Instagram filters are preset looks you apply to a photo or video after you tap Next, and tapping a filter again lets you lower its strength. Instagram's Help Center, read on 12 October 2026, explains how to apply them but does not rank them or list their names, so the best filter is the one that suits your light.

How do Instagram filters work?

You apply a filter after you take or upload a photo or video: tap Next, tap Filters, and choose one. These steps come from Instagram's Help Center (Apply filters to your post on Instagram, read 12 October 2026).

  1. Tap Next, then tap Filters and select the filter you want.
  2. Tap the filter again to change its strength with the slider. For a photo, tap Done to keep the change.
  3. Tap Next, add a caption and location, then tap Share.

On a computer, click Next, click a filter for a photo, and drag the slider under the filters to set the strength.

A filter gives the whole picture one look. The Edit tools, covered below, change one quality at a time.

What are the best Instagram filters?

Instagram does not publish a ranking of its best filters, so the honest way to choose is by your light and your subject. The only popularity data we found from Instagram is its 2017 Year in Review, dated 29 November 2017, which listed the most-used filters in feed and Stories that year: Clarendon, Gingham, Juno, Lark and Moon. That list is nine years old, and it counts use, not quality.

Our suggestions, which are craft advice and not Instagram's:

  • Set the strength before you swap the filter. A strong filter often looks better at half strength. Tap it again and drag the slider down.
  • Match the filter to your light. A warm filter on a warm indoor photo can push skin tones orange. Try a cooler filter, a lower strength, or the Warmth tool in Edit.
  • Keep one or two filters for your feed. Using the same filters at a steady strength makes your posts look like they belong together.

What are the Instagram filter names?

None of the Help Center articles on filters and effects that we read on 12 October 2026 names a single filter, so the only complete list of names is the filter row in your own app.

What Instagram has published are announcements from when it added filters. In its post of 16 December 2014 it introduced Slumber, Crema, Ludwig, Aden and Perpetua, and on 27 April 2015 it added Lark, Reyes and Juno. It described Lark as turning down reds and lifting blues and greens for landscapes, Reyes as a dusty, vintage look, and Juno as tinting cool tones green while warm tones pop for photos of people.

The 2014 post also added a Manage button at the end of the filter tray, for re-arranging filters and hiding the ones you rarely use. The current Help Center articles don't mention it, so look for it in your own tray.

In November 2023, Meta's newsroom announced new photo filters for photos and carousels without naming them (New Ways to Create Content on Instagram). We could not confirm which of the older names your app shows today.

How do I add Instagram video filters?

You add a filter to an Instagram video the same way as to a photo: record or choose the video, tap Next, then tap Filters. Instagram's Help Center says the steps apply once you've taken or uploaded a photo or video, and it marks the Done button as a photo step, so check what your own video screen shows.

Edits, Instagram's separate video app, has its own tools (Edit your video on Edits). Its editing bar includes a Filters tool, which Instagram describes as adding a filter to your video. An Adjust tool handles color grading with white balance, hue, saturation and lightness, style, color wheels and curves, and a separate Effects tool adds effects.

Where do I find filters for Instagram Stories and Reels?

Instagram calls the looks you use while recording Stories and Reels camera effects, and you pick them in the camera (Use camera effects on Instagram).

  • Stories. Tap Create, then Story, or swipe right from Feed. At the bottom, swipe left and choose an effect. Swipe all the way left and tap More effects to see effects from independent creators. The effect you choose appears on the closest person's face.
  • Reels. Tap Create, then Reel. Tap Effects, scroll through and choose one, then keep recording.

These are separate from the post filters above, which you apply after you tap Next.

How are filters different from the Edit tools?

A filter gives the whole picture one look, while the Edit tools change one quality at a time. For a photo, tap Next, then tap Edit at the bottom of the screen (Apply effects to your Instagram photo).

Instagram's Help Center lists these tools: Adjust (for perspective), Brightness, Contrast, Structure, Warmth, Saturation, Color, Fade, Highlights, Shadows, Vignette, Sharpen and Tilt shift. A button at the top balances exposure and lifts brightness, and a gray dot under a tool shows you've used it. Warmth shifts colors toward orange or blue, and Color adds a tint of yellow, orange, red, pink, purple, blue, cyan or green to your shadows or highlights.

Did Instagram change its filters recently?

The changes Instagram and Meta have announced lately are about editing and video, not a new list of filters.

  • November 2023. Meta announced new photo filters for photos and carousels, without naming them.
  • Edits. Meta introduced the Edits video app on 22 April 2025 and listed filters among the features it was working on next. Instagram's Help Center now lists a Filters tool in Edits. Meta's one-year post, dated 22 April 2026, covers a teleprompter, templates and an ideas tab, and says advanced color adjustments are planned, along with templates that use video effects. It doesn't mention filters.
  • Instants, May 2026. Instagram says photos taken with Instants can't be edited, so they carry no filters.

A filter is one rule in a larger look, and how to build an Instagram aesthetic covers the rest.

Where this stops working

  • There is no official ranking or list of names. Everything above about names is dated history, and we can't say which names your tray shows today.
  • We read Instagram's pages and did not open the filter row in a live app. Names, order and steps can differ by app version.
  • We found no Instagram statement linking filters to reach. That is not the same as no effect, and Instagram's own account of how posts are ranked is in Instagram algorithm 2026.
  • A filter changes the color and contrast of what the camera captured. It can't add detail that isn't in the picture.

If a post with your look draws comments like "what filter is that?" or "where can I get this?", inDM can reply to the comment and send the answer as a DM. More features like this are in our list of Instagram hacks.

Now you know where each type of look lives, why Instagram gives no ranking, and how to set a filter's strength so it suits the photo.

Sources

Read on 12 October 2026: