How to Post on Instagram: Photos, Carousels, Phone and PC

To post on Instagram from your phone, tap Create at the top of the screen (or swipe right on your feed), choose POST, pick your photo, tap Next twice, write your caption, then tap Share. On a computer, it’s Create in the left-hand menu, then Post. A carousel holds up to 20 photos and videos. This guide follows the September 2026 screens and covers posting right away: single photo, carousel, from mobile or desktop. And so your post doesn’t sit there with no reactions, Instagram likes give it a first push.

Post, reel or story: what do you want to share?

Instagram puts everything behind the same Create button, then makes you choose at the bottom of the screen. The choice matters, because each format lives in a different place.

• A post (photo, video or carousel) stays on your profile grid and shows up in your followers’ feeds. That’s what this guide is about.
• A reel is a vertical video built to be shown to people who don’t follow you yet.
• A story disappears after 24 hours, unless you pin it to your highlights.

One detail Meta spells out in its help pages that few people know: a video inside a carousel is not a reel. It doesn’t appear in the Reels tab and doesn’t get reel features. If your video needs to reach new people, post it on its own, as a reel.

How do you post a photo on Instagram from your phone?

This is the path Meta’s Help Center describes in September 2026. It’s the same on iPhone and Android.

1. Open Instagram and tap Create at the top of the screen. Shortcut: swipe right anywhere in your feed.
2. Tap POST at the bottom.
3. Pick a photo from your library, or tap Take photo to shoot one on the spot. The flip and flash icons sit at the bottom.
4. Pinch the image to adjust the crop, then tap Next.
5. Add a filter or adjustments if you like, then tap Next again.
6. Write your caption, add a location, tag people or add music.
7. Tap Share. The post goes live on your profile straight away.

Before sharing, think about alt text. It describes the image to people with low vision and helps Instagram understand what it shows. On mobile it’s tucked away in the advanced options of the caption screen, under accessibility.

How do you post several photos in one post?

That’s a carousel: up to 20 photos and videos that your followers swipe through. Here are the steps from Instagram’s help pages:

1. Tap Create, then POST.
2. Tap SELECT MULTIPLE.
3. Select up to 20 photos and videos, in the order you want them to appear. Tap each one to adjust its crop, then Next.
4. Pick one filter for the whole set, or tap an image to edit it on its own.
5. To reorder, tap and hold an image and drag it. To remove one, drag it to the trash icon. Then Next.
6. Choose Single caption for the whole post, or Multiple captions to write one per image.
7. Tag people photo by photo if needed, then tap Share.

One constraint to know before you pick your images: the orientation (square, portrait or landscape) applies to the whole carousel. You can’t mix a portrait and a landscape shot without one of them getting cropped. So choose the first image’s format with the others in mind.

Once the carousel is live, you can reorder it, remove an image, and fix the caption, location or tags through the three dots, then Edit. What you can’t do is add a new photo to it. Meta’s help is clear on that.

How do you post on Instagram from a PC or Mac?

Right in the browser, no software needed, at instagram.com. It’s handy when your photos come off a camera or out of an editing app, since you don’t have to move them to your phone first.

1. Log in at instagram.com and click Create in the left-hand menu.
2. Click Post, then Select from Computer. You can also drag and drop the file. Supported formats: jpg, png and heic/heif.
3. Choose the photo size, then Next in the top right. For a carousel, the icon at the bottom of the preview lets you add more files, up to 20.
4. Click Filters or Adjustments to edit, then Next.
5. Write the caption and add the location. Under Accessibility you enter alt text. Under Advanced Settings you can turn off commenting.
6. Click Share in the top right.

A computer has one real advantage: proofreading a long caption on a big screen catches the typos you miss on mobile. For a story from your computer, things work differently: see how to post an Instagram story from a PC. And if the post should go out later rather than now, that’s a different feature: scheduling Instagram posts.

What size keeps your photo from being cropped?

Instagram’s help gives precise numbers. The maximum width is 1,080 pixels: a wider photo gets scaled down, and one narrower than 320 pixels gets scaled up. The aspect ratio has to sit between 1.91:1 (landscape) and 3:4 (portrait). Outside that range, Instagram crops.

• Portrait 3:4: 1,080 × 1,440 pixels. It takes up the most room in the feed, and it’s been the shape of the profile grid since January 2025.
• Square: 1,080 × 1,080 pixels, always safe.
• Landscape: down to 1,080 × 566 pixels, but it looks small on a phone.

To keep a sharp photo from turning soft, export it at least 1,080 pixels wide and post with the latest version of the app. Meta adds that camera quality matters too, which won’t shock anyone.

What goes in the caption, and how many hashtags?

The first line does all the work, because Instagram cuts the caption off after a few words in the feed. Put the fact or question there that makes people tap “more”.

1. Hook: one short, concrete sentence about what the photo shows.
2. Body: the context, a tip, a story. Short paragraphs read better.
3. Call to action: a simple question gets people commenting.
4. Hashtags: five at most. Since December 2025, Instagram caps every post at 5 hashtags, and its head, Adam Mosseri, recommends a few precise tags over a long generic list.

For timing, the slots that work best are broken down in our guide on the best time to post on Instagram. And the first hour counts: a post that gets reactions fast is shown to more people. Instagram comments on your reels get the conversation going while your audience is still small.

Why won’t your post go through?

Most failures have a simple cause.

• The post is stuck uploading. Weak connection, especially with several videos: Meta warns that those carousels take longer. Switch to stable Wi-Fi and keep the app open.
• The photo gets cropped. Its shape falls outside the 1.91:1 to 3:4 range. Crop it yourself beforehand.
• The photo looks blurry after posting. It was under 1,080 pixels wide, or the app wasn’t up to date.
• A message says your actions are limited. Too many posts or actions in a short time. Wait, and don’t keep retrying: we explain this block in Instagram action blocked.
• You want to add a photo to an existing post. Not possible: delete and repost, or make a new post.