How Threads Usernames Work
Threads is Meta’s text-first app. Your username is your @handle and your profile address, threads.com/@username. Meta moved Threads from threads.net to threads.com in April 2025.
There are two ways to create a Threads profile: with your Instagram account, or with an email address or phone number. Sign up with email or a phone number and you create a new username for Threads. Meta’s help center also shows the username can be changed from Edit profile on Threads, and people who started with Instagram can switch to using Threads without it. So your Threads username isn’t necessarily your Instagram username.
Threads username rules at a glance
- Length
1-30 characters
- Characters
Letters, numbers, periods (.), underscores (_) - no consecutive periods, cannot start or end with a period
- Cannot start or end with a period
- No consecutive periods
- Threads doesn't publish its username rules; profiles created with Instagram follow Instagram's.
Threads doesn’t publish its own username rules, so the format above is Instagram’s, which profiles created with Instagram follow. Our Instagram username checker shows examples of names that pass and fail.
Matching Your Threads and Instagram Usernames
Your Threads username doesn’t have to match your Instagram one, but Meta ties a few features to a shared username. If your Threads username is shared with your Instagram account and you change it, Meta says:
- The Threads badge goes. Your Threads username stops appearing on your Instagram profile, and Instagram stops appearing on your Threads profile.
- Cross-posting stops. You can’t share your Instagram or Facebook posts to Threads.
- Meta Verified stays behind. Your Meta Verified badge doesn’t carry over to Threads.
- Paid partnerships stop. You can’t tag organic branded content on Threads with the paid partnership tool.
Running Threads ads used to need matching usernames too. Meta says that requirement goes away from September 2026, rolling out gradually, so it may not apply to you yet. To share one username across both apps, the two profiles need to be in the same Accounts Center (some people now see it as Meta Account). Meta’s help pages don’t make clear whether renaming on Instagram also renames a Threads profile created with Instagram, so after a rename on either app, check both profiles.
Fediverse Sharing Depends on How You Signed Up
Threads can share your profile and posts to the fediverse, but only if you turn it on, and only if you created your Threads profile with an Instagram account, are 18 or older, have a public profile and are located outside the European Region. That makes the sign-up route a real choice: a profile created with an email address or phone number can’t share to the fediverse. Meta doesn’t publish the format of fediverse usernames, so don’t assume yours from your Threads username.
What Your Threads Result Means
- Available. The name looks free. Set it as your username when you sign up, or from Edit profile on Threads, and if you want it on Instagram too, claim it there as well.
- Taken. Someone holds it. Try a variation, or watch the name and we alert you once it is confirmed free. Threads watching is part of Pro and Business. Meta’s inactive username policy covers Threads and Instagram together and only asks people to stay active, so don’t expect a dormant name to be released. If an account uses your registered trademark as its username, Meta’s help center has a report path for Instagram and Threads.
- Invalid. The name breaks the username format, so nobody can register it.
- Sign-up or upgrade prompt. We only show verified Threads results, and they come with Day Pass, Pro, and Business. Guests are asked to create an account, and free accounts to upgrade.