Connect an Instagram Account

Instagram in m18t rides on your Meta connection. Meet the Professional-account prerequisites, find your Instagram Business Account ID, and add the IG outlet

What you'll learn

  • Why Instagram in m18t rides on your Facebook/Meta connection, not a standalone IG login.
  • The Meta-side prerequisites that must be true before publishing works.
  • How to find your Instagram Business Account ID and add the IG outlet in m18t.

The concept: Instagram goes through Meta

m18t publishes to Instagram through Meta's Graph API — the same API and the same token as your Facebook Page. Meta does not let third-party tools publish to standalone personal Instagram profiles. So in m18t there's no separate "Instagram" provider: Instagram is an outlet on your Meta (Facebook & IG) connection.

If you haven't set up the Meta connection yet, start there: Connect a Facebook Page. This article assumes that token already exists in your Vault.

Meta changes their developer surfaces often, so the provider-side steps below are described by intent.

Step 1 — Meet Meta's prerequisites

Before m18t can post to your Instagram account, three things must be true on Meta's side:

  1. Professional account. Your Instagram account must be a Professional account (Business or Creator). Convert it in the Instagram app settings — personal accounts can't receive API-published posts.
  2. Linked to your Facebook Page. The Instagram Professional account must be linked to the Facebook Page you connected in m18t.
  3. Instagram permissions on your token. The Meta app/token from your Facebook setup must include the Instagram scopes: instagram_basic and instagram_content_publish to publish, plus instagram_manage_comments if you want comment counts to sync back. Likes and comment counts read via instagram_basic; without instagram_content_publish, IG publishes fail with a permissions error.

If any of these is missing, publishes fail — usually with a permissions error in the sync log.

Step 2 — Find your Instagram Business Account ID

This is a Graph API ID, not your username or your visible profile ID. You retrieve it with Meta's tools:

  1. Open the Graph API Explorer with your app and token selected.
  2. Run me/accounts?fields=instagram_business_account (or query the connected Page directly for instagram_business_account).
  3. The response contains an id — a long numeric string like 178414.... That's your Instagram Business Account ID.

[!WARNING] This is not your @username and not your profile ID. It's a numeric Graph API ID. A username pasted here will make every Instagram publish fail.

Step 3 — Add the Instagram outlet in m18t

You attach Instagram to the same Meta connection you built for Facebook.

  1. Go to Business Settings → Connections (/studio/business/connections).
  2. If you're creating the Meta connection now, run Add Connection and reach the Outlets step. If your Meta connection already exists, edit it (note: outlets are added during the create flow — if the IG fields aren't available on an existing connection, create the outlet through a fresh Meta connection for that brand, reusing the same META_ACCESS_TOKEN Vault key).
  3. On the Outlets step, fill the Instagram account name (a free-text label, e.g. "Acme IG") and paste the numeric string into Instagram Business Account ID.
  4. Save. m18t creates an Instagram outlet for the active brand. Outlets left without an ID aren't created.

Once the outlet exists, you can target Instagram when publishing a content piece, alongside the Facebook Page.

FAQ

Why can't I connect Instagram on its own? Meta's API requires it to route through a linked Facebook Page. m18t reflects that — Instagram is an outlet on the Meta connection, not a separate login.

My publish failed and the account is set up correctly. Check the three prerequisites again: Professional account, linked to the Page, and Instagram permissions on the token. A missing content-publishing permission is the most common cause. The sync log shows the raw Graph API error.

I pasted my @username and nothing works. The field needs the numeric Instagram Business Account ID from the Graph API, not the username. Re-run the query in Step 2 and paste the numeric id.

Do Facebook and Instagram share the same token? Yes. One META_ACCESS_TOKEN in the Vault powers both outlets on the connection.

Can I post Stories or Reels? m18t publishes feed posts — single images and carousels — to Instagram today via the Graph API. Check Publishing to Facebook & Instagram for exactly what each format supports.

What's next

Was this article helpful?