Instagram posting API

No. Instagram publishing isn't available on our API yet: it needs Meta's App Review for the publishing permissions, and our app doesn't have that approval. We'll mark it live only after a real post goes through end to end, and it will appear in GET /v1/platforms when it does.

What works today: X, Bluesky, LinkedIn, Mastodon and Telegram are live. If you need Instagram now, the official API below is the route. Our social media API page covers what one call does on the networks that are ready.

Meta's content publishing guide requires an Instagram professional account, which Meta describes as a business or creator account. Personal accounts aren't covered by the publishing API. Beyond the account, you need a Meta app, a login flow and the publishing permission for that login type.

• Instagram Login (graph.instagram.com): works without a linked Facebook Page. Permissions instagram_business_basic and instagram_business_content_publish.
• Facebook Login (graph.facebook.com): the professional account must be linked to a Facebook Page the user can administer. Permissions instagram_basic, instagram_content_publish and pages_read_engagement.
• Advanced Access: needed to serve accounts you don't own or manage. It requires Meta App Review and Business Verification; Standard Access only covers people with a role on your app.
• Public media hosting: Meta fetches the file from your URL, which must be publicly reachable at the moment of the request.
• Page Publishing Authorization: if the linked Page requires it, the account can't be published to until it's completed.

First POST /<IG_ID>/media with an image_url (or video_url and a media_type such as REELS or STORIES) and a caption. Meta returns a container id. Then POST /<IG_ID>/media_publish with creation_id set to that id, and Meta returns the published media id.

Videos process asynchronously. Check GET /<CONTAINER_ID>?fields=status_code until it reads FINISHED; Meta suggests polling once a minute for no more than 5 minutes. Other values are IN_PROGRESS, ERROR, PUBLISHED and EXPIRED, which means the container wasn't published within 24 hours.

Carousels add a step: create a container per item with is_carousel_item=true, then a CAROUSEL container listing up to 20 child ids, then publish that.

# 1. Create a container (Instagram Login host shown)
curl -X POST "https://graph.instagram.com/<API_VERSION>/<IG_ID>/media" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $IG_USER_TOKEN" \
  -d "image_url=https://cdn.example.com/launch.jpg" \
  -d "caption=We shipped webhooks."
# → { "id": "<IG_CONTAINER_ID>" }

# 2. Publish it
curl -X POST "https://graph.instagram.com/<API_VERSION>/<IG_ID>/media_publish" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $IG_USER_TOKEN" \
  -d "creation_id=<IG_CONTAINER_ID>"
# → { "id": "<IG_MEDIA_ID>" }

Meta's rate limit section says 100 API-published posts per account within a 24-hour moving period, with a carousel counting as one post. The same guide's carousel section says 50, so plan for the lower number until your own limit check says otherwise.

Check the live number with GET /<IG_ID>/content_publishing_limit before a batch. The limit is enforced on the media_publish call, so that is where an over-limit error appears.

Meta's guide lists the gaps. The ones that surprise people:

• Image formats other than JPEG. PNG and WebP must be converted first.
• Shopping tags and filters.
• Link, poll and location stickers on stories.
• Alt text on reels and stories; alt_text (up to 1,000 characters) works on image posts only.
• Captions, locations or tags on individual carousel items; they go on the carousel container.
• Personal accounts. The account has to be converted to business or creator.

Authorization codes and short-lived access tokens are valid for one hour. Exchange the short-lived token for a long-lived one, which is valid for 60 days and can be refreshed before it expires, per Meta's platform overview.

Build the refresh into a scheduled job. A token that lapses means the account owner has to log in again, which is the same failure mode as LinkedIn's 60-day tokens described on our LinkedIn API page.

When Instagram goes live, accounts will connect through the same connect link and post through the same POST /v1/posts as X, Bluesky, LinkedIn, Mastodon and Telegram. Our API already takes media as public URLs, which is what Meta's container flow expects.

Two honest limits: video isn't supported on any network in our API yet, and every Instagram container needs an image or video URL, so text-only crossposts won't apply there. Until it's live, the TikTok API guide covers the other video-first network on our list, and pricing shows how accounts are billed.