feedback_required is the answer Instagram's API gives when it blocks an action, such as a follow, a like, a comment or a sign-up. On the website, the same kind of block appears as a box titled "Try again later". It says "We restrict certain activity to protect our community." The web code of Instagram treats the answer as a feature limit, with the reason in a field called feedback_message. To fix it, stop the blocked action, read that message, and remove any third-party app that holds your password. Then wait and try again later at a lower rate, from the same device and address.
We read the help pages of Instagram, the spam policy of Meta, the code that instagram.com sends to browsers, and the source code of instagrapi and Instaloader, on 10 October 2026. No account was logged in for this page.
What does feedback_required mean on Instagram?
It is a block on an action or a limit on the account. It is not a request to prove your login: that is challenge_required, covered in our guide to the challenge required error.
What the code of instagram.com shows
We read the JavaScript that instagram.com sends to every browser, as served on 10 October 2026. The login page linked six script files.
One file holds a box titled "Try again later" with the text "We restrict certain activity to protect our community." The code shows it for two internal error codes, 1404006 and 1404078. When any answer carries the message feedback_required, the web app passes these fields on:
feedback_title feedback_message feedback_url
feedback_action feedback_appeal_label message
enforcement_transparency_instance_identifier
restriction_enrollment_data
Where restriction transparency is on, the code hands the title and the message to a function named handleFeatureLimitRestrictionError. In the code of Instagram, then, this answer is a feature limit: a limit on what the account may do, with its reason in feedback_message.
How each tool reports it
| Where you see it | What it says | Where this comes from |
|---|---|---|
| instagram.com | A box titled Try again later: "We restrict certain activity to protect our community." | Instagram web code, read 10 October 2026 |
| instagrapi (Python) | FeedbackRequired: feedback_required: followed by the feedback message | instagrapi source code, read 10 October 2026 |
| Instaloader (Python) | 400 Bad Request - "fail" status, message "feedback_required", and the download stops | Instaloader source code, and a user's report on Stack Overflow, October 2024 |
The message varies, so read it. Two that users quoted after a blocked follow:
- "We restrict certain activity to protect our community." (April 2023)
- "Some accounts prefer to manually review followers even when they're public. Let us know if you think we made a mistake." (July 2024)
The second points at the other account: it reviews its followers by hand. Instagram itself has no help article for feedback_required. Its Help Center gave 50 results for the term on 10 October 2026, and none was about the error.
What triggers feedback_required?
Instagram publishes no hourly limits for likes or follows, and guides that quote "20 to 30 an hour" cite nothing for it. What Instagram does publish is short:
| What | The rule Instagram publishes |
|---|---|
| Accounts you follow | No more than 7,500. Anyone who tries to follow more sees an error. |
| @mentions in one comment | No more than 5. |
| Hashtags in one comment | No more than 30. |
| The same comment | It cannot be posted several times, emoji included. |
Meta's spam policy covers the rest in general terms. It forbids posting, engaging with content or creating accounts "either manually or automatically, at very high frequencies". It also allows restrictions "at lower frequencies" when other signs of spam or of inauthentic activity are present, such as repeated posts. Buying or selling likes and follows is forbidden as well.
The Instagram article on restricted accounts names three triggers:
- The account automates access or collects information without permission.
- The owner gave their username and password to a third-party app or website, "like apps that offer likes or followers".
- The owner used an app or service to interact with Instagram in unauthorized ways.
Sign-ups are a case of their own. The instagrapi documentation says its sign-up flow "is often rejected with SignupSpamError / feedback_required". The reason it gives: the official app runs extra checks that the library does not.
How do you fix feedback_required?
Work down this list. The first steps end the block's cause, and the later ones keep it from coming back.
- Stop the action that was blocked. The instagrapi guide says to "stop repeating the same action immediately". Instaloader stops by itself.
- Read
feedback_message. It tells you which block you hit: your own pace, the other account, or a restriction on the whole account. - Cut off third-party access. If an app or website has your password, remove its access, change the password and turn on two-factor authentication. Instagram says a password change logs you out of every device, suspicious logins included.
- Wait, then resume slowly. The instagrapi guide says to "freeze the account or action type for a cooldown window", and to disable the action type that caused it first. Instagram publishes no duration for this.
- Keep the same device, session and address. The same guide lists retries "in a tight loop" and "switching proxies after every request" among the habits that cause trouble. It adds that a feedback block "needs cooldown and investigation", unlike a timeout.
- Stay inside the published limits. Follow fewer than 7,500 accounts, and keep comments under 5 mentions and 30 hashtags, without repeats.
- Ask for a review if you think it is a mistake. Some messages invite you to tell Instagram it made a mistake, and the answer carries an appeal label for it.
If you did nothing unusual and the box appears on every action, it may be a bug. The Instagram troubleshooting steps are to update the app, restart the phone, try both Wi-Fi and mobile data, reinstall, and then report the bug from the app.
Does a new IP address fix feedback_required?
Not when the block is on the account. The Instagram article on restrictions says "your account may have been restricted and flagged for further review". The block belongs to the account, and a new address leaves it in place.
An address matters only when the address itself is the problem. The instagrapi guide says to treat a shared pool of addresses as "higher risk", and to cut the number of accounts and requests when an address cannot belong to one account. Our sticky and rotating sessions guide shows how to keep one address for a whole session.
For automation, the permitted route is the official API. The Instagram API with Instagram Login lets an app manage Business or Creator accounts, with messaging, publishing, comments, mentions and insights. The Instagram terms forbid other automated access without permission.
If your address really is shared with strangers, move the login to one that only it uses. Our ISP proxies give a login its own dedicated address for as long as you hold it, at $2.70 per IP for a month.
What this page could not check
We did not log in to any account, so we could not trigger a block, read a live answer or time one. The field names come from the web code of Instagram, and the messages from users' reports. Instagram publishes no duration and no hourly thresholds. We read six script files on one day, and other files load later and may hold more messages. Instagram changes this code with every release, and the libraries change every week. We plan to review this page again by 10 January 2027.
Sources
- Instagram Help Center, "Why your account has been restricted for data scraping and what can you do", read 10 October 2026: help article 740480200552298.
- Instagram Help Center, "How many accounts you can follow on Instagram", read 10 October 2026: help article 408167069251249.
- Instagram Help Center, "Why there's an error when you try to add a comment on Instagram", read 10 October 2026: help article 161863397286564.
- Instagram Help Center, "Troubleshooting", read 10 October 2026: help article 370569449686414.
- Instagram, Terms of Use, effective 1 January 2025 (read on 10 October 2026): help.instagram.com terms.
- Meta Transparency Center, Community Standards, "Spam" (last changed 26 June 2024), read 10 October 2026: transparency.meta.com.
- Meta for Developers, overview of the Instagram Platform (read on 10 October 2026): developers.facebook.com.
- instagram.com, the script files linked from the login page, as served on 10 October 2026, read on our server (static.cdninstagram.com).
- instagrapi, source code (mixins/private.py) and documentation (Best Practices, Challenge Resolver), commit 11f8fd5, read 10 October 2026 (github.com/subzeroid/instagrapi).
- Instaloader, source code (instaloadercontext.py), commit da65e69, read 10 October 2026: instaloader.github.io.
- GitHub issues 1311 (30 April 2023) and 1976 (15 July 2024) on instagrapi, and Stack Overflow question 79109276 (21 October 2024), read 10 October 2026, as user reports.
- Our own measurement: the script files of instagram.com read from our server on 10 October 2026, and searches of the Instagram Help Center the same day, logged in the research folder for this page.
