How to Filter Instagram Comments: Hidden Words, Limits and AI

To filter Instagram comments, open Settings, then Hidden Words, and turn on Hide comments and Advanced comment filtering, then add your own words, phrases and emojis to hide. Combine this with comment controls, Limits and Restrict for problem accounts. For large accounts, ads and giveaways, an AI moderation tool connected to Meta’s API can help identify content that keyword lists may miss. Review its decisions for errors.

Instagram’s comment filtering tools at a glance

Instagram has several native tools. Each one solves a different problem.

How to turn on Hidden Words

1. Open your profile and tap the menu in the top right.

2. Go to Settings, then, under How others can interact with you, tap Hidden Words.

3. Under offensive words and phrases, turn on Hide comments.

4. Turn on Advanced comment filtering if you want stricter filtering.

5. Tap Manage custom words and phrases, add your list, and make sure hiding comments is enabled for custom words.

Instagram describes each option in its help article on hiding comments and message requests. The same page covers Hide message requests, which sends message requests containing offensive words to a separate hidden folder. For the inbox side, see our guide to the Instagram DM filter.

Hidden comments are not deleted. You can review them from the post, restore the ones hidden by mistake and reply to them.

Which words to add to your custom list

Start with what you actually receive, then add to the list each time a new pattern appears.

Add emojis used by spam bots in your niche, and common spelling variants. Avoid broad words such as “price”, “link” or “free”: they hide buyers asking real questions.

Other native controls worth knowing

• Restrict is the quiet option for one difficult account. Whatever they post under your content stays in a private bubble until you approve it, and they are not notified. Open their profile, tap the three dots, then Restrict.

• Limits is designed for pile-ons, such as after a viral post. Once on, it holds back comments and message requests from strangers and brand-new followers until the wave passes.

• Managing comments in bulk: from a post’s comments, you can select several comments at once to delete them, or to restrict or block their authors.

• Pinning: pin useful or positive comments to the top of a post so they are the first thing people read.

Recommended setup by account type

What Instagram’s native filters cannot do

• Read context. A filter on “sale” hides “Is this on sale?”. A filter without it lets through “big sale on my page”.

• Keep up with disguised spelling. Spammers insert spaces, symbols, invisible characters or look-alike letters from other alphabets.

• Tell you what they hid and why at scale. There is no report of trends over time.

• Work across accounts. Each account keeps its own list, which is hard to manage for agencies and brands with several profiles.

• Filter other people’s posts. You can only filter comments on your own content. Instagram gives no way to sort or hide comments on someone else’s post.

For a small account, these limits rarely matter. For brands running ads or receiving hundreds of comments a day, they add up. Our guide to Instagram moderation covers the full picture.

How to filter comments during an Instagram giveaway

Giveaways attract bots and impersonators more than any other post.

1. Write clear rules in the caption: how to enter, the end date, how the winner will be contacted.

2. Update your custom words before launch with phrases scammers use: “you won”, “claim”, “shipping fee”, “click the link”.

3. Watch for impersonators. Fake accounts copy your name and photo and reply to entrants that they won. Block and report them, and warn entrants in the caption that you will only contact the winner from your official account.

4. Do not rely on keyword filters to count entries. Tag and entry rules need a proper selection method.

Our giveaway automation playbook goes through the whole process.

Common mistakes

• Filtering once and never updating the list.

• Hiding criticism with keywords, which looks like censorship when people notice.

• Forgetting to check hidden comments for real customer questions.

• Replying to scam comments to warn people, which keeps them active. Hide or delete them instead.

Related guides

• A starter word list for Hidden Words, by category

Free tools

• Build and test your custom word list for free before pasting it into Instagram

Automate Instagram comment filtering with Blabla

When your word list stops keeping up, Blabla adds a second filter to your Instagram professional account through Meta’s official API. It runs around the clock on organic posts and ads, dark posts included (ad comments are part of the Pro plan). Next to your keywords, you write filters in plain language, such as “hide comments that promise prizes or ask people to message another account”, so spaced-out letters, look-alike characters and new scam wording are caught without a new entry each time. Each rule hides or deletes, as you choose. Comments that pass the filter can get an AI reply or trigger a DM with a link; our ranking of Instagram comment tools that respect Meta’s rules compares the options. See Blabla moderation and Blabla for Instagram. The 7-day free trial needs no credit card.

Conclusion

Turn on Hide comments and Advanced comment filtering, build a custom word list from real spam, and use Restrict and Limits for the people behind it. Review hidden comments regularly. When volume, ads or giveaways outgrow keyword lists, add AI filters that understand context. The same approach works on Facebook, as explained in our guide to the Facebook comment filter.