Instagram Reels length: 20 minutes, but 3 for new viewers

Instagram's Reels page says you can record one or several clips that add up to 20 minutes, but that Reels over 3 minutes won't be recommended to new audiences. So 20 minutes is the ceiling for what you can make, and 3 minutes is the practical ceiling for reach beyond people who already follow you.

Both numbers come from Instagram's own pages, the Reels features page and the creators FAQ, read 2026-10-02. The FAQ words the second rule as: we recommend videos to unconnected audiences that are 3 minutes or less.

Two limits, two different jobs

The 20-minute figure is about recording and editing. The 3-minute figure is about distribution. Treat them separately when you plan a long source video.

What a 3-minute cut looks like on Sume

Sume's video trim takes one clip you already hold on media.sume.com, a start, and exactly one of end or duration, and returns a new MP4. The docs cap the output at 900 seconds and the source at 1800 seconds, so a 3-minute cut is duration: 180. The default precision is exact, a frame-accurate re-encode.

Trim does not decide which 3 minutes are worth keeping. Use video inspect to pull stills and, if you ask for it, a transcript, then pick the range yourself.

curl -X POST https://api.sume.com/v1/video-trim \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: reel-cut-001" \
  -d '{
    "video_url": "https://media.sume.com/artifacts/artf_demo/talk.mp4",
    "start": 30,
    "duration": 180
  }'

What Sume does not do here

Limits of what Sume covers in this workflow.

• It does not post to Instagram or check whether Instagram will recommend a given Reel.
• It does not pick the best 3 minutes. A trim is a range you choose.
• A source longer than 1800 seconds is refused by trim, so cut very long recordings in steps.

A short plan

If your source is long, keep the full cut for people who already follow you, and cut a 3-minute version for discovery. Check the numbers against Instagram's pages again before a big campaign, because Meta changes these rules without much notice.