How to Add a Hashtag to an Instagram Story

Adding hashtags to your Instagram Stories is one of the easiest and most effective ways to boost your visibility and reach new audiences. Done right, they connect your content to larger conversations, communities, and trends, getting your Story in front of people who don't follow you yet. This guide breaks down exactly how to add hashtags to your Stories, from the basic methods to advanced strategies for maximizing your reach.

What Hashtags Actually Do for Your Instagram Stories

Before jumping into the "how," it's helpful to remember why hashtags matter so much for ephemeral content like Stories. Unlike a feed post that lives on your profile, a Story disappears in 24 hours. Hashtags give that short-lived content a chance to be discovered by a much wider audience.

When you use a hashtag in your Story, it becomes searchable. Anyone who follows or searches for that specific hashtag might see your Story appear at the top of that hashtag’s page. If your Story gets a lot of engagement quickly, Instagram may even feature it more prominently on that page, sending you a wave of new viewers. Essentially, hashtags are a free tool for organic content distribution, connecting your brand to relevant communities, events, and interests.

The Two Main Ways to Add Hashtags to Your Story

Instagram gives you two simple methods for adding clickable hashtags to your Stories: the dedicated Hashtag Sticker and the classic Text Tool. Each has its own benefits, and knowing when to use which can make your Stories more effective and visually appealing.

Method 1: The Hashtag Sticker

The Hashtag Sticker is the most direct and visually prominent way to add a tag. It’s designed to be bold and interactive, encouraging viewers to tap and see more content related to that tag.

Here’s how to use it step-by-step:

1. Create Your Story: Open your Instagram camera or upload a photo or video from your camera roll.
2. Open the Sticker Tray: Tap the sticker icon (the square smiley face) at the top of your screen.
3. Select the Hashtag Sticker: Find and tap the sticker that says "#HASHTAG."
4. Enter Your Hashtag: A field will pop up prompting you to type your hashtag. As you type, Instagram will show you a list of suggestions along with how many posts use that tag. Tap the one you want.
5. Style and Place It: Once a hashtag is on your screen, you can tap it to change its style - it typically cycles between a clean white/gray look and a more colorful rainbow gradient. You can also pinch to resize it and drag it anywhere you’d like.

The main advantage of the sticker is its visibility. It’s designed to be tapped. However, you are generally limited to using one per Story, and its bold design might not always fit your aesthetic.

Method 2: The Text Tool

If you want more creative control, flexibility, or the ability to add multiple hashtags, the Text Tool is your best friend. This method allows you to add up to 10 hashtags that function just like the sticker but blend in more seamlessly with your design.

Here's the process:

1. Create Your Story: Start with your photo or video, just as before.
2. Open the Text Tool: Tap the "Aa" icon at the top of the screen.
3. Type Your Hashtags: Type the '#' symbol followed immediately by your text (e.g., #socialmediamarketing). Once you type it, you should see an underline appear, confirming that it's a live, tappable link.
4. Customize Your Text: This is where the Text Tool shines. You can change the font, size, color, add a background, or apply different text styles. You can make it as bold or as subtle as you want.
5. Place Your Hashtags: Drag the text box to the desired position on your screen. You can add more text boxes for more groups of hashtags if you prefer.

The Text Tool is perfect for adding multiple hyper-relevant tags without cluttering your visual. And a little-known trick is that you can even hide these hashtags completely, which brings us to our next set of tips.

"Clean Story" Pro-Tips: How to Hide Hashtags

Sometimes, you want the functional benefit of hashtags without the visual distraction. Hiding them is easy and a common practice among savvy marketers and creators who want to maintain a clean aesthetic.

1. The Pinch-to-Shrink Method

This is the quickest and easiest way to hide your text-based hashtags. After you’ve typed them out:

• Use two fingers to pinch the hashtag text box.
• Continue pinching until the text becomes so small it's practically invisible.
• Drag the tiny text box to a corner or an area of your Story where it won't be noticed, like inside a busy pattern or along an edge.

Even when it’s too small to read, the hashtag is still active and registered by Instagram’s algorithm.

2. The Camouflage Method

This trick involves making your hashtag text blend perfectly into the background.

• Type out your hashtags using the Text Tool.
• Tap the color wheel at the top of the text editor.
• Select the eyedropper tool icon.
• Drag the eyedropper over a solid-colored area in your background photo or video.
• Release your finger, and your hashtag text will now be the exact same color as your background, making it disappear.

This works best on images or videos with large blocks of solid color.

3. The Under-the-Sticker Method

A simple yet effective tactic is to just cover your hashtags up with another visual element.

• Type your list of hashtags using the Text Tool.
• Place them anywhere on your screen.
• Open the Sticker Tray and select another sticker - a GIF, location tag, @mention, poll, or any other element will do.
• Place the sticker directly on top of your hashtag text box.

The hashtags are completely hidden from view, but they are still fully functional and help your Story get discovered.

How to Strategically Choose the Right Hashtags

Knowing how to add hashtags is only half the battle. Knowing which hashtags to add is what truly drives results. Simply slapping ten of the most popular tags on your Story won't get you very far. Strategy is everything.

Think in Tiers: Broad vs. Niche

A smart hashtag strategy uses a mix of different types of hashtags to maximize your chances of getting seen by the right people. Aim for a healthy mix across these categories:

• Broad, Popular Hashtags (1-2 total): These are tags with millions of posts, like #fitness, #travel, or #foodie. Your content will only appear here for a short time due to the high volume of posts, but it can provide a small initial boost.
• Niche, Community Hashtags (3-5 total): This is your sweet spot. These tags have smaller, more dedicated audiences. Think more specifically about your content. Instead of #fitness, try #homeworkoutsforbeginners. Instead of #foodie, try #brooklynveganeats. People who follow these tags are much more engaged and interested in that specific topic.
• Branded Hashtags (1-2 total): A hashtag that’s unique to your business, like #postbaseinsights or a campaign slogan. This is excellent for building community and sourcing user-generated content (UGC).
• Location-Specific Hashtags (1-2 total): Essential for brick-and-mortar businesses or geographically targeted campaigns. Use tags like #chicagocoffeeshop or #sandiegosmallbusiness to attract local customers.

Aim for a total of 5-10 well-researched hashtags per Story for the best results. The Text Tool is usually better for this, as you can easily fit more tags and hide them if necessary.

More Ways to Get Discovered: Beyond Just the Hashtag

Hashtags are powerful, but they work best when used in combination with other Story features that signal engagement and relevance to the algorithm.

Never Forget the Location Tag

Adding a Location Sticker technically acts like another targeted hashtag. When you tag a city, neighborhood, or specific business, your Story can show up in the feed for that location. People searching for a place on Instagram will see a collection of Stories tagged there, giving you a completely separate way to be discovered by a local audience.

Leverage the @Mention Sticker

Tagging another brand, influencer, or customer in your Story does two things. First, it notifies them. Second, it gives them the option to reshare your Story to their own audience with a single tap. If they reshare, your content is instantly broadcast to a new set of followers, massively expanding its reach.

Drive Engagement with Interactive Stickers

The Instagram algorithm favors content that people engage with. Interactive stickers like polls, quizzes, sliders, and question boxes are surefire ways to get your viewers to tap, respond, and interact. This engagement signals to Instagram that your content is interesting, which can improve its distribution and placement on hashtag and location pages. A more engaging Story is often a more visible Story.

Final Thoughts

Hashtags transform your Instagram Stories from simple updates for your current followers into powerful discovery tools that can attract new fans and customers. By combining the right technical methods - whether the text tool or stickers - with a smart strategy that mixes broad and niche tags, you can dramatically expand your reach and build community every single day.

Using hashtags and other interactive features consistently is a huge part of an effective content strategy, but managing it all can feel like a full-time job. That's actually why we built Postbase. After years of struggling with older social media tools that weren’t designed for today's visual, fast-paced content like Stories and Reels, we knew there had to be a better way. Our simple visual calendar and reliable, video-first scheduling help you plan your content strategy - including Stories - so you can focus your energy on creating content people love, not wrestling with clunky software.