An Instagram Story video runs from 3 seconds to 60 seconds, with a file size limit of 100 MB for video and 8 MB for an image. Those are the numbers in Meta’s own media documentation, which is what the publishing pipeline enforces. Every Story, image or video, disappears from your profile after 24 hours.
Instagram Story specs
| Spec | Value |
|---|---|
| Video duration | 3 to 60 seconds |
| Video file size | 100 MB |
| Image file size | 8 MB |
| Recommended aspect ratio | 9:16 |
| Caption field | Not supported on Story containers |
| Lifespan | 24 hours |
Note: Figures here were verified against Meta’s Instagram Platform media reference documentation as of September 2026. Platforms change these without notice.
The “no caption” line is a publishing detail rather than a creative one. A Story container has no caption field, so any text belongs in the image or video itself. Mentioning a user without a sticker is supported, but interactive stickers such as polls and location tags cannot be added through the API.
What happens to a video longer than 60 seconds
Uploaded in the app, a longer video is split into consecutive 60-second Story cards. That behaviour is why people remember Stories as being 15 seconds long: the split used to be at 15 seconds, and the fragments were much more obvious.
Published through the API, there is no automatic split. A container over the duration fails, so anything longer has to be cut into separate Story posts before it is queued. If you schedule Stories, this is the single most common cause of a failed Story: a 75-second export that the app would have handled and the API will not.
How long a Story stays visible
24 hours on your profile ring. After that it is gone from the public view unless you add it to a Highlight, which keeps it indefinitely. Highlights are not a separate format, they are a saved reference to a Story you already published.
Worth noting for anyone automating: Meta’s own containers expire within 24 hours too, so a Story prepared far in advance has to be uploaded near its publish time rather than at the moment you compose it.
Story length against the other Instagram formats
| Format | Duration |
|---|---|
| Story video | 3 to 60 seconds |
| Reel | 3 seconds to 15 minutes |
Instagram’s two vertical formats differ by a factor of fifteen, which is the main reason a single vertical export rarely serves both without a decision about where the cut goes. How long an Instagram Reel can be covers the other side.
How long should a Story be?
Shorter than the limit, almost always. Stories are tapped through, and the tap is cheap. A 60-second single card asks for a commitment the format does not usually get, whereas three 15-second cards give the viewer three natural exits and three chances to stay.
If you are building a sequence, put the reason to stay in the first card rather than the last. The drop-off between card one and card two is the largest one in the whole sequence.
The short version
- Story video: 3 to 60 seconds. Image: a single card.
- Video up to 100 MB, images up to 8 MB.
- 9:16, or expect visible padding.
- The app splits longer videos into 60-second cards. The API does not: it rejects them.
- Stories last 24 hours unless saved to a Highlight.
Scheduling Instagram Stories
BulkPublish publishes Stories through Meta’s official API, so the 60-second cap applies and a longer clip has to be split first. Because Meta’s own containers expire, scheduled Stories are uploaded close to the publish time rather than when you compose, which is invisible in normal use and is the reason a Story queued weeks ahead still goes out cleanly.
Can you schedule Instagram Stories has the fuller answer, including what the API will not let any tool do.
The 15-second myth
Instagram Stories were 15 seconds per card for years, and longer videos were chopped into visible 15-second fragments. That is where the number in most people’s heads comes from. The current documented duration is 3 to 60 seconds per card, and the app splits longer videos at 60 rather than 15.
If a tool or a template still assumes 15 seconds, it is describing a version of Stories that has not existed for a long time.