How to Find Trending Hashtags on Instagram in 2026 + List

So, how do they work exactly?

Simple. All you have to do is enter your keywords and let the platform find the trending Instagram hashtags — or in fact on any other social media — for you.

What kind of keyword should you enter into the tracker?

• Your branded keywords including your brand name, product name, or even branded hashtags
• Your competitors’ branded keywords
• Any other buzzword or topics in your industry that you wish to gain engagement from

And just like that, you’ll automatically get a comprehensive list of trending hashtags that are highly relevant to your Instagram’s activities.

Advantages of using Instagram hashtag tracking tools

This method has been proven to be the most effective method of finding Instagram trending hashtags as it has many advantages over the other methods:

• Focusing on what really works: You’ll find Instagram hashtag gems that are highly related to your business, not just a general list of highly competitive hashtags.
• Access to a variety of metrics: You can check trends, social engagement, reach, and even sentiment for those hashtags.
• Gaining valuable insights: The tool’s insights can be valuable in developing and implementing successful hashtag-focused campaigns that improve engagement and increase your brand awareness.
• Benchmarking: Instagram hashtag trackers are powerful competitor analysis tools as well. By using them you’ll get to track and analyze their Instagram hashtag campaigns as well.
• Time-saving solutions: You don’t need to manually do anything. These tools work 24/7 to make sure you’ll never miss a single hashtag trend.

2. Using Instagram features

There are two ways to use Instagram’s built-in features to find the trending hashtags on the platform.

Use the Instagram search bar

Follow these steps to identify popular and engaging hashtags:

1. Open the Instagram app and tap the search icon at the bottom of the screen.
2. Type a keyword or phrase related to your niche or post in the search bar and hit the search icon.
3. Click on the “Tags” tab at the top of the screen to see all of the relevant hashtag search results.
4. Scroll through the list of hashtags to see which ones are most being used. Hashtags with higher posts are generally better indicators of hashtags that have great potential to get more likes, followers, and comments.
5. Click on a hashtag that is relevant to your content to see top or recent posts and reels using those hashtags.
6. Open some of the top posts/reels and explore what hashtags people also used along with the ones you searched.

Use Instagram’s Explore page

Very similar to the method just mentioned, using the Instagram Explore page is another easy way to find trending hashtags. Follow these simple steps:

1. Open the Instagram app and click on the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen to go to the Explore page.
2. In the search bar at the top of the screen, type in a keyword related to your niche or topic of interest. For example, if you’re a fitness blogger, you might search for “fitness” or “workout”.
3. Once you’ve entered your keyword, you’ll see a grid of posts related to that topic. Instead of going to the “Tags” tab, choose the “For you” tab.
4. You can also tap on any of the posts to see the full caption and view additional trending hashtags that are being used.

What are the advantages of this method?

• It’s free & easy
• You’ll get a good overview of Instagram trending hashtags

What are the problems with this method?

• Too general: You might not find the hashtags very effective.
• Time-consuming: You’ll have to manually go over every post.
• No Metrics: The only metric you will see is the number of times people used that hashtag. This means you won’t know how popular a hashtag is, how quickly it’s growing (or dying out), or estimate the engagement rate and social reach.
• No Tracking: Unlike dedicated tracking tools, the search bar does not allow you to track specific hashtags over time. This means you won’t be able to see how the popularity of a hashtag changes over days, weeks, or months.

3. Ready-to-Use Lists

This might be the easiest way to find trending hashtags on Instagram. All you have to do is use a comprehensive list of top Instagram hashtags (like ours) in different categories and add them to your posts and reels.

Also, some apps such as All Hashtag can help you find the right hashtags for your Instagram stories and posts.

Be careful though! Some of these apps are actually hashtag generators, which means they create a hashtag based on the terms that you enter. The result they return is not necessarily the trending hashtags. So make sure that you completely understand the mechanism before you use one.

Do and Don’ts of Instagram Trending Hashtags

Do’s:

• Do narrow down your research to your niche and target audience

• Do use a mix of general trending hashtags and niche-specific hashtags

• Do add hashtags within the post’s caption

• Do track the performance of the hashtags used using the built-in tool or third-party Instagram analytics tools like Mentionlytics

• Do use hashtags that describe your content rather than the ones that feel trending

• Do use hashtags with emojis ✅😉
• Do publish your content at the best time to post on Instagram to increase the power of your hashtags 💪 ⏰

Don’ts:

• Don’t use irrelevant trending hashtags or the ones that are banned (diminishes the credibility of the profile)

• Don’t overuse hashtags for each post post

• Don’t use the same set of hashtags repeatedly

• Don’t use hashtags solely to drive likes or follows

• Don’t use broken or misspelled hashtags

Why Using Trending Hashtags on Instagram is Crucial

There are many reasons why using trending hashtags on Instagram is crucial for anyone looking to grow their following and increase engagement.

Below are some of the top reasons why you should hop on the hashtag train if you haven’t already:

• Using trending hashtags on Instagram can increase visibility to users beyond followers.
• Relevant trending hashtags increase the chances of being discovered by new audiences.
• Using hashtags can lead to more engagement on posts and reels.
• Trending hashtags increase the chance of being featured on Instagram’s Explore page.
• Trending hashtags help you stay up-to-date with current events and conversations within your business circle.

Find Trending Instagram Hashtags using Mentionlytics

Mentionlytics is a social listening tool that automates the process of finding trending hashtags and categorizing them for you. Rather than using Instagram search, you can use Mentionlytics to get the hashtags you’re looking for.

Try Mentionlytics for FREE

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to search on Instagram for hashtags using Mentionlytics with an example of the budget airline Ryanair.

Step 1. Start by selecting the Add Keyword/Tracker option.

Step 2. Select the option to track Something About My Industry on the next screen.

Step 3. Add a name for your Tracker in the text box that shows up on the next screen. Make use of a useful name such as “Instagram Hashtag Search”, so that it is easier to remember for future reference.

Step 4. Now you can add the keyword phrases you want to find trending or related hashtags for. The main keyword is the primary focus of the search, but you can add additional keywords or exclude keywords as well. In our example, we have added the main keyword of cheap flights, which is popular in Ryanair’s industry.

Step 5. Select Instagram as the Data Source. Additionally, you can specify language or country filters if you wish to target particular geographical regions or languages.

Step 6. Skip the option for Social Profiles to monitor. This is because we wish to monitor trends across Instagram and therefore should not limit ourselves to a specific social profile or network.

Step 7. Configure the email alerts that you receive by setting the frequency, first-email time, and attachment settings. You can also add additional email addresses for receiving the report.

Step 8. Select Create to create your new tracker and generate reports for trending hashtags.

Results

The key benefit of using Mentionlytics is that it provides results, which are more comprehensive than Instagram search. Here is a breakdown of the results that are generated through the Tracker that we created using the guide above.

• The Top Trending Hashtags are related to the main keyword “cheap flights”. Do you see the volume of mentions, reach, engagement, sentiment analysis, and top country? These are valuable metrics to understand the quality of each hashtag and if it’s actually trending.

• Also in the Overview Dashboard, you can see the Keyword Cloud showing the top Instagram trending hashtags for the brand Ryanair or we can switch to the Instagram Hashtags Search tracker to see the keywords presented in the list above but in the form of cloud.

You see? It’s that simple to find trending hashtags for your niche with Mentionlytics!

Try Mentionlytics for FREE

How to Get Your Hashtag Trending on Instagram?

If you’re trying to get a hashtag trending on Instagram, it can be a bit of a challenge, but it’s not impossible.

First, you want to come up with a unique and catchy hashtag that represents your brand or campaign. Make sure that no one used that special hashtag before.

Once you have your hashtag, start promoting it, not only on Instagram, but on all your social media platforms, website, and email newsletter to encourage followers to use it.

To make the process faster, collaborate with influencers or other brands in your industry and get them to use your hashtag in their posts and reels.

You can also run a contest or giveaway that requires users to use your hashtag to enter, which can help to generate buzz and increase engagement.

If you have the budget for it, using paid Instagram ads to promote your hashtag to a wider audience can be effective as well.

Don’t forget to share user-generated content that uses your hashtag on your Instagram profile to showcase its popularity.

Finally, consistency is key to making a hashtag trending on Instagram. Keep posting quality content that uses your hashtag to keep it active and relevant.

Discover Instagram Trending Hashtags for Your Brand

Can’t stop thinking about what trending hashtags will work for your Instagram posts and reels? Well, luckily, it’s not a mystery anymore! Sign up for Mentionlytics’ free trial to find out right away.

Try Mentionlytics for FREE

FAQ

Where do I find trending hashtags on Instagram?

To find trending hashtags on Instagram, you can use Instagram’s Explore page or search for trending hashtag lists available online. For more accurate results without manual work, use a hashtag tracking tool to spot all hashtags relevant to your brand and industry and see if they’re getting traction or dying out based on their volume of mentions and engagement.

How to check Instagram hashtag popularity?

To check a hashtag’s popularity on Instagram, you have to know the volume of mentions it has on that specific social platform. The volume of mentions will show you how many posts have been published using that hashtag in their caption. Also, you can use a social media monitoring tool to go deeper and see the reach and engagement of these posts to understand the overall quality of this hashtag and decide whether or not you should include it in your posts.

How can I see what’s trending on Instagram right now?

Basically, Instagram is not as straightforward as X (Twitter) or TikTok, for example, so you need to dig a bit. You can search the tags within your Search bar (the Explore option), but the most reliable way is to check what your niche’s influencers are doing using social listening software like Mentionlytics.

Should I only use 3-5 hashtags on Instagram?

In 2026, use 3–5 targeted, relevant hashtags per post or Reel. Instagram favors a small, focused set over a long, irrelevant list, helping the algorithm better understand your content and reach the right audience.