An Instagram business bio is 150 characters with four jobs, one per line: what you do and for whom, one line of proof or personality, a nudge that points at the link, and — only if taps depend on it — a practical line such as hours or how to order. Everything else about your business goes in the fields around the bio, which is why 150 characters is enough.
Instagram's limits, checked September 2026: the bio is 150 characters including spaces, line breaks and emoji, the name field is 30 characters, and a profile can list up to 5 external links. Business and creator accounts add a category label and contact buttons on top.
Still on a personal account? Settings → Account type and tools → Switch to professional account, pick Business (or Creator), choose your category. Free, a minute's work, and it unlocks the category label, contact buttons and profile analytics the formula leans on.
The four-line formula
150 characters is about four short lines. Give each one job:
- What you do, for whom — the one-sentence version a stranger understands.
- Proof or personality — a number, an award, a founding year, or the line that sounds like you.
- The nudge — what to do next, pointing at the link.
- (Optional) The practical line — hours, location, or how to order, if taps depend on it.
A bakery, 100 characters counted with the emoji as 2 and the two line breaks:
Sourdough & pastry, baked at 5am daily 🥐
Voted Portland's best bakery 2026
Order ahead for pickup ⤵
What you do, proof, nudge — and 50 characters still unspent.
Five business types, written to the formula
All under 150 characters. Steal the structure, not the words.
Local service (plumber):
Same-day plumbing, no call-out fee
4.9★ from 800+ Auckland jobs
Book a time below ⤵
Why it works: line one answers the two questions a plumber's customer has (how fast, what it costs to ask), and the proof carries a rating, a count and a city, so it reads as local and real.
Online store:
Handmade silver, hallmarked in Sheffield
30-day returns, ships worldwide
New drop every first Friday ⤵
Why it works: "hallmarked in Sheffield" is proof disguised as description, line two removes the two reasons people don't buy jewellery from a stranger, and the nudge gives a date to come back on.
Coach / consultant:
I help freelancers double their day rate
1:1 spots open for October
Free rate calculator below ⤵
Why it works: the promise names the customer and the result in one line, "spots open for October" is scarcity with a date on it, and the nudge gives before it asks.
Restaurant:
Neapolitan pizza, wood-fired since 2019
Walk-ins welcome · book for 6+
Tonight's specials ⤵
Why it works: the practical line does the job of a phone call ("do I need to book?"), and the nudge changes daily, which is the one reason to tap a restaurant's link twice.
Agency:
Paid social for DTC brands doing $1–10M
Case studies + pricing in one place ⤵
Why it works: the revenue band filters out everyone the agency doesn't want to talk to, and "pricing" in the nudge tells the right prospect the tap won't waste their time. Two lines, 77 characters, nothing missing.
The name field is searchable, the category label is free text you don't have to write
On a business profile the bio is one of four fields, and the other three each take a job off its hands.
The name field (30 characters) is the one Instagram search indexes. "Rosa's" tells search nothing; "Rosa's · Wedding Florist NYC" matches what people type. Keep the brand, add the search term.
The category label shows "Coffee shop" or "Marketing agency" right under your name, so the bio never has to say what kind of business you are. That's 15–20 characters handed back to you, and the address and phone number go in the contact buttons the same way.
The link converts. The bio can only convince, so the tap has to land somewhere built for it — not your homepage, where the visitor starts over. Send them to this week's offer, the booking form, the menu, the new product.
One page that holds everything beats five raw links. Instagram allows up to 5, but only the first shows on your profile; the rest sit behind a tap as a plain list. A link in bio page gives every destination a label and an image, and tells you which one people came for. Every platform counts its link slots differently, which the rules table sets out. InBio is our product and does exactly that, so weigh the source; the advice holds whichever tool you pick, and the comparison says who else does it well.
Five mistakes that cost taps
1. The fancy-font bio. Those 𝓼𝓽𝔂𝓵𝓮𝓭 letters are Unicode symbols, not text: screen readers spell them out character by character, and a search for the plain word may never match the styled one. Pretty to you, invisible to the people looking for you.
2. Brand name in the name field, nothing else. You already own your username. Those 30 characters are for what customers type: "wedding florist," "personal trainer," "vegan bakery."
3. Hashtags as decoration. Bio hashtags are tappable, and each tap sends people away from your profile into a public feed of your competitors. Use one only if you run a branded hashtag customers actually post to.
4. Saying what the category label already says. "☕ Coffee shop" as your first line, under a label reading Coffee Shop, is 14 characters of nothing.
5. No next step. A bio that describes but never directs leaves the visitor to guess. The nudge line costs about 20 characters and is the whole reason the other 130 exist.
How to adapt one and post it
Take the example nearest your business and rewrite it line by line:
- Line one: swap the noun and the customer. "Same-day plumbing, no call-out fee" becomes "Mobile dog grooming, we come to you." Keep the shape: what you do, then the one thing that removes a doubt.
- Line two: replace the proof with yours. A rating and a count, an award and a year, or a line only you would write. No numbers yet? "Two sisters, one oven, no shortcuts" is proof of a kind.
- Line three: name the tap. Not "link below" but what's behind it: "Book a time," "Tonight's specials," "Free rate calculator."
- Add the practical line only if taps depend on it. Hours for a walk-in shop, yes. Your founding story, no.
- Count it. Paste the lines into a character counter, count each emoji as 2, and stay under 150 with room to edit later.
Then open Edit profile, paste the bio, put your search term in the name field, and point the link at a page that holds everything the bio promises (adding it takes thirty seconds).
More formulas, platform by platform, in Bio & profile ideas.
