Handle comments on your posts

Every comment on your Instagram posts collects in Comments, newest first, so you are not scrolling through individual posts on your phone to find the one somebody asked a question on.

What you can do with a comment

Reply publicly. Your answer appears under the comment, where everyone reading the post can see it.
Reply privately. Send the person a direct message instead, which opens a conversation in Instagram Direct.
Hide it. The comment stays visible to whoever wrote it and to nobody else. They are not told.
Leave it. Not every comment needs an answer.

Public or private?

This is the only real decision, and it has a straightforward answer.

Reply publicly when the answer is useful to other people. "Do you deliver to Pune?" is asked once and read by hundreds. A public answer works for all of them and makes the post more useful over time.

Take it private when it is about that one person — an order, a complaint, anything with their details in it, anything that would embarrass them. A private reply also opens a DM conversation, which is a better place to actually resolve something.

Answer publicly, then follow up privately

For a complaint, a short public reply — "Sorry about this, I've sent you a message" — does two jobs. It resolves it in private, and it shows everyone else reading that you answer people.

When to hide a comment

Hiding is for comments that make the post worse for everyone else: abuse, harassment, spam, scams, or promotion of someone else's business.

It is not for criticism. Hiding a bad review does not remove it — the person who wrote it still sees it exactly as they left it, and the usual result is a second, angrier comment. Answer criticism instead.

If hiding is taking up real time, hand it to automatic moderation, which handles the abuse and spam before you ever see it.

Practical notes

Reply quickly on new posts. Comments in the first hours get the most visibility, and answering them tends to bring more.
Fix the caption if the same question keeps coming. Three people asking about delivery is a comment thread; thirty is a caption that did not say.
Comments are not contacts. Instagram gives you a username, not a phone number, so a commenter does not become a contact you can broadcast to on WhatsApp.

If something goes wrong

Comments are not appearing. Check the account is connected on Instagram accounts. The inbox's Connection health panel shows when the last comment actually arrived.
Your reply did not post. Usually the comment was deleted by its author in the meantime, or the account has disconnected.
You cannot message a commenter privately. Instagram allows this for a limited period after they comment. Past it, they have to message you first — see Reply to Instagram DMs.
A comment you hid is still visible. To the person who wrote it, it always will be. That is how hiding works on Instagram.