Instagram story drafts live inside the Stories camera, in a small Drafts section you reach through the gallery icon.

Quick Scoop: Where story drafts are

On the Instagram app (iPhone or Android):

  1. Open Instagram and go to the home feed.
  1. Swipe right to open the Stories camera (or tap your profile picture where it says “Your Story”).
  1. In the Stories camera, tap the small gallery icon in the bottom‑left corner of the screen.
  1. At the top of the gallery panel, you’ll see a Drafts tab/folder if you have any saved story drafts.
  1. Tap Drafts to open and see all your saved story drafts; tap any draft to continue editing or post it.

A few extra details:

  • Story drafts normally expire after about 24 hours, unlike post or Reels drafts.
  • If you don’t see a Drafts folder, it usually means you have no active story drafts or they’ve expired.

If you’re still not seeing them, try updating the Instagram app and then repeating the steps, since layout tweaks roll out over time.

TL;DR:
Swipe right into the Stories camera → tap the bottom‑left gallery icon → tap Drafts at the top to view your Instagram story drafts.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.