How Long Should My Instagram Reels Be?

Short answer: for most small businesses, somewhere between 7 and 30 seconds gets you the best shot at reach, and somewhere between 60 and 90 seconds gets you the best shot at watch time and saves. The “right” length depends on what you actually want the Reel to do, not on a single magic number.

That’s a less satisfying answer than a headline figure, but it’s the honest one. Instagram has said openly that it tests different lengths against different goals, and creators who chase one “ideal” number tend to end up making worse videos just to hit it. Here’s how to think about length properly, so you can stop guessing and start matching your videos to what you’re trying to achieve.

Short Reels (7 to 15 seconds) win on reach

If the goal is to get in front of people who don’t follow you yet, shorter is generally safer. A tight 7 to 15 second Reel is easy to watch all the way through, which pushes your completion rate up, and completion rate is one of the strongest signals Instagram uses to decide who else to show it to.

This length works well for a single sharp idea: a before-and-after, one quick tip, a product close-up, a funny customer moment. If you find yourself needing to explain context before the “good bit,” the idea is probably too big for this length, not too short.

Mid-length Reels (30 to 90 seconds) win on watch time and saves

Once a video runs past about 30 seconds, Instagram leans more on watch time and saves than on pure completion rate. This is the sweet spot for how-tos, myth-busting, and anything where the value is in the explanation rather than the punchline. A 60 to 90 second Reel walking through “three mistakes people make when X” or “how we do Y” tends to get saved and shared more, because it’s genuinely useful to come back to.

The trade-off is reach to new people. These videos are less likely to hook a stranger scrolling past in half a second, so they usually perform best when you already have some following, or when you pair them with a strong first two seconds that earns the rest of the watch.

Longer Reels (up to 3 minutes) suit depth, not discovery

Instagram allows Reels up to 3 minutes, but treat this length as the exception, not the default. It’s worth using for genuine tutorials, behind-the-scenes walkthroughs, or a longer customer story where cutting it down would strip out the reason people were watching in the first place. These rarely go viral, but they can convert very well, because anyone who watches 2 minutes of your content is already a warm lead.

Don’t use a long Reel just because you have a lot to say. If a 3-minute video would work just as well as a 45-second one with the fluff cut, the shorter version is almost always the better business decision.

Match the length to the goal, not the trend

Before you film, decide which of these three jobs the Reel is doing.

Getting seen by new people: keep it short and punchy, 7 to 15 seconds, one idea, strong first frame.

Building trust with people who already know you: go mid-length, 30 to 90 seconds, useful and specific.

Turning interest into an enquiry: longer is fine here, up to 2 to 3 minutes, because you’re talking to someone who’s already decided to stick around.

A lot of small businesses post the same style and length of Reel regardless of what they’re trying to achieve that week, then wonder why performance is inconsistent. Picking the length on purpose, based on the job the video is doing, fixes more of that than any editing trick will.

Platform differences worth knowing

If you’re repurposing the same clip across platforms, keep this in mind. TikTok’s algorithm still rewards very short, fast-paced videos more heavily than Instagram does, so a 45-second Reel often needs trimming down before it works as well on TikTok. YouTube Shorts sits closer to Instagram, but tends to reward slightly longer, more complete videos, especially anything with a clear beginning, middle and end. Don’t assume one length works everywhere. It’s fine to cut a 60-second Reel down to 20 seconds for TikTok and leave the fuller version on Instagram and Shorts.

Test it on your own audience

Every business’s audience behaves a little differently, so treat all of the above as a sensible starting point, not a rule. Post a few Reels at each length over a month, check which ones people actually finish and save, not just like, and let that steer you rather than a blanket rule you found online. What works for a bakery’s quick Reels won’t necessarily work the same way for a tradesperson’s before-and-after videos.

If you’d like a hand working out what’s actually landing with your audience and building a posting plan around it, get in touch via our Contact page. We’re always happy to have a look at what you’re currently posting and talk through what might work better.Page_DownPage_DownPage_Down