How to Turn Off Limited Comments on Instagram

Feeling like your Instagram engagement has hit a wall or that your comment section feels a bit too quiet? You might have comment limitations turned on without even realizing it. This article breaks down exactly how to turn off limited comments on Instagram, reclaim control over your conversations, and foster a more open and engaging community around your brand or profile.

Understanding Instagram's Comment Limiting Tools

Before switching things off, it's helpful to know what you're actually disabling. Instagram provides several tools designed to protect users from harassment, spam, and unwanted interactions. While incredibly useful during a crisis or a targeted attack, these features can sometimes be too aggressive for everyday use, unintentionally silencing positive voices along with the negative ones. The main feature people refer to when they talk about "limited comments" is called Limits.

The Limits feature is a temporary solution Instagram created to help creators who experience a sudden spike in abusive comments or DMs, often after a post goes unexpectedly viral. When activated, it automatically hides comments and DM requests from people who don't follow you or who have only recently started following you. It's a powerful shield designed for short-term protection.

Beyond this, Instagram also has more permanent and customizable controls, such as Hidden Words and Advanced Comment Filtering. These settings allow you to automatically hide comments that contain offensive words, phrases, or emojis from a list maintained by Instagram, as well as a custom list you create yourself. Advanced filtering takes this a step further by catching more spam and potentially harmful comments.

While these tools are built with safety in mind, they can sometimes cast too wide a net, leaving your community feeling disconnected and your engagement rates looking a little disappointing.

Opening Up the Conversation: Why Turn Off Limited Comments?

If you're focused on organic growth and building a thriving community, an open comment section is one of your most valuable assets. Turning off or loosening comment restrictions can have a major positive impact on your account's health and your relationship with your audience.

• Foster Authentic Community Engagement: The heart of social media is interaction. Limiting who can comment creates a barrier to entry for potential new followers who discover your content. An open comment section sends a clear message: you welcome conversation and value what your audience has to say.
• Prevent Squelching Positive Feedback: Automated filters are not perfect. They can misinterpret sarcasm, slang, or niche terminology and hide genuine compliments or good-faith questions from new admirers. By turning off restrictions, you ensure that every potential positive interaction has a chance to be seen.
• Build Transparency and Trust: An open approach to comments shows that you aren't afraid of a real dialogue. It builds trust by demonstrating that you're receptive to all forms of feedback, which makes your brand appear more authentic and approachable.
• Capture Unfiltered Audience Insights: Your comments are a goldmine of free market research. They can reveal what your audience loves, what they want to see more of, and what questions they have. Limiting comments effectively shuts down one of your most direct lines of communication and feedback.

How to Turn Off Limited Comments on Instagram: A Step-by-Step Guide

Ready to get your comment section buzzing again? The process is straightforward and takes just a few taps. We'll walk through how to disable the main "Limits" feature and then show you how to review your other comment settings for a fully customized approach.

Part 1: Turning Off the "Limits" Feature

This is the primary setting that temporarily restricts comments and DMs from new followers and non-followers. Here's how to find it and switch it off.

Step 1: Go to Your Settings

First, open the Instagram app and navigate to your profile page by tapping your profile picture in the bottom-right corner. From there, tap the three horizontal lines (the "hamburger" menu) in the top-right corner to open the main menu. Select "Settings and privacy" from the top of the list.

Step 2: Find Your Interaction Controls

In the "Settings and privacy" menu, scroll down until you see the section titled "How others can interact with you." In this section, you'll find an option labeled "Limits." Tap on it.

Step 3: Deactivate the "Limits"

The "Limits" screen will show you if the feature is active. You will see toggles for limiting accounts that aren't following you and recent followers. At the bottom, there is a prominent button that says "Turn off." Simply tap this button to disable the feature immediately. Instagram will ask you for confirmation - tap "Turn off" again, and you're all set. Your comment section is no longer temporarily restricted.

Part 2: Reviewing Your General Comment Controls

With "Limits" turned off, you may still have other, more permanent filters enabled. For a truly open comment section, you should review these settings as well.

Step 1: Check "Hidden Words" Filters

Go back to the "How others can interact with you" section and tap on "Hidden Words." Here, you can manage settings that hide offensive comments and enable advanced comment filtering. If you want maximum transparency, you can turn off the toggles for "Hide comments" and "Advanced comment filtering." However, be careful with this - leaving these on provides a good baseline level of protection from common spam and hate speech without being overly restrictive.

Step 2: Adjust General Comment Permissions

In the same main section, tap on "Comments." On this screen, under "Allow comments from," you have several choices: "Everyone," "People you follow," "Your followers," or "People you follow and your followers." To fully open your comment section to potential new followers and community members, be sure this is set to "Everyone."

Smarter Alternatives to a Full Shutdown

Choosing between a completely locked-down comment section and a total free-for-all isn't your only option. You can find a happy medium that protects your mental health while still encouraging community growth. Instead of relying on the broad "Limits" feature, consider using these more targeted tools.

1. Create a Custom "Hidden Words" List

This is your most powerful tool for surgical comment moderation. Navigate to Settings and privacy >, Hidden Words >, Manage custom words and phrases. Here, you can build a list of specific terms, phrases, and even emojis you don't want to see. This lets you filter out common spam ("Check my page!"), irrelevant promotions, or specific abusive language without accidentally hiding legitimate comments.

2. Choose Who Can Comment

If you find that interactions from non-followers are consistently problematic, you can adjust your permissions. By setting Comments >, Allow comments from to "Your followers," you create a more moderated space without cutting off all conversation. It's a great middle-ground if you manage a sensitive account or a younger audience.

3. Use "Restrict" and "Block" for Specific Users

Instead of punishing your entire audience for the actions of a few, deal with problematic accounts individually.

• Restrict: This is a "soft block." When you restrict someone, their comments on your posts are only visible to them unless you approve the comment. They also won't be able to see when you're online. It's a discreet way to manage a disruptive person without escalating the situation.
• Block: This is the more permanent solution. Blocking an account prevents them from finding your profile, posts, or Story. They cannot comment, follow you, or message you. Reserve this for clear-cut cases of spam or harassment.

To use either, simply visit the user's profile, tap the three dots in the top right, and select "Restrict" or "Block."

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, managing your Instagram comments is about finding the right balance between fostering an open community and protecting your space. By understanding how to turn off or adjust Instagram's Limiting features, you can take back control and create a comment section that fuels growth, builds genuine connections, and truly reflects your brand's voice.

As you reopen your comments, you'll naturally see an increase in notifications and conversations, which can feel like a lot to juggle, especially when you're active on multiple platforms. We built Postbase to solve this exact problem. Our unified inbox brings all your DMs and comments from Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and more into one simple, clean view so you can stay on top of every conversation and engage with your community without constantly switching between apps.