12 Best Instagram Schedulers in 2026, Priced per Account

Key takeaways

• The best Instagram scheduler for running several Instagram accounts, or several brands, at one flat price is PostWharf: a workspace per brand holds as many Instagram and other accounts as you connect, with no per-channel fee and a delivery receipt for every post, from $15 a month.
• What one Instagram account costs on the paid plans here runs from $5 a month (Publer Professional) to $99 a user or seat (Agorapulse and Sprout Social month to month, Hootsuite billed yearly). Buffer, Publer and Metricool also have free plans, and Postiz is free to host yourself.
• Other picks by need: Later for the most Instagram planning tools on one entry plan ($25 a month), Sendible for Stories, Reels and carousels with six profiles and unlimited users ($35), Buffer to choose per post between auto-publishing and a phone reminder, SocialBee for Creator and Personal accounts that post by reminder ($29), and Agorapulse or Sprout Social for teams answering comments ($99 a user or seat).

An Instagram scheduler is worth paying for when it publishes Reels, Stories and carousels for you instead of pinging your phone, and when its bill still makes sense after your second or third account. We compared 12 tools on those two things: which Instagram formats each one publishes, and what each Instagram account costs. PostWharf comes first for one need, several Instagram accounts or brands at a flat price; Later, Sendible, Agorapulse and Sprout Social confirm the most Instagram tools on their pages; Buffer, Metricool and Publer have free plans.

If you want to write a post once and send it to every Instagram, TikTok and other account a brand runs, with a receipt for each delivery, start PostWharf's seven-day Starter trial. The card is charged when the trial ends, and you pay nothing if you cancel first.

What makes Instagram different to schedule

Instagram lets outside tools publish to Business and Creator accounts, but not every post type goes out the same way. Three things decide how much of your week a scheduler saves:

• Direct publishing or a reminder. Some posts are published for you; others arrive as a notification on your phone, and you finish them in the Instagram app. Buffer, for example, sends a Story to your phone if it carries a caption, product tags, or a text or link sticker, and Metricool does the same for a Story with a link or interactive sticker. SocialBee sends Creator and Personal accounts reminders, and Buffer treats Personal profiles the same way.
• The Instagram extras. A scheduled first comment keeps hashtags out of the caption. A grid preview shows how the next posts will sit on your profile. A link-in-bio page gives each post a clickable link. Only some tools offer all three.
• How an extra account is billed. Later and Metricool count one Instagram profile per social set or brand, Buffer and Publer charge by account, Sendible, SocialPilot, SocialBee and Postiz sell bundles of profiles, Agorapulse, Sprout Social and Hootsuite charge per person, and PostWharf charges per brand with no limit on accounts inside it.

How we chose and ranked these 12

We began with the 12 social schedulers in the Automate Basics directory, whose prices and plans were read on each vendor's own pages on 16 October 2026, and added Planoly, an Instagram-first planner our Later alternatives guide covers. A tool made the list if it:

• publishes to Instagram itself, for at least some posts, according to its own pages or one web search, and
• shows a price for one Instagram account on its own pricing page.

Planoly was left off because its prices come only from third-party guides that disagree with each other. That left 12.

PostWharf is first as our pick for several Instagram accounts or brands at a flat price. The other 11 are ordered by how many of six Instagram tools their own pages, or one search, confirm: publishing Stories, publishing Reels, publishing carousels, a scheduled first comment, a grid preview and a link-in-bio page. Ties go to the lower month-to-month price for one Instagram account, then to the plan with more profiles. The Instagram features of Later, Buffer, Metricool, Publer, SocialBee, SocialPilot, Agorapulse and Postiz come from their pages and help centres as read on 16 October 2026 for our Later guide; Sendible's, Sprout Social's and Hootsuite's come from one web search each on 7 November 2026. "Not found" means neither source showed the feature; the tool may still have it. Prices are in US dollars before tax.

Price per Instagram account

Month-to-month price, with the yearly rate per month in brackets.

Instagram tools, tool by tool

The 12 Instagram schedulers, ranked

11. PostWharf

Best for several Instagram accounts, or several brands, at one flat priceFree trial · from $10/moPlans and prices

PostWharf is a social media scheduler with one composer and one queue per brand. You write a caption once, change it for any network that needs different wording, and publish it to every account the brand runs, now or at a chosen time. Instagram is one of ten networks it publishes to today, with TikTok, X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Threads, Pinterest, Bluesky and Telegram.

What sets it apart for Instagram is the bill. A workspace is one brand, and it takes as many channels as you connect with no per-channel fee, so a main account, a shop account and a founder's account under one brand cost the same as a single account. Starter is $15 a month ($10 billed yearly) for one workspace and 200 scheduled posts; Startup is $29 ($23) for three workspaces and 400 posts; Plus is $67 ($54) for ten and 1,000 posts; Pro is $99 ($79) for unlimited workspaces and 2,500 posts (PostWharf pricing, read 16 October 2026).

After a post goes out, PostWharf checks it again and logs a receipt for each network; a failed delivery is retried on its own, with the reason in a status feed. Its developer page shows one command sending a video file to Instagram and TikTok together, and the REST API, MCP server, wharf command-line tool and webhooks come with every plan, so an automated posting workflow can drop finished posts into the Instagram queue. Posts drafted by an AI assistant wait for your approval.

To give each brand its own Instagram queue at one price, start the seven-day Starter trial on PostWharf's pricing page. For a side-by-side with the Instagram-first option, read PostWharf vs Later.

22. Later

Best for the most Instagram planning tools on an entry planFree trial · from $18.75/moPlans and prices

Later was built around a visual calendar and an Instagram feed. Every plan auto-publishes to Instagram Business and Creator accounts, and Later says it publishes images, carousels and Reels through Instagram's own interface; Stories can be scheduled on every plan, and Reels keep their audio. Hashtags can go out as the first comment, the Link in Bio page lets an Instagram feed post carry up to five links, and the drag-and-drop planner shows every profile at once. It also suggests the best times to post on Instagram, and its iOS and Android apps sit beside the web app.

Later bills by the social set, which holds one profile on each network. Starter is $25 a month ($18.75 billed yearly) for one set, one user and 30 posts per profile a month, and it cannot buy add-ons. Growth is $50 ($37.50) for two sets, two users, 180 posts per profile, approvals and an inbox for Instagram comments and DMs; another set costs $15 a month (Later pricing, read 16 October 2026).

33. Sendible

Best for Stories, Reels and carousels with unlimited usersFree trial · from $30/moPlans and prices

Sendible's Instagram page says it auto-publishes single posts, Stories, Reels and image carousels to Creator and Business profiles. It lets you add a first comment, store hashtag sets to drop into it, and preview how a post will look in your grid before it is scheduled (sendible.com, web search on 7 November 2026).

Sendible charges per workspace rather than per person. Core is $35 a month ($30 billed yearly) for one workspace with six social profiles and unlimited users, and another workspace of six profiles adds $35. Plus, at $99 ($84), holds three workspaces and adds approvals. There is a 14-day trial with no card and no free plan (Sendible pricing, read 16 October 2026).

44. Agorapulse

Best for a team answering Instagram comments and DMsFree trial · from $79/user/moPlans and prices

Agorapulse puts comments, direct messages and reviews into one shared inbox with assignment, and adds publishing and reports around it. Its release notes announced Reels, carousel posting, first comments and a grid view for Instagram, and the Professional plan adds a link-in-bio page and Instagram product tagging.

Every user is a paid seat. Standard is $99 per user a month ($79 billed yearly) with ten social profiles shared across the account, and each extra profile is $15 a month ($10 billed yearly). Professional is $149 ($119). A 30-day trial of Advanced needs no card, and iOS and Android apps come with every plan (Agorapulse pricing, read 16 October 2026).

55. Sprout Social

Best for a grid planner and per-post bio links for a teamFree trial · from $79/seat/moPlans and prices

Sprout Social's Instagram scheduling page describes scheduling a first comment with each post, and its help centre lists Reels among the types it publishes directly, with a first-comment step in carousel setup. Its Instagram Grid Planner shows the last 90 days of sent posts, Reels included, beside drafts and scheduled posts, which you can drag to new times; a preview mode hides the controls. SproutLink, its link-in-bio page, gives each grid post its own destination (support.sproutsocial.com, web search on 7 November 2026). Our search found no Sprout page confirming Stories publishing, but its mobile publishing help says Stories with Story Notes or Instagram app features go to your phone through the Sprout app to finish (web search on 7 November 2026).

Sprout prices every plan per seat. Essentials is $99 per seat a month ($79 billed yearly) with five social profiles; Standard is $249 ($199), still with five; Professional, at $399 ($299), removes the profile limit. A 30-day trial needs no card (Sprout Social pricing, read 16 October 2026).

66. Buffer

Best for choosing auto-publish or a phone reminder for each postFree plan · from $5/channel/moPlans and prices

Each time you create an Instagram post, Story or Reel in Buffer, you choose whether it publishes itself or comes to your phone to finish in the app. A Story caption, product tags, a text or link sticker, or an unusual aspect ratio send it down the reminder route, and Personal profiles get reminders only (Buffer help centre, read 16 October 2026). Paid plans add first-comment scheduling, and Start Page is its link-in-bio builder.

The free plan covers three channels with ten queued posts each and one user. Essentials is $6 per channel a month ($5 billed yearly), and once you upgrade, the channels you had free are billed too (Buffer pricing, read 16 October 2026).

77. Metricool

Best for auto-published Stories, with reports beside the plannerFree plan · from $20/moPlans and prices

Metricool's help centre says Business and Creator accounts can auto-publish posts, Reels, Trial Reels and Stories, and that a Story with a link or interactive sticker goes out as a notification instead. Its visual calendar is meant for planning how the feed will look, Smartlinks is its link-in-bio page, and Flows can reply to comments with a DM or answer keywords.

Metricool prices by brand, and each brand holds one profile per network, so every Instagram account uses one brand. The free plan covers one brand with 20 scheduled posts a month; Starter is $25 a month ($20 billed yearly) for up to five brands, before VAT (Metricool pricing, read 16 October 2026).

88. SocialPilot

Best for sending Reels as a post or a reminderFree trial · from $25.50/moPlans and prices

SocialPilot's Instagram page names image and video posts, Stories, Reels and carousels, and says it publishes to Business and Creator profiles automatically. Its help centre adds that a Reel can go out directly or as a reminder, that a carousel can mix up to ten images and videos, and that a first comment can be scheduled with the post; direct publishing stops at 25 posts in 24 hours for a Business account.

Essentials is $30 a month ($25.50 billed yearly) for seven accounts and one user, with extra accounts at $4 a month. Standard, at $50 ($42.50), adds analytics and an inbox for 15 accounts and three users. The 14-day trial needs no card (SocialPilot plans, read 16 October 2026).

99. SocialBee

Best for Instagram Creator and Personal accountsFree trial · from $24/moPlans and prices

SocialBee splits Instagram publishing by account type. A Business account can publish carousels directly, while Creator and Personal accounts get a push notification with the media and caption ready to post. Its help centre describes sending Reels as reminders with a custom thumbnail, and its Instagram scheduler page offers an automatic first comment and a grid view of upcoming posts. Comments, mentions and DMs from Instagram Business accounts arrive in its engagement inbox.

Bootstrap is $29 a month ($24 billed yearly) for five profiles, one user and one workspace, and Accelerate is $49 for ten. The 14-day trial needs no card, and posting stops when it ends (SocialBee pricing, read 16 October 2026).

1010. Publer

Best for paying per account, starting from oneFree plan · from $4/moPlans and prices

Publer's help centre says it schedules and publishes Reels to Creator and Business accounts. It treats a vertical 9:16 video as a Reel, lets you choose whether the Reel also appears in the main feed or goes out as a Trial Reel, and can set a reminder instead.

The free plan covers three accounts (not X) with ten scheduled posts each and 24 hours of post history. Professional is $5 a month ($4 billed yearly) for one account, $12 for three and $20 for five, with first comments included; each extra team member is $2 a month (Publer plans, read 16 October 2026).

1111. Postiz

Best for hosting the scheduler yourselfOpen source · cloud from $23/moPlans and prices

Postiz is open source under the AGPL-3.0 licence and publishes to 34 platforms, Instagram among them, with comments you can schedule alongside a post. Run it on your own server and there is no licence fee, but Postiz warns that registering your own developer app can take weeks for Meta. Hosted Standard is $29 a month ($23 billed yearly) for five channels with no team members, and the seven-day trial needs a card (Postiz pricing, read 16 October 2026).

1212. Hootsuite

Best for one person running up to ten accounts with an inboxFree trial · from $99/user/moPlans and prices

Hootsuite combines a planner that can bulk-schedule up to 350 posts, a unified inbox, listening and analytics, with Instagram among its nine networks. Standard is $99 per user a month, billed yearly, for up to ten social accounts, and Professional, at $199, removes the account limit. The 14-day trial needs no card, and there is no free plan (Hootsuite plans, read 16 October 2026).

Pick your Instagram scheduler

Start from your accounts. If you run several Instagram accounts or brands and want one queue and one price per brand, with a receipt for every post, start PostWharf's seven-day Starter trial. If one account and a visual planner are all you need, Later's Starter covers it. If you would rather start free, Buffer and Publer each take three accounts at no cost.

For the same tools priced across every network rather than Instagram alone, see our 10 best social media schedulers, or compare all 12 scheduling tools in the directory. Prices change often in this category; the figures above were read on 16 October 2026, and the Sendible, Sprout Social and Hootsuite feature checks on 7 November 2026.