Instagram engagement benchmarks
Engagement rate, likes and posting habits of Instagram accounts, by follower count.
We track everyday accounts we come across, not celebrities, for a more grounded result. Accounts over 1M followers are left out of the monthly sample.
Partial month. Fewer accounts than usual, so treat these as rough.
Engagement rate by followers
Median · shaded = middle 50% of accounts100–1K19 accounts
Needs 20+
1K–10K20 accounts
3.01%1.3%–6.2%
10K–100K15 accounts
Needs 20+
100K–1M13 accounts
Needs 20+
All67 accounts
2.84%0.8%–10.4%
0.5%1%2%5%10%20%
Middle 50% Median
Per post
Median account in each group| Followers | Likes | Comments | Posts / 30 days | Total posts | Accounts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100–1K | – | – | – | – | 19 |
| 1K–10K | 86 | 5 | 2 | 76 | 20 |
| 10K–100K | – | – | – | – | 15 |
| 100K–1M | – | – | – | – | 13 |
| All | 109 | 6 | 2 | 70 | 67 |
Reels, carousels, photos
ReelsCarouselsPhotos
× = engagement vs. that account's usual post
FollowersShare of postsEngagement vs. that account's usual post
100–1K
Needs 20+ accounts
1K–10K
1.22×Reels
1.00×Carousels
0.89×Photos
10K–100K
Needs 20+ accounts
100K–1M
Needs 20+ accounts
Best time to post
Your local time Below usual Above usual 649 posts · 67 accounts
Method
v2.0 · updatedOur calculations may change. Each month keeps the method it was built with.
- Sample
- Randomly pulled 217 uninflated everyday accounts in September 2026.
- Left out
- Private accounts, accounts over 1,000,000 or under 100 followers, and anything from after we first delivered to an account.
- Engagement
- (Likes + comments) ÷ followers. Median post per account, then median account per group.
- Posts
- 3 to 90 days old, pinned posts skipped, at least 6 per account.
- Groups
- Shown once 20+ accounts are in them.
- Months
- Frozen on the 1st and never edited.
Cite this data
Free under CC BY 4.0. Credit "FastSocial Instagram Benchmarks" with a link.
FastSocial (2026). Instagram Benchmarks, September 2026. https://fastsocial.co/instagram-benchmarks
<a href="https://fastsocial.co/instagram-benchmarks">FastSocial Instagram Benchmarks</a> (September 2026)
<iframe src="https://fastsocial.co/instagram-benchmarks/embed" width="100%" height="330" style="border:0" title="Instagram benchmarks by follower count"></iframe>
Past months: September 2026