Instagram live shopping, the feature that let businesses tag products during a Live, ended on 16 March 2023, and Instagram's shopping tags now cover Reels, stories and posts, not Live. You can still sell around a Live: show products on camera, point people to one link where Instagram allows it, and carry the sale into a reel afterwards.

Does Instagram have live shopping today?

No. Instagram's business team added a note to its original live shopping announcement: "Live Shopping is no longer available as of March 16, 2023." That announcement dates from 25 August 2020, and its old address now redirects to Meta's business news page, so we read an archived copy captured on 2 March 2023. We read it on 14 October 2026.

Instagram's current pages agree. Its Help Center says shopping tags can be added to reels, stories, and image and video posts, and it does not list Live. One article on Live insights still mentions a Commerce Manager view for Live, which sits oddly with Instagram's own notice. We could not test it, so we do not treat it as a current feature. Separately, Meta's Business Help Centre says that as of September 2025, Shops on Facebook and Instagram use website checkout, so the purchase finishes on your own website rather than inside Instagram.

What can you still do in an Instagram Live?

These are the Live features Instagram's Help Center describes today. Most of them are about running the broadcast, not about checkout:

  • Going live. Instagram says only a public account with 1,000 followers or more can start a live video.
  • Scheduling. You can schedule a Live from 1 hour to 90 days ahead. The post or story you share carries the title, the start time and a reminder option, and Instagram notifies you 24 hours and 15 minutes before.
  • Guests. You can invite up to three guests, and a guest has to follow you.
  • A moderator. You can assign one moderator to manage viewers and comments while you present.
  • One external link. You can add a single link to the broadcast, and viewers who tap a website link can browse it, including products, while the Live keeps playing. Instagram's page says this is available to a limited number of accounts in select markets, which it lists as including the United States, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. In the app, tap Create, then Live, then Link.
  • Insights. For up to 30 days after you end, Instagram shows viewers, peak concurrent viewers, comments, shares and accounts engaged.

How to sell on Instagram Live without product tags

Treat the Live as the demonstration and a link or a reel as the sale. In five steps:

  1. Schedule the Live and announce it. Share the scheduled Live to a post or story so people can set a reminder, and say what you will show.
  2. Choose one action for viewers. If the external link is available to you, add it before you start. If not, send people to your profile, which Instagram says can hold up to five links.
  3. Show the product and say where to go. Name the item, the price and the one place to act, such as "the link at the bottom" or "the links on my profile".
  4. Share the replay as a reel. After you end, tap Share as reel. Instagram warns that the replay does not include the likes or comments from the original Live, and that you cannot trim the video first.
  5. Put the sale where Instagram still supports it. If you have a shop, Instagram's Help Center describes tagging up to 30 products or a collection when you create a reel. We could not confirm from its pages that the same step appears on a Live replay, so check on your own account.

Can comment-to-DM work during an Instagram Live?

Instagram's rules allow it, with one condition. Meta's documentation says a private reply to a Live comment can only be sent during the broadcast, and not once it ends. Meta also lists a separate ceiling for Live comments, 100 private replies a second per account, against 750 an hour for comments on posts and reels (Instagram Platform overview, updated 28 September 2026). Our page on Instagram's DM limits explains the usual ceiling.

The tools differ on whether they support it. LinkDM's pricing page lists IG Live Auto-Reply on its Pro plan and above (read 14 October 2026), and we have not tested it. inDM sends a DM when someone comments your keyword under a post or reel, known as comment-to-DM, and as of 14 October 2026 it does not run on comments written during a Live. If you use inDM, put your keyword in the caption of the replay reel, which is an ordinary reel. See how DM automations behave on Reels and how to set up comment-to-DM.

Where this stops working

  • The Live link is not for everyone. Instagram limits it to select markets and a limited number of accounts, and its page says the feature may not be available to you right now.
  • You cannot pin your own link. Instagram's Help Center describes pinned comments in a Live only for viewers who buy badges, one at a time. We found no page that lets a creator pin a message of their own.
  • One Help Center article is out of step. The Live insights page still describes a Commerce Manager view for Live, which Instagram's own notice does not support, so we did not rely on it.
  • The replay loses the conversation. Comments and likes from the Live do not carry over to the reel.
  • Live comments need a tool that supports them. Instagram permits private replies to Live comments only while you broadcast, and not every tool offers them.
  • We have not run a Live to test any of this. We read Instagram's pages and Meta's documentation, so a menu in your app may be worded differently.
  • We give no results. The Instagram pages we read give no figures on how well selling on a Live converts, so we state none.

Plan one action for viewers, say it out loud, and let the replay reel carry the sale after you end.

Sources

All read on 14 October 2026 unless noted:

What's ours and what isn't. The notice, limits and menu paths are Instagram's and Meta's own. The steps for selling around a Live are our suggestion, built only from features those pages describe.