How to Write an Instagram Bio That Does Its Job
A bio is the only place on a profile where you get to explain yourself, and it is roughly 150 characters long. The Instagram Bio Generator produces ideas from your name, role and interests, which is a reasonable way to break a blank page.
Two questions, in order
A visitor who has landed on your profile is asking who are you and why would I follow you. A bio that answers both in the space available is doing its job; one that answers neither is decoration.
The second question is the one most bios skip. "Photographer. Coffee. Dog." answers the first and leaves the visitor with nothing to act on. "Street photography from Manchester - a new series every Sunday" answers both, and the second half is the part that earns a follow, because it tells someone what they are signing up for.
What is wasting the space
Your location, if it is already in the location field. Your name, if it is already the account name - and bear in mind the name field is separately searchable, so putting your role there rather than repeating your handle is worth more than most bio edits.
Inspirational quotes, which tell a visitor nothing about you. A long string of emoji used as decoration rather than as shorthand - one or two carrying meaning is fine, a row of them is filler.
"DM for collabs" on an account with no work visible yet. It is aspirational rather than informative, and it costs characters you need.
Line breaks, and why they vanish
A bio reads far better on three short lines than as one run-on sentence, and Instagram's own bio field has a habit of collapsing the breaks you type - particularly when editing from a browser or pasting from elsewhere.
That is a known quirk rather than something you are doing wrong, and the Instagram Line Break Formatter exists specifically to produce text whose breaks survive.
The link is the only clickable thing
One link, and it is the only place a profile can send someone. Which means it should point at whatever you most want a visitor to do rather than at a homepage by default, and it is worth changing when what you are promoting changes.
A line of bio pointing at the link - "new series below" - converts considerably better than a bare URL sitting there unexplained.
Common questions
How long is the bio limit?
Around 150 characters, and platforms adjust these. The Social Media Character Counter checks against the current figure.
Should I use hashtags in a bio?
They are clickable and they take characters from the explanation. One branded tag can be worth it; a row of them is not.
Can I use a different font?
Those are Unicode characters standing in for letters. They look distinctive and screen readers cannot read them, which is a real cost for a decorative gain.
How often should I change it?
When what you do changes, or when the link changes. Not as routine maintenance.
Need somewhere to start?