Instagram Username Checker: Rules Before You Pick a Handle

A username is the handle after the @ sign: the part people type to find you, and the part that sits in your profile's web address. Your display name can be almost anything; your username has rules, and it has to be free. The checklist below runs in the order the problems show up: what the handle is made of, how long it is, and whether someone already holds it.

This guide is part of the Profiles section of the blog. If you are trying to find someone else's account rather than choose your own, the Instagram username search page covers searching by handle.

Stage 1: the characters

A username is built from four kinds of character: letters, numbers, periods and underscores. There is no space, so a handle made of two words joins them with a period or an underscore, or runs them together. Capitals make no difference to which account a handle opens.

Stage 2: the length

A username can be up to 30 characters. Anything longer is not a username, so a long phrase belongs in the display name instead. The limit is generous; the practical question is how much of the handle people can remember after seeing it once.

Stage 3: availability

Instagram's help page on trademarks states the rule plainly: usernames are generally claimed on a first-come, first-served basis. So the check is a search. Type the exact handle into Instagram's search: if a profile opens, the handle is taken. If nothing opens, type it into Edit profile on your own account; the app tells you there and then if it cannot be used.

1. 1

   Search the exact handle

   Search for it in Instagram, letter for letter, with its periods and underscores.

   In the appSearch
2. 2

   Open what comes up

   A profile with that exact handle means it is taken, active or not.

3. 3

   Try it on your profile

   If nothing opened, type it into the username field.

   In the appProfileEdit profileUsername

A handle held by an account that looks abandoned is still held. Instagram's page on inactive usernames encourages people to keep accounts active, and its page on claimed usernames gives the practical route: choose an available version of the username, adding periods, numbers, underscores or abbreviations.

Changing it later

A username is not permanent. Instagram's help page gives two routes: Edit profile on your profile, or Accounts Center, then Profiles. It adds two things to know before you change: on an account that reaches a lot of people the change may need a review first, and your followers may be notified.

A filled-in example: Maison Claire

Claire Dubois is opening a bakery called Maison Claire and wants a handle that matches the sign over the door. Here is the checklist, run on her three candidates.

With the handle chosen, the other profile basics follow: How to Find Someone on Instagram by Name or Handle covers finding accounts by name or handle, Can You Find Someone on Instagram With Their Phone Number? explains what a phone number does and does not reveal, and Instagram Search Without Account: Fixing the Login Wall walks through Instagram's login wall.

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