Open something for a few minutes
Focus Points are a daily allowance you spend to open something that’s blocked. When the timer ends, it’s blocked again. For example, five minutes of Reels costs 10 points.
All your saved accounts and blocked apps share one allowance. Switching accounts doesn’t give you more points.
limitd is on iPhone today. Android coming soon.
Choose how strict you want to be
Your Focus Level sets your daily points and how long you can unlock things for. Open Focus, the points screen on the account home, and tap your current level. Choose a level, then tap Switch to followed by its name.
| Focus Level | Points per day | How long you can unlock content for |
|---|---|---|
| Intentional | 100 | 5 or 15 minutes |
| Balanced | 75 | 5 or 15 minutes; this is the starting level |
| Focused | 50 | 5 or 15 minutes |
| Locked In | 25 | 5 minutes only |
| Monk Mode | 5 | 5 minutes only; Reels and Explore stay blocked except during an emergency unlock |
You need enough points for each unlock. A stricter level starts straight away and can end unlocks it doesn’t allow. A more relaxed level starts tomorrow, when your points next refresh. Changing levels doesn’t undo what you’ve spent today.
What an unlock costs
| What you open | 5 minutes | 15 minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Feed — posts in your Home feed | 5 points | 20 points |
| Stories | 5 points | 15 points |
| Reels — the Reels scroll | 10 points | 35 points |
| Explore grid — photos and videos on Search | 10 points | 35 points |
| Suggested sections — suggested accounts on profiles | 5 points | 20 points |
The 15-minute option is only available at levels that allow it. Monk Mode doesn’t offer Reels or Explore unlocks, even though their point costs are listed here.
Posts, profile grids and Reels or posts sent in chats have separate switches. Turning those on or off doesn’t use points. The content controls guide explains each one.
Start an unlock
- Open your account, then Settings.
- Find High-distraction content, the group containing the five controls in the table. Tap a blocked switch, such as Stories.
- Read Open Stories temporarily? and check the cost and the points you’d have left.
- Choose an available duration. Keep blocked cancels without spending points.
If you don’t have enough points, limitd tells you. If the unlock doesn’t start, you don’t spend points.
Five minutes of Stories costs 5 points. If you start with Balanced’s full 75 points, you’ll have 70 left.
When the timer ends
limitd warns you 30 seconds before the unlock ends. Then that content is blocked again. You can keep using the rest of Instagram inside limitd.
To end it early, turn its switch off in Settings.
You can also spend 5 points to open the other apps you’ve chosen to block for five minutes. See how to block other apps to set that up and find the End button, which blocks them again early.
Use an emergency unlock
An emergency unlock opens Reels, your feed, Stories, Explore and profile suggestions across your saved accounts for five minutes. You can use it once a day, at any level, without spending points.
In Focus, tap the emergency-unlock button. Read Use your emergency unlock?, then choose Use emergency unlock. Keep blocked cancels.
It leaves posts, profile grids and Reels and posts sent in chats blocked if you’ve chosen to block them. If you’ve set up blocking for other apps, the emergency unlock opens those too.
Your daily top-up
Points top up for each new day. Unused points don’t carry over. The daily top-up also resets your emergency unlock and applies any change to a more relaxed level.
The Focus screen shows points left, Unlocks and Unlocked time. Unlocks counts how many times you’ve unlocked something. Unlocked time adds up the time you were allowed, rather than measuring how long you scrolled or how much time you saved.
Read using multiple accounts for what accounts share, or contact support if a balance looks wrong.
