Instagram's big bet on video doesn't stop at 60 seconds. Increasing video length from 15 seconds to a minute took quite a bit of effort. 75. Last week, Instagram surprised its users by increasing the 15-second limit of its videos to a whopping 60 seconds, a full four times longer than it was before. It had already extended the video viewing time for marketers, but last week was when the feature was introduced to regular users for the first time. It's a pretty big leap, and according to Instagram, it was for one reason: people are watching a lot more video. In fact, the time users spent watching video on the photo-and-video sharing service jumped more than 40 percent in the last six months.