RepostitAPI Posting Limits 2026: YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok
· 4 min read
Every platform limits how many videos an app can publish through its official API, but each counts differently: YouTube by quota bucket, TikTok per creator and per app, Instagram per account over a rolling 24 hours, Facebook per Page. This is the reference we keep for building Repostit, updated with the current numbers from each platform’s own documentation (checked October 22, 2026).
If you’re a creator asking how much you can post, rather than a developer, read how many videos can you post per day instead.
API posting limits at a glance
| Platform | Main publishing limit | Counted per | Other limits that bite |
|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube | 100 uploads/day (videos.insert bucket, 1 unit each) |
Google Cloud project | 10,000-unit pool for everything else; channel’s own daily upload limit; unaudited projects upload private only |
| TikTok | ~15 posts/day per creator (Direct Post) | Creator account, shared across all apps | 5 pending inbox uploads/24h; app’s daily active-creator cap; 6 init requests/min per token; unaudited apps: 5 users/24h, private only |
| 100 API-published posts per rolling 24h (carousel = 1) | Instagram account | Business or creator account required; media must be at a public URL; app-level rate limits | |
| 30 Reels per rolling 24h | Facebook Page | Reels 3–90 s, 9:16; Pages only, never personal profiles |
YouTube Data API v3
Since June 1, 2026, uploads have their own quota bucket. Per Google’s quota cost reference, a project gets by default:
- 100
videos.insertcalls a day, 1 unit each. - 100
search.listcalls a day. - 10,000 units a day for every other method (thumbnails 50,
videos.update50, playlist inserts 50, captions 400, reads 1).
Until December 2025 an upload cost about 1,600 units from the shared pool, which is why older guides say “6 uploads a day”. Quotas reset at midnight Pacific Time and are per project, not per channel.
Also enforced: the channel’s own daily upload limit (uploadLimitExceeded), which YouTube doesn’t publish and which is higher for verified channels; and uploads from projects that haven’t passed the API compliance audit are forced to private. Shorts can be up to 3 minutes. Full detail and code: YouTube API daily limit.
TikTok Content Posting API
TikTok has two publishing modes, Direct Post (publishes immediately) and Upload (sends a draft to the creator’s inbox), and several layers of limits:
| Limit | Value | Error when hit |
|---|---|---|
| Posts per creator per day (all apps combined) | Typically ~15 | spam_risk_too_many_posts |
| Pending inbox uploads per creator | 5 per 24 hours | spam_risk_too_many_pending_share |
| Active creators per app per day | Set at audit, from your usage estimate | reached_active_user_cap |
| Unaudited apps | 5 users per 24h; SELF_ONLY only; private accounts only |
unaudited_client_can_only_post_to_private_accounts |
| Init requests per user token | 6 per minute | rate_limit_exceeded (429) |
| Max video length | Per creator: max_video_post_duration_sec from the creator info endpoint |
— |
Sources: TikTok’s Direct Post reference, Upload reference and content sharing guidelines. More: TikTok API daily limit, post_info and auto_add_music.
Instagram Graph API (content publishing)
- 100 API-published posts per account in a rolling 24 hours, enforced on
media_publish. A carousel counts as one post. (The carousel section of Meta’s docs mentions 50; staying under 50 is the safe reading for carousel-heavy apps.) - Check usage with
GET /<IG_ID>/content_publishing_limitbefore publishing. - Only business or creator accounts can be published to.
- Media must be hosted at a publicly accessible URL when you create the container; Reels use
media_type=REELS. - App-level rate limits (Business Use Case limits) also apply to the calls around publishing.
Source: Meta’s content publishing docs. More: Instagram Graph API daily limit.
Facebook Pages (Reels Publishing API)
| Spec | Value |
|---|---|
| Reels per Page | 30 per rolling 24 hours |
| Duration | 3–90 seconds (60 s max when published as a Page story) |
| Aspect ratio | 9:16 |
| Resolution | 1080×1920 recommended, 540×960 minimum |
| Frame rate | 24–60 fps |
Apps can publish to Pages, not personal profiles: posting to profiles ended in 2018. Source: Meta’s Reels publishing guide.
What happens when you hit a limit
| Platform | Response | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube | 403 quotaExceeded or uploadLimitExceeded |
Queue until midnight Pacific (quota) or 24 h (channel limit) |
| TikTok | 403 spam_risk_* or reached_active_user_cap |
Don’t retry immediately; reschedule hours later or fall back to inbox upload |
| Publishing error once the 24 h window is full | Read content_publishing_limit and schedule into the next window |
|
| Error on the Reels publish call | Track a rolling 24 h count per Page and queue the overflow |
Designing a publisher that never hits limits
- Track usage yourself, per creator (TikTok), per account (Instagram), per Page (Facebook) and per project (YouTube), over rolling windows.
- Classify errors: limit errors are time-based (reschedule), auth errors need reconnection, format errors need a different file. Never blind-retry.
- Spread backfills: send existing videos at a steady rate (for example one per account per day) instead of in bursts.
- Prioritise fresh posts over catch-up posts when you’re close to a limit.
- Surface waits to users, with the reason and when the post will go out.
Or let Repostit handle it
If you only need your videos on every app, Repostit publishes through each platform’s official API with these limits built in: existing videos go out on a schedule, failures show the reason, and the TikTok watermark is removed on the way. TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, X, Threads, LinkedIn and Pinterest. 14-day free trial.
FAQ
Which platform has the strictest API posting limit?
TikTok in practice: about 15 posts a day per creator, shared across all apps, plus per-app creator caps.
How many YouTube uploads per day through the API?
100 by default since June 2026, from a dedicated bucket.
Do Instagram carousels count as one post?
Yes, a carousel counts as a single post toward the 100-post limit.
Are these limits per app or per account?
It varies: YouTube per Google Cloud project, Instagram per account, Facebook per Page, and TikTok both per creator and per app.
