RipGuide
How many hashtags should you use on TikTok, Shorts and Reels?
Updated
In short: use two or three that describe the video. TikTok's Creator Academy says "less is more" and recommends 2 to 3 relevant hashtags on each video (TikTok Creator Academy, read 18 October 2026). TikTok doesn't publish a hard cap on any page I found. Instagram's Help Center says you can use up to 5 tags on a post, and YouTube ignores the hashtags on a video that has more than 60.
What TikTok officially says
- The advice: "When it comes to hashtags, less is more, so we encourage you to use 2 to 3 relevant hashtags on each video." The same article says the hashtags must be relevant to the video so people can find it (Creator Academy; page shows "Last updated: Aug 18, 2026").
- Where hashtags work: TikTok's search covers "videos, users, sounds, and hashtags" (Creator Academy, Search).
- Keywords matter as much: TikTok says to "use relevant keywords in your video, subtitles, and captions" for Search, and warns that "irrelevant text stacking will actually negatively affect your video traffic".
- A length limit exists in the API: for apps that post for you, the caption field has a "maximum length is 2200 in UTF-16 runes", and the hashtags sit inside that text (TikTok for Developers). So hashtags count toward the caption length.
What is not confirmed
- "TikTok allows a maximum of 5 hashtags." You'll see this in blogs. I didn't find it on TikTok's Help Center, Creator Academy or developer pages, so I can't call it official. What TikTok does say is 2 to 3, as advice rather than a limit.
- The in-app caption limit. Blogs give 2,200 or 4,000 characters. The in-app limit isn't stated on the TikTok Help pages I read. The only official figure is the 2,200 above, for posts made through the API.
How to choose them
- Write the topic in plain words in the caption. TikTok says Search values relevance, so the words people would type should be in your caption and on screen, not only in tags.
- Keep tags to what the clip is about. A tag for the game, the moment or the type of video is searchable. A tag that fits every video says nothing about this one.
- Skip tags that don't match the clip. TikTok names this as something that hurts traffic.
- Stop at two or three. That is TikTok's advice. If you go past it, the extra tags should be as specific as the first.
Steps 1 and 2 are the practical reading of TikTok's guidance. The wording "specific over generic" is ours, not TikTok's.
YouTube Shorts
YouTube's Help Center says hashtags in the title and description link to a results page for that hashtag. "Of all the hashtags in a video's description, up to three of the most engaging ones appear by the video title" (YouTube Help, read 18 October 2026). On a Short, YouTube suggests hashtags as you type one.
The one number YouTube gives: "If a video or playlist has more than 60 hashtags, we'll ignore each hashtag on that content." Tags in the description are also covered by the spam policy: adding excessive tags to a description violates it (YouTube Help, tags). The same page says a video's title, thumbnail and description matter more for discovery than the hidden tags field. A Short's title can be up to 100 characters (YouTube Help, Shorts), so spend those characters on words, then add two or three hashtags.
Instagram Reels
Instagram's Help Center article "Use hashtags on Instagram" says: "You can use up to 5 tags on a post. If you include more than 5 tags on a single photo/video, your comment won't post." You can put hashtags in the caption or in a comment (Instagram Help, read 18 October 2026). The article covers photos and videos and doesn't single out Reels, and its wording says "comment", so I wouldn't assume tags in a first comment get you around it. Many guides still say 30. The Help Center article says 5.
All three side by side
| Platform | What the platform says | Hard limit? |
|---|---|---|
| TikTok | Use 2 to 3 relevant hashtags per video. | None found on an official page. API captions: 2,200 characters in total. |
| YouTube Shorts | Up to 3 hashtags show by the title; hashtags in title and description are clickable. | More than 60 hashtags: all ignored. |
| Hashtags in caption or comments make a public post show on that hashtag page. | Up to 5 per post, per the Help article. |
How to do it in RipClip
On the paid plans, RipClip writes a title, a post caption and hashtags for each clip, and you can edit all of them. Captions are set per platform in the calendar, so the TikTok post can carry two or three tags while the Instagram post stays inside its five. Read what it writes and cut anything that doesn't match the clip: tags on a clip about one moment should be about that moment. The free plan doesn't include the written caption and hashtags, so there you write your own.
Posting switches on platform by platform as each platform approves RipClip; until then, download your clips and post them yourself. See how to post one clip to TikTok, Shorts and Reels, or how to schedule TikTok posts.