Instagram Algorithm 2026: What Instagram Officially Says About Feed, Stories, Reels and Explore Ranking

There is no single Instagram algorithm: the official version

In "Instagram Ranking Explained", published May 31, 2023, Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri opens by saying that Instagram does not have a singular algorithm that oversees what people do and don't see on the app. Feed, Stories, Explore and Reels each use a ranking approach built for that surface.

Meta's Transparency Center also publishes an AI system card for each surface. Taking the Feed card as the example (marked as updated June 29, 2026), there are four steps:

The card says a lightweight model first selects roughly 700 of the most relevant posts, then a relevance score is calculated for about 500 of them and they are ordered by score, with a balanced mix of content types. Every card carries the same reminder: the models and their input signals change frequently.

This looks like Facebook Feed's four steps, but the signals differ. For Facebook see Facebook Algorithm 2026, and for Threads see Threads Algorithm 2026. This article covers Instagram only.

What does each of the four surfaces look at?

The two middle columns come from Mosseri's official post. The last column is FRIDAI Editorial's suggestion, not Instagram's wording.

Feed

Instagram lists Feed signals roughly in order of importance: your activity (posts you liked, shared, saved or commented on), information about the post (how popular it is, how quickly people engage, when and where it was posted), information about the person who posted, and your history of interacting with them. The system also tries not to show too many posts from the same person in a row.

The system card goes further. The predictions it lists include whether you will swipe through a whole carousel, whether you will share the post in a direct message, how long you will spend on the post, and whether you will spend time on the author's profile afterwards. One input signal for the "share in a direct message" prediction is whether the post is informative; Meta's examples are news, product reviews and tutorials.

Stories

Stories ranks only accounts you follow. The signals Instagram names are viewing history, engagement history and closeness. The system card (marked as updated September 18, 2025) lists predictions such as whether you will tap a story at the top of your home page, reply, send a like, respond to a poll or question sticker, swipe to the next story or exit.

Reels

Instagram says Reels is built to help you discover new things, so the majority of what you see is from accounts you do not follow. The signals, in order, are your activity, your history with the poster, information about the reel (audio, visuals, popularity) and information about the poster.

The same post lists reels that get lower visibility: low-⁠resolution or watermarked reels, muted reels, reels with borders, reels that are mostly text, and reels that have already been posted on Instagram. The Transparency Center card named Reels Chaining (marked as updated November 11, 2025) lists predictions including whether you will watch less than three seconds, comment, reshare, share off Instagram, follow the author, or use the reel's audio in one of your own.

Explore

Explore is made up entirely of recommendations. Instagram says information about the post matters most here, more than in Feed or Stories. The system card (marked as updated June 22, 2026) describes three stages: retrieve up to 1,500 candidates, narrow them to the top 100, then rank by likelihood of engagement. Its listed predictions include following the author, viewing a post for more than five seconds, watching more than 95% of a video, saving, and tapping "Not Interested".

What is not recommended to non-⁠followers?

If your Instagram reach is falling, read this section first. The Instagram Help Center describes two layers: content that violates the Community Standards is removed; content that falls short of the Recommendations Guidelines stays up and your followers can see it, but it does not appear in Explore, Reels, Feed recommendations, Search or Suggested Accounts. Instagram says the guidelines set a higher bar than the Community Standards because recommendations go to people who have not chosen to follow you.

Content level

The recommendations page lists three broad categories of content that may not be eligible:

• Content that impedes a safe community, such as content that discusses self-⁠harm, depicts violence, is sexually suggestive, or promotes certain regulated products. Instagram's examples include content promoting weight loss products or services and cosmetic surgeries.
• Low-⁠quality content: unoriginal content that is largely repurposed from another source with only minor edits and no material added value; long captions unrelated to the content; coordinated comment networks meant to artificially drive engagement.
• False or misleading content: in countries with third-⁠party fact-⁠checking, content that fact-⁠checkers have reviewed and rated.

Instagram's official FAQ for creators adds that clickbait, engagement bait and content promoting a contest or giveaway, watermarks, unoriginal content and reels longer than three minutes can all limit distribution. In its words, it recommends videos to unconnected audiences that are three minutes or less.

For small shops in Taiwan, the usual culprit is the giveaway post (comment-⁠to-⁠win draws are very common there). Instagram's wording is that this content is non-⁠recommendable, meaning it is harder to push to non-⁠followers. It does not say you cannot run a campaign.

Account level

The same page lists accounts Instagram tries not to recommend, including accounts that recently violated the Community Guidelines, that repeatedly show non-⁠recommendable content in their profile, that repeatedly used misleading practices such as buying likes to build a following, that have been banned from running ads, or that repeatedly share content prominently featuring a photorealistic AI-⁠generated person without the AI-⁠generated profile label.

One sentence in the help page is blunt: if your account is not eligible to be recommended, none of your content will be recommended, whether or not every post goes against the guidelines.

Check it yourself in Account Status

Professional accounts can use Account Status to see whether their content may be eligible to be recommended, whether something in the profile goes against the Recommendations Guidelines, which pieces of content can't be recommended and which guideline applies, and to edit, remove or request a review. Instagram adds two cautions: eligibility does not guarantee that content will be recommended, and these guidelines only affect public accounts being recommended to non-⁠followers. Your followers can still see your content.

Having features restricted or an account locked is a different matter; see Can Instagram auto-⁠reply get you banned?.

Original content: what Instagram said, and when

• On May 31, 2023, Instagram's creator page "Tips for Improving Your Reach" advised creating original content and stated that Instagram is less likely to recommend reposted reels, content with noticeable watermarks, and accounts that regularly collect and reshare other people's content. To build on a popular reel, it suggests using Remix to add your own spin.
• The recommendations page currently lists unoriginal content with only minor edits as low-⁠quality.
• On January 28, 2026, Meta said in an official post that in the fourth quarter it increased the prevalence of original content on Instagram in the US by 10 percentage points, with 75% of recommendations now coming from original posts. That is Meta's statement about the US; it gives no figure for Taiwan.

So "take someone else's video, add captions and repost it" is a clearly documented negative, and Instagram has been saying so for more than three years.

Myths versus official statements

On shadowbanning, Mosseri's post acknowledges that there is no shared definition of the term, says ranking is not meant to hide content without explanation, and says Instagram does not suppress content to encourage people to buy ads. Its answer is Account Status: whether you can be recommended is something you can look up.

On posting frequency, the creator FAQ says creators with the highest net follower growth post, on average, 10 or more reels per month, and adds that frequency is just one factor of many. That is an observation from Instagram, not a guarantee.

What changed in 2026

Only changes with a date that we read on an official page today.

• Instagram launched Your Algorithm on December 10, 2025. It lets people see the topics shaping their recommendations and type in what they want more or less of, starting on the Reels tab in the US. It expanded to Explore on April 15, 2026, and on June 10, 2026 Instagram announced it was live across Feed, Reels and Explore, available globally in English. Posts recommended from an interest carry a label such as "From Running".
• The AI system cards for Feed, Feed Recommendations and Explore were all updated in June 2026. One prediction on the Feed Recommendations card is "how informative a post is", with content quality rated by a language model as its input signal.
• In January 2026 Meta published the share of original content in US recommendations; the figures are in the previous section.

For a shop, these point the same way: people can increasingly tell the system which topics they want, and the system is also judging whether content is informative. Posts with a clear topic and something to say hold up better. That is FRIDAI Editorial's reading; Instagram makes no such promise.

Weekly posting checklist

Keep this checklist next to your scheduling tool. It is in Chinese because it is meant for a Taiwan-⁠based team; in English it covers: before posting (is it our own work with our own view added; for reels, no third-⁠party watermark, sound on, three minutes or less, not mostly text, no borders; caption matches content and only relevant hashtags; something worth saving or sending; knowing that giveaways and "comment +1" posts are harder to recommend to non-⁠followers), after posting (answer comments properly, reel comments within seven days; add a question or poll sticker to Stories), and a weekly review (top post by views and interactions and its format, follower versus non-⁠follower split in accounts engaged, recommendation eligibility in Account Status).

【每週 Instagram 發文檢查清單】

發文前
□ 這則是我們自己拍、自己寫的嗎？引用別人的素材，有加入自己的觀點嗎？
□ Reels：有沒有別的平台的浮水印？有聲音嗎？長度在三分鐘以內嗎？
□ Reels：畫面是不是幾乎只有文字？有沒有加邊框？
□ 說明文字和內容對得上嗎？主題標籤只留相關的幾個了嗎？
□ 這則貼文有沒有值得儲存或轉給朋友的資訊？
□ 有抽獎或「留言 +1」的話，先知道它比較難被推薦給非粉絲。

發文後
□ 留言認真回，Reels 的留言在七天內回完。
□ 限時動態放一個提問或票選，邀請粉絲回覆。

每週回顧
□ 洞察報告：哪一則的瀏覽次數與互動最高？是什麼格式？
□ 互動帳號裡，粉絲與非粉絲各占多少？
□ 帳號狀態：推薦資格正常嗎？有沒有被標示的內容？
□ 下週多做一則表現好的類型，少做一則沒人看的類型。

The item about answering comments has an official basis: the creator FAQ suggests liking or authentically replying to comments on your reel within the first seven days.

How to read Instagram Insights

Many people who say "Instagram reach dropped" are looking at different numbers. According to the Instagram Help Center, public accounts can see the following metrics.

A few details in the definitions:

• Views covers reels, posts, stories, live videos and ads. For a reel, a view is counted when it starts to play or replay; for a post, it is the number of times the content was displayed. The help page still notes that this metric is being introduced gradually.
• Viewers and views are not the same thing. If you compare today's views with an older reach figure, the numbers will never line up.
• The insights overview covers a timeframe within the past 90 days. Follower trends and the times your followers are most active need at least 100 followers.

None of the official pages we read publishes an average reach rate or a "normal" percentage for accounts. Your only reliable comparison is your own figure for the same metric across periods.

When Instagram reach drops, what should you check first?

The last two boxes map to two different rankings. If non-⁠follower numbers fall, the issue is mostly in recommendation surfaces such as Reels and Explore; go back to the Recommendations Guidelines and the list of reels with lower visibility. If follower numbers fall, the issue is in Feed and Stories, and what those two weigh most is the history between you and your followers: whether comments get answers, whether DMs get replies, whether anyone responds to your stories.

FAQ