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How Long Are Instagram Stories and Why It Matters

Published January 31, 2024

Are you wondering how long can an Instagram story be? Besides staying up for 24 hours, there are a few things you should know when it comes to Instagram story duration.

An Instagram story can be up to 15 seconds long.

However, when it comes to how long are Instagram stories, there are caveats to this. We’re going to go through them in detail.

Essential Info: You can share up to 4 stories at once, totalling 60 seconds.

How Long Are Instagram Stories for Images

There are different story lengths for images vs videos.

An IG story that is an image lasts for just 7 seconds. 

Wondering how to avoid feeling spammy when sharing image stories? Add more than one image to a single Instagram story!

How Long Are Instagram Stories for Videos

A video story can be 60 seconds. If that doesn’t sound like a lot, consider that the limit used to be a mere 15 seconds. What would happen is that if your video was longer than 15 seconds but 60 seconds or less, Instagram would automatically split up the video into sections lasting 15 seconds. Now, your entire video will be in one story, without getting cut up, if it is 60 seconds or less.

Also, keep in mind that the length of your story’s music will also be 60 seconds long. This means if you want to add music to an IG story, you must first:

  • Select the song you wish to use
  • Select the part of the song you wish to use

How Long Can an Instagram Post Be?

There are three different kinds of video types on Instagram:

  • Reels
  • IG Live
  • Video Posts

A video post can be up to 10 minutes in length. However, some accounts that are verified are allowed to post videos up to 60 minutes long!
Bottom Line: Now that you know how long can a story be on Instagram, you can share stories without having any confusion as to whether they are too long.

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Written By:
AUTHOR & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Jessica is a consultant, researcher, and the editor-in-chief of the Buzzoid blog, who specializes in social media, marketing, and digital strategy. She is a graduate of Antioch College and earned her MBA at Boston College’s Carroll Graduate School of Management, specializing in STEM Management.

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