How To Upload Video to Instagram

Instagram may have started as a photo-sharing app, but video is quickly becoming the most important medium on the platform.

In 2024, users spent 50% of their time on the app watching Reels. By 2025, Instagram video time was up more than 20% year over year globally, and the platform began experimenting with Reels as the default home screen for some users in its largest market, India.

Ahead, learn everything you need to know about Instagram’s video formats and how to upload video to Instagram.

3 types of Instagram videos

There are three main video formats on Instagram: Reels, Stories, and Instagram Live.

Instagram Reels

Reels have been the default video-sharing format on Instagram since 2022. They have the largest reach of any format on Instagram: 2.25 times the reach of single-image posts and 1.36 times the reach of carousel image posts, according to CreatorsJet. “The algorithm happens to really like Reels,” Link In Bio author and social media consultant Rachel Karten says.

Posting Reels can help get your content in front of new audiences, since Instagram’s algorithm places Reels in users’ continuous-scroll Reels tab as well as in their Explore tabs. “A video of yours that picks up steam could be put in front of a whole new audience,” Rachel says.

This can help you gain a high number of views, even if you don’t have a massive following. You can also repurpose Reels as Instagram ads, should you decide to launch a paid Instagram marketing campaign.

Here are some tips and ideas for your Instagram Reels:

• Add sound effects, music, and stickers to your Reels to make them more visually and sonically interesting.
• Monetize your Reels by tagging products with Instagram Shopping, which can help lead users to your online store. You can set this up quickly with the Facebook & Instagram app for Shopify.
• Use Reels for marketing by turning them into paid ads. This can place them in front of users in your target audience.

Instagram Stories

Unlike a regular post in your Instagram Feed, an Instagram Story disappears after 24 hours (unless you save it to your page’s Highlights under your Instagram bio, which you can do at any time). You can share multiple videos to your Story, and users will simply tap to see the next one. 

Instagram Stories are a good place to post content that might not fit the aesthetic of your grid or that might be too fleeting to merit a permanent post. For example, you might use an Instagram Story video to advertise an upcoming livestream or share details about an upcoming event.

You can post a video you’ve previously shot to your Story, or you can create a new Instagram video from the Stories tool in the app. You can also publish Reels you’ve already posted to your Story. Reposting existing content can help you draw more attention to important posts, since viewers will have two chances to see it.

Here are some tips for posting videos to your Instagram Story:

• Make sure your videos have captions to ensure they’re accessible. Captions can also let users watch your content in quiet places without headphones.
• Don’t worry about making Stories videos perfect, since they won’t live permanently on your Instagram Feed. This makes them a great place to share more spur of the moment content.

Instagram Live

Instagram Live is a great way to cultivate community, since you’ll be able to respond to questions and comments from your fans in real time. Note that you’ll need more than 1,000 followers and a public account to go Live. 

Here are a few ideas for how to use Instagram Live videos:

• Capture events like pop-up shops.
• Host workshops or tutorials related to your product offering.
• Collaborate with influencers by having conversations together on Live.

Fashion Brand Tibi livestreams a weekly “Style Class” on Instagram and its website. It promotes the livestream in Stories and shares clips from previous “episodes” as Reels. The full library can be accessed on the brand’s website.

How to post an Instagram video

How to post Reels and Instagram Story videos

You’ll follow similar steps to post Instagram Story videos and Reels. Here’s how to do it:

1. Click the + sign at the center bottom of the app.

2. Select Post, Story, or Reel from the sliding menu at the bottom of the screen. If you choose Post, then select a single video to upload, your video will be uploaded as a Reel.

If you choose Story, you’ll have the option to upload an existing video (access this by tapping the photo icon in the bottom left corner) or record a new one. To record a new video, hold down the circle in the center of the screen.

If you choose Reel from the menu, you’ll be directed to a screen showing your camera roll and be asked to select an existing video. 

3. Once you’ve recorded a video or chosen one from your camera roll, you’ll be able to edit it. You can apply filters, add text, turn the audio on or off, trim the length of the clip, add music, tag other users, and select a frame for the cover image (for Reels). When you’re done, tap Next.

4. Add a caption, tag people, add a location and hashtags, and incorporate interactive features like polls and prompts.

How to create Live videos on Instagram

Before you go Live, ensure you have a strong and reliable network connection. Then, follow these steps:

1. Tap the + icon on the top right of your profile page and select Live from the menu.

2. Allow camera and microphone access if you haven’t already.

3. Tap the Record button at the bottom of the screen to start broadcasting.

Audience members can request to join during your Live—it’s up to you whether you’d like to add them. 

4. When you end your live broadcast, you can tap Share Video to make it available in the Reels tab of your profile. You can also tap Download Video to save the video to your phone, or find it later in your Live Archive under Profile > Menu > Archive > Live Archive. Live broadcasts stay in your Archive for 30 days.

Instagram video size

• Reels
• Video Stories
• Livestreams

Instagram’s technical requirements for videos depends on the type of video you’re posting.

Reels

Here are the technical specs for Reels:

• Maximum length: 20 minutes
• Aspect ratio: Between 1.91:1 and 9:16
• Suggested cover photo size: 420 pixels by 654 pixels (1:1.55 ratio)
• Minimum resolution: 720 pixels
• Minimum frame rate: 30 frames per second (FPS)

Video Stories

Here are the details you need to correctly format your video Stories:

• Maximum length: 1 hour, but longer videos (60 seconds or more) will be broken into multiple clips
• Aspect ratio: 9:16 and 4:5 to 1.91:1
• Minimum resolution: 500 pixels
• Maximum file size: 4GB maximum
• File type: .mp4 or .mov

Livestreams

For Live videos, Instagram offers more detailed technical guidelines: 

• Aspect ratio: Recommended 9:16
• Frame rate: 30 frames per second recommended, but you can also use 60 frames per second
• Resolution: 720 x 1280 pixels
• Video bitrate range: 2,250 to 6,000 kilobits per second

Instagram’s recommendations for Live videos also include details about audio:

• Sample rate: 44.1 kilohertz
• Channel layout: Stereo
• Bit rate: Up to 256 kilobits per second

Video file size and compression tips

Optimizing videos for Instagram is a careful game of balancing quality with file size. For faster downloads, uploads, and playbacks, you might need to compress your videos. 

Here are some tips: 

• Stick to recommended resolutions. Choose 1080 by 1920 for vertical videos and 1080 by 1080 for square ones. Avoid higher resolutions than necessary to keep file sizes manageable. 
• Consider frame rate. Thirty frames per second is standard and sufficient for most videos. Higher frame rates can increase file size without significantly improving the social media viewing experience. 
• Check video length. Trim unnecessary parts to keep videos concise. This can help keep viewers focused on your content.
• Adjust bitrate. A bitrate of around 3,500 kbps offers a good balance of quality and file size. For high definition, you can go up to 58,000 kbps (although you’ll have a very large file with this bitrate). 

Instagram video best practices

• Be authentic
• Post regularly
• Tell compelling brand stories
• Link to your products

While some brands post professionally shot content to Instagram (think a high-fashion brand publishing a sleek campaign for its new line), many brands find Instagram success with content shot on phones. That means that you, too, can publish engaging content without a professional setup. 

Here are a few tips to improve your Instagram video content:

Be authentic

On Instagram, clever videos that promote your brand and products without promoting them too overtly are the norm. In other words, you don’t want your videos to be QVC-style sales pitches. Instead, focus on making your videos compelling for a wide net of users that includes both potential and existing customers.

One way to achieve this is by showcasing real-life customers rather than product features. This can help potential customers visualize themselves using your products and provide entertainment value for customers who’ve already purchased your products. User-generated content (UGC) and influencer partnerships are great ways to source these videos.

You can solicit UGC by asking your followers to tag your brand in their videos. Just be sure to give proper credit to the creator any time you share their content. It’s also a good move to ask for permission first.

If your team members feel comfortable on camera, you can also ask them if they would be willing to be featured in a video. This can give viewers a glimpse behind-the-scenes and help humanize your brand. 

Here’s an example of a video featuring staff members from the shoe brand Larroudé. The video does not make a straightforward sales pitch describing features—instead, it uses humor to provide entertainment value while conveying important information about an important sales event.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Larroudé (@larroude)

Post regularly

Consistency is key on Instagram. Regularly posting can help keep your brand top of mind for your audience and ensure your profile feels up to date. Mix up the types of Instagram videos you share to keep your content interesting to viewers (and to make your life easier). “You want to make sure that you mix harder-to-execute posts and easier-to-execute posts, and just keep it doable for yourself,” Rachel says.

While there’s no hard and fast rule for how often to post on Instagram, Rachel suggests posting three to five times per week when you’re first starting out. You can plan out your videos ahead of time with an Instagram content calendar and schedule Instagram posts within the app itself or with third-party tools. 

Experiment with the best times to post on Instagram, and consider major holidays and events like seasonal sales as you’re scheduling your videos. You might also consider leaving room for spur-of-the-moment videos, like ones responding to social media trends. “Something that’s great about those trends is that they’re often very easy Reels to execute,” Rachel says. 

Here’s an example of a trend video from the shoe company Rothy’s. Rothy’s placed trending text (a list of “propaganda we’re not falling for” related to its brand) over videos of women walking in Rothy’s shoes, but you could add this text to any existing video footage showcasing your products.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Rothy's (@rothys)

The same goes for trending sounds: “It might just be a sound that’s over you panning over your product, and it’s a single shot, and it takes you five minutes to edit and put together,” Rachel says.

Ultimately, the right number of videos to publish per week, and how complex those videos are, will hinge on how much time you can invest in your Instagram social media marketing strategy. 

Tell compelling brand stories

Videos are an excellent medium for brand storytelling, since you’ll have time to delve into longer narratives and showcase more imagery than you could with standalone image posts. For example, you could explain how you developed a certain product or tell stories about your founder’s background and how they built the business.

Here’s an example of the latter from ecommerce seafood company Island Creek Oysters. In this video, cofounder William “Skip” Bennett talks about his origins as a shellfish farmer:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Marketplace (@marketplaceapm)

Brand storytelling videos can also be more lighthearted (and shorter). Here’s an example from pickle brand Hot Girl Snacks. The video is quick, but it gets to the heart of Hot Girl Snacks’ brand story—it’s a company founded by two best friends.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by good girl snacks (@goodgirlsnacks)

Link to your products

Selling products is the best way to make money on Instagram. By 2028, social commerce revenue is expected to reach a trillion dollars, up from 699 billion in 2024, according to Statista. You can tap into this rapidly expanding market by selling directly on Instagram with Instagram Shopping. 

Instagram Shopping lets you tag products, then direct consumers to your ecommerce site to complete their checkout. You can also create an in-app Instagram shop that allows users to browse your products without leaving the app. If you’re on Shopify, you can easily set up these features with the Facebook & Instagram app, which lets you sync product and sales information across your ecommerce site and Instagram Shop.

Ready to incorporate Instagram video into your marketing?

It’s never too late to start experimenting with an Instagram video marketing strategy, and you don’t need fancy camera equipment or a big budget to get started. Some of the best and most effective Instagram brand videos are shot on smartphones by people without video training. 

You can convert Instagram video views directly into sales by integrating your Shopify storefront with Instagram. The Facebook & Instagram app for Shopify lets you tag products in your videos, then direct viewers to your ecommerce site when they’re ready to check out.