Instagram
The most capable connector. Publishing, metrics, DM automations and the shared inbox all run on it.
| Connect | Credentials you paste |
| Post kinds | image, carousel, reel |
| Caption limit | 2,200 |
| Max media | 10 |
| Media required | Yes |
| Video | Up to 300 MB, 3s to 15 min, mp4 or mov, h264 and aac |
Before you start
Your Instagram account must be a Business or Creator account. A personal account cannot be connected.
You do not need a Facebook Page. Postlyra uses Instagram Login rather than the older Page-linked flow.
Connect
- Go to developers.facebook.com and create an app, choosing the Instagram use case.
- In the app dashboard, open Instagram, then API setup with Instagram login.
- Add your Instagram account and sign in.
- The dashboard shows an Instagram user ID and a Generate token button. Generate a long-lived token.
- In Postlyra, open Settings, then Connections, then Instagram, and paste both values.
Credentials are stored per brand and encrypted. They never live in a config file, because one token in a config file would apply to every brand at once.
The Meta app can stay in Development mode. Accounts added as testers work fine.
Token upkeep is automatic
The token expires after 60 days. Postlyra refreshes it on a schedule and writes the new one back, so it does not lapse. You do not have to do anything.
If a refresh is definitively rejected, the connection is marked needs reauth and you get a notification. Reconnect from the same page.
Publishing
Instagram requires media as a public HTTPS URL, which is why approved images upload to a public CDN bucket before publishing. See the warning in Media.
Carousels render to JPEG at 1080 by 1350. Feed images must sit between 4:5 and 1.91:1, which that size satisfies.
Metrics
Instagram post metrics sync nightly through the Graph API. It is the one platform with follower counts and profile views. Nothing to import, nothing to configure.
Inbox and automations
Instagram is the only platform with a shared inbox and automations.
Meta's 24 hour window
You can reply to a DM only within 24 hours of the person's last message to you. This is Meta's rule and it is enforced server side. The 7 day human-agent extension is not available yet.
Automations default to dry-run and send nothing until that is deliberately switched off. See Automations.
Research is a separate credential
Two different Instagram credential sets
The Instagram credentials above are for your own account: publishing, metrics, DMs.
Instagram research (looking at other people's accounts) runs on separate platform-level credentials, and Instagram hashtag search runs on your connected account with a hard Meta cap of 30 unique hashtags per rolling 7 days, per account. There is no way to buy that back once spent.
The two are not interchangeable.