How To Find Trending Hashtags on Instagram

Hashtags help Instagram users find your content, and trending ones can significantly expand your reach. 

A trending hashtag often reflects current world events, viral content, or popular topics in the social climate. You can leverage these popularity surges by categorizing your content with the right tags.

Learn to optimize trending hashtags for Instagram with these helpful tips, plus check out 100 popular examples.

What Are Hashtags on Instagram, and How Do They Work?

A hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by the # symbol that labels a social media post, like #nofilter, #travelgram, and #photooftheday. You’ll typically add these tags to a post’s caption or comments section.

So, how do hashtags work on Instagram? Tags categorize content according to topics and themes. Adding them to your post tells Instagram what the content is about so the algorithm knows which users might be interested. 

For example, tagging a carousel from a recent vacation with #travelphotography helps the post reach users who already interact with travel-focused accounts, leading to more views, likes, and even follows.

Hashtags are also clickable. Viewers can tap the phrase to see all posts with that same hashtag. So if someone finds a post with the same tag as yours and taps it to see more, your post appears in the results, increasing the chance that potential followers find your content.

What Makes a Hashtag Trending?

A hashtag is trending when more posts than normal suddenly use it — and this surge often reflects current events, viral content, and social trends. 

For example, #loveyou usually trends around Valentine’s Day, and #freebritney trended after fans learned about Britney Spears’ conservatorship in 2019. Others like #tbt and #followme are popular, but they aren’t considered trending because they’ve been consistently popular Instagram hashtags for years. 

So, trending topics lead to trending hashtags. As more people create content about a topic that’s gaining traction, the tags used to identify that topic also increase in popularity.

How To Find Trending Hashtags on Instagram

There’s no way to know which tags are trending since Instagram doesn’t release this information. But you can check a hashtag’s popularity by looking at how many posts use it. If you search a hashtag and find it’s appearing more often, it’s probably surging in popularity. You can also scroll through Instagram posts and see which tags appear more frequently than others.

Here’s how to find popular hashtags:

1. Open the Instagram app. 
2. Click on the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen to open the search bar. 
3. Type the term you’re looking for. 
4. Hit “Search.” 
5. Tap on the “Tags” tab. 
6. You’ll see a list of popular terms related to your search query, each showing an estimate of how many posts have used them. Those with thousands of usages are the most popular and therefore make great choices to increase your posts’ traction.

3 Benefits of Using Instagram Hashtags

Including a mix of relevant, popular, and trending hashtags helps interested users find your content. Here’s more on this and other key benefits:

1. Make your content searchable — Instagram users often search for terms that interest them, and the right hashtags put your posts in their search results.
2. Join a community — Niche Instagram communities use hashtags to identify themselves, like #vanlife, #dogmom, and #businessowner. Using community-focused tags helps like-minded folks find your account. You gain followers while also connecting with similar creators who can offer advice and collaborations.
3. Follow trends — Beyond posting and searching for them, Instagram lets you “follow” hashtags. When someone makes a post with a hashtag you’re following, the content appears in your feed. Monitor those relevant to your account to see what’s popular, gather inspiration, and spot trends as they take off.

Best Practices for Finding and Using Instagram Hashtags

While hashtags are invaluable to your content’s searchability and reach, there are right and wrong ways to use them. Here are a few tips:

• Avoid using too many — It’s tempting to add dozens of hashtags to reach as many people as possible. But including too many can make your post look like spam. Be selective, and experiment with numbers to determine what works best for your posts. If you have a Business or Creator account and are on the mobile app, you can view post insights to discover which hashtag amount is working best. Or, simply track engagement in a spreadsheet. 
• Label content correctly — Not every trend works for every post, so only choose hashtags that truly relate to your content’s images and message. When a user searches for a hashtag, they expect to see relevant posts, and they’ll scroll right past any that don’t fulfill their search intent. 
• Separate hashtags and captions — Instead of cluttering a post’s description, include hashtags below the caption or nested in the comments. This way, readers see your message without distractions. 

100 Great Instagram Hashtags by Category

To kick-start your search for content-relevant trends, here’s a list of historically popular tags that may work well with your posts.

Best Hashtags for Reels

Viewers scroll through Reels to find relevant material, regardless of whether they already follow you. Hashtags help Instagram show content that matches these viewers’ interests, bringing your videos straight to them. 

Here are a few popular Instagram Reel tags to try:

1. #reelsinstagram
2. #viralreels
3. #instagramreels
4. #reelsinsta
5. #instareels
6. #reelsofinstagram
7. #videooftheday
8. #instadaily

Best Fashion and Beauty Hashtags

Fashion and beauty content is some of the most popular on the platform, so use these tags to reach millions of users:

9. #fashion
10. #beauty
11. #haul
12. #style
13. #shopping
14. #fashionblogger
15. #styleinspo
16. #outfit
17. #outfitoftheday
18. #ootd
19. #whatiwore
20. #currentlywearing
21. #instastyle
22. #lookgoodfeelgood
23. #fashionista
24. #fashionable
25. #fashiongram
26. #igstyle 
27. #instagood

Best Food and Beverage Hashtags

Share content about new restaurants in your area, home-cooked meals, or baking recipes with these hashtags:

28. #foodie
29. #instafood
30. #foodphotography
31. #foodstagram
32. #cooking
33. #lunch
34. #lunchdinner
35. #takeout
36. #restaurant
37. #cafe
38. #yummy
39. #yum
40. #tasty
41. #delicious
42. #foodblogger
43. #foodlover
44. #homemade
45. #healthyfood

Best Travel Hashtags

Instagram is full of travelers sharing their journeys. Here are a few relevant tags for people looking to connect across the globe:

46. #travel
47. #travelphotography
48. #travelgram
49. #wanderlust
50. #adventure
51. #instatravel
52. #travelblogger
53. #landscape
54. #trip
55. #explore
56. #explorenature

Best Tech Hashtags

Whether you’re posting about new software features, sharing gadget tips, or promoting a tech talk, here are some of the best hashtags to try:

57. #techie
58. #tech
59. #technology
60. #technews
61. #instatech
62. #innovation
63. #ilovemygadgets
64. #gadgetsgalore
65. #gadgets
66. #apple
67. #android

Best Wedding Hashtags

If you’re a wedding photographer or want to share moments from your big day, try these hashtags to expand your reach: 

68. #wedding
69. #weddings
70. #weddingdress
71. #weddingphotography
72. #weddingphotographer
73. #weddingday
74. #weddinginspiration
75. #weddingideas
76. #weddingplanner
77. #groom
78. #bride
79. #bridal
80. #bridetobe
81. #engagement

Best Photography Hashtags

Use these Instagram hashtags to share your art and find fellow photographers:

82. #photography
83. #photooftheday
84. #picoftheday
85. #photographer
86. #photoshoot
87. #portrait
88. #instapic
89. #travelphotography
90. #portraitphotography
91. #photographylovers 

Best Fitness Hashtags

Find a fitness community and inspire others to get moving with these tags:

92. #fitness
93. #gym
94. #workout
95. #fitnessmotivation
96. #fitfam
97. #fit
98. #training
99. #gymlife
100. #exercise

Find the Best Hashtags With Captions

Scrolling through Instagram to find the right hashtags takes work — Captions’ Generate Social Post feature gives you this time back. This AI-powered tool finds relevant, trending tags for your content. 

While you’re at it, generate a script for your Reels, trim down video clips, and add custom captions to improve accessibility. Do it all with Captions AI.