| Telegram | ||
|---|---|---|
| Characters | 4,000 | 2,200 |
| Media | optional | a photo or video (required) |
| Hashtags | not needed | max 5 hashtags at the END of the caption |
| Links in body | fine | fine |
| Needs platform approval | no | yes |
Telegram posts are frequently text-only. Instagram requires a photo or video on every post, so there is no direct equivalent — you have to attach media before this cross-post is even possible.
Telegram allows 4,000 characters; Instagram caps at 2,200. A post written to Telegram's length gets truncated — usually mid-sentence — unless it is rewritten, not trimmed.
Telegram: not needed. Instagram: max 5 hashtags at the END of the caption. Carrying the tag block across is the single most obvious sign of an automated cross-post.
You can post to Telegram today with a credential you generate yourself. Instagram gates posting behind a platform review — see our API approval notes for what that actually takes.
Telegram is direct and clear; formatting is light. Instagram is built for short captions — under 100 characters is rewarded. Those are different jobs, so the same words cannot do both well — and every algorithm here demotes text that obviously was not written for it. The fix is not to skip cross-posting; it is to send a native version to each network.
curl -X POST https://postwire.io/api/post \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $POSTWIRE_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"platforms": ["telegram", "instagram"],
"text": "Your post",
"per_platform": {
"telegram": { "text": "The Telegram version" },
"instagram": { "text": "The Instagram version" }
}
}'
PostWire's /api/generate writes those per-platform versions for you from a single prompt, respecting
every limit in the table above. From an AI agent it is one MCP tool call.
Other pairs: Instagram to Telegram · all combinations · which APIs need approval