How Does the Instagram Algorithm Work? Find Out Now

It’s easy to picture the Instagram algorithm as one big, mysterious machine, but that’s not quite right. In reality, it’s a collection of smart, individual processes, each built to make a different part of the app work better for you. Its main job is to act like a personal content curator, learning from every like, comment, and share to figure out what you’ll find most interesting.

Your Guide to the Instagram Algorithm

Let’s clear up the confusion. Cracking the Instagram algorithm isn’t about finding a magic bullet. It’s about understanding its core mission: to keep people on the app longer by showing them content they genuinely enjoy. To do this, Instagram uses different sets of rules—or “algorithms”—for each of its main features.

Think about it this way: the signals that push a post to the top of your Feed are completely different from the ones that decide the first Reel you see. The algorithm for Stories looks at different clues than the one for the Explore page.

• For your Feed & Stories: The algorithm is all about nurturing the connections you already have. It shows you content from accounts you follow, giving a boost to the people and brands you interact with the most.
• For Reels & Explore: These features are built for discovery. Their goal is to introduce you to new creators and content you might love, based on your demonstrated interests—even if you’ve never heard of the account before.

A High-Level View of Ranking Signals

At its core, the algorithm is constantly analyzing your behavior. Who do you leave comments for? What kinds of posts do you save to your collections? How long do you spend watching certain videos? This infographic breaks down the main categories of signals that influence everything you see.

As the diagram shows, engagement, relevance, and timeliness are the key pillars the algorithm relies on to rank content across the entire platform. This approach has paid off. Recent data reveals that the algorithm helps the average account reach 50% more followers than the old chronological feed ever did.

This is a direct result of the platform’s shift toward prioritizing enjoyable, original content that keeps users scrolling—a change that hugely benefits creators who are committed to quality. To dive deeper into how the algorithm has changed over the years, check out these insights from Buffer.

The biggest takeaway here is that there’s no single, all-powerful Instagram algorithm. Instead, it’s a suite of systems, each tailored to how you use a specific part of the app.

Instagram Algorithm Signals at a Glance

To make this easier to digest, the table below gives you a quick summary of the most important signals for each of Instagram’s core features. It’s a handy reference for understanding what matters most, where it matters most.

As you can see, what works for one part of the app won’t necessarily work for another. Understanding these distinctions is the first step toward building a smarter, more effective Instagram strategy.

The Big Shift: From Chronological Feeds to Personal Curation

To really get what makes Instagram tick today, we have to go back in time. In the beginning, the platform was simple. Your feed was a reverse-chronological river of posts—the newest one you followed was always right at the top. It was straightforward and predictable.

But as Instagram’s popularity exploded, that simplicity started to break down. With millions of people and brands posting constantly, the chronological feed created a massive problem: information overload. People were missing out on a ton of content they actually wanted to see, simply because it was buried under an endless flood of newer posts.

Why the Chronological Feed Had to Go

Think of it like trying to have a meaningful conversation in a stadium where everyone is yelling at the same time. That’s essentially what the old chronological feed became. Instagram’s team realized that to keep people coming back, they couldn’t just show them what was newest. They had to show them what was best and most relevant to them as an individual.

So, in March 2016, they made a huge pivot. Instagram officially moved away from its chronological roots and rolled out an algorithm-powered feed. The new goal was to create a personalized experience for every single user, ensuring the content from your best friends and favorite creators didn’t get lost in the noise. You can dive deeper into the full history of this algorithmic change and its effects.

This wasn’t just a whim; it was a direct response to a very real user problem. Instagram had the data. They could see people weren’t seeing the posts that mattered most.

The core reason for the switch was jarring: Instagram estimated users were missing 70% of all posts from the accounts they followed. The algorithm was built to find that “missed” content and pull the most important stuff right to the top.

This was a fundamental reshaping of the platform. Suddenly, the focus wasn’t on when you posted, but on how much people cared when you did.

The Algorithm’s Original Building Blocks

That first version of the algorithmic feed was built on three core ideas. These were the original pillars that helped Instagram decide what to show you first, and frankly, their DNA is still visible in how the platform works today.

• Interest: The algorithm started making educated guesses about what you’d like. If you consistently liked and commented on photos of classic cars, it learned to show you more classic cars from the accounts you follow. Your past behavior became a roadmap for your future feed.
• Relationship: It began to figure out who you were “close” to on the app. Posts from people you interacted with a lot—through likes, DMs, comments, or even just visiting their profile—were given a serious boost in your feed.
• Timeliness: While no longer strictly chronological, the algorithm didn’t throw the clock out the window entirely. It still prioritized fresh content, giving newer posts an edge over those that were days or weeks old.

This evolution turned real, human engagement into the most valuable currency on Instagram. It was the end of the “post and pray” era, forcing creators and marketers to get serious about making content that could truly capture—and hold—an audience’s attention.

How Instagram Ranks Your Feed and Stories

When you open up Instagram, the first two things you see are your Feed and your Stories. Their main job is simple: to show you what’s new and interesting from the people you already follow. Think of them as your personal content curators, focused on strengthening the connections you’ve already made.

This is a crucial distinction. While Reels and the Explore page are designed to help you discover new creators, the Feed and Stories are all about nurturing the community you’ve already built. To do this, they rely on a specific set of signals that put your relationships and recent activity front and center. If you want to keep your audience engaged, you need to understand how these two systems think.

Your Personalized Feed Ranking System

Imagine your main Feed as a personal assistant who’s been studying your every move. It sifts through every recent post from the accounts you follow and then organizes them based on what it thinks you’ll care about most.

It’s not just a chronological list anymore; it’s about what’s important to you. This is where “ranking signals” come in. Instagram tracks thousands of data points, but for your Feed, it really boils down to a few key things.

The most important signals for the Feed algorithm are:

• Your Activity: The algorithm pays close attention to the kinds of posts you’ve liked, commented on, saved, or shared before. If you consistently double-tap your friend’s food pictures, you can bet their latest dinner photo will be waiting for you at the top of your feed.
• Post Information: This is all about the post’s own popularity. The algorithm checks how many people liked it, but more importantly, how quickly they engaged after it went live. A post that gets a sudden burst of attention is a clear signal to Instagram that it’s high-quality content.
• Information About the Poster: How often have you interacted with this person or brand in the last few weeks? This helps the algorithm figure out how relevant that creator is to you right now.
• Your Interaction History: This signal looks at the big picture of your relationship with the creator. If you regularly comment on each other’s posts or slide into their DMs, the algorithm sees a strong bond and gives their content a boost.

Using these signals, the algorithm makes an educated guess about how likely you are to spend a few seconds on a post, leave a comment, like it, or tap on the user’s profile. The higher your predicted score for a post, the higher it appears in your feed.

How Stories Prioritize Your Closest Connections

The Instagram Stories algorithm plays a slightly different game. Its goal is much more intimate: to put the Stories from your “closest friends” right at the very front of the queue. While your Feed is a mix of everyone you follow, the Stories tray at the top of your screen is meant to feel personal and immediate.

Because Stories vanish after 24 hours, timeliness and connection are everything. The algorithm’s biggest fear is that you’ll miss a fleeting update from someone important in your life.

The Stories algorithm is less concerned with what is in the Story and far more interested in who posted it. It heavily favors accounts it believes are your real-life friends, family, or can’t-miss creators, all based on your interaction patterns.

To figure this out, the algorithm hones in on a few specific signals:

• Viewing History: It keeps a tally of whose Stories you watch most often. If you never miss a Story from a certain creator, the algorithm learns to always bump them to the front of the line for you.
• Engagement History: This is a huge one. Replying to a Story with a DM or even just an emoji reaction is a powerful signal that tells the algorithm you have a strong, active relationship with that person.
• Closeness: The system essentially tries to map out your real-world relationships. By analyzing interaction patterns, it makes an educated guess about who is likely family or a close friend, giving their Stories the highest priority.

Unlike the Feed, Stories aren’t really built for reaching new people. They are, however, the ultimate tool for building deeper loyalty and a stronger sense of community with the followers you already have. Using interactive features like polls, quizzes, and question stickers sends strong positive signals to the algorithm, cementing your spot at the front of your followers’ Stories tray.

How to Win on Reels and the Explore Page

If your Feed and Stories are all about connecting with the audience you’ve already earned, think of Reels and the Explore page as your engines for growth. These are the places Instagram uses to introduce your content to brand-new faces—people who have no idea who you are… yet.

Getting this right means shifting your mindset. While your feed is for nurturing your community, Reels and Explore are about discovery. They’re Instagram’s built-in talent scouts, constantly searching for the most entertaining, valuable, and interesting content to recommend to a much wider audience. To win here, you have to play a different game.

Cracking the Code for Reels

The Reels algorithm has one job: keep people watching. It’s laser-focused on pure entertainment value. It doesn’t care as much about who you are or who follows you; it cares about how captivating your video is in that exact moment.

So, how does Instagram measure “entertaining”? It’s looking for a few specific signals:

• Watch Time & Replays: How much of your Reel are people actually watching? Even more importantly, are they hitting that replay button? A high replay count is a massive green light for the algorithm.
• Shares & Saves: When someone sends your Reel to a friend or saves it for later, they’re telling Instagram your content is genuinely valuable. This is a powerful signal that it’s worth showing to more people.
• Using Creative Tools: The algorithm knows when you’re playing in its sandbox. Using trending audio, popular filters, and native text effects shows you’re creating content for the platform, and it often rewards that effort.

Instagram has been pretty direct about this. The Reels algorithm’s main goal is to predict if someone will watch a Reel to the end, like it, comment that it was funny, and then visit the audio page to make their own Reel. Content that sparks that kind of chain reaction gets a huge boost.

Getting Discovered on the Explore Page

The Explore page is less of a talent show and more of a personalized discovery map, custom-built for every single user. This grid is filled entirely with content from accounts you don’t follow, making it an incredibly powerful way to reach people who are already primed to love what you do.

The algorithm powering Explore acts like a profiler. It analyzes a user’s past activity—every like, comment, and save—to build a detailed picture of their interests. It then scans the platform for similar content to serve up. To how to improve your social media engagement and land a spot on this coveted page, your content needs to shout its topic from the rooftops.

The most important signals for the Explore page are:

• Post Popularity: The algorithm loves a post that gets hot, fast. A sudden surge in likes, comments, and especially saves tells Instagram that you’ve got a trending piece of content on your hands.
• User’s Past Activity: If a user consistently engages with posts about home renovation, the algorithm doubles down and shows them more of it. Simple as that.
• Information About You: The algorithm also looks at how many times people have interacted with your account recently. This helps it gauge your relevance and authority on a particular subject.

Ranking Signal Importance by Instagram Feature

To help you visualize where to focus your efforts, let’s break down how Instagram prioritizes these signals across its main surfaces. What matters most for a Reel is quite different from what gets a post noticed in the main Feed.

As you can see, there’s no one-size-fits-all strategy. Success on Instagram means understanding the unique nuances of each feature and tailoring your content accordingly.

One final, critical point for both Reels and Explore: originality is king. Instagram has made it crystal clear that it’s rewarding unique, creator-first content. If you’re just reposting other people’s viral videos, your reach will be throttled. The system is designed to find and promote fresh material, a content-first approach you can discover more about that’s reshaping the platform.

Ultimately, mastering discovery on Instagram boils down to one thing: creating content so good that people can’t help but watch it, share it, and save it for later.

Strategies That Work With the Algorithm, Not Against It

Knowing how the Instagram algorithm works is one thing. Actually putting that knowledge to use is a whole different ball game. Instead of chasing short-lived “hacks,” the best way to grow is to build a strategy around the very behaviors the algorithm wants to see.

Think of it less like trying to outsmart a machine and more like having a great conversation. Every photo, Reel, or Story you post is a chance to get a reaction from your audience—a laugh, a moment of “aha!”, or a tip so good they have to save it. Those human reactions are precisely the signals the algorithm is looking for.

Nurture a Real Community

At its core, Instagram is still a social network. Because of this, its algorithms are built to reward content that genuinely sparks connection. Your first job, before anything else, is to take care of the community you already have.

The most powerful signals for the Feed and Stories algorithms come from your relationship history with a follower. Things like consistent comment replies and DM chats tell Instagram that a user cares about what you post, making your content a top priority for their feed.

Here’s how to put this into practice:

• Reply to Comments Thoughtfully: Don’t just hit the ‘like’ button. Ask a follow-up question or share a real thought to keep the conversation going. This not only boosts that specific post but also strengthens your bond with that person for the long run.
• Lean into Interactive Stickers: Polls, quizzes, and question boxes in Stories aren’t just fun little extras; they’re direct invitations to engage. Every single tap sends a positive signal to the algorithm that your content is holding people’s attention.
• Encourage Direct Messages (DMs): A DM is one of the highest-value interactions on the platform. Ask your audience to slide into your DMs for a link, to answer a question, or to share their own stories.

These actions create a powerful feedback loop. The more you engage with your audience, the more they see your content, which gives you even more chances to engage.

Create Content Worth Saving and Sharing

For discovery surfaces like Reels and the Explore page, the algorithm’s focus shifts. It’s less about your existing relationships and more about the raw quality of the content itself. The goal here is simple: create something so good it stops a user dead in their tracks.

The two metrics that matter most are watch time for Reels and saves for all types of content. A save is an incredibly strong signal. It tells the algorithm your post is so valuable that someone wants to come back to it later—a clear sign of quality and relevance that can get you recommended to brand new audiences.

To create for saves and shares, try this:

1. Nail the First Three Seconds: You have a tiny window to grab someone’s attention. Your opening needs to immediately answer the viewer’s silent question: “What’s in it for me?” Start with a bold claim, a relatable problem, or a visually arresting clip.
2. Use Trending Audio, but Make It Your Own: The algorithm often gives a little boost to content using popular sounds because it knows people are already enjoying them. Just make sure the trend fits your brand’s voice.
3. Offer Real Value: Your content should either be deeply entertaining or genuinely useful. A pretty picture is nice, but a carousel post that breaks down a 5-step process or a Reel that shares a game-changing tip is far more likely to get saved.
4. Make It Sharable: Ask yourself, “Why would someone send this to a friend?” Is it hilarious? Shockingly relatable? Unbelievably insightful? Content that gets shared is algorithmic gold.

Consistently creating content that checks these boxes is the surest path to getting in front of new people. Of course, you need to track what’s working. Learning how to analyze content performance isn’t just a good practice; it’s essential for fine-tuning your strategy and seeing what your audience—and the algorithm—truly loves.

Use the Whole Toolbox

Finally, Instagram tends to favor creators who use the full range of features it offers. This doesn’t mean you have to master every single tool overnight. It just means showing the platform you’re an active participant in its world.

By mixing up your content formats—posting a blend of Reels, carousels, single images, and interactive Stories—you aren’t just keeping your followers engaged. You’re sending positive signals to multiple different algorithms at once, giving you the best possible chance for visibility across the entire app. You’re showing you’re invested in the platform, and Instagram is happy to reward that.

Answering Your Biggest Questions About the Instagram Algorithm

Even when you think you have a handle on how Instagram works, there’s always a new myth or a lingering question that can throw off your entire content strategy. It’s tough to move forward with confidence when you’re wading through so much conflicting advice.

So, let’s cut through the noise. Here are some of the most common questions we hear from creators and brands, answered directly and without the fluff, so you can stop guessing and start building a smarter game plan.

Does Instagram Punish You for Certain Actions?

A lot of creators live in fear of accidentally angering the algorithm. Two of the biggest worries? Editing a post after it’s live and using “too many” hashtags.

Here’s the truth: these are mostly myths. Instagram doesn’t hold a grudge if you need to fix a typo in your caption, update a location tag, or swap out your cover photo. The algorithm is far more concerned with how relevant and engaging your content is, not whether you hit “publish” perfectly the first time.

Likewise, the notion that a high number of hashtags will tank your reach isn’t quite right. Instagram lets you use up to 30 hashtags for a reason. What truly matters isn’t the quantity but the relevance. A long list of well-chosen, relevant hashtags is just giving the algorithm more clues to categorize your content and show it to the right people. Hashtags only become a problem when they’re spammy, irrelevant, or on Instagram’s banned list.

Is Posting Time Still a Big Deal?

Yes, absolutely—but maybe not for the reason you think. While the feed isn’t strictly chronological anymore, recency is still a major ranking signal. The algorithm is built to favor what’s new and fresh.

Think of it like this: posting when your audience is online and ready to scroll gives your content an instant shot at engagement. That first wave of likes, comments, and saves sends a huge positive signal to Instagram.

That initial flurry of activity basically tells the algorithm, “Hey, people are loving this!” which then prompts the system to push it out to an even wider audience. The momentum your post builds in its first hour can make or break its total reach.

The best way to nail your timing is to jump into your Instagram Insights. Find out the exact days and hours your followers are most active, and then schedule your content to drop right in that sweet spot.

Does the Algorithm Prefer Video Over Photos?

This is probably one of the most hotly debated topics out there, so let’s get specific. Officially, Instagram says it does not automatically favor video over photos in the main Feed. The algorithm’s job is to personalize what each user sees.

• If someone tends to like and comment on photos, they’ll see more photos.
• If another person spends their time watching videos, their feed will be full of them.

But here’s the crucial nuance: while a great photo can perform just as well with your current followers, video is the undisputed king of discovery. The Reels and Explore pages are designed to get your content in front of new eyeballs, and those surfaces are overwhelmingly dominated by video.

So, if you want to keep your existing community happy, a mix of photos and videos is perfect. But if your main goal is growth, creating great video is non-negotiable. Grasping this distinction is a big part of learning how to improve brand awareness on the platform.

Is “Shadowbanning” Real?

The term “shadowban” describes the idea that Instagram secretly restricts your account’s reach without telling you, making your content invisible to anyone who doesn’t follow you. Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, has gone on record saying that “shadowbanning” isn’t a real thing they do.

That said, your reach can definitely be limited. This isn’t some secret penalty; it’s the algorithm doing its job to protect the user experience. Your visibility might drop if you:

• Break Instagram’s Community Guidelines.
• Act in a way that looks like spam (like going on a crazy liking or following spree).
• Use hashtags that the platform has banned.

If you see a sudden, steep drop in your reach, don’t just assume you’ve been shadowbanned. The first step should be to audit your own activity. Check the hashtags you’ve used recently, review your content against the official guidelines, and make sure you aren’t using any sketchy third-party apps. More often than not, what feels like a “shadowban” is simply the system reacting to an action that bends the rules.

At ReachLabs.ai, our job is to translate these complex algorithmic rules into a winning strategy. We use a data-first approach to grow your brand, making sure your content doesn’t just connect with your audience but also works in harmony with how platforms like Instagram actually function. See how our collective of experts can build a custom digital roadmap for you at https://www.reachlabs.ai.