How to Turn Off Comments on Instagram

Method 1: Turn off commenting on a post you already published

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This is the one people mean. The post is live, the comments are already there, and you want it to stop now. It takes about ten seconds and you can undo it just as quickly.

1. 1Open the postGo to your profile and tap the post you want to close. Do it from the post itself rather than from your grid, so the menu you get is the post's menu and not your profile's.
2. 2Tap the three dotsThe three dots sit in the top corner of the post. On a Reel they sit in the bottom right instead, and on a Reel you tap Manage first.
3. 3Tap Turn off commentingThat is the whole action. There is no confirmation screen and nothing to save. The comment button disappears from the post for everyone.
4. 4Check what happened to the old commentsThe comments that were already there go out of public view along with the button. They are not deleted. Turn commenting back on and they come back exactly as they were, in the same order, with the same replies.
5. 5Turn it back on when the wave passesSame three dots, and the option now reads Turn on commenting. Most people leave a post closed for a day or two, not forever, because forever is a decision you make by accident.

Method 2: Turn commenting off before the post goes live

If you already know a post is going to attract the wrong crowd, you can publish it closed. The setting is buried one screen deeper than people expect, which is why most of them publish first and panic second.

1. 1Build the post as normalPick your photo or video, edit it, and carry on to the screen where you write the caption. Do not post yet.
2. 2Open Advanced settingsScroll to the bottom of the caption screen and tap Advanced settings. This is where Instagram keeps the switches it does not want you flipping by accident.
3. 3Turn off commentingToggle Turn off commenting on, then go back to your caption screen. The setting sticks with this post only, not with the next one.
4. 4PublishPost as normal. It goes live with no comment button at all, so nobody ever gets the chance to be the first bad comment under it.

Method 3: Use Limit when it is a wave, not a post

Limit is Instagram's answer to a pile on. It is built for exactly the situation where you were about to close a post: a sudden flood of comments from people who are not your regulars.

1. 1Open Limit interactionsGo to Settings and activity, then find Limit interactions under the section about how others can interact with you.
2. 2Choose who gets limitedYou can limit accounts that do not follow you, accounts that followed you recently, or everyone outside your close friends. That covers most brigades, because a brigade is strangers by definition.
3. 3Choose what gets limitedComments and message requests, or a wider setting that reaches tags, mentions and story replies too. Limited comments are hidden from everyone but the person who wrote them.
4. 4Set a reminder to turn it offInstagram asks when to nudge you about switching it back. Take the reminder. Limit left on quietly hides comments from every new customer who has not followed you yet, which is most of the ones you want.

Method 4: Hide the words instead of closing the door

If the reason you want comments off is a handful of specific words, you do not want comments off. You want those words gone. Hidden Words does that and leaves everything else standing.

1. 1Open Hidden WordsGo to Settings and activity, then Hidden Words, under the section about how others can interact with you. It applies to your whole account, not one post.
2. 2Open Manage custom words and phrasesIt sits at the bottom of the Hidden Words screen. This is your own list, separate from the offensive words filter Instagram keeps above it.
3. 3Type your words, with a comma between eachWords, phrases, numbers and emojis all work, in any language. Instagram also hides close misspellings of what you typed, so add the word rather than eleven versions of it.
4. 4Check what it caughtFiltered comments stay visible to the person who wrote them and nobody else, which is why nobody argues with you about it. Look at your posts after a day to see what the list caught and what it caught by mistake.

The cost of a closed comment section

Turning comments off works perfectly. That is not the problem. The problem is what a post with no comments says to the person deciding whether to buy from you, and what Instagram does with a post nobody can talk about.

• Comments are the only proof you did not write yourself

  Every word on your profile is yours: the caption, the bio, the photo, the price. The comment section is the one place a stranger speaks. Take it away and the whole post is you telling people you are good, which is exactly what a bad business also does.

• Silence reads as guilt

  Nobody sees a closed comment section and thinks the brand is well organised. They think something got said that you did not want them reading. You cannot post an explanation into a place where posting is turned off.

• Instagram is built to reward conversation

  Comments and replies are what tells Instagram a post is worth showing to more people. A closed post gives it nothing to go on. You do not get penalised for closing comments, you just quietly stop earning the thing that carries a post.

• It is one post at a time, forever

  There is no account wide switch. Ten posts is ten menus, and every post you publish from now on is another decision. It is a fix that grows with your account and never finishes.

• Your ads are a different fight

  Comment controls on ads are limited and are not available for every advertiser or every ad format, and ad comments do not always show up where you look for them. Meanwhile an ad with a dead comment section is an ad people scroll past, and Meta reads that too.

• You will forget it is off

  The wave passes in two days. The post stays closed for two years, still running, still being seen, quietly telling everyone who lands on it that this brand does not take questions.

So the honest answer to your question is that the switch is real, it works, and it should be a bad week rather than a policy. The thing you actually want is a comment section where the bad comments never make it into public view, and the rest of it keeps working.

When it does not work

• Why is there no Turn off commenting option in my menu?

  Check three things. You must be looking at your own post, because the option does not exist on someone else's. On a Reel it hides one level down, under Manage. And on an old app version the menu is shorter than the one in every guide you have read, so update the app before you conclude the feature is gone.

• Why did the comments disappear when I turned commenting off?

  That is the feature working. Closing a post takes the existing comments out of public view along with the button, because a comment section you cannot reply to is not a comment section. Nothing is deleted. Turn commenting back on and it all returns.

• Why can people still comment on my ad after I turned comments off?

  Comment controls for ads are limited and do not cover every advertiser or every ad format, so the switch you flipped on the post may not reach the ad running from it. Ad comments also live somewhere your profile does not show you, which is why they sit there for days. Sweep Inbox watches your ads and your organic posts together and puts every comment in one place.

• Why are new followers' comments not showing up?

  Limit is probably still on. It hides comments from recent followers and from accounts that do not follow you, and it stays on until you switch it off or take the reminder Instagram offered you when you set it up. Open Limit interactions in your settings and check.

• Why do I have to do this on every single post?

  Because Instagram has no account wide commenting switch, and there is no trick that makes one appear. If the real problem is that every post attracts the same rubbish, closing posts one by one is losing work. Hidden Words handles the words you know about, and our AI model handles the ones you have not seen yet.