More than 300 million people use it at least once a day, it added.
The service was bought by Facebook in 2012 for about $1bn (£677m), and has grown rapidly ever since.
According to the company, an average of 95 million photos and videos are posted each day. Co-founder Kevin Systrom told the BBC its success was the result of "a lot of hard work".
In its five and a half years, Instagram has rocketed past Twitter, thanks in part to its adoption by high-profile celebrities and sports stars.
Instagram's biggest competitor for youthful eyeballs, Snapchat, is understood to have surpassed 100 million users.
Instagram was launched in 2010, with 25,000 people downloading the app on its first day.
In growing to the 500 million milestone, the app has suffered its fair share of controversy.
In 2012, changes to its terms of service had users worried it was looking to sell their pictures to advertisers. The changes were rolled back - the service insisted the furore was due to a failure of communication, rather than a nefarious monetisation plan. Still, users were unnerved.
Unease about how a Facebook-owned company would seek to bring in profits has followed ever since.
One recent announcement - that photos would be ordered by an algorithm rather than shown in chronological order - was heavily criticised. There was speculation the move was made to cause more adverts to surface in people's feeds.
"I can say for a fact that's absolutely not what this is about," Mr Systrom told the BBC.
"Nothing about ads or how many ads we show is affected by what happens with the algorithm. This is all about making sure that you see the best stuff."
Also irking users of late has been Instagram's logo change.
Out went the nostalgia-tinged old camera icon, and in its place, a simpler rainbow-coloured replacement. It didn't go down well. But then again, logo changes never do.
"Before we launched it, I knew that it would be a tough time for Instagram," Mr Systrom disclosed.
"What separates companies that make transitions like that and they are successful and the ones that fail, are the ones that have resolve and do it for the right reasons.
"We wanted to create a mark that was universal. We did all these studies of companies and how their marks have evolved over time.
"What you see is they go from complex to simpler and simpler and more iconic. We skipped a few steps, and we went straight to iconic."
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