How to Get Trial Reels on Instagram
How to get trial reels on Instagram: go public, then pass the follower minimum, which is 200 for a professional account and 1,000 for a personal one. Instagram also has to be able to recommend your account. Meet those rules, update the app, and the Trial switch should appear on the screens before you share a reel.
- Fastest fix for most people: if a personal account has 200 to 999 followers, switch it to a creator account.
- Private account? Make it public. Switching to a professional account does that for you.
- Rules met, still nothing? Open Account Status and look for anything that stops Instagram from recommending you.
- Last: update the app. Instagram's own first step for a feature that isn't working is an update.
Who can get Trial Reels?
If you're new here, read what Trial Reels are before the fixes. The rules to get them are short, and they all live on one Instagram help page.
- A public account. Private accounts can't post trials.
- Enough followers for your account type. 200 on a professional (creator or business) account. 1,000 on a personal account.
- Allowed in recommendations. If Instagram can't recommend your account, trials go away until it can.
- A current app. Not on the trial page itself, but it's Instagram's first advice whenever a feature isn't working.
In June 2025 Meta said it had made trial reels available to everyone. So if you've been waiting for a slow rollout to reach your account, that wait is over. If the switch is missing now, start with the rules above.
Sources: Instagram Help Center pages About trial reels and Report a technical problem (read November 3, 2026); About Meta, June 2025.
Why is the Trial option missing?
Work down this chart from the top. Each answer that stops you has its own fix.
- Is your account public?No: go to Account Privacy in your settings and turn off Private account. Business accounts can't be private at all.
- Do you have 200+ followers on a professional account, or 1,000+ on a personal one?No: with 200 to 999 on a personal account, switch to a creator account. Under 200, keep posting normal reels for now.
- Does Account Status show a problem with recommendations?Yes: edit or remove the content it names, or tap Disagree with decision. Trials return once you're eligible again.
- Is your Instagram app up to date?No: update it, then start a new reel and look for Trial before you share.
- Still no switch?Use Report a problem in the app, and try the creator tips further down this page.
Sources: the Help Center's articles on trial reels, private accounts, Account Status and technical problems, all read November 3, 2026.
How to switch to a professional account
This fix helps the most people, because the follower bar drops from 1,000 to 200. You can switch back to a personal account any time.
- Go to your profile and tap More to open Settings and activity.
- Under For professionals, tap Account type and tools.
- Tap Switch to professional account.
- Pick a category that fits what you do, then tap Switch to professional account again.
- Choose Creator (or Business), then tap Next.
One thing to know before you tap. If your personal account is private, switching makes it public, and Instagram accepts every follow request that's waiting. Trials need a public account anyway, so it's a step you'd take regardless.
Source: Instagram's guide to setting up a professional account, read November 3, 2026.
Can Instagram recommend your account?
Instagram's trial page has a note a lot of people miss: if your public account isn't eligible to show up in recommendations, you lose trial reels too. They come back once the account is eligible again.
To check, open your settings and tap Account Status. Then look at Recommendations Guidelines. That part shows whether a post, or something on your profile, is keeping your content from being recommended to people who don't follow you. From there you can edit or remove it, or tap Disagree with decision so Instagram takes another look.
In my playbook I tell people to look for a green check on every line of Account Status and to fix anything that isn't green. If you think your reach got cut for no reason, my notes on the Instagram shadowban go deeper.
Sources: Instagram's trial reels and Account Status help pages (November 3, 2026), and my July 2026 playbook.
Once the Trial Reels switch shows up, here's what I do with it, in a free 10-minute video.
Watch the videoStill missing? What other creators say helped
These come from other creators, not from Instagram. I can't promise any of them, but they cost nothing to try.
- Start a reel from Instagram's own trial page. On a phone, Meta's creator blog post about trial reels has a Create Reel button that opens the reels camera in the app. Some creators say the Trial switch showed up after they started a reel that way. Meta doesn't say it changes anything.
- Log in on another device. Eve Longfield, who teaches trial reels, says one of her clients got the switch by logging in on a different device, and that most people stuck without it were on Android phones.
- Report it. If you meet every rule and your app is current, use Report a problem. Instagram's help page says some features aren't available to everyone yet.
Sources: Meta's trial reels blog post, phone version checked November 3, 2026; Eve Longfield's trial reels guide; Instagram's problem reporting page.
Can you see someone else's Trial Reels?
Not as trials. Meta says only the creator can see that a reel is a trial. If a stranger's trial reaches you, it shows up like any other reel, and nothing on it says "trial".
Source: About Meta, the trial reels launch article, published December 10, 2024 and updated June 26, 2025.
What I'd do the day the switch shows up
Don't go all in on day one. Here's how I'd start, at the pace I post myself.
- Day 1: post 2 trials. Use clips you haven't posted before, each with a different first line.
- Day 2: open both and tap View insights. Write down shares and saves, not only views.
- Days 2 to 7: post 1 to 3 trials a day, with a new first line on each one.
- Day 7: look back at the week. Find the first line that got the most shares and saves, and write more like it.
Why 1 to 3? Because that's my real pace. Across my best 90 days I shared 99 reels. Most posting days got 1, 2 or 3 of them. My own rule caps trials at 5 a day. The posting steps, screen by screen, are in how to post a Trial Reel, and what to expect from the numbers is in are Trial Reels worth it. My numbers aren't a promise of yours.
Source: posting days from my public reels, April 28 through July 27, 2026, counted in UTC (data collected November 2, 2026), and my playbook.
Questions people ask
How many followers do you need for trial reels?
Instagram's help page says 200 for a professional account and 1,000 for a personal one. The account has to be public either way.
Why don't I have trial reels?
Most often the account is private, under the follower minimum, or not eligible for recommendations. Check those, update the app, then look for Trial again before you share a reel.
How do I turn on trial reels?
Instagram's help page doesn't list any setting to switch on first. Once your account qualifies, the Trial switch shows up on the screens before you share a reel. Tap it, then tap Next and Share.
Are trial reels available to everyone now?
Meta said in June 2025 that it made trial reels available to everyone. You still need to meet the account rules on Instagram's help page.
Can a personal account use trial reels?
Yes, if it's public and has at least 1,000 followers. With fewer, a professional account only needs 200.
Sources: Instagram's eligibility rules for trials (read November 3, 2026) and Meta's June 2025 post.
Got the switch? Here's what comes next. My free video shows what I post, how often, and which numbers tell me to keep a reel.
Next read: how many Trial Reels you can post a day.