When Was Instagram Made? Founding Date and History

Key takeaways

• Instagram's public launch date is October 6, 2010, released first as an iOS-only app.
• Founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger built it in San Francisco after pivoting away from an earlier app called Burbn.
• The app hit 25,000 downloads on day one and crossed 1 million users within about two months.
• Facebook (now Meta) acquired Instagram in April 2012 for roughly $1 billion in cash and stock.
• An Android version didn't arrive until April 2012, more than a year and a half after the iOS debut.

When exactly was Instagram made?

Instagram was released to the public on October 6, 2010, in Apple's App Store. Systrom and Krieger had spent the prior weeks finishing the app after realizing their original project, Burbn, tried to do too much at once. Stripping it down to photo sharing, filters, and a simple feed is what became Instagram — a portmanteau of "instant camera" and "telegram."

Who actually built it?

Kevin Systrom and Brazilian-born engineer Mike Krieger built Instagram together as a two-person team, later expanding into a small startup. Both had backgrounds in tech and design from Stanford, and their earlier Burbn app already had check-in and photo features — they just cut everything except the photo-sharing core once they saw which feature users actually loved. Anyone curious about the full backstory can read more in who created Instagram and who made Instagram.

How fast did it grow after launch?

Instagram grew unusually fast for a 2010-era app: 25,000 people downloaded it on the first day, and it passed 1 million registered users within about two months. That early velocity is a big part of why Facebook moved to acquire it so quickly less than two years later — see how much is Instagram worth for how that early growth turned into today's valuation.

Why did it start as iOS-only?

Systrom and Krieger targeted iPhone users first because the App Store gave them a fast, contained way to test the stripped-down concept before building for other platforms. Android users had to wait until April 2012 — the same month Facebook announced its acquisition — before they could install Instagram at all, which is a detail people researching when did Instagram come out often overlook.

What happened after Facebook bought it?

Facebook acquired Instagram in April 2012 for close to $1 billion in cash and stock, and it has operated as a Meta-owned platform ever since. The acquisition let Instagram keep functioning as a separate app and brand while gaining Facebook's infrastructure, ad systems, and engineering resources — the arrangement explored further in does Meta own Instagram and who owns Instagram.

Instagram's founding timeline at a glance

How old is Instagram today?

Counting from the October 6, 2010 launch, Instagram has been running for over 15 years as of 2026. For a full year-by-year breakdown of features and milestones since then, see how old is Instagram and how the Instagram algorithm works today, which covers how far the feed has evolved from that first simple photo grid.

Instagram's origin is a fairly clean story: two founders, one pivoted app, and an iOS launch in October 2010 that snowballed into one of the most-used platforms in the world within roughly 18 months.