cut Reels ads, filter by placement in the Meta Ads Library, or look at TikTok's Creative Center; short-video ad openings translate between the two.

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Sources, checked 2026-10-31

• Instagram's official Reels page (20 minutes; over 3 minutes not recommended to new audiences) — about.instagram.com/features/reels
• Meta ads guide: Instagram Reels video ad specs — facebook.com/business/ads-guide
• Instagram's official creator resources — creators.instagram.com
• The operating advice from section 2 onwards is our own practice and does not come from those pages.