Using the right Instagram hashtags can help extend your reach, attract followers, and increase your engagement.

Instagram posts with a hashtag have, on average, 12.6% more engagement than posts with no hashtags. We’ve listed 100+ of the most popular hashtags below. But in order to benefit from hashtags, you must first have a clear strategy in place. That’s why we’ve created a guide to outline how you should use Instagram hashtags!

The purpose of hashtags

With Instagram users uploading an average of 95 million posts a day, it may be difficult for your content to be seen. Hashtags are a great way to categorize posts on Instagram so that they’re easily searchable. Users can choose to follow hashtags to see content that’s aligned with their interests. This means your content can appear in the feeds and stories of potential new followers, and if you impress them, they’ll likely give you a follow or like!

Instagram hashtags best practices

1. Research what other successful creators are doing

To inspire ideas, check out what hashtags other relevant creators or brands are using, especially those with a large following. The size of their profiles may indicate that they know what hashtags to use to get their content to the right people.

2. Use relevant hashtags

The hashtags you use should be relevant for the content you post. Rather than focusing on reaching as many people as possible, you should be working towards being seen by the right people. If someone follows a hashtag and sees an irrelevant post, they can choose the ‘Don’t Show for This Hashtag’ option and mark your content as uninteresting to them. If this occurs often, it can potentially affect your account negatively.

3. Select a few popular hashtags

You should incorporate a handful of relevant, popular hashtags in your posts and stories. They can help expand your reach. To help you find the right hashtags, we compiled a list of them below, based on our analysis of 150 million Instagram profiles.  

Pro-tip: In the list of popular hashtags below, we removed hashtags such as #like4like and #followme, as they attract spammy users and generate fake engagement. At inzpire.me, we don’t recommend you use these types of hashtags, and your profile will be flagged if you do.

4. Use specific niche and medium sized hashtags

When you use specific niche and medium sized hashtags, you’ll be able to reach and connect with a highly relevant audience. This will help you improve the engagement of your posts. Plus, your content won’t be shown in an overcrowded space, so you’ll be competing with less people to reach viewers.

5. Measure your hashtag performance

You should keep track of what hashtags you use for your posts in a spreadsheet or document. You can note how often you use certain hashtags and which ones you’ve used for your most popular posts. This will help you determine which hashtags are giving you the best results.

Additionally, if you have a Business account, you can access insights, which provides information about how many impressions – the total number of times your post was seen – a post receives from hashtags. With these insights, you’ll be able to figure out whether you’ve chosen the right hashtags to use in your captions.

6. Use the right number of hashtags

Instagram allows you to use 30 hashtags for posts and 10 for stories. Posts with 9 hashtags generate the most engagement. But that doesn’t mean you should load your content with the maximum number of hashtags. The only way to know how many hashtags you should use is to test them on posts and track your results.

Most popular hashtags

We analyzed 150 million posts to find the most popular hashtags used by Instagram users. Below, we’ve listed the 50 most popular hashtags and sorted the hashtags we found based on category.

50 most popular hashtags

  1. #love
  2. #instagood
  3. #tbt
  4. #photography
  5. #photooftheday
  6. #fashion
  7. #happy
  8. #summer
  9. #art
  10. #beautiful
  11. #picoftheday
  12. #nature
  13. #travel
  14. #style
  15. #friends
  16. #instagram
  17. #smile
  18. #model
  19. #fitness
  20. #life
  21. #music
  22. #family
  23. #fun
  24. #beauty
  25. #beach
  26. #photo
  27. #sunset
  28. #cute
  29. #girl
  30. #me
  31. #sun
  32. #selfie
  33. #lifestyle
  34. #2019
  35. #instadaily
  36. #makeup
  37. #food
  38. #instalike
  39. #motivation
  40. #ootd
  41. #amazing
  42. #like
  43. #gym
  44. #blackandwhite
  45. #sky
  46. #party
  47. #black
  48. #portrait
  49. #christmas
  50. #hair

Top 10 Fashion hashtags

  1. #fashion
  2. #style
  3. #ootd
  4. #fashionblogger
  5. #outfit
  6. #fashioninsta
  7. #mensfashion
  8. #streetstyle
  9. #instafashion
  10. #outfitoftheday

Top 10 Photography hashtags

  1. #photography
  2. #photooftheday
  3. #picoftheday
  4. #photo
  5. #portrait
  6. #photographer
  7. #photoshoot
  8. #naturephotography
  9. #travelphotography
  10. #canon

Top 10 Travel hashtags

  1. #travel
  2. #holiday
  3. #vacation
  4. #trip
  5. #travelgram
  6. #wanderlust
  7. #instatravel
  8. #travelblogger
  9. #travelling
  10. #summervibes

Top 10 Fitness hashtags

  1. #fitness
  2. #gym
  3. #workout
  4. #fitnessmotivation
  5. #training
  6. #bodybuilding
  7. #sport
  8. #fitfam
  9. #yoga
  10. #gymlife

Top 10 Food & Beverage hashtags

  1. #food
  2. #foodporn
  3. #foodie
  4. #instafood
  5. #yummy
  6. #breakfast
  7. #vegan
  8. #healthyfood
  9. #fresh
  10. #delicious

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