How to Tag More Than 20 People on an Instagram Story

Running into Instagram’s 20-person tagging limit on a Story can feel like hitting a wall, especially when you have a whole team, list of collaborators, or event attendees to shout out. You have someone important to credit, but the app is telling you no more. This guide cuts right to the chase, showing you a few simple but effective methods to tag everyone you need to, going well beyond that official 20-mention cap.

Why Does Instagram Limit Story Tags to 20?

Before jumping into the workarounds, it’s helpful to understand why the limit exists in the first place. Instagram hasn’t released an official, detailed statement, but the cap on mentions is likely in place for a few practical reasons:

• To Prevent Spam: The most obvious reason is to curb spammy behavior. If there were no limits, accounts could tag hundreds of random, high-profile users in every Story, hoping to get their attention or gain visibility. This would clutter notifications and create a negative experience for everyone.
• To Ensure a Good User Experience: A Story jam-packed with 50+ visible tags would be almost unreadable. The visual focus would be lost, and the content itself would be buried under a mountain of usernames. The limit helps keep Stories visually clean and easy to watch.
• For App Performance: Every interactive element in a Story, whether it’s a sticker, poll, or mention, adds a small amount of data. Capping these elements helps ensure the app runs smoothly without lag or glitches, both for the creator and the viewer.

So, while the limit can be frustrating, it serves a purpose. Luckily, the methods below work within Instagram's rules while still letting you achieve your goal of crediting a larger group.

Method 1: The Simple Multi-Slide Strategy

The most straightforward and reliable way to tag more than 20 people is to simply use more than one Story slide. Don't overthink it, this method is effective because it’s simple. When you have 40 people to thank, create two stunning Story slides. Got 60? Make it three. Each new slide gives you a fresh batch of 20 mentions.

The key here is to keep the experience seamless for your viewers so it feels like one cohesive thought rather than a series of disconnected posts.

How to Do It Step-by-Step:

1. Prepare Your Content: Start with the image or video you want to use as the background for your Story series.
2. Create the First Slide: Upload your media to the Instagram Story editor. Use either the "@mention" sticker or the text tool to start tagging people. Tag your first group of up to 20 accounts.
3. Add Context: To let viewers know what’s happening, consider adding a small text element like "Team Shout-out (1/3)" or "Event Crew - Part 1" at the corner of the screen. This manages expectations and encourages them to tap through to see the rest.
4. Post Slide One: Once the first 20 people are tagged, publish your Story.
5. Create the Second Slide: Immediately open the Story editor again and upload the exact same image or video. This visual consistency is what makes the sequence flow naturally.
6. Tag the Next Group: Now, tag the next 20 people on this new slide. If you're using text to number your slides, update it to "(2/3)".
7. Repeat as Needed: Continue this process - uploading the same media, tagging a new group of 20, and updating any indicator text - until everyone you need to mention has been tagged.

Viewers will tap through a fluid sequence, and every single person you tagged will receive a notification and the ability to re-share your Story to their own audience.

Method 2: Use "Invisible" Tags to Keep Your Story Clean

What if you need to tag a lot of people but don't want their usernames cluttering up your beautiful photo or video? This is where the "invisible" tag method comes in. The tags are still there, they are still active, and the people tagged will still get a notification. But visually, they'll be so small and out of the way that no one will even notice them.

This approach is perfect for:

• Event photographers crediting a long list of vendors.
• Brands tagging dozens of user-generated content creators or contest participants.
• Production teams thanking the entire cast and crew behind a project.

Just like the first method, you’re still limited to 20 mentions per slide. The magic here is combining the invisible technique with the multi-slide strategy to tag dozens of people without compromising your Story’s aesthetic.

How to Hide Your Tags:

1. Tag a User: In your Story editor, use the text tool to type "@username." Once the profile appears and you select it, the username becomes a clickable tag.
2. Shrink It Down: Use two fingers to pinch and zoom inward on the tag. Keep shrinking it until it's barely a pixel-sized dot. You’ll be surprised at how small you can make it.
3. Tuck It Away: Drag this tiny, shrunken tag to a discreet corner of the screen where it blends in with the background. You can also hide it behind another visual element, like a GIF, a question sticker, or a logo.
4. Repeat: Do this for all 20 tags on the slide. Stack the tiny tags on top of each other in a corner or line them up along the very edge border of the screen.
5. Combine with Multiple Slides: Once you've filled your first slide with 20 invisible tags, post it. Then, start a new Story slide with the same background and add your next batch of 20 invisible tags.

Method 3: The Layered "Copy and Paste" Text Trick

This is an efficiency-focused variation of the tagging process that helps speed up your workflow, especially when you're working with a long list of usernames. Instead of typing each name one by one directly into Instagram, you can prepare your list ahead of time and paste them in batches.

This strategy relies on the text tool, which is often more flexible than the "@mention" sticker when you're layering multiple elements. By pasting in small groups of text, you can keep your workspace organized and ensure you don’t miss anyone.

Improving Your Workflow:

1. Prepare Your List: Open a notes app on your phone. Type out every single username you need to tag, each one starting with the "@" symbol. Double-check the spelling of each one. Pro tip: Organize them into groups of 10-15.
2. Copy Your First Batch: Select and copy the first group of usernames from your notes app.
3. Paste into Your Story: Head back to your Instagram Story. Open the text tool (the "Aa" icon) and paste the block of text. Instagram will process the text and should recognize the usernames, turning them into tappable tags.
4. Resize and Position: Drag the text box to where you want it on the screen. From here, you can style the text as usual or shrink the entire text box down to make the tags invisible, just like in Method 2. The benefit is you're maneuvering one text box with 10 names instead of 10 individual stickers.
5. Repeat with a New Text Box: Tap to create a new text box. Go back to your notes app, copy the second batch of usernames, and paste them into this new text box. Because the mentions limit applies to the Story slide as a whole, you still can't exceed 20 total tags, but this layering method with pre-written lists can feel faster and more organized.

Best Practices: How to Tag Many People Without Being Spammy

Just because you can tag over 20 people doesn't always mean you should. Power comes with responsibility. Mass tagging, when done incorrectly, can come across as spammy and hurt your brand's reputation. Here’s how to do it right.

1. Keep It Relevant

This is the golden rule. Only tag accounts that are directly relevant to the content in your Story. Are you shouting out the winners of a contest? Tag them. Thanking people who helped with a photoshoot? Absolutely tag the photographer, models, and makeup artist. Celebrating a company milestone? Tag your team members. Tagging 40 random influencers on a photo of your product is pure spam. People will ignore, block, or even report you.

2. Provide Context in the Story

Don't just post a photo with 40 hidden tags and no explanation. Tell your audience what's happening. Add a text overlay that says something like, "A huge thank you to the incredible community members featured here!" or "So excited to welcome the newest members of our ambassador program!" This gives meaning to the tags and makes the people you tagged feel recognized and appreciated, not just used for engagement.

3. Prioritize Your Visuals

Your primary goal is to share a visually compelling Story. Don't let your tags - even visible ones - overpower your photo or video. If you choose to keep the tags visible, shrink them down, line them up neatly along the bottom, and choose a text color that’s easy to read but doesn't create jarring contrast with the background imagery.

4. Double-Check Your Spelling

There is nothing worse than going through all this effort only to realize you tagged @johnsmith123 instead of @johnsmyth123. A mistyped username is a wasted tag. The person won’t get a notification, and you won't get any potential amplification from them re-sharing it. If you use the copy-and-paste method, check the usernames in your notes app before you even start the tagging process.

Final Thoughts

While Instagram's 20-tag limit is there for good reason, it doesn't have to be a roadblock. By thoughtfully using a multi-slide approach and hiding your tags to preserve your aesthetic, you can effectively mention and engage with everyone from your small team to a massive community collaboration, all within the app's framework.

Mastering these in-app tricks is a great start, but when you zoom out to look at your entire social media schedule, keeping track of multi-slide Stories, Reels, and TikToks can get complicated. At Postbase, we designed a simple, visual calendar specifically for the way social media works today. Our tool is built video-first, helping you plan your whole strategy in one clean space, so you can worry less about juggling platforms and more about creating content that truly connects with your followers.