A few years ago, the right hashtags could genuinely put your post in front of new people. Creators traded lists of “best hashtags” and stuffed 30 into every caption.
Things have changed. Today’s apps decide who sees your video mostly by reading the video itself and watching how people react. Hashtags still have a job, but it’s a smaller one. Here’s what they do now, app by app, and how to use them well.
What hashtags do today
A hashtag is a clickable label. It does two things:
- Tells the app what your video is about. Along with your caption, what you say and your on-screen text.
- Links your video to a topic page that some people browse or search.
What a hashtag doesn’t do is make a weak video spread. If people swipe away in the first second, no tag will save it. The apps read the same signals for every video: did people watch, finish, share and save?
App by app (at the time of writing)
Instagram. Instagram’s head, Adam Mosseri, has said hashtags don’t increase reach, though they help show what a post is about. Instagram now limits posts to five hashtags. Use a few specific ones, and put your effort into the caption and the video.
TikTok. Hashtags help label your video for TikTok’s search and topic pages, but what you say and show matters more. Use three to five specific tags alongside a keyword-rich first caption line. See TikTok SEO for the full approach.
YouTube. Hashtags in the title or description become clickable, and a few from your description can be shown next to your title. YouTube ignores all of a video’s hashtags if you add too many (its help pages give the limit as 60), and hashtags that mislead or have nothing to do with the video break its rules. You don’t need #shorts for a video to count as a Short: square or vertical videos of up to three minutes are treated as Shorts automatically. The hidden “tags” field on YouTube is different again; YouTube says tags play a minimal role in discovery.
Facebook. Hashtags work as labels and links to topic feeds, but they’re a minor factor. A clear caption does more.
How many hashtags should you use?
Three to five is a good rule almost everywhere. Enough to label the topic clearly, few enough not to look spammy. On Instagram, five is now the maximum anyway.
More isn’t better. A long block of tags makes a caption harder to read, can look like spam to people and apps, and muddles what the video is actually about.
How to choose them
Good hashtags are specific and relevant:
- One for the exact topic. #eggfreebaking says more than #food.
- One for the niche or community. A tag your viewers actually use and browse. Look at what smaller creators in your niche use, not just the giant accounts.
- One for the format or series, if you have one. A branded series tag (#ricewithmaya) helps returning viewers find every episode.
- Optionally, one broader tag for context.
Skip:
- Unrelated trending tags. Adding #fyp-style or trending tags that have nothing to do with your video confuses the app about who to show it to, and the people who find it that way aren’t your viewers.
- Banned or spammy tags. Some tags are restricted because of misuse. If a tag’s page shows few or no recent posts, skip it.
- The same block every time. Tags should describe this video, not your account.
A simple formula, with examples
Topic + community + series (+ one broad tag if it fits). Here’s how that looks in practice:
| Video | Hashtags |
|---|---|
| A one-pan pasta recipe for students | #onepanpasta #studentcooking #cheapmeals |
| Fixing a tunneling candle | #candletunneling #candlecare #candletips |
| A beginner’s first week of skating | #learntoskate #skateboardingforbeginners #day7 |
| A small shop packing an order | #packanorder #smallbusinesstips #handmadejewelry |
| A phone lighting tip | #phonevideotips #lightingtips #contentcreator |
Notice what’s missing: no #viral, no #fyp, no tags about things the video doesn’t show. Each tag tells the app and the viewer something true and specific about this video.
What matters more than hashtags
If you want to get found, put your effort here first:
- Say your topic out loud in the first few seconds. Apps turn speech into text.
- Show it in your on-screen hook text.
- Write it in the first line of your caption, in the words your viewers would search.
- Make the opening earn the next second, and the middle earn the end.
- Give people a reason to share or save.
The apps read all of this. Hashtags are the last line of the label, not the headline.
Where to find good ones
- The app’s own search. Type a topic and look at the suggested tags and how active their pages are.
- Official trend tools, like TikTok’s Creative Center and Creator Search Insights. Our Where to Find Trends guide shows the free official tools for each app and how to read them.
- Your own comments. The words your viewers use to describe your videos are often the best labels.
Try it
Look at the captions of your last five videos. Delete any hashtag that isn’t specific to that video. Rewrite the first caption line to include the phrase someone would actually search. Then compare the next five videos with the last five.
