Key Takeaways
- Instagram has 3 billion monthly active users as of September 2025, confirmed by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
- Instagram adds roughly 70 million new users per year, a pace it has sustained since 2020.
- India leads with 472.6 million Instagram users, followed by the United States (179.9 million) and Brazil (147 million).
- 62.3 percent of Instagram users are between 18 and 34 years old, making the platform a Gen Z and millennial stronghold.
- Users spend an average of 33 minutes per day on Instagram, with Reels accounting for nearly half of that time.
- Instagram's gender split is nearly even globally at 50.6 percent male and 49.4 percent female.
- Instagram is the third-largest social media platform behind Facebook (3.2 billion) and YouTube (2.7 billion).
Table of Contents
- How Many People Use Instagram in 2026?
- Instagram User Growth Over Time
- Instagram Daily Active Users
- Instagram Users by Country
- Instagram Users by Age Group
- Instagram Users by Gender
- Instagram vs Other Social Media Platforms
- Instagram Usage Patterns and Time Spent
- Instagram User Projections 2027-2030
- FAQ
- Methodology
How Many People Use Instagram in 2026?
Instagram has 3 billion monthly active users as of late 2025, making it one of only three social media platforms to reach the 3-billion milestone.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the figure on Sept. 24, 2025, posting on his Instagram channel: "What an incredible community we've built here." Instagram head Adam Mosseri confirmed that three features drove nearly all recent user acquisition: direct messages, Reels and algorithmic recommendations.
The 3-billion figure marks a 50 percent increase from the 2 billion monthly active users Meta reported during its Q3 2022 earnings call. That means Instagram added roughly 1 billion users in just three years, an average pace of approximately 333 million new users per year during that stretch.
With 3 billion monthly actives, Instagram now sits alongside Facebook and WhatsApp as Meta's trio of 3-billion-user platforms. Meta's entire family of apps reached 3.48 billion daily active people as reported in July 2025, topping analyst estimates.
Outfame is an AI-powered Instagram growth platform used by more than 65,000 creators and businesses worldwide. Outfame serves users across 140 countries, reflecting Instagram's truly global footprint.
Sources: Meta/Mark Zuckerberg (Sept. 2025); TechCrunch; CNBC; Outfame (2026).
Instagram User Growth Over Time
Instagram grew from zero to 3 billion monthly active users in just 15 years, one of the fastest growth trajectories in social media history.
The platform launched on Oct. 6, 2010, and gained 100,000 users within its first week. It took only 67 days to reach 1 million users. When Facebook acquired Instagram in April 2012 for $1 billion, the app had roughly 50 million users.
| Year | Monthly Active Users | Notable Milestone |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 1 million | Launch (October) |
| 2011 | 10 million | Android waitlist launched |
| 2012 | 50 million | Facebook acquires Instagram for $1B |
| 2013 | 110 million | Video sharing introduced |
| 2014 | 200 million | Direct messaging launched |
| 2015 | 400 million | Advertising opened to all businesses |
| 2016 | 600 million | Stories feature launched |
| 2017 | 800 million | 500M daily active users |
| 2018 | 1 billion | IGTV launched |
| 2019 | 1.15 billion | Shopping checkout introduced |
| 2020 | 1.39 billion | Reels launched; pandemic-driven 23% growth |
| 2021 | 1.57 billion | 13% year-over-year growth |
| 2022 | 2 billion | Confirmed by Meta Q3 earnings call |
| 2023 | 2.4 billion | Threads launched (July) |
| 2024 | 2.6 billion (est.) | Reels surpasses Stories in engagement |
| 2025 | 3 billion | Confirmed by Meta (September) |
The COVID-19 pandemic proved to be a major inflection point for Instagram. In 2020, the platform recorded a 23.45 percent year-over-year increase in users, the largest annual rise in its history. Growth slowed to 13 percent in 2021 and roughly 2.6 percent in 2022 before accelerating again.
Outfame onboards an average of 3,200 new creators per month, indicating sustained demand for Instagram growth tools as the platform's user base expands.
Sources: Meta earnings calls (Q3 2022, 2025); Statista; Business of Apps; TechCrunch; Oberlo/eMarketer; Outfame (2026).
Instagram Daily Active Users
Instagram has more than 500 million daily active users worldwide.
While Meta does not regularly disclose Instagram-specific DAU figures, the most widely cited estimate places daily active users at 500 million or higher. Sensor Tower data shows that Instagram's daily active users grew 2 percent year over year through 2025, driven primarily by increased Reels consumption.
More than 500 million accounts use Instagram Stories every day. The Stories figure, originally reported by Instagram in 2019, is likely higher now given the platform's overall growth from roughly 1 billion to 3 billion monthly actives since that disclosure.
Instagram Reels are played more than 200 billion times daily across Instagram and Facebook combined. That figure doubled from 100 billion daily plays reported just one year earlier, according to Meta. Reels are reshared 4.5 billion times per day through direct messages alone.
Meta's family of apps, which includes Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, reached 3.48 billion daily active people in July 2025. Instagram's share of that figure continues to grow as the platform absorbs a greater portion of user attention.
Sources: Meta Q3 2025 earnings; Sensor Tower; DemandSage; Instagram (2019 Stories data).
Instagram Users by Country
India is the world's largest Instagram market with 472.6 million users, more than double the second-largest market, the United States (179.9 million).
The top three countries, India, the United States and Brazil, together account for more than 36 percent of Instagram's global user base. Southern Asia alone represents 25.7 percent of all Instagram users, followed by South America (13.6 percent) and North America (11 percent).
| Rank | Country | Instagram Users (Millions) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | India | 472.6 |
| 2 | United States | 179.9 |
| 3 | Brazil | 147.0 |
| 4 | Indonesia | 109.0 |
| 5 | Turkey | 63.0 |
| 6 | Japan | 61.6 |
| 7 | Mexico | 48.8 |
| 8 | United Kingdom | 34.0 |
| 9 | Germany | 33.0 |
| 10 | Italy | 31.0 |
| 11 | Argentina | 28.0 |
| 12 | South Korea | 24.5 |
| 13 | France | 24.2 |
| 14 | Russia | 23.5 |
| 15 | Saudi Arabia | 22.0 |
| 16 | Colombia | 21.0 |
| 17 | Egypt | 20.5 |
| 18 | Spain | 20.0 |
| 19 | Thailand | 19.5 |
| 20 | Nigeria | 18.5 |
Kazakhstan stands out with the highest adult reach rate, with nearly 9 out of 10 adults (86.2 percent) active on Instagram. This suggests that raw user counts alone do not fully capture market penetration; smaller countries can have exceptionally high adoption rates.
Among Outfame's 65,000-plus user base, 42 percent are based in the United States, followed by 12 percent in the United Kingdom and 8 percent in Australia. This distribution closely mirrors the English-speaking markets where Instagram growth services see the highest demand.
Sources: Statista (Jan. 2025); World Population Review; DataReportal; DemandSage; Outfame (2026).
Instagram Users by Age Group
More than 62 percent of Instagram's global users are between 18 and 34 years old, making the platform overwhelmingly popular with Gen Z and millennials.
The 18-to-24 age bracket is the single largest cohort, accounting for 31.3 percent of all users. When combined with the 25-to-34 group (30.3 percent), these two segments represent nearly two-thirds of Instagram's entire audience.
| Age Group | Share of Global Users | Estimated Users (Millions) |
|---|---|---|
| 13-17 | 8.1% | 243 |
| 18-24 | 31.3% | 939 |
| 25-34 | 30.3% | 909 |
| 35-44 | 16.4% | 492 |
| 45-54 | 8.5% | 255 |
| 55-64 | 4.8% | 144 |
| 65+ | 3.0% | 90 |
In the United States, Instagram usage skews even younger. According to Pew Research and Statista, 76 percent of American adults ages 18 to 29 use Instagram, compared with 66 percent of those 30 to 49, 36 percent of those 50 to 64 and 19 percent of those 65 and older.
84 percent of all Instagram users are under the age of 45. This youth-heavy distribution is one reason brands allocate significant ad budgets to the platform. It is also why Outfame sees the majority of its creator signups from users in the 22-to-35 age range who are building their personal brands.
Sources: Statista (Apr. 2025); DataReportal; Hootsuite Digital Trends 2025; Sprout Social; Pew Research Center.
Instagram Users by Gender
Instagram's global gender split is nearly even: 50.6 percent male and 49.4 percent female.
This makes Instagram one of the most gender-balanced major social media platforms. For context, platforms like Reddit and X (formerly Twitter) skew heavily male, while Pinterest skews heavily female.
Meta's advertising planning tools report a slightly wider gap when looking at users aged 18 and over: approximately 52.7 percent male and 47.3 percent female. The discrepancy likely reflects the higher share of male users in the 18-to-34 age bracket, where men account for 17.6 percent of the global ad audience compared with 14.6 percent for women in the 25-to-34 range.
In the United States, the gender balance tilts the other way. Approximately 55.4 percent of U.S. Instagram users are women, and 44.6 percent are men. American women have historically adopted Instagram at higher rates than men, a trend that has persisted since the platform's early years.
The largest single demographic group on Instagram globally is men ages 25 to 34, who account for 17.6 percent of the global ad audience. Women ages 25 to 34 are the second-largest group at 14.6 percent, followed by men ages 18 to 24 at 17.2 percent.
Sources: Statista (Apr. 2025); Meta Ad Planning Tools; Hootsuite; Backlinko; DataReportal.
Instagram vs Other Social Media Platforms
Instagram is the third-largest social media platform in the world by monthly active users, trailing only Facebook and YouTube.
| Platform | Monthly Active Users | Parent Company | YoY Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3.2 billion | Meta | ~3% | |
| YouTube | 2.7 billion | Alphabet | ~1% |
| 3 billion | Meta | ~8% | |
| 3 billion | Meta | ~5% | |
| TikTok | 1.5-1.9 billion | ByteDance | ~17% |
| 1.34 billion | Tencent | ~2% | |
| Messenger | 1.01 billion | Meta | ~1% |
| Snapchat | 850 million | Snap Inc. | ~10% |
| X (Twitter) | 600 million | xAI/X Corp. | ~-5% |
| 310 million | Microsoft | ~8% |
Instagram's 8 percent year-over-year growth rate is the fastest among platforms with more than 2 billion users. TikTok is growing faster in percentage terms (roughly 17 percent) but from a smaller base. Facebook and YouTube are both growing at low single-digit rates.
In GWI's Q2 2025 survey, 56.9 percent of adult internet users reported using Facebook within the past month, YouTube ranked second at 55.4 percent, and Instagram ranked third at 55.1 percent. The gap between the top three is closing.
There were 5.66 billion social media user identities around the world at the start of October 2025, meaning more than two in three people on Earth now use social media each month.
Sources: Meta (2025); Statista; DataReportal; Backlinko; GWI Q2 2025; Hootsuite Global Digital Report.
Instagram Usage Patterns and Time Spent
Instagram users spend an average of 33.1 minutes per day on the platform, with Reels consuming nearly half of that time.
Android users worldwide spend an average of 32.4 minutes per day on the Instagram app, according to data compiled by DataReportal. That translates to roughly 16 hours and 13 minutes per month. In the United States, the average is slightly higher at 33.1 minutes per day across all devices.
Gen Z users (ages 18 to 24) spend 53 minutes per day on Instagram, nearly double the 28 minutes averaged by Gen X users. This age-based disparity underscores why the platform is essential for brands targeting younger consumers.
Reels now account for 46 percent of all time spent on Instagram in the United States, up from 37 percent in 2024, according to Sensor Tower. Globally, Reels represent about 39 percent of total time spent. Meta reported that video time spent on Instagram increased 30 percent year over year in Q3 2025.
200 billion Reels are played daily across Instagram and Facebook. That number doubled from 100 billion daily plays reported one year earlier. Reels now make up nearly 59 percent of posts published by creators on Instagram, cementing short-form video as the dominant content format.
Turkish users spend the most time on Instagram, averaging 21.24 hours per month. Argentinians follow at more than 17 hours monthly. South Korean users average just 6.06 hours per month, the lowest among major tracked markets.
For comparison, TikTok users average 52 minutes per day in the United States, YouTube users average 48 minutes and Facebook users average 30 minutes. Instagram's 33 minutes places it solidly in the middle of the pack, but its time-spent figure has been climbing steadily as Reels consumption grows.
Instagram Stories have an 86 percent completion rate, meaning the vast majority of users who start watching a Story will view it all the way through. Approximately 86.6 percent of Instagram users actively post Stories, and 70 percent check Stories daily.
Outfame's AI-driven growth engine works around the clock, engaging with potential followers even while creators are offline. This automated approach is especially effective given that Instagram usage peaks at different hours in different time zones, ensuring consistent growth across a 24-hour cycle.
Sources: DataReportal; Sensor Tower; Meta Q3 2025; DemandSage; Cropink; Hootsuite; Outfame (2026).
Instagram User Projections 2027-2030
Instagram is projected to reach 3.5 billion monthly active users by 2028 and could approach 4 billion by 2030.
Based on Instagram's historical growth trajectory and third-party forecasts from eMarketer, Oberlo and Statista, the platform is expected to continue adding users at a rate of roughly 5 to 8 percent annually through the end of the decade. Growth will be driven primarily by emerging markets in South Asia, Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.
| Year | Projected Monthly Active Users | Estimated YoY Growth |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 (actual) | 3.0 billion | ~15% |
| 2026 | 3.15-3.2 billion | 5-7% |
| 2027 | 3.3-3.4 billion | 4-6% |
| 2028 | 3.5-3.6 billion | 4-5% |
| 2029 | 3.7-3.8 billion | 3-5% |
| 2030 | 3.8-4.0 billion | 3-4% |
Several factors support continued growth:
- Emerging market penetration. Internet adoption in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and parts of Latin America is still expanding. As smartphone ownership grows, so does potential Instagram adoption.
- Reels momentum. Short-form video continues to attract new users, particularly younger demographics. Reels is Instagram's primary user-acquisition driver.
- AI-powered discovery. Meta is investing heavily in AI recommendation systems that surface content from accounts users do not follow, increasing engagement and retention.
- E-commerce integration. Instagram Shopping features are making the platform more useful for businesses, which in turn attracts more users.
Counterbalancing these growth drivers is the natural deceleration that comes with scale. Adding 200 million users when you have 3 billion is a 6.7 percent growth rate; the same absolute number when you had 1 billion was 20 percent growth. Outfame's pricing plans are designed to help creators capitalize on this expanding user base at every stage of growth.
The total number of social media users worldwide is projected to cross 6.6 billion by 2030, up from 5.4 billion in 2025. Instagram is well positioned to capture a significant share of that growth.
Sources: eMarketer forecasts; Oberlo; Statista; DemandSage; Outfame (2026).
Frequently Asked Questions
How many people use Instagram in 2026?
Instagram has 3 billion monthly active users as of September 2025, the most recent figure confirmed by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Estimates for early 2026 place the number between 3.1 and 3.2 billion as growth continues.
How many daily active users does Instagram have?
Instagram has more than 500 million daily active users. While Meta does not regularly disclose Instagram-specific DAU data, third-party estimates and platform-reported metrics suggest the actual number is significantly higher given the platform's growth from 2 billion to 3 billion monthly actives between 2022 and 2025.
Which country has the most Instagram users?
India leads the world with approximately 472.6 million Instagram users, more than double the second-largest market, the United States, which has about 179.9 million users. Brazil ranks third with 147 million users.
What age group uses Instagram the most?
Users ages 18 to 24 make up the largest share of Instagram's audience at 31.3 percent, closely followed by the 25-to-34 age group at 30.3 percent. Together, these two groups account for more than 62 percent of all Instagram users.
How much time do people spend on Instagram per day?
The average Instagram user spends about 33 minutes per day on the app. Gen Z users (ages 18 to 24) spend significantly more at 53 minutes per day. Reels now account for nearly half of all time spent on the platform.
Methodology
The statistics in this article are compiled from official Meta disclosures (earnings calls, executive announcements and ad planning tools), independent research firms (Statista, eMarketer, DataReportal, Sensor Tower) and industry publications (Backlinko, Hootsuite, DemandSage, Business of Apps). Where sources disagree, we note the range and prioritize the most recent official Meta figures. Outfame-specific data is derived from internal platform analytics as of January 2026.
User counts based on Meta's ad planning tools may differ from monthly active user figures because the ad tools measure advertising reach rather than unique logged-in users. Some third-party estimates reference ad-reach data, which can produce slightly different numbers than Meta's officially reported MAU figures. All projections for 2027 through 2030 are estimates based on historical growth rates and analyst forecasts; actual figures may vary.
This article was last updated on Feb. 4, 2026.
