Instagram banned hashtags checker

What are Instagram banned hashtags?

Using relevant hashtags on Instagram can boost your engagement and get your posts in front of many more people. Hashtags also help Instagram understand what your content is about, so it can show it to the right audience.

But not all hashtags are good. Banned hashtags are hashtags that have been flagged or reported by the Instagram community, for a few different reasons.

The first is that the hashtag is used for content that goes against Instagram’s community guidelines. You will see many of these in the list below.

Another is that the hashtag has been taken over by bots and spammers who post to it again and again.

Avoid banned hashtags because Instagram can treat your account as spam, or as going against its guidelines. That can lead to a shadowban: Instagram limits your account for a while and your reach drops close to zero. If your hashtags suddenly get no engagement at all, you might be shadowbanned.

How to check if a hashtag is banned?

Paste your hashtags or your whole caption into the banned hashtag checker above. Our hashtag generator also flags banned hashtags in every result.

We keep a list of banned hashtags that is updated every day. Some hashtags are banned forever, others only for a while.

To check by hand, open the hashtag’s page in the Instagram app. A banned hashtag shows only a few top posts, or none, with a notice that recent posts are hidden because the community reported content that may not meet Instagram’s community guidelines.

Can banned hashtags get you shadowbanned on Instagram?

Yes, they can. Not always, but often enough to matter.

Banned hashtags are banned because bots spam them or because they go against Instagram’s community guidelines. So if you use banned hashtags, Instagram may think you are a bot, a spammer, or breaking its rules.

We recommend you avoid banned hashtags completely. Instagram allows only a few hashtags per post, so there is no room for a bad one anyway.

To find out whether your account is actually limited, and what Instagram says about shadowbans, read Instagram shadowban: how to check, fix and avoid it.

What to do if you have used a banned hashtag?

First, don’t panic. A shadowban is temporary and can last from a few days to a few weeks.

Check your recent posts for banned hashtags, and remove the hashtag (or the post).

Keep posting: your followers will most likely still see your posts, and Instagram’s algorithm does not like accounts that suddenly stop.

Can I share this list of banned hashtags?

Yes. You can repost it on your blog too. If you do, please include a link to this page to give us credit: this list is updated every day, while many blogs still show hashtags that are no longer banned.