Instagram Tests 90-Minute Videos for Podcasters With No Ad Revenue Share for Creators
Instagram started testing long horizontal videos on October 26. The format is called Features, it runs up to 90 minutes, and it’s aimed at podcasters, comedians and anyone else who records full-length shows. A small group of US creators has it now, after an earlier run in Brazil. Features show up in the main feed and on Explore, and short Reels can point viewers to the full episode.
If you run a podcast or an interview show on the side, that sounds like a second YouTube. On the money side it isn’t one, at least not yet.
Instagram says it has no plan for now to share ad revenue from Features with creators. It hasn’t ruled it out later. YouTube, by comparison, pays creators in its Partner Program 55% of net ad revenue on long-form videos and 45% of the pool allocated to them on Shorts. You get in with 1,000 subscribers plus either 4,000 public watch hours in the past 12 months or 10 million Shorts views in 90 days. Slow, but there’s a door.
So where does the money come from
For the creators in the test, it comes from deals. Instagram is paying some of them directly and says it will help creators who don’t have advertisers find brand partners. Established names can also bring their existing sponsors along. None of that helps a side-gig podcaster with 3,000 listeners who isn’t on Meta’s call list.
For that person, Features is a distribution play. You post the full episode where your followers already are, cut a few clips that link back to it, and hope a few of those clip viewers turn into listeners. Those listeners you can then sell to, through a host-read ad, a paid newsletter, a Patreon tier or a product of your own. Instagram gives you the audience. It doesn’t give you a paycheck.
Which is fine, honestly, as long as you plan for it. Most small podcasts earn from sponsors and listener support anyway. What a 90-minute slot on Instagram changes is reach, and reach is the thing small shows struggle with most.
The clip work is the real side hustle here
Here’s the part worth paying attention to if you don’t host a show yourself.
Every long video on this format needs short vertical clips to pull people in. Somebody has to find the best two minutes in an hour of talk, reframe it from horizontal to vertical, add captions and post it with a link to the full Feature. Then do it again five more times for the same episode. That’s editing work, and podcasters already pay for it on YouTube and TikTok.
A new place to post long episodes means more clips to cut per episode. If you can edit video, you can offer a package: one full episode formatted for Instagram’s horizontal player, plus a set number of clips linked to it, delivered within 48 hours of the recording. Price it per episode, sell it to shows that already publish weekly, and keep the scope tight. Our social media management guide covers how scope creep eats retainers; the same rules hold for clip work.
There’s a second, smaller angle in the TV app. Instagram’s TV app reached Amazon Fire TV in the US in December 2025, has since added Google TV and Samsung TVs, and Apple TV is on the way. Features will get priority there. A show that looks decent on a living-room screen (proper framing, clean audio, a title card that isn’t a phone screenshot) will stand out from people who just rotated their camera. Basic production setup for small podcasters is a service people buy once and remember.
Who should wait
If you make short videos and nothing else, Features doesn’t touch you yet. If you’re thinking about starting a podcast just because Instagram now takes long uploads, don’t. The test is invite-only, there’s no public eligibility rule and no date for a wider rollout.
It’s also worth remembering that Instagram tried this before. IGTV launched in 2018 as a separate long-form app and shut down in 2022. A platform that doesn’t pay you can change direction without costing itself much, and creators who build only on a free distribution channel tend to learn that the hard way. We wrote about the same risk with TikTok’s secondary-account ad work.
So post the full episodes there if you already make them. Keep your email list. Charge for the clips.