How long should Instagram stories be?

Never make stories longer than 20 seconds, even though the platform allows up to 60 seconds. Stories have the lowest retention rate of any content type, so people will skip if they’re too long. Keep stories extremely simple—often just a photo with text overlay is perfect. For example, a picture of your computer during a meeting with text like ‘another meeting today, wish me luck’ takes 3 seconds to create and makes an effective story. Don’t overthink stories; simplicity is key.

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Asked by a photographer asking about giveaway promotion · Answered by Mili · art-marketing-101 · 2026-06-29