What can you put in an Instagram caption? Features and ideas

Short answer

An Instagram caption can carry keywords that Search matches, up to 5 hashtags, mentions, a location and, on a carousel, one caption per photo or video; alt text is a separate field. Instagram’s pages describe each of these and publish no formula for a caption that reaches more people. The example sentences below are ours, written for an invented ceramics studio, grouped by what the caption is for.

Written by the Mellow team · Updated October 22, 2026, sources read October 11, 2026

What a caption can carry

These are the caption features Instagram’s Help Center and creator pages document. The middle column paraphrases the page linked in the row; the last is our idea.

Feature	What the page says	Idea (ours)
Words people search for	Search matches what someone types with usernames, bios, captions, hashtags and places. For a post to be found in Search, keywords and hashtags go in the caption, not the comments (Instagram, 2021).	Say in the first sentence what the post is, in the words a customer would type.
Hashtags	Up to 5 on a post, in the caption or the comments; with more than 5 the comment won’t post (Help Center).	Tags that name the subject, not a block of general ones.
Mentions	A mentioned account is notified in its Activity (Help Center). A mention is not a Collab: the post isn’t shared with that account’s followers and it isn’t listed as an author (Help Center).	Credit the person who made the thing in the photo.
Location	Added with the caption when you share (Help Center).	Where the studio is, or where Saturday’s pop-up will be.
One caption or many	A carousel can have a single caption or a caption for each photo or video (Help Center).	One short line per slide, so each swipe has its own sentence.
Alt text	Written in More options, separate from the caption; it is read only by someone using a screen reader (Help Center).	Describe what is in the photo: shape, colour, setting.
Translation	Captions and comments are translated automatically for people whose language differs; they tap See Translation (Help Center).	Write short, plain sentences that survive translation.
Editing later	Tap Options above the photo or video, then Edit, to add, change or delete a caption (Help Center).	Fix the typo, or add the missing word people search for.

The word “caption” also means the on-screen text of a video. Instagram’s Creators page says captions, timed text and image descriptions give more people a way to enjoy your content, and that captions are shown automatically when a video plays with sound off (Instagram for Creators).

Caption ideas by what the caption is for

Instagram gives no list of caption formulas. These are patterns of ours, with an example for each. None is a promise of reach.

The caption’s job	Example (ours)
Say what it is	“Wheel-thrown mug in speckled white, second firing done this week.”
Ask something you want to know	“Handle on the left or on the right? We’re choosing the shape for the next batch.”
Show a step	“Step 3 of 5: trimming the foot so the mug sits flat.”
Credit someone	“Glaze by Mara, shape by us.”
Say when and where	“Open Saturday, 10 to 4, on Mill Lane.”
Invite a share, honestly	“Send this to someone who still drinks from a chipped mug.”
Tell what went wrong	“This batch cracked in the kiln; here is what we changed.”

What Instagram asks you not to do

The Creators page defines engagement bait as any tactic that pushes people to interact in order to inflate engagement or reach, and says Instagram reduces the visibility of content that uses it. Its example is a caption that lures people into the share button; it adds that asking viewers to share with a genuine call to action is fine (Instagram for Creators). Its reach advice also names keywords in the caption, bio and hashtags among the things that help people find a profile through Search (Instagram for Creators).

What Instagram doesn’t say

The pages we read give no ideal caption length, no number of words for the first line and no place where the caption is cut in the feed. The caption length answer has the limit Instagram’s API documents; how many lines show before “more” depends on the screen.

Where Mellow Hub fits

Hub sends one caption per network, up to 2,200 characters for Instagram, and each network can have a caption of its own in the same post. On Instagram it leaves out a caption’s closing hashtags past 5 and says so; the hashtag strategy answer explains how. Hub has no field for alt text or per-slide captions on Instagram, so add those in the app if you need them. The free character counter counts a caption against each network’s limit before you post.

The first 3 posts are free, however many networks each one goes to, and need no card. After that Hub is paid: plans start at $19 a month (Solo), after a 7-day trial with a card on file that costs nothing if you cancel before it ends, and a monthly plan's first month is 20% off. Publishing is unlimited on every plan, under a fair-use ceiling that stops automated floods (900 publications a month on Solo), where one publication is one post on one account, so a post sent to five networks counts as five toward it. There are no automatic overage charges.

Questions people also ask

How long can an Instagram caption be?

Instagram’s API documentation gives 2,200 characters, with up to 5 hashtags; the Help Center states no figure. The caption length answer has the detail.

How many hashtags can a caption have?

Up to 5 on a post, according to Instagram’s Help Center, in the caption or the comments. With more than 5 on one photo or video, the comment won’t post.

Can I edit a caption after posting?

Yes. Tap Options above your photo or video, tap Edit, change or delete the caption and tap Done. The same page says you can also add a caption to a post that had none.

Should keywords go in the caption or the comments?

In the caption. Instagram’s explanation of Search says that for a post to be found in Search, keywords and hashtags belong in the caption, not the comments. The page is from August 2021 and we found no newer statement.

What is alt text and is it part of the caption?

It is a separate description of the photo, written in More options before posting or through Edit afterwards. Instagram says it is read only by people using a screen reader, so it doesn’t replace the caption.

Sources

Other companies’ features change. Every statement about them rests on these pages, as they read on the date above.