Best Hashtags on Instagram: As far as Instagram is concerned, hashtags play a particularly important role in increasing the visibility and interest of its content. They act as ‘bridges’ connecting those posts to audiences who share similar interests through which doors open to reach new followers, increased scope, and more significant levels of interaction. However, no amount of hashtags is equal. With some bringing in abundant interest, others might drown a piece of content in water that is too similar.
Finding the appropriate hashtags might make or break your strategy on Instagram. With over a billion monthly active users, Instagram offers a great prospect for growing a brand and can be an influencer, small business, or global enterprise. Hashtags help you find people not on your follower list, categorize your content, and increase your chances of finding you.
This post will explain the basics of Instagram hashtags, from their meaning to their proper use. Find out more about various types of hashtags, tools to discover them, and actionable best practices.
What Are Instagram Hashtags?
Instagram hashtags are words or phrases prefixed with the # symbol. These symbols are clickable links, where the content is sorted so that users can see and discover posts on any subject matter. If you include a hashtag with your post, it’s automatically available to anyone searching or following that hashtag.
For instance, #TravelPhotography is the category under which travel photography posts are grouped. Hashtags can be generic, branded, or niche-specific. While generic hashtags like #Love or #Nature are popular, niche ones like #MinimalistHome or #EcoFriendlyTravel cater to specific audiences.
This is the effective use of hashtags – those most relevant to the content, your target audience, and the purpose. Overloading a post with irrelevant or popularly used hashtags may dilute the strategy. Instead, find those that relate well to your brand that the audience can appreciate.
How to Use Hashtags on Instagram?
Hashtags have become essential in bringing much-needed visibility to Instagram, yet their effective usage demands great strategizing and creativity. Here’s the exhaustive guide on how you can utilize the hashtag function of Instagram appropriately:
1. Add Hashtags to Your Posts
While composing an Instagram post, add hashtags to the caption or as the first comment. Adding them to the caption helps them blend with your content, and adding them as the first comment keeps your caption clean and neat-looking.
2. Hashtags in Stories
They can also be added to Instagram Stories, which people can discover using hashtags. Users can use the hashtag sticker or insert it directly into the text box. A Story can include as many as 10 hashtags, but ensure that the hashtags appear as part of the content.
Also Read: Top 5 Best Hashtags Examples | Marketing Strategies
3. Use of Hashtags in Reels
Instagram Reels is a highly popular service; relevant hashtags may increase your Reel’s view tenfold. Add it to the caption or leave it as a comment for your Reel to boost discoverability.
4. Use the right Number of Hashtags.
Instagram permits 30 hashtags on a post, but the quality matters more than the number. Research has proven that 10–15 well-thought-of hashtags will more efficiently get more engagement without spamming.
Also Read: How To Increase Instagram Reach 2025 | Engage More Followers
5. Prioritize Relevance
Always choose hashtags that align with your content and target audience. For example, if you’re sharing a recipe, use food-related hashtags like #Foodie or #HealthyRecipes rather than unrelated ones like #TravelGoals.
6. Combine Popular and Niche Hashtags
The hashtags, though popular, are usually crowded with the general public such as #Love or #InstaGood. Combine them with some niche hashtags related to the content, like #VeganDesserts or #SoloTravelTips, to engage more relevant people.
Also Read: How to Increase Instagram Likes 2025 | Ultimate Guide
7. Play with Hashtag Position
Compare posts with hashtags in captions and comments to see which generates better post engagement. Compare the outcomes and hold on to what works for your audience.
8, Rotate Hashtag Sets
Do not repeatedly use the same set of hashtags, as Instagram’s algorithm may penalize repetitive behavior. Create multiple groups of hashtags for different types of posts and rotate them to keep your strategy dynamic.
Also Read: How to Become an Instagram Influencer | Tips for Success in 2025
9. Track Performance
Use Instagram Insights or third-party tools to track the performance of your hashtags. Focus on the ones that bring you more engagement and align your strategy with those.
With thoughtfully and strategically used hashtags, you can reach further, increase engagement, and target your ideal audience on Instagram.
Top 5 Benefits of Hashtags on Instagram 2025
Hashtags are more than an Instagram trend add-on; they are strong tools to power content to reach, engagement, and overall impact. Here are five significant benefits of using hashtags on Instagram:
1. Increased Visibility
Hashtags will make your content discoverable to other people outside of your followers. If a user searches for or follows specific hashtags, your posts may appear on their feeds and give you access to a potential number of followers. For instance, using the hashtag #TravelTips for a post related to traveling allows someone interested in travel to find your content.
Also Read: How to Get 1k Instagram Followers | Quick & Easy Tips
2. Improved Engagement
Posts with hashtags attract more engagement, including likes, comments, shares, and save. Through relevant hashtags, users who are interested in your content are attracted. Studies have shown that posts with at least one hashtag have a 12.6% higher engagement rate than those without hashtags.
3. Reaching Targeted Audiences
Hashtags guide you toward the target audience to whom you can reach specific niches or content related to a particular theme. For instance, a fitness influencer may use hashtags #FitLife or #WorkoutMotivation to reach health-conscious users. Niche-specific hashtags guarantee that your content appeals to individuals keen on your proposed content.
4. Content Category
Hashtags categorize your content, making finding posts on specific issues easier. For instance, using #VeganRecipes, a food blogger, allows users to discover vegan meal ideas by searching with the hashtag. This organizational aspect of hashtags benefits content creators and viewers by streamlining their discovery process.
5. Improved Brand Recognition and Community Building
A branded hashtag makes the brand much more visible and creates the audience’s sense of community and ownership. An example is Coca-Cola’s #ShareACoke campaign, which generated user content and created loyalty for customers. When people follow your branded hashtag, they are helping to get the word out about your campaign by organically expanding its reach.
Top 100 Instagram Hashtags in 2025 Industry-Wise
1. Travel and Adventure
#travel #Travelgram #traveling #Travelphotography #travelling #travelblogger #traveler #traveller #travelingram #traveltheworld #travelblog #travels #traveladdict #travellife #travelphoto #travelpics #traveldiaries #travelbug #TravelAwesome #travelpic #travelers #travelstoke #travelgirl #traveldiary #traveldeeper #travellingthroughtheworld #travellers #travelph #travelersnotebook #travelmore
2. Fashion and Beauty
#fashionandbeauty #fashionandbeautyblogger #FashionandBeautyAgency #FashionAndBeautyBar #fashionandbeautyjunkie #fashionandbeautynights
3. Food and Drink
#foodanddrink #foodanddrinks #foodanddrinkdesign #foodanddrinkenthusiasts #foodanddrinkfest #foodanddrinkinitaly #foodanddrinksfordays #foodanddrinkspecials #foodanddrinksphi #foodanddrinkphotography #foodanddrinkphotograph #foodanddrinkmix #foodanddrinkmelbourne #foodanddrinkfestival #foodanddrinkblogger #foodanddrinksstalls
4. Fitness and Wellness
#FitLife, #YogaInspiration, #SelfCareSunday, #FitnessMotivation, #WellnessJourney
5. Business and Marketing
#StartUpLife, #DigitalMarketing, #SocialMediaStrategy, #ContentMarketing, #Entrepreneurship
6. Tech and Innovation
- #TechLife
- #InnovationNation
- #AIRevolution
- #StartUpCulture
- #FutureOfTech
7. Art and Creativity
- #ArtisticSoul
- #InstaArt
- #CreativeVibes
- #AbstractArt
- #ArtLover
8. Parenting and Family
- #ParentingLife
- #MomGoals
- #DadLife
- #FamilyFirst
- #RaisingKids
9. Photography
#photography #naturephotography #travelphotography #streetphotography #foodphotography #photographylovers #portraitphotography #landscapephotography #weddingphotography #blackandwhitephotography #canonphotography #photographytips #photographyday #photographynature
10. Health and Wellness
- #MindfulLiving
- #HealthyMindset
- #HolisticHealth
- #CleanLiving
- #WellnessJourney
11. Education and Learning
- #LearnEveryDay
- #StudentLife
- #EduGram
- #LifelongLearning
- #KnowledgeIsPower
12. Entertainment and Media
- #BehindTheScenes
- #MovieMagic
- #MusicLover
- #PodcastLife
- #StreamingNow
13. Real Estate and Home Decor
- #DreamHome
- #HomeDecorIdeas
- #RealEstateGoals
- #InteriorStyling
- #HouseFlipping
Top Instagram Hashtag Generators
Finding the right hashtags for your Instagram posts can be tiresome, but hashtag generator tools make it easy. These tools provide relevant suggestions based on your keywords, content, or audience. Below are the best Instagram hashtag generators in 2025.
All Hashtag
All Hashtags is a versatile tool that helps find, analyze, and generate hashtags. Input your keyword and get relevant popular, trending, or random hashtags. Easy to use, this tool is highly suitable for fast hashtag research.
Display Purposes
The tool is ideal for the clean and relevant production of professional-grade hashtags to avoid spammy or commonly used tags so that authentic posts remain posted before reaching the right target audience.
Hashtagify
Hashtagify helps find trending hashtags by identifying their popularity, reach, and related hashtags. It’s an excellent tool for marketers and influencers to optimize strategy with data-driven insights.
Inflact
Inflact is a full-fledged Instagram tool that comes with a hashtag generator. According to your image, text, or keywords, it suggests hashtags that are more relevant to your content. It also provides performance analytics for your chosen hashtags.
RiteTag
RiteTag provides real-time hashtag suggestions for images and text, analyzing each’s performance potential and ranking them by reach and competition level, thus making it easy to select the best one for your goals.
Types of Instagram Hashtags 2025
There is so much about understanding the types of hashtags on Instagram, but such knowledge would help many people build the hashtag strategy correctly. The varieties of the same all act for unique purposes, bringing you specific audiences and increasing engagement and visibility; here they are.
1. Niche Hashtags
Niche hashtags target industries, hobbies, or specific interests, connecting the individual to a targeted group of people. For example, #PlantParents is popular if one is a plant enthusiast. Compared to general hashtags, the competition is less, thus bringing users who are deeply interested in your content.
2. Trending Hashtags
Trending hashtags usually mirror what is happening at present or popular culture or viral topics. This may temporarily increase engagement because of the widespread conversation tapped into using a trending hashtag like #ThrowbackThursday or #WorldCup. However, it has to be relevant to the content posted.
3. Branded Hashtags
Brand-specific hashtags are those that have been created or coined by a business, organization, or even to some extent, an influencer. These hashtags usually include the brand name, tagline, or campaign theme. As in Nike’s example, use #JustDoIt to encourage user-generated content and enhance brand visibility.
Furthermore, branded hashtags can engender a sense of community and allow followers to engage with your brand easily.
4. Location-Specific Hashtags
Location hashtags are ideal for geographic targeting; tags such as #NYCevents or #parisfoodies connect with users searching for related content in one place. It is especially efficient for local business, events, or travel-related posts.
5. Event or Campaign Hashtags
Event-specific hashtags relate to every promotional activity, product launch, or live event; for example, #MetGala2025 is used whenever an organizer and attendee take photos or share any content related to their experience. These hashtags provide maximum visibility to the event and prompt attendees to share about the experience.
6. Community Hashtags
Community hashtags connect users based on interests and causes. Examples include #BookLovers for readers or #EcoWarriors for green activists. This creates classroom belonging between them and creates opportunities for progressive engagement within the group.
7. Descriptive Hashtags
These hashtags spell out the content directly and relate it to the picture, such as in the case of #S#SunsetPhotography for a photo showing a sunset. They facilitate your posts in finding their way through search results and ensure immediate comprehension of themes by your audience.
Tracking and Analyzing Instagram Hashtags
Tracking and analyzing hashtags is a vital part of improving your Instagram strategy and maximizing the performance of your posts. It helps to use those hashtags that can boost your post performance regarding what you are interested in and whoever you are targeting, which ones are driving engagement.
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Check Instagram Analytics
Instagram Insights provides basic analytics on a business account. It gives reach, impressions, and engagement performed through your hashtags. Use this data to track hashtags that provide the best return on investment and make your strategy accordingly.
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Third-Party Analytical Tools
You can find a website like Sprout Social, Hootsuite, and Iconosquare that gives a broader experience of your hashtag analytics. These tools can explain what’s trending with hashtags, compare them with others, and suggest some based on your overall performance over time.
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Engagement monitoring
Monitor how the audience reacts to posts with certain hashtags, such as likes, shares, comments, and saves. High-minded ones should be taken into account when producing future content.
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Assess the Reach of the Hashtags
Lastly, consider measuring the distance your content can go through hashtags. A good combination of popular and long-tail keywords usually leads to broader visibility and engagement with the targeted audience.
Top 7 Best Practices for Instagram Hashtags
Using Instagram hashtags smartly isn’t just for putting random tags in your post but involves a certain strategy that can help improve one’s visibility, engagement, and connection to the audience. Here are seven of the best practices you can follow:
1. Use related hashtags
Always use hashtags relating to your content and target audience. The audience drawn will not be what it ought to be and will probably seem spammy, resulting in less engagement. For example, a food blogger must use hashtags like #HealthyRecipes and #FoodieLife instead of unrelated tags like #TechTrends.
2. Mix Popular and Niche Hashtags
Highly visible hashtags such as #Love or #InstaGood become very competitive as they broaden their outreach with niche hashtags such as #OrganicSkinCare or #SoloTravelTips, targeting a more engaged and specific audience.
3.Do not Spam
You can max out to 30 hashtags in a single post on Instagram, but it does not mean you must use them all at once. It would be best to have 10 to 15 well-researched that closely relate to your content rather than spammy or cluttered.
4. Create and Promote Branded Hashtags
Branded hashtags are a good source for building a community and generating user-generated content. An example is Coca-Cola using the hashtag #ShareACoke successfully across brand promotions and at the same time, engaging the audience. Campaign the branded hashtags within posts, stories, and profiles to generate more use.
5. Rotation of Hashtag Sets
Using the same set of hashtags repeatedly for different posts leads to reduced visibility caused by Instagram’s algorithm. One should prepare for different themes or types of posts in several hashtag groups to keep the refreshing and effective strategy.
6. Incorporate Hashtags into Stories and Reels
Hashtags are not limited to posts. You must tell your Instagram Stories and Reels by using hashtags to find them in search results. Hashtag stickers may also be typed into the text field, but they should remain relevant and not annoying.
7. Analyze Regularly Performance
You can see how well they work through Instagram Insights or other third-party tools. Based on the findings, check which hashtags work best for increasing engagement and refine your strategy. Tracking performance repays your efforts for keeping hashtags relevant to your goals.
Conclusion
Instagram hashtags boost visibility, engagement, and connections with your audience. With their mastery, you can enhance your reach and work toward your objectives effectively. Find hashtag strategies, analyze performance, and learn the latest trends to optimize your approach better. Get started today with these tips and unlock Instagram’s full personal or business growth potential.
FAQs
Q: How many hashtags should I post?
A: Use 10–15 relevant hashtags to maintain a good balance between being seen and being engaged.
Q: Can I just use the same hashtags?
A: Don’t post the same hashtags on every post so that Instagram does not flag your account for spam.
Q: Do hashtags still work in 2025?
A: Yes, they are a useful tool for classifying content and getting more reach.
Q: What’s a branded hashtag?
A: A branded hashtag for your brand, such as #CocaColaMoment.
Q: Should I use trending hashtags?
A: Only if they are relevant to your content and audience.
