How to Add a Link on IG Stories With the Link Sticker

To add a link to an Instagram story, use the Link sticker: start a story, tap the Stickers icon at the top, choose Link, paste your URL and tap Done. Anyone who taps the sticker goes straight to that page. Every account can use it, with no follower minimum, apart from brand new accounts and accounts with repeated Community Guidelines violations.

Add the link from the Stickers menu

Here is the whole flow in the Instagram app:

1. Tap the plus icon and choose Story, or swipe right from your feed.
2. Take a photo or video, or pick one from your camera roll.
3. Tap the Stickers icon at the top of the screen.
4. Tap Link. If you don't see it right away, type "link" into the sticker search.
5. Paste or type your URL.
6. Tap Customize sticker text if you want a label instead of the web address (more on this below).
7. Tap Done.
8. Drag the sticker where you want it, then share to Your Story or Close Friends.

When someone taps the sticker, Instagram opens the linked website. Copy the URL straight from your browser's address bar so there are no typos, and open the story once after posting to make sure the link goes where you expect.

Who can use the link sticker today

Instagram opened the Link sticker to all accounts on October 27, 2021. Before that, links in stories (the old "swipe up") were limited to verified accounts and accounts above a follower threshold. That threshold is gone. Personal, creator and business accounts all get the sticker, according to Instagram's announcement.

Two groups don't get it:

• New accounts. Instagram holds the sticker back from accounts that were just created.
• Accounts that repeatedly break the rules. Accounts that keep sharing content against the Community Guidelines, such as hate speech or misinformation, lose access.

If your account is private, the sticker still works, but only your followers can see the story, so only they can tap it.

Link stickers are for organic stories. If you're running a Stories ad, Instagram places its own call-to-action sticker at the bottom of the ad instead. And if a creator story is going to be turned into a partnership ad, the creator should leave the link sticker off, because partnership ads can't be made from stories that carry one.

Change the sticker text and color

By default the sticker shows the link's web address, which often looks like a jumble of letters. A short label tells people what they get before they tap.

• Text: In the link editor, tap Customize sticker text before you place the sticker. Use a plain call to action like "Get the recipe", "Book a table" or "Shop the drop". Keep it short so it fits on one line.
• Color: After placing the sticker, tap it to switch between Instagram's color styles. Pick the one that stands out against your photo.
• Size and angle: Pinch to resize the sticker and twist with two fingers to rotate it. Place it where it doesn't hide the important part of your photo.

The color choices are Instagram's built-in styles. If you want a look that matches your brand, design the story frame around the sticker instead: a clear spot of plain background and a line of text pointing at it.

Plan one link per slide and keep it in a Highlight

Plan on one link sticker per story slide. Instagram doesn't publish a hard limit, but one clear link per frame is the standard way to use the sticker, and it leaves viewers in no doubt about what to tap.

If you have several things to share, you have two good options:

1. Spread them across slides. Post a short run of stories, one link per slide, each with its own picture and label. Viewers tap through and pick what they want.
2. Link to one page that holds them all. Put a single link page on the sticker, the same one that sits in your bio, and let people choose from there. This works best when you share the same handful of links every week.

Keep the link alive. A story disappears after 24 hours, and the link goes with it. To keep a linked story on your profile, save it to a Highlight while it's still live: open the story, tap the three dots, choose Highlight and add it to an existing Highlight or make a new one. The link sticker keeps working there, so people visiting your profile weeks later can still tap it.

Good candidates for a Highlight are links that don't expire: your menu, a booking page, a price list, your newest release or a "start here" page. For anything time limited, like a sale ending tonight, let the story run out on its own.

Why the link sticker might be missing

If you don't see Link in the Stickers tray, work through these in order:

Instagram's own advice for any missing sticker is to update the app first, and it also notes that not every sticker is available to everyone. If you just switched between a personal, creator and business account, logging out and back in often brings the sticker back. If it works on some slides but not others, start the slide from a blank story instead of a template and add your media again.

See how many people tapped your link

Story insights show taps, as long as your account is public (personal or professional).

1. Open your story while it's live.
2. Tap View insights.
3. Look under Interactions, which counts replies, shares, sticker taps and link taps.

For older stories, go to your profile, open View insights from there. Instagram keeps story insights for up to two years, even after the story itself is gone. The full list of metrics is in Instagram's help page on story insights.

Instagram tells you how many people tapped, not what they did next. To see that, add UTM parameters to your URL (for example ?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=story) and the visits will show up labeled in your website analytics.

Link several things at once with Olaa

If you share the same few links again and again, an Olaa page saves you rebuilding stories around each one. Olaa gives you one short link, olaa.im/yourname, that opens a page with everything people want to find: unlimited links, music and video players that play on the page, Calendly bookings and Google Forms that open right there, and social icons. You can put that one link on a story sticker and in your bio, and change what's on the page whenever you like without touching the story.

The free plan includes one page, every look and font, a theme pulled from one photo and 7 days of analytics, so you can see which links people tap after they arrive. Olaa Pro, at $8 a month or $72 a year, adds products from Stripe, Etsy, Shopify or Gumroad (checkout happens in your shop and Olaa takes no cut), email signups sent to Mailchimp, scheduled links and 30 and 90 day analytics. See pricing, or how it works for Instagram. Setting it up takes a few minutes and needs no code.

For the profile side of this, read our guide to Instagram bio links. If you want links in your feed too, see how to add a link to an Instagram post, where the rules are very different.

FAQ

Do I need 10,000 followers to add a link to my Instagram story?

No. The 10,000 follower rule belonged to the old swipe up feature. Since October 2021 the Link sticker has been available to all accounts, with no follower minimum. Only new accounts and accounts with repeated guideline violations are left out.

Can I add more than one link to an Instagram story?

Plan on one link sticker per slide. To share several links, post a few slides with one link each, or put a single link page on the sticker that lists everything. One clear link per frame is also easier for viewers to tap.

How do I make the link sticker say something other than the URL?

Tap Customize sticker text in the link editor before you place the sticker, then type your label, such as "Read the menu". If you skip this step, the sticker shows the website's address instead.

Do story links still work after 24 hours?

Not in the regular story, which expires after a day. Save the story to a Highlight while it's live and the link sticker keeps working on your profile for as long as the Highlight stays up.

Can I see who tapped my story link?

Instagram counts link taps in the story's insights. Open the story, tap View insights and check Interactions, which include link taps. Your account needs to be public for insights to appear.