Instagram Features: 90-Minute Video, Payments and What's Next

Instagram is testing a long-form video product called Features, with videos up to 90 minutes, and it is paying some creators to use it. Both of those statements are solid. The interesting part for marketers is the gap between what Meta has confirmed and what has been reported as the size of those payments.

What Meta has confirmed

Instagram is testing Features, which allows videos far longer than a Reel.
Instagram chief Adam Mosseri has acknowledged publicly that YouTube’s long-form economics are better, saying on Threads that “the economics matter a ton” and that his team is exploring ways for long-form creators to get paid.
A Meta spokesperson told Business Insider that the company is “funding Features content directly with some creators” and is excited to see that content go live.

What is only reported

Business Insider reported that Instagram offered selected creators $50,000 to post long-form video to Features, with some deals reaching six figures, up to $500,000. Meta did not confirm those figures — the spokesperson confirmed the funding programme, not the amounts.

Treat the numbers as reported, not published policy. That distinction matters if you are planning a budget around them: there is no application form, rate card, or per-view payout that any brand can currently point to.

What does not exist yet

There is no announced ad revenue share for Features. That is the single most important missing piece, and it is why the payments are described as one-off deals rather than a monetisation programme. YouTube shares ad revenue with creators in its Partner Program, while Meta retired its older ad-revenue sharing for long-form video and has announced nothing comparable for Features.

Why the history matters

Meta has run this play before. It paid creators heavily to post to IGTV, and IGTV was gone by 2022. Upfront payments reliably produce a spike in posts; they have not reliably produced a durable viewing habit. If Features follows the same path, the brands that build a long-form habit now will have spent time on a format that may not exist in 18 months.

What a brand should do now

Repurpose, do not originate. Take a piece of long-form video you already own and cut it for Features. The marginal cost is editing time, not a production budget.
Test one format, one month. Pick a single show or explainer series, post it consistently for four weeks, and measure completion rate rather than views. Long video lives or dies on whether people finish.
Keep the YouTube version primary. Until Instagram announces a revenue share, YouTube remains the place where long-form work has a documented payout structure.
Ignore the payment headlines. Unless you are a creator with a direct offer in your inbox, reported creator deals are not a channel strategy.

Long-form discovery also feeds how Instagram summarises and surfaces accounts. Our piece on Instagram AI SEO summaries covers that side of the platform.

What we did not do

We have not posted to Features, received a payment offer, or seen internal performance data. The payment figures attributed to Business Insider are that outlet’s reporting, and the Meta statements quoted above are as reported by those outlets.