Instagram ad text limits: 44 characters on Reels, 125 on Feed

Meta's ads guide lists a primary text limit of 44 characters for Instagram Reels ads and 125 characters for Instagram Feed video ads. The same Feed page caps hashtags at 30.

Figures are from the Reels page and the Feed page, both read 2026-10-02.

Side by side

Do not confuse these with the 2,200-character caption limit for an organic Reel. This is ad copy.

Two kinds of text

The primary text is a field you fill in Ads Manager. It sits outside the video. Text inside the picture is different: it is part of your file, and on Reels it has to stay inside the safe zones the page lists (14% top, 35% bottom, 6% each side).

Sume does not write into the primary text field. What it can do is burn text into the video. Video captions takes a public HTTPS video URL and returns a captioned video. With script_text it aligns your words, and with cues it burns authored overlay lines with no speech-to-text, which is the route for a silent clip.

A practical split

One way to divide the work between the two fields.

• Put the one-line offer in the primary text. At 44 characters on Reels, there is room for one short sentence.
• Burn the spoken hook as captions, since sound is optional on both pages.
• Keep burned text out of the bottom 35% on Reels, where the interface sits.
• Write a longer Feed version only if you run Feed too. The extra 81 characters are not a reason to pad the Reels line.

What to verify

Limits like these can change per placement and per account type. Re-read the two pages before a launch, and preview both placements in Ads Manager. Sume cannot see your Ads Manager account.