Connect X to Instagram

Before you start

• An X account. Any account you can sign in to works.
• An Instagram Business or Creator account. Instagram only lets apps post to professional accounts. Switch for free in the Instagram app under Settings, then Account type and tools.
• A Post Once account. The free plan includes 10 reposts, with no card needed.

How to connect X to Instagram

1. Create a free account at app.postonce.com. After two short intro screens, Post Once asks where you post.

2. Under Where do you post first?, pick X and press Continue.

   

3. Under Where else should it land?, pick Instagram. Add any other apps, or a backup, then press Continue.

4. On Connect your accounts., press Connect on the X row. Sign in on X’s page and authorize Post Once.

   

5. Press Connect on the Instagram row. Sign in on Instagram’s page. If you have several accounts, choose the one Post Once should post to, then allow access.

6. When both rows say Connected, press Go to dashboard.

From then on, keep posting on X as usual. Post Once checks it about every minute and reposts each new post to Instagram.

Already using Post Once?

If X is already the source of your bridge, open Bridge and press Connect next to Instagram in the Destinations card, or press Add destination on the dashboard.

If your bridge reads from another account, add a second bridge with X as its source from the bridge switcher. Free and Solo include 1 bridge, Studio 3 and Agency as many as you need. See bridges.

What each X post becomes on Instagram

On X	On Instagram
A video up to 3 minutes, vertical or square (the first one, if a post has several)	A Reel, if it runs from 3 seconds to 3 minutes.
A video over 3 minutes, or a landscape one	Skipped, with “Instagram only takes short vertical videos”.
A photo	A feed post. A photo outside 4:5 to 1.91:1 gets white bars instead of being cropped.
A post with several photos	A carousel of up to 10 photos.
A text post	Skipped. Instagram needs a photo or a video.

A skipped post shows the reason on your dashboard and still goes to your other destinations. See long videos for how Post Once tells short from long.

How your caption carries over

The post text goes with each repost, and each t.co link is turned back into the full address. Replies, reposts of other people’s posts, quotes with no video or photo, polls and GIFs are not reposted.

Instagram takes captions up to 2,200 characters. Stories have no caption.

Choose what goes to Instagram

On the Bridge page, the Instagram row has two settings.

• What to post has a switch for Videos and Photos. Switch a kind off and those posts skip Instagram, though you can still send one there by hand. Switching every kind off pauses Instagram.
• Rewrite caption changes the caption for Instagram only: Remove comment, DM and link in bio prompts, Remove hashtags and mentions, Rewrite with AI to suit Instagram, and Add your own text at the start or end. Each one is off until you turn it on.

Check that it works

Post something on X as usual. Within a minute or two it shows up under Your posts on the dashboard, then goes to Instagram. Each post shows where it went, what was skipped and why.

If a repost fails, Post Once tries again up to 5 times over about half an hour. If it still fails, you get an email, and Retry sends it again to just the accounts it missed. See a post did not repost.

Only posts published after you connect are reposted on their own. Older ones are listed in Your posts, where you can send any of them by hand.