A daily time limit

Limit Instagram
to 30 minutes
a day.

Tonic gives Instagram, TikTok or any app you pick a daily allowance, from 1 minute to 2 hours, and spends it only while the app is on screen. When it's gone you pick the ending: a pause you tap through, a pause that grows each time, or no way in until your daily reset.

Balanced 30 min a day
Instagram
Instagram30 min a day
10 min a visit · a pause on every open
12 used · 18 left today
TikTok
TikTok30 min a day
10 min a visit · a pause on every open
30 used · 25 taps to go back in

Tapped Ignore Limit without reading it?

Then you know where a daily limit fails. Apple's guide for iOS 26 says Screen Time limits "can be ignored once reached" by default. In Tonic you decide what zero does, and getting past it buys one visit at a time, never the rest of the day.

Make me pause. The same number of taps each time you come back.

Make it hard. 25 taps for the next visit, then 35, then 45. A new limit starts here.

Cut me off. One OK button, and the app stays shut until your daily reset.

Daily time's up

Make me pause
Make it hard
Cut me off
Limit's upEach time you come back, it gets harderNot worth itTap to enter

Thirty minutes, in as many sittings as you like.

Only time on screen spends it. Close the app halfway through a visit and what's left waits for you.

Each visit stops at ten minutes unless you change it, so the thirty can't vanish in one scroll. Set a visit to 1, 3, 5, 15 or 20 minutes instead, or to Unlimited and spend the lot in one go.

5 min leftLeave now to save the rest for later today.now

The same thirty minutes

Add hours, a place, or something to do first.

One rule holds all of it, and minutes used outside your hours don't count against the allowance.

Setting hours · Saving a place · Earning it first

Should spent minutes come back?

Gone till tomorrow

Starts here

All thirty are there from your daily reset, and they don't come back until the next one.

Thirty spent→Locked until the reset

It refills

+2, +5 or +10 an hour

The day starts empty and fills while you stay out of the app, up to your allowance. At +5, a morning away is about twenty minutes.

An hour away→5 minutes back

A refilled minute opens the app on Tonic's next check rather than the moment it lands, and refills count in whole minutes, so a slow rate can run a few minutes a day behind.

Quick answers

How do I limit Instagram to 30 minutes a day?

In Tonic, add a limit, choose "It eats hours of my day" and pick Instagram. Thirty minutes is where the ruler starts, and it also stops at 1, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, 45, 60, 90 and 120.

Can Instagram and TikTok share the same 30 minutes?

Yes. Put both on one limit and time on either draws from the same allowance. Each app can only sit in one limit at a time.

What happens if I'm in the app when the time runs out?

It locks as the last minute is counted, which can land a minute late because iOS reports use in whole minutes. You'll see iOS's grey Restricted box, and your next open shows Tonic's lock.

Why not use Screen Time's own daily limit?

It's free and already on your phone, and it sets a daily number too. Apple's iOS 26 guide says those limits "can be ignored once reached" by default, and Apple's pages don't describe how that works on iOS 27. They also show no per-visit cap and no growing pause.

When do my minutes come back?

At your daily reset, 5:00 AM unless you move it in Settings. A limit that refills starts that day empty and fills from there.

What does it cost?

Free to start: limits are included in full, with two locked apps across everything you set up. Tonic Unlimited lifts the limits on apps and ways to earn, for $29.99 a year or $9.99 a month, with the first 7 days free.

Why an app locks again: limits and waits → · Giving a limit a day off

Checked against the app on November 1, 2026.

Start with one app and thirty minutes.

Get Tonic free
Free to start · limits included · no account needed · iPhone and iPad, iOS 17.4 or later

Tonic is an independent companion and isn't affiliated with Apple, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, YouTube, X or Duolingo.

More limits: all of them · minutes per visit · opens per day · a pause that grows · how Tonic works