Everything You Need to Know About Instagram Guides in 2026
Instagram Guides are the perfect tool for sharing curated, scrollable content with your community in 2026.
They provide users with an easy way to consume a collection of posts, products, or places on Instagram in an easily digestible format.
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Yet Guides are still relatively underutilized – making them a great opportunity to differentiate your brand on Instagram.
Contents
- What are Instagram Guides?
- How to create an Instagram Guide
- Different types of Instagram Guides
- Where to find Instagram Guides
- Instagram Guides: Best Practices
What is an Instagram Guide?
Instagram Guides are like mini blogs right on Instagram.
They allow users to browse through a curated stream of content with added commentary – similar to blog posts.
They can be used to create gift guides, product reviews, content roundups, FAQ guides, travel recommendations, restaurant reviews, and much more.
Additionally, Guides are in one dedicated place on your profile: on the Instagram Guides tab.
When a user clicks on an individual post in a Guide, they are redirected back to the original post, which is great for reviving old content.
How to Create an Instagram Guide in 2026
To create your first Instagram Guide, tap the plus icon in the top right of your profile page and select the “Guide” option.
Here you can choose from three different formats: Places, Products, and Posts.
Select the type of guide you want to create and choose the posts you want to feature in your guide.
Here you can change the arrangement of blocks, add a title, and a cover photo. You can also add headings and comments (optional) to each content block.
Once you’re happy with your guide, select “Next” and then “Share”.
Published Instagram guides are (for now) not shared to the main feed of your profile.
Instead, they are placed on a special Guides tab on your profile.
What are the different types of Instagram guides?
1: Instagram Place Guides
The first Instagram guide format is a collection of places. These guides are great for city guides, restaurant roundups, and travel recommendations.
You can search for places in the Instagram library or select from places you have previously tagged or saved to posts in your feed.
When you select a place, you can choose an image that was tagged with that place to appear in your Instagram guide.
2: Instagram Product Guides
Another type of Instagram guide you can create is a product guide.
This guide is ideal for launching new products, recommending products, or gift guides.
You can attach and link any product listed on Instagram.
3: Instagram Post Guides
The third type of Instagram guide you can publish is an overview of posts from your feed.
Post guides are great for creating resource lists – whether you’re sharing educational content, favorite recipes, or reflecting on current news or events.
Where to Find Instagram Guides
To access Instagram guides, visit a user’s profile page and select the Guide icon at the top of their profile feed:
If you don’t see this icon, it’s because that user doesn’t have any published guides.
4 Best Practices for Instagram Guides in 2026
Ready to create the best Instagram guides for your brand? Here are four tips to keep in mind:
- Think about what your audience wants
- Share Instagram guides in Stories
- Highlight your community
- Build strategic relationships
Tip #1: Think About What Your Audience Wants
Using the Instagram Guide feature is a great way to curate and organize content for your followers – the creative possibilities are endless.
Think about what content your audience is most interested in, and use that information to influence your Guide content.
For example, at Later, our audience is full of small business owners, creators, and social media managers looking for social media tips.
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With this in mind, we created a Guide that highlights five of our favorite social media podcasts.
And when in doubt, ask your audience.
Share a question or poll sticker on Instagram Stories and ask your followers what type of Guides would interest them most.
Tip No. 2: Sharing Instagram Guides in Stories
Since Instagram Guides are not shared on the main channel of a user’s profile, you can provide them with additional support in Instagram Stories.
Fortunately, you can easily share Instagram Guides to Instagram Stories:
- Open the Instagram Guide
- Tap the paper airplane icon in the bottom left corner.
- Select the option “Add guide to story”.
It’s that simple!
Tip No. 3: Highlight Your Community
If you are a brand, this is a great way to showcase your products in the world and provide valuable context.
Consider creating a guide that shows your customers how to wear or use your products, as @tjswim does:
You can find user-generated content (UGC) by manually browsing tagged photos and branded hashtag pages.
Tip No. 4: Use Guides to Build Strategic Relationships
Guides are a great way to highlight brands, creators, or colleagues in your network, which can be very important for building your profile.
If you are a creator or brand in a particular industry, you can create an Instagram Guide that highlights 10 accounts relevant to your topic.
It’s a great conversation starter and can lead to future partnerships or collaborations.
And there you have it – all the reasons why you should experiment with Instagram Guides this year.
It is an underrated curation feature that opens up enormous possibilities for storytelling and networking within the app. We can’t wait to see yours.
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Also read:
10 tips on how to quickly gain followers on Instagram
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Michal Záruba is a digital marketing specialist and a consultant in social media and SEO. For more than 8 years, Michal has been helping brands grow online through strategic content, search engine optimisation and effective communication on platforms such as LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.
On the blog, Michal shares practical tips on how to combine SEO, social media and brand building into one working strategy, focusing on how companies can use modern tools and algorithms so that their brand gains not only reach but also trust.
Alongside creating content, Michal lectures on digital marketing, trains teams and follows new trends in AI and search.