How to Upload Extended Videos on Instagram: A Comprehensive Guide

Creating video content on your Instagram account can be beneficial for a variety of reasons, as it can help you attract new followers, promote products, or keep your current followers engaged. However, keeping up with Instagram video length limits can be a daunting task.

A few years ago, the social network launched IGTV to enable creators to share long-form content, but the feature never took off, and it was retired in October 2021. Since then, Instagram has also ditched The Video tab that replaced IGTV, which only made the process of posting long-form videos to the platform even more confusing.

Despite all this, Instagram still offers several ways to share videos that last more than sixty seconds with your followers. In this article, we’ll show you how to post longer videos on Instagram.

What Are Video Length Restrictions for Instagram?

Although it favors short-form content, Instagram allows its users to post videos that last up to one hour. Even so, you’ll face video length restrictions on whichever of the platform’s video-sharing options you choose.

Currently, Instagram users can share their videos as Stories, Reels, Instagram Feed videos, and Instagram Live videos. Let’s look at the duration restrictions each of these video-sharing options imposes on content creators.

Instagram Stories

The maximum duration of a video you add to your Story is sixty seconds, and you can share up to a hundred stories per day. All videos you publish as Instagram stories will disappear from your account within 24 hours unless you use the Story Highlights feature to keep them on your profile permanently.

Instagram Reels

It’s only been a few years since Instagram introduced the Reels feature. Nonetheless, Reels have become one of the most popular ways to share videos on Instagram. The reel video length was initially just 15 seconds, but the platform has since increased the length limit to 90 seconds.

Instagram Feed Videos

Previously known as IGTV and Instagram Video feature, the Instagram Feed videos are just what their name implies, the videos you share directly to your Instagram feed. The duration of these videos ranges from three seconds to sixty minutes. Instagram automatically converts all videos shorter than 15 minutes into reels. On the other hand, the platform generates one-minute previews for videos longer than 15 minutes and allows viewers to choose if they want to watch the entire video.

Creating a carousel is another way of sharing videos on your Instagram feed, but keep in mind that you can only include ten videos in a carousel and that the length of each video cannot exceed the one-minute mark.

Instagram Video Ads

The maximum length of a video ad that appears on a user’s feed cannot exceed sixty seconds, while ads featured in Stories last for thirty seconds.

Instagram Live

This feature is arguably the simplest option for sharing long videos on Instagram because it allows you to stream videos live for up to four hours. The content you create with Instagram Live remains available on your profile for a month, allowing your followers who missed the livestream to watch it at a later date.

How to Post Longer Videos on Instagram?

Even though Instagram’s video length limits can seem restrictive, there are plenty of ways to bypass them and share longer videos with your followers. However, which solution is best for you depends on the type of long-form video content you want to share on Instagram.

For instance, Instagram Live is your best option if you frequently broadcast live events on your Instagram profile, while splitting a video into several shorter videos might be the right choice for you if you want to feature it in Instagram Stories.

Split a long-form video into shorter videos

Editing your videos before posting them on social media enables you to remove parts you don’t want your audience to see, add music, or apply filters to the footage. It also allows you to adjust the clip’s duration to Instagram’s video length limitations and prevent the platform from cutting it at the 60-second mark.

Optionally, you can upload a video as a Reel and then share it as a Story if its duration doesn’t exceed ninety seconds. Instagram is equipped with basic video editing tools, so you don’t necessarily have to use a video editing app to create short videos from long-form videos.

Here’s how to create multiple videos from a single video with Instagram’s built-in video editing tools.

Step 1. Open the Instagram app and tap on the + icon. Tap on the Recents menu under the preview window and then choose the Videos option after the new window pops up on your screen.

Step 2. Scroll through your video library and select the video you want to share. Hit Next in the upper right corner and tap on the Edit Video option at the bottom of the screen.

Step 3. Choose Edit to view your video on Instagram’s timeline, then move the playhead to the location on the timeline where you want to make the cut (usually the sixty-second mark and proceed to post the video. Repeat the same process for each segment of the video you want to add to Stories or Reels.

Upload the Video Directly to the Instagram Feed

Cutting a long video into several shorter videos can be useful if you want to post on your feed as a carousel. Nonetheless, you don’t have to split up your videos if they’re shorter than one hour since you can upload them directly to your feed.

You’ll be asked to choose a thumbnail for the video while creating a new post, so make sure to select a frame that will attract the attention of your followers. Instagram will generate a one-minute preview of the video that will appear in your followers’ feeds, and they can tap on the preview to see the full video.

It’s important to note that most Instagram users prefer short videos, so your long videos may not get a high number of views.

FAQs About Posting Longer Videos on Instagram

What is the Maximum Video File Size I Can Upload to Instagram?

The size of a video file depends on its length, so the longer the video, the larger its size is going to be. The maximum video file size you can upload to stories, reels, or Instagram feed is capped at 4GB.

How Many Reels Can I Share Per Day?

Instagram doesn’t limit the number of Reels you can share in a day, but most experts advise against posting more than one Reel a day, which is why this option is less than ideal for content creators who want to post longer videos on Instagram.

What Happens If You Upload Longer Videos to Instagram Stories?

Instagram will automatically trim a video that lasts longer than sixty seconds and delete the part after the one-minute mark.

Last Considerations

Instagram’s video duration limits keep evolving, so it’s hard to say for how much more the platform will prevent its users from uploading videos longer than sixty or ninety seconds to their stories and reels. Hence, uploading videos directly to your feed is the best solution if you want to share longer videos with your followers. The videos you post on your Instagram feed can’t be longer than one hour, but even so, most content creators are unlikely to reach this limit. We hope this article has helped you understand how to post longer videos to Instagram and avoid the platform’s video duration limits.