How Long Can Instagram Stories Be? Tips for Instagram Engagement in 2025

Selecting a niche and making content is a separate thing. To be a creator, it is first important to know about all the features of Instagram. Knowing each feature and how to utilize it can help you grow quicker.  

First, you must know ways to introduce yourself to people and gain an audience. One of the quickest ways for this is through Instagram stories. This powerful feature can help creators communicate with their audience. 

However, unlike the regular reels, stories have a shorter time limit. Do you want to know more about Instagram stories, their time limits, and utilizing this feature smartly? Let’s get started. 

What are Instagram Stories?

On the top of your main instagram page, you might have seen profile pictures with red circles around them. It means someone uploaded a story. 

Instagram stories are an in-app feature. Users can post their everyday activities or any random video they found useful and want their audience to see it. They are very much like WhatsApp status, but the only difference is the latter vanishes after a day. 

You can choose to show the story to every follower or close friends only. For regular followers, the stories appear as a red circle around the profile. For close friends, the profile has a green circle around it. 

How Long Can Instagram Stories Be? A Complete Breakdown

Similar to the length of any reel you upload, Instagram story length 2025 is also limited. Let us discuss further details. 

Instagram Story Duration

Instagram story duration limit is the time limitation for the length of a story. Any video longer than the decided length cannot be uploaded as the story as a whole. This limitation is 60 seconds. 

If you try to upload a video longer than this length, Instagram will automatically trim it and let it upload you. However, it is possible that the automatic trimming might also remove the important snippets. 

Instagram Story Visibility

If you have a public account, your story will be visible to everyone including your followers and non-followers. Anyone can have access to it. If you want your story to be visible to only a few people, you can mark them as close friends. 

A video story is visible for its whole length. When you upload a picture as a story, it is shown for 7 seconds and then the users are automatically moved to the next story. 

Instagram Story Life Span

The lifespan of an Instagram story is one day. This means, the story appears for 24 hours and gets deleted automatically after it. Once viewed, a follower can view the same story again within 24 hours. 

If you want it to last longer, you can just add it in your highlights. Your followers can find the highlights by opening your profile. They look just like stories and present just above the Instagram posts in your profile. 

Instagram Stories Features and Tools

Here are some important features and tools you must know to make your stories more interesting. 

Editing Tools

The app has some built-in editing tools to make sharing content easier. It offers different templates in which you can add small clips and the app will automatically turn it into a whole story.

It is possible to add music also or create a photo collage. In addition, after selecting the story, you can add effects to it, mute it, restyle it, or write a text over it.

Interactive Features

Instagram also offers some interactive features to connect with your followers through stories. You can make a poll for voting or add questions to ask them for suggestions on clothes, food choices, or some events. There is also a countdown option that you can use for your friend’s birthday or some important event. 

In addition, there is also an “Add yours” option. In this way, you can initiate a long chain of stories in which your followers will add their stories to yours. 

Instagram Story vs. Reels vs. Instagram Live: Duration Comparison

Reels are the videos you upload in your feed on Instagram and the Instagram live is an option that enables users to initiate a live broadcast. Each has different length limitations. A comparison of Instagram Live vs. Instagram Reels vs. Stories length is as mdentioned below:

• Instagram stories can have a time limit of 1 minute at maximum.
• Instagram has increased their allowed reel length. It is now 20 minutes. However, videos that are longer than 3 minutes do not help the algorithm in any way. These are never recommended to new audiences. 
• Previously, the time limit for Instagram live was 1 hour. However, it increased to 4 hours so that creators can interact with their audience for longer.

Type	Minimum Time Duration	Maximum Duration	Visibility for
Instagram Story	Not set	1 minute	24 hours
Instagram Reels	3 seconds	20 minutes	Always visible in your feed
Instagram Live	Not set	1 hours for personal and business account, 4 hours for creator’s account	Broadcast disappears immediately after ending live, a 15 second live can be shared on the profile.

 

How to upload longer videos that exceed 60 seconds?

You have to split a video into parts to upload it as a story if it is longer than one minute. The length of each part can be varied for better transitions. You can either use the built-in splitting feature of your phone or third-party apps to create different segments of the video.

Editing applications like Vmake may be used for adding effects or transitions in the videos for smooth transitions. Once editing is done, click on the plus icon on the stories section and post a story of each part individually.

You can also guide your viewers with statements like “Watch the next part in my story” or “Continued.” It will show that the view has not ended yet. This method can help if you do not want to cut out any part of the video you make. However, manual segmenting and editing gets very time-taking. 

It is best to resort to the use of external applications in order to cut down the less significant segments of the video and thus bring it down to 60 seconds. This will be a more practical option. In addition, the audience’s preference for short-form videos is mainly due to the fact that they are less demanding in terms of consumption and attention.

4 Best Practices for Using Instagram Stories

You must be very careful about every story you post on Instagram to attract an audience. Here are some Instagram story tips for increasing audience’s engagement:

• Make them Interesting: Don’t just upload some simple or boring pictures but instead utilize the inbuilt features of Instagram to make them interesting. Add a poll or questionnaire to interact with your audience. Edit the stories with music or stickers to add some fun element in them.                                                  
• Be thoughtful: Be careful about the length of stories you must. If they are just sneak peaks, they should be just 5 seconds. If you are sharing quick guides, set them to 10 seconds. For detailed videos, keep the length to 30-60 seconds. 

• Quality over Quantity: It is better to post high quality content than to post as low quality content in abundance. Audiences easily lose interest and stop watching stories if they are blur or meaningless.  Even one story per day is enough as long as it is good quality. 

• Experiment: Rather than following the formats on the internet, experiment in your own way. Try posting stories of different lengths and types to know the content that gets the highest engagement. 

• Post regularly: Posting stories regularly can help you keep your audience hooked on your page. You can share daily life activities, small tips, or updates about some coming events that your audience are waiting for. 

The Bottomline: Using Vmake for Instagram Stories

Instagram stories provide a creator enough time to communicate with their audience without losing their attention. They can use it to give updates, interact with them, ask for suggestions, and share their daily-life. It helps the audience know you better and stay connected to you.

However, the feature is only useful if you are using it smartly. Posting low-quality content regularly does not make any difference. The Vmake video editor will help you to improve your Instagram stories game and make them look more interesting.

You can use it to make hooks for your stories, add transitions and eye-catching effects, remove unwanted background, and include subtitles for easy understanding. It is quick, free and easy to use. With the proper tool, you can achieve high-quality HD quickly and effortlessly.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Can Instagram stories be longer than one minute?

For a story, the maximum length of a video allowed to post is 60 seconds. Videos longer than this duration automatically get trimmed to shorter length. For longer stories, you will have to post the story in small fragments. 

2. How long do Instagram stories last?

Instagram stories have a lasting time of up to 1 day. They will stay on your profile for this duration and after 24 hours will automatically get deleted. They can no longer be viewed by anyone. If you want them to last longer, add them in highlights.

3. How many Instagram Stories should I post per day?

It can vary from niche to niche. However, you still need to post optimally so that your audience neither forget you nor get bored of your content. Most researchers recommend 3-4 stories and they can even go up to 7 per day.