How to Look Up Hashtags on Instagram: Sprout Social vs Instagram Insights for Hashtag Discovery

Use Instagram Insights for quick checks. Use Sprout Social when hashtags matter to reports, campaigns, teams, or clients. That is the simple answer. Instagram is free and handy. Sprout is deeper and cleaner.

What “looking up hashtags” really means

Hashtag discovery sounds simple. Type a word. Pick a tag. Post. Hope.

But that is how you end up using huge tags that bury your post in 4 seconds.

A better hashtag lookup answers a few questions:

• Is this hashtag active?
• Is it too broad?
• Does my audience use it?
• Did it help my post get reach?
• Should I use it again?

Instagram can help with the first few questions. Sprout Social helps more with the last ones.

How to look up hashtags on Instagram

Instagram gives you a few simple ways to find hashtags.

1. Open Instagram.
2. Tap the search icon.
3. Type a word, like vegan recipes.
4. Tap Tags, if available.
5. Check related hashtags.
6. Open a hashtag page.
7. Look at the top posts and recent posts.

This is fast. It is also a little messy.

You may see tags with millions of posts. Big numbers look exciting. They are not always useful. A tag like #food is enormous. Your post can vanish almost at once. A smaller tag like #veganmealprepideas may bring better people. Less noise. Better fit.

Here is a simple rule.

• Huge hashtags: 1 million plus posts. Hard to rank.
• Medium hashtags: 50,000 to 1 million posts. Often useful.
• Small hashtags: under 50,000 posts. Great for niche reach.

Do not only chase big tags. Mix them.

Where Instagram Insights helps

Instagram Insights is built into professional accounts. That means creator accounts and business accounts.

It shows how your content performed. You can check reach, impressions, profile visits, follows, shares, saves, and engagement. This helps you judge whether your hashtag set worked.

But here is the annoying part. Instagram does not always give rich hashtag data in the way marketers want. It may not clearly say, “This hashtag brought 300 visits.” You often have to infer results from post performance.

Honestly, it feels like Instagram gives you just enough data to keep testing, but not enough to make reporting fun.

Still, Instagram Insights is great for quick learning.

Use Instagram Insights like this

• Post with one hashtag set.
• Wait 24 to 72 hours.
• Open the post insights.
• Write down reach, saves, shares, and follows.
• Post similar content with a new hashtag set.
• Compare the numbers.

Example time.

You run a small fitness page. You post three reels.

• Reel A uses broad tags like #fitness and gets 1,200 reach.
• Reel B uses niche tags like #homeworkouttips and gets 1,650 reach.
• Reel C uses local tags like #brooklyntrainer and gets 900 reach but 12 profile visits.

Reel B wins for reach. Reel C may win for leads. That matters.

Where Sprout Social helps

Sprout Social is made for people who need cleaner social media data. It is not just for posting. It is for tracking. It is for reports. It is for teams who hate digging through screenshots.

Sprout can help you study hashtags tied to campaigns, content groups, keywords, and brand topics. Depending on your plan and setup, you can monitor terms, compare performance, and create reports that are much easier to read than native app stats.

This is where Sprout starts to feel useful.

• You can track campaign hashtags.
• You can compare content performance.
• You can build reports for clients or managers.
• You can review engagement trends over time.
• You can keep your team working from one place.

It drives me crazy that checking hashtag results manually can take 15 minutes per post. With a reporting tool, that work can shrink fast. Not always to zero. But close enough to save your mood.

Sprout Social vs Instagram Insights

Here is the plain comparison.

If you are a solo creator, Instagram Insights may be enough. If you post once or twice a week, do not overthink it.

If you manage five brands, Sprout makes more sense. If your boss asks for monthly reports, Sprout helps. If a client asks, “Which hashtags drove growth?” you need more than vibes and a camera roll full of screenshots.

A simple hashtag discovery process

Use both tools if you can. Start inside Instagram. Then track results in Sprout or a spreadsheet.

Step 1: Build a starter list

Search Instagram for your topic. Look at top posts. Write down hashtags that appear often.

Pick 20 to 40 tags. Sort them into groups.

• Broad: #skincare
• Niche: #sensitiveskincareroutine
• Local: #miamiskincare
• Community: #acnepositivity
• Branded: your own campaign or brand tag

Step 2: Check the content

Do not trust the hashtag name alone. Open it. Look at the posts.

Ask yourself:

• Does my content fit here?
• Are the posts high quality?
• Is the audience real?
• Are competitors using it?
• Is the tag full of spam?

If the tag looks messy, skip it.

Step 3: Test in sets

Do not change everything at once. That makes results fuzzy.

Try three groups:

• Set A: broad plus niche tags
• Set B: niche plus local tags
• Set C: community plus branded tags

Keep the content style similar. A reel and a carousel can perform very differently. That is not always the hashtag’s fault.

Step 4: Measure what matters

Reach is nice. Saves are better. Profile visits are very useful. Follows are gold.

For a store, link clicks may matter most. For a creator, follows may matter more. For a local service, direct messages may beat everything.

When to use Instagram Insights

Use Instagram Insights when you want speed.

• You are testing a few posts.
• You have no budget.
• You run one account.
• You need a quick read.
• You like simple numbers.

It is also good for creators who want to learn by doing. You post. You check. You adjust. No big setup.

When to use Sprout Social

Use Sprout when social media is part of your job.

• You manage several accounts.
• You run campaigns with custom hashtags.
• You need monthly reports.
• You work with a team.
• You want cleaner comparisons.

Sprout is not magic. You still need good content. Bad posts with perfect hashtags are still bad posts. Painful, but true.

Best pick for hashtag discovery

Best free option: Instagram Insights.

Best professional option: Sprout Social.

Best overall method: use Instagram to find hashtags, then use Sprout to track what works.

Think of Instagram as your hashtag hunting tool. Think of Sprout as your scoreboard. One helps you find ideas. The other helps you prove which ideas worked.

Start small. Test 10 to 15 hashtags per post. Watch the numbers. Drop weak tags. Keep the ones that bring reach, saves, visits, and follows. That is how hashtag discovery gets less random and a lot less annoying.