How Many Hashtags to Use in 2026, and How to Choose Them

In short: in 2026 a hashtag no longer earns you reach; it tells the platform what your content is about. Instagram and TikTok now cap hashtags at 5 per post and LinkedIn is retiring its hashtag feed, so three to five precise keywords are more than enough.

For years the unwritten rule was simple: the more hashtags you stacked, the better your odds of being seen. The platforms have settled the question. Over 2025, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn all shrank the role of hashtags in favor of their recommendation algorithms and in-app search. Here is what that changes for a business, platform by platform.

What is a hashtag, and what does it do now?

A hashtag is a keyword preceded by the # sign and written without spaces: #SmallBatchCoffee, #B2BMarketing. Popularized on Twitter in the late 2000s, it let people follow a conversation or find every post on a topic.

Its job has changed. Platforms now analyze the image, audio, caption and on-screen text of a post themselves to understand what it covers. The hashtag is one signal among many, with three uses that still matter:

• classifying: helping the algorithm match your content with people interested in that topic;
• being found: showing up when someone types a keyword into the platform’s search bar;
• rallying: grouping posts from a campaign, an event or your customers under a branded hashtag.

What it no longer does is push a post in front of thousands of strangers because it carries #love or #instagood.

How many hashtags should you use on Instagram?

Five at most. On December 18, 2025, Instagram announced a limit of five hashtags per caption on posts and Reels, rolled out gradually, Social Media Today reported. Before that, the app had tested caps for about a year, with many users limited to three. The old ceiling was 30.

Instagram’s stated reason: a few targeted hashtags, rather than many generic ones, improve both performance and the experience for users. Adam Mosseri, who runs Instagram, had already said in February 2025 that hashtags “don’t work” to increase reach, then added in May that they remain a good way to tell people what a post is about.

For a business account, that translates into:

• three to five hashtags, in the caption;
• at least one niche hashtag that describes the content precisely;
• a local hashtag if your customers are local (#AustinEats, #ManchesterBusiness);
• your branded hashtag, if you have one.

On Threads, Instagram’s text app, the rule is stricter still: one topic tag per post. For video, the caption and on-screen text often matter more than any hashtag, as our guide to Instagram Reels for business explains.

How many hashtags should you use on TikTok?

Five as well. Since summer 2025, TikTok displays a “Maximum 5 hashtags” message when you try to add more to a video, MediaPost reported in August 2025. TikTok has not published an announcement or an explanation.

On TikTok, hashtags still carry real weight for search: many users type keywords into the app’s search bar the way they would on Google. But completed views, shares and comments are what decide how widely a video is distributed.

For a business, a solid set fits in four or five tags: the specific topic of the video, your business category, a local tag where relevant, and a trending hashtag only if it genuinely matches the content. Our article on TikTok for business shows how to build an editorial line that lasts.

Do hashtags still matter on LinkedIn?

Very little. In a video message relayed by Digital Information World in July 2025, LinkedIn’s head of product Rishi Jobanputra said the company was getting rid of the hashtag feed because people were not using it. His advice: hashtags still help people search for topics, so use a few relevant ones rather than many.

In practice, one or two hashtags (three at most) are enough on LinkedIn. They can help someone searching for a specific theme, but they no longer distribute your post to an audience. What moves the needle on this network is a strong hook in the first two lines, a useful post, fast replies to comments and a sensible posting slot, as our study of the best time to post on LinkedIn shows.

How many hashtags per platform: the summary

Platform	Technical maximum	Recommended	Main role
Instagram	5 (since December 2025)	3 to 5	Describe the topic, search
TikTok	5 (since summer 2025)	3 to 5	In-app search
LinkedIn	No announced limit	1 to 3	Occasional search
Threads	1 topic tag	1	Attach the post to a topic
YouTube	60 (above that, all are ignored)	2 to 3	Shown above the title

YouTube is the outlier with a published rule: its help center says that if a video has more than 60 hashtags, YouTube ignores all of them, and that up to three hashtags from the description appear next to the title. Three well chosen tags are therefore the practical target.

How do you choose the right hashtags?

With five slots at most, each hashtag has to earn its place. A four-step method:

1. Start from the specific topic of the post, not your industry in general. A video on installing herringbone flooring calls for #HerringboneFloor rather than #DIY.
2. Check what the hashtag actually contains. Tap it or type it into search. If the posts that come up have nothing to do with yours, or look like spam, move on.
3. Avoid the giants and the ghosts. A hashtag holding hundreds of millions of posts buries yours within seconds. A hashtag nobody uses will never be searched. Aim for a term your customer might really type.
4. Capitalize each word (#DigitalMarketing rather than #digitalmarketing). It is easier for everyone to read, and screen readers used by people with visual impairments then pronounce the words separately.

The branded hashtag is a special case. It attracts nobody on its own, but it lets you collect your customers’ posts, run a contest or follow an event. Keep it short and unique (check it is not already taken), and display it where customers will see it: in the store, on packaging, on your website.

These choices belong to a broader social media strategy: if your posts do not interest your audience, no hashtag will rescue them.

Which tools help you find hashtags?

The best tools are free and built into the platforms:

• Each platform’s search bar: type a keyword into Instagram, TikTok or LinkedIn and look at the suggestions and the posts that surface.
• TikTok Creative Center: its Trends section lists rising hashtags for free, filterable by country and industry.
• Google Trends: handy for comparing two terms and spotting seasonality.
• Your own analytics: compare the reach of similar posts with and without a given hashtag over a few weeks.

Hashtag generators built into scheduling tools save time, but they often suggest terms that are far too broad. Keep the final choice in human hands. A social media management tool becomes worthwhile once you post across several accounts, because it centralizes scheduling, analytics and monitoring of your branded hashtags.

Which hashtag mistakes should you avoid?

• Pasting the same block of hashtags under every post: the platform struggles to understand what each one is about.
• Riding an unrelated trending hashtag to grab attention: the surest way to attract people who will never buy from you.
• Hiding hashtags in the first comment: with a five-tag cap, the trick no longer buys anything, and the caption is where Instagram expects them.
• Ignoring the text around them. Platforms read the whole caption. A clear description containing the right keywords often outperforms a hashtag, a point we expand on in our article about social media and SEO.

The hashtag is not dead. It has simply been demoted to what it always should have been: one description tool among others, to use precisely and sparingly.