How to use the Hashtag Generator for Artists
- Describe the post. Pick the Medium, Subject and Style of the piece, then the Goal: reaching other artists, finding buyers, getting commissions, joining challenges or sharing progress. Each choice adds its own hand-picked tags.
- Choose the platform. The count resets to a sensible default — 5 for Instagram, 1 for Threads, 2 for X, 3 for Pinterest, YouTube and Bluesky, 5 for TikTok. Use − and + to change it within that platform’s limit.
- Add your own tags. Anything in Your own tags is always included first, which is the place for a personal or shop tag. The tool warns you if one of them is engagement bait.
- Edit the set. Every tag has a colored dot for its tier. Press × to drop a tag you don’t like, click any tag under More ideas to add it, or press Shuffle for a fresh mix. Tick the box to include the art challenge running this month.
- Copy it out. Copy with spaces gives a single line for a caption; Copy one per line suits notes apps and scheduling tools. The page link keeps your settings, so you can bookmark a set per series.
How many hashtags each platform wants now
For years the advice was “use all 30”. That advice is dead. In December 2025 Instagram announced it would cap posts and reels at five hashtags, rolling the change out gradually, and Adam Mosseri, who runs Instagram, has said for years that hashtags don’t boost reach on their own — they mainly tell the app and people what a post is about. Five well-chosen tags now do the work thirty used to pretend to.
Other platforms got there by different routes. Threads has allowed one topic tag per post since it introduced tags; anything extra stays plain text. On X, a tag or two is the norm, partly because each one eats into a short post. YouTube can display up to three hashtags from a description above the video title, so order matters there. TikTok has no small cap, but its captions read best with a handful. Pinterest works more like a search engine, so the words in your Pin title and description matter far more than tags. Bluesky’s tags are clickable and feed community art feeds, which makes a few accurate ones useful.
| Platform | The practical rule | Default here |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 5 per post or reel | 5 | |
| Threads | 1 topic tag per post | 1 |
| X | 1–2 is the norm | 2 |
| YouTube | First 3 can show above the title | 3 |
| TikTok | No small cap; a handful reads best | 5 |
| Keywords in title and description matter more | 3 | |
| Bluesky | Clickable; feeds can collect posts by tag | 3 |
Broad, mid, niche: why the mix matters
The tool sorts tags into four tiers, described by how they behave rather than by post counts, which change daily and are often wrong when quoted.
- Broad tags (#watercolor, #digitalart) are enormous, fast-moving feeds. Your post sits at the top for moments, but the tag still tells the app the general topic.
- Mid tags (#watercolorpainting, #botanicalillustration) are active feeds where people browse by medium or subject.
- Niche tags (#loosewatercolor, #wetinwet, #ocart) are smaller and specific. Posts stay findable longer, and the people browsing them are usually there for exactly that kind of work.
- Community tags belong to challenges and groups whose members actually look through the tag.
With only five slots, a balanced set usually means one broad, one or two mid, two niche and, when it fits, one community tag. That is the mix the generator builds by default.
Art challenges by month
| When | Tag | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| March | #MarchMeetTheMaker | Daily prompts for makers to show their studio, tools and process |
| Early March (dates vary) | #OneWeek100People | Sketch 100 people in five days, hosted by Marc Taro Holmes and Liz Steel |
| May | #MerMay | Mermaid drawings all month, started by animator Tom Bancroft in 2016 |
| July | #WorldWatercolorMonth | A watercolor a day, started by Doodlewash in 2016 |
| October | #Inktober | An ink drawing a day from an official prompt list, started by Jake Parker in 2009 |
| October | #Drawlloween, #Witchtober | Halloween- and witch-themed daily prompt lists |
| November | #Huevember | One drawing a day built around a single hue, stepping around the color wheel |
| Any time | #DTIYS | “Draw this in your style” — redraw another artist’s character, usually with a host tag and deadline |
| Any time | #ArtVsArtist | A 3×3 grid of your work with your photo in the middle |
| Any time | #DrawThisAgain | Redraw an old piece to show how far you’ve come |
Tags to leave out
Some tags actively work against you. Engagement bait such as #like4like, #follow4follow and #f4f attracts bots, not collectors. Catch-alls like #explorepage, #viral, #fyp and #instagood describe nothing about the work, so they waste a slot that could have told the app what your painting is. Paste your usual tags into Your own tags and the generator flags these.
Tips from practice
Make one tag that’s only yours. A tag like #marasketches turns into a searchable archive of your own work, and it costs only one of your five slots on the posts where it matters.
Look at a tag before you rely on it. Open its page and scroll the recent posts. If it’s full of unrelated spam or a different meaning of the word, choose another.
Rotate two or three sets per series. Pasting the identical block under every post makes your feed look automated. Swap the niche tags to match what each piece actually shows.
Put the effort into the first line, too. Hashtags help people find a post; the caption and alt text decide whether they stay. The Artwork Description & Alt Text Generator writes both, and the Instagram Post Planner helps you space a series out.