PERRLA/Guides/APA 7/Instagram post or Reel

How to Cite an Instagram Post or Reel in APA 7

An APA 7 Instagram reference starts with the account's name and its Instagram handle in square brackets, then the full posting date in parentheses, the first 20 words of the caption in italics as the title, a description of the post in square brackets, like [Photograph], [Photographs], or [Video] for a Reel, Instagram as the site name, and the post's URL. The in-text citation is the author and the year: (National Institutes of Health, 2026).

The format

Author, A. A. [@handle]. (Year, Month Day). First 20 words of the caption [Photograph]. Instagram. URL

PERRLA APA Experts · Updated October 21, 2026
Checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition. Every example is formatted by PERRLA's reference engine.

First, the easy way: PERRLA

Choose Social Media, then A social media post. Set the role to Username (screen name), type the handle with its @ in the Name box, and the person's name in First and Last. For an organization like the National Institutes of Health, type its full name in Last and leave First empty. Paste the whole caption into Post Content and PERRLA keeps the first 20 words, hashtags and emojis included. Type Photograph, Photographs, Image, or Video in Name of Platform Posts, Instagram in Platform Name, pick the posting date, and paste the post's URL. Leave Retrieval Date empty for a post.

Pasting a post's link into PERRLA's reference search? Instagram shares only its preview text with outside tools, so the result needs fixing before you save it. Set the role to Username (screen name) and type the account's name and handle, replace Post Content with the caption itself (not the like count in front of it), and add the date and the description. Filling in the form yourself is usually faster.

Citing a profile instead? Paste the profile's link, or the link to one of its tabs, like instagram.com/who/reels/. PERRLA sets up the profile reference with the handle, the tab name as the title, [Instagram profile], Instagram, and today's retrieval date. If the account's name doesn't come through, type it in next to the handle.

Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same reference by hand.

The parts of the reference

1. Author and handle

Give the author the way you would for any reference: a person's last name and initials, or an organization's full name. Then add the Instagram handle, starting with the @ sign, in square brackets, and end with a period.

National Institutes of Health [@nihgov].

The name comes from the account's profile, in bold above the bio. The handle is the username at the top of the post. For a person, use their real name when the account or a reliable source confirms it: the account @nihdirector_jay belongs to NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, so the reference reads Bhattacharya, J. [@nihdirector_jay]. If all you know is the handle, the handle becomes the author, with no brackets: @handle.

Handles change. APA's own example credits the Philadelphia Museum of Art as @philamuseum, and the account is now @philamuseumart. Use the handle the post shows when you read it.

2. Date

Give the year, month, and day the post went up, in parentheses, followed by a period.

(2026, October 17).

Instagram shortens dates on recent posts to "4d" or "1w," and the date under the like count can read "4 days ago." On a computer, hover over the date to see the full date. Profiles and highlights have no single date, so their references use n.d.

3. Caption as the title

Instagram posts don't have titles, so the caption stands in for one. Use the first 20 words of the caption, in italics, exactly as the account wrote them. Keep their spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and symbols like ®.

October is SIDS Awareness Month! 💙 Safe to Sleep® works with partners, from health organizations to community groups, to share

A hashtag, an @mention, a link, and an emoji each count as one word, and they stay in if they fall within the first 20. In the caption above, the heart is word 6. APA Style says emojis themselves aren't italicized. Line breaks in the caption don't count as anything: run the words together with single spaces, and stop at word 20, even mid-sentence or after a comma.

Use the caption the account wrote, the text under its name. Leave out comments, the like count, and the location tag. When a caption starts with a quotation mark, keep it, the way APA's own Philadelphia Museum of Art example does.

4. Description

Right after the caption, describe the post in square brackets, not italicized, then a period. The description says what kind of media it is.

[Photographs].

  • [Photograph] for a post with one photo.
  • [Photographs] for a carousel of photos.
  • [Video] for a Reel or any video post.
  • [Image] for a graphic, a poster, or a slide of text, which is what most health organizations post.

APA asks for a description, not a fixed label, so pick the word that matches what your reader will see when they open the link.

5. Site name and URL

Name Instagram as the site, then give the link to the post itself, not the account's profile. A post link has /p/ in it, and a Reel link has /reel/.

Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/nihgov/p/Del8YWXFzoA/

Copy the link from your browser's address bar, or from the post's share menu. Cut anything after a question mark, like ?igsh= or ?utm_source=, since those only track who shared it. Don't put a period after the URL, and don't add a retrieval date for a post. Retrieval dates are only for profiles and highlights, which change over time.

Examples

An Instagram post from an organization, with an image

An NIH post for SIDS Awareness Month, built around a poster for the Safe to Sleep campaign. The post is a graphic, so it gets [Image]. The emoji is word 6, the ® stays with the word it belongs to, and the title stops at word 20.

  • Parenthetical citation(National Institutes of Health, 2026)
  • Narrative citationNational Institutes of Health (2026)

An Instagram Reel

A World Health Organization Reel on pre-eclampsia. A Reel is a video, so the description is [Video]. The caption's line breaks drop out, and the title ends at word 20, "Find."

  • Parenthetical citation(World Health Organization, 2026)
  • Narrative citationWorld Health Organization (2026)

An NIH carousel of photos from the dedication of the Know the Facts About Fentanyl stamp. Several photos make it [Photographs], the plural. Word 20 is followed by a comma, and the comma stays.

  • Parenthetical citation(National Institutes of Health, 2026)
  • Narrative citationNational Institutes of Health (2026)

A post from an individual, shared as a collab

NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya on grants for early-career researchers. The post is a collab: Instagram shows it as "nihdirector_jay and nihgov," and it appears on both profiles. The caption sits under Bhattacharya's name and the link is on his account, so he is the author.

  • Parenthetical citation(Bhattacharya, 2026)
  • Narrative citationBhattacharya (2026)

An Instagram profile

To cite an account rather than one post, cite its profile. The title is the name of the tab you're citing (Posts, Reels, or Tagged), followed by [Instagram profile]. Profiles change, so the reference gets n.d. and the date you looked at it.

  • Parenthetical citation(World Health Organization, n.d.)
  • Narrative citationWorld Health Organization (n.d.)

In-text citations

An APA 7 in-text citation for an Instagram post gives the author and the year, like any other source. Use the name from the front of the reference, not the handle, unless the handle is all you have.

  • Organization: (World Health Organization, 2026) or World Health Organization (2026)
  • Individual: (Bhattacharya, 2026) or Bhattacharya (2026)
  • Handle only: (@handle, 2026)
  • Profile: (World Health Organization, n.d.)
  • A quote from what someone says in a Reel: add the time stamp where the quote starts, in place of a page number: (Author, Year, minutes:seconds)
  • Two posts by the same account in the same year: add a lowercase letter after the year, in the reference and in the citation, in the order the references appear on your references page. Cite both NIH posts above in one paper, and they become (National Institutes of Health, 2026a) and (National Institutes of Health, 2026b).

A narrative citation puts the author in your sentence: The National Institutes of Health (2026) used SIDS Awareness Month to promote safe infant sleep. For the backstory on Reels and TikToks, read our APA Obscura post on citing a TikTok or Instagram Reel.

Common mistakes

  • 172 likes, 1 comments - nihgov on October 17, 2026: October is SIDS Awareness Month!…October is SIDS Awareness Month! 💙 Safe to Sleep® works with partners…That line is the preview text Instagram hands to outside tools, with the like count and date added. The title is the caption alone, starting with its first word.
  • National Institutes of Health. (2026, October 17).National Institutes of Health [@nihgov]. (2026, October 17).Social media references add the handle in square brackets after the name, so your reader can find the account.
  • Did you know? A serious pregnancy complication… [Reel]. Instagram.Did you know? A serious pregnancy complication… [Video]. Instagram.The description names the kind of media, not Instagram's feature name. A Reel is a video, the same way APA describes TikToks.
  • National Institutes of Health [@nihgov]. (2026). For years, fentanyl…National Institutes of Health [@nihgov]. (2026, October 9). For years, fentanyl…Social media posts take the full date, not the year alone. Instagram hides it behind "1w" on recent posts, so open the post to find it.
  • Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/nihgov/Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/nihgov/p/DeSCCyVm7_H/The URL goes to the post you're citing. The profile link only works for a profile reference, which also needs n.d. and a retrieval date.
  • Instagram. Retrieved October 21, 2026, from https://www.instagram.com/who/reel/DeRg1f4kwct/Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/who/reel/DeRg1f4kwct/A post doesn't change once it's up, so it needs no retrieval date. Only profiles and highlights do.

Quick checklist

  • Account name, then the @handle in square brackets
  • Full date: year, month, and day
  • First 20 words of the caption, in italics and exactly as written
  • Hashtags, @mentions, links, and emojis counted as one word each
  • [Photograph], [Photographs], [Image], or [Video], then Instagram
  • The post's own link, with tracking codes cut
  • No retrieval date for a post; n.d. and a retrieval date for a profile or highlight

Questions students ask

How do I cite an Instagram Reel in APA 7?

The same way as any Instagram post, with [Video] as the description: World Health Organization [@who]. (2026, October 9). Did you know?… [Video]. Instagram. followed by the Reel's link. To quote something said in it, add the time stamp to the in-text citation.

How do I cite an Instagram Story or a Live?

A Story disappears after a day, and a Live that isn't saved is gone when it ends. If your reader can't find it, APA treats it as a personal communication: an in-text citation only, with no entry on the references page. If the account saved the Story to a highlight, cite the highlight instead, with n.d., [Highlight], and a retrieval date.

Who is the author of a collab post?

APA hasn't published a rule for collab posts, so credit the account that wrote the caption, which is the account the caption sits under and the first name in the header. Your reader can find the post from either account. If both names matter to your point, say so in your sentence.

What if the post has no caption?

Leave the caption out and let the description stand in for the title: @handle. (2026, October 9). [Photograph]. Instagram. APA uses a bracketed description in place of a title for any work without one.

Do I cite the post, or the article in the link in bio?

Cite what you used. If you're writing about the post itself, like how NIH talks to parents about safe sleep, cite the post. If you're using the research or the guidance it points to, follow the link in bio, read the source, and cite that instead.

Can I cite an Instagram post in a nursing paper?

Yes, when the post itself is your evidence, like a health campaign's message or how an agency explains a condition to the public. For clinical facts, cite the study or guideline behind the post, and check with your instructor if you're not sure a social media source will count.

Rules checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), Sections 8.9, 8.17, 8.28, 9.8, 9.11, 9.14, 9.16, 9.19–9.22, 9.47, and 10.15, and the APA Style website's Instagram references page. Example posts verified on Instagram on October 21, 2026: each caption, account name, handle, and date read from the post page and from the date stamp in the page's code, and each post's media checked on the page (one image, a carousel of photos, or a video). The collab credit read from the post's header, and Jay Bhattacharya's account confirmed by its name and NIH's collab.

PERRLA builds the Instagram reference from your details, with the handle in brackets, the caption cut at 20 words, and your description in place.

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