How to use the hashtag generator
- Describe the post in two or three words: the subject, not the mood (“street food”, not “vibes”).
- Add related words separated by commas: a place, a format (“recipe”, “tutorial”), a community name.
- Pick the platform. Instagram is capped at five; for TikTok and YouTube you get a few more ideas to choose from.
- Choose CamelCase (
#StreetFood) or lowercase (#streetfood). CamelCase is easier to read and works better with screen readers. - Copy them all or tap the ones you want. Delete any that don't describe the post exactly.
Platform rules worth knowing
Instagram: five per post
Instagram's help centre now says you can use up to 5 hashtags on a post, and Instagram announced the change from 30 to 5 in December 2025, rolling it out gradually. Instagram said that fewer, more targeted hashtags can improve performance. With only five slots, generic tags like #love or #reels waste space. Pick tags that say what the post shows.
YouTube: the first three show above the title
On YouTube, hashtags go in the title or description. According to YouTube's hashtag rules, if you don't put hashtags in the title, the first three from the description appear above it. If a video has more than 60 hashtags, YouTube ignores all of them, and misleading or unrelated hashtags can get the video removed.
TikTok: part of the caption
On TikTok, hashtags count towards your caption length and help describe your video. Specific tags that match search terms are more useful than trending tags unrelated to the content. TikTok's Creator Rewards formula also considers search value; see our TikTok money calculator.
How the generator works
It takes your main topic and each related phrase as a hashtag, combines neighbouring keywords into two-word tags (the most useful kind: specific but still searched), then adds single keywords. Spaces and symbols are removed, because hashtags can't contain them, and purely numeric tags are dropped. Nothing is looked up online, so there's no popularity data. That's deliberate: popularity tells you how crowded a tag is, not whether it fits your post.
Worked example
Topic “street food” with “dhaka, food vlog, night market” for Instagram gives: #StreetFood #Dhaka #FoodVlog #NightMarket #FoodDhaka. Swap in a tag of your own, such as #DhakaStreetFood, if it describes the post better. A viewer searching for Dhaka street food finds the post; someone browsing a generic tag wouldn't have stayed anyway.
Choosing your final set
- One for the exact subject (
#SourdoughBread). - One for the place or community (
#LondonBakers). - One for the format (
#BakingTutorial). - One or two broader topic tags (
#Baking).
Check the whole caption against each platform's limit with the character counter. For YouTube's hidden metadata, use the tag generator instead: tags and hashtags are different things.
Frequently asked questions
How many hashtags can you use on Instagram?
Up to 5 per post or Reel, according to Instagram's help centre and its December 2025 announcement. The change rolled out gradually, so the limit in your app may differ for a while.
Do hashtags still work?
They help describe and categorise content, and on YouTube and TikTok they're clickable. They're one signal among many; the content itself matters more.
CamelCase or lowercase?
Both work the same for search. CamelCase (#StreetFood) is easier to read and lets screen readers pronounce the words correctly.
How many hashtags should I use on YouTube?
A few. The first three appear above the title, and more than 60 means YouTube ignores them all.
Does this tool show hashtag popularity?
No. It runs offline in your browser and focuses on relevance. Check a tag's page on the platform to see what's posted there.