Feed, carousels, reels, stories
Instagram ships through the official Graph API, which means OpenPost can publish feed posts, carousels, and reels with zero reminders or manual steps. No push notifications, no uploading through your phone, no third-party workarounds.
Professional account required
Connect Instagram
Switch to a Business or Creator account
If you haven’t already. Personal accounts can’t publish via API — this is an Instagram restriction, not an OpenPost one.
Link to a Facebook Page
Instagram requires a Facebook Page as the owner of its API access. In your Instagram app, go to Settings → Account → Linked accounts → Facebookand link a Page you administer. If you don’t have one, create a free Page.
Connect from OpenPost
In Connections, pick Instagram. You’ll authenticate via Meta — this is the same flow Meta uses everywhere. Select the Page that owns your Instagram account, then the Instagram account itself.
Confirm permissions
The scopes we request:
instagram_basic— read account info.instagram_content_publish— publish posts.pages_read_engagement— pull analytics.pages_show_list— list the Pages you admin.
What OpenPost publishes
Feed post
A single image or video with a caption. Caption can be up to 2,200 characters including up to 30 hashtags.
Carousel
Between 2 and 10 images or videos. Each slide can be a different aspect ratio — OpenPost auto-pads to the carousel’s primary aspect to prevent cropping.
{
"content": "Launch week 🚀",
"integrations": ["int_ig_abc"],
"media": ["med_1", "med_2", "med_3"],
"post_type": "carousel"
}
Reel
A single vertical video, 3–90 seconds, 9:16 aspect. Caption behaves like a feed post. Reels are discoverable in the Reels tab and on Explore, which is why they typically out-perform feed posts 3-5x on reach. Reels are single-video only — no carousel.
Story Beta
Stories accept a single image or a video up to 60 seconds. They disappear after 24 hours and don’t support captions — only stickers (not yet supported by OpenPost) and text overlays added in your video.
Media limits we enforce
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| feed image | JPEG only, ≤ 8 MB | Graph API requires JPEG for feed. Min 320×320, max 1440×1800. |
| feed video | MP4 / MOV, ≤ 1 GB | 3–60 seconds, H.264 + AAC. |
| reel video | MP4 / MOV, ≤ 1 GB | 3–90 seconds, 9:16, H.264 + AAC. Single video only. |
| reel cover (optional) | JPEG, ≤ 8 MB | Min 540×960, max 1080×1920. |
| story image | JPEG, ≤ 8 MB | Min 540×960, max 1080×1920. Single media only. |
| story video | MP4 / MOV, ≤ 100 MB | 1–60 seconds, H.264 + AAC. |
| carousel | 2–10 items (feed only) | Mix of images and video. All slides share the primary aspect. |
| caption | ≤ 2,200 chars, ≤ 30 hashtags | Composer warns at 2,100 chars and 25 hashtags. |
OpenPost also enforces a product-wide ceiling of 1 GB per video and 30 MB per image at upload, regardless of what any single platform would accept.
Hashtag and mention handling
- Hashtags are counted against Instagram’s 30-tag limit. OpenPost splits tags across a “first comment” if you go over — you can opt in per-post.
- Mentions (
@username) fire a notification to the mentioned account. We validate the username exists before scheduling. - Emoji are preserved byte-for-byte. Instagram’s caption field is Unicode-safe.
First-comment support
A common tactic on Instagram: put hashtags in the first comment rather than the caption. OpenPost supports this — set first_commentin the API or toggle “Add hashtags in first comment” in the composer.
{
"content": "New blog post on scheduling ✨",
"first_comment": "#productivity #tools #founder #saas"
}
Analytics we pull
Reach
Unique accounts reached
Impressions
Total views
Saves
Per post
Shares
Per post
Video views
For reels and feed video
Follower delta
24h after publish
Common errors
Disconnect
From Connections, open the menu next to the account → Disconnect. We revoke the OAuth token with Meta. Scheduled posts to that account move to failed; published posts stay live on Instagram.