Why Instagram Still Runs on Python: Behind the Code of a Global App

Let's see how Instagram uses Python and Django to power its backend, data pipelines, and AI—proving Python can scale to billions of users worldwide.

Instagram is one of the biggest social media apps out there, with over 2 billion people using it and billions of things happening on it every day.

But behind all the photos, stories, and hashtags, there’s a whole system working quietly in the background—and a lot of it runs on Python.

Instagram doesn’t just use Python. It’s built on it. From running the app’s core features to powering machine learning and helping engineers test and build things quickly, Python is a huge part of how Instagram works.

Most people don’t think about the tech behind their favorite apps, but Python is one of the main reasons Instagram runs as smoothly as it does. The engineers seemed to have managed to make Python work on a massive scale—handling real-time actions from hundreds of millions of people all over the world.

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In this article, we’re going to take a closer look at how Instagram uses Python. We’ll talk about why they picked it, how it fits into their systems, and the smart choices they’ve made to keep the app fast, reliable, and easy to grow.

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Time to see what makes Instagram actually work, are you ready?