Instagram Insights: Every Metric and How to See It
Any public account, personal or professional, gets Instagram Insights free. Professional accounts open it from Professional dashboard, personal ones from Your dashboard, in the app or on instagram.com. Checked against Instagram Help Center: View account and content insights on Instagram (instagram.com steps) It reports Views, Viewers, Interactions, Accounts engaged and follower trends for any range in the past 90 days, and keeps post, reel and story insights for up to two years. Creators who partner with brands may be asked for these numbers, and how to measure influencer success shows how a brand reads them for a campaign.
One older Instagram Help Center article still limits IG insights to businesses; the current ones don’t. TikTok is different: where its analytics live depends on the TikTok account type you pick, TikTok Studio for personal accounts and Business Suite for business ones. Posting, privacy and the rest of the app are mapped in our Instagram how-to guide.
Table of Contents
- What is Instagram Insights, and who can see it?
- How to see insights on Instagram (professional and personal accounts)
- What do the insights mean? Views, Viewers, Interactions and Accounts engaged
- How to see insights for a post, reel or story
- Why does the plays number on my Reels tab differ from Views?
- How far back does Instagram Insights go?
- What happens to insights if you go private or switch to personal?
- Can Instagram Insights show who viewed your post or profile?
- Does Outfeed show Instagram insights?
- Instagram Insights FAQ
What is Instagram Insights, and who can see it?
Instagram Insights is the free performance data Instagram gives a public account about its content and audience. Instagram calls its dashboards “available to all public accounts”, and which one you get depends on your account type.
| Your account | Dashboard |
|---|---|
| Public professional (business or creator) | Professional dashboard |
| Public personal | Your dashboard |
| Private | None until you set it to public |
Instagram adds that the tools in each dashboard “may vary depending on your account type, region and eligibility.” Checked against Instagram Help Center: About Instagram dashboards
An older Help Center article, See insights for your Instagram account, still says insights are “only available to businesses and accounts with high levels of engagement.” Instagram’s current articles say otherwise, so treat it as out of date. Checked against Instagram Help Center: See insights for your Instagram account (older article)
How to see insights on Instagram (professional and personal accounts)
Go to your profile and tap Professional dashboard (professional accounts) or Your dashboard (personal accounts). On a computer, select Dashboard from the left-hand menu.
Your account has to be public first: set a personal account to public for Your dashboard, or switch to a business or creator account for Professional dashboard. Our guide to switching to a business account on Instagram covers that switch.
Instagram gives the same app steps for iPhone and Android, including how to change the date range:
On iPhone:
- Tap Profile or your profile picture in the bottom right to go to your profile.
- If you have a professional account, tap Professional dashboard. If you have a personal account, tap Your dashboard.
- If you don't see your dashboard in your profile, tap More to go to your Settings and activity.
- If you have a professional account, tap Insights below For professionals. If you have a personal account, tap Your dashboard below Your insights and tools.
- You'll see insights from the past 30 days for Views, Interactions, New followers, and Content you shared.
- To change the date range, tap the insight you'd like to see. Then, tap the dropdown to select a new date range: a preset timeframe (Last 7 days, Last 14 days, Last 30 days, Previous month or Last 90 days) or a custom timeframe.
- Tap Update.
Checked against Instagram Help Center: View account and content insights on Instagram.
On instagram.com, the same insights sit under Dashboard:
On the web:
- Select Dashboard from the left-hand menu.
- If you have a professional account, select Insights below For professionals. If you have a personal account, select Your dashboard below Your insights and tools.
- From the Insights dropdown menu, select Account or Content.
- Select the dropdown menu to adjust the date range. You can choose to view insights for the last 7, 14, 30 or 90 days, or select a custom timeframe by choosing a start and end date in the calendar.
Checked against Instagram Help Center: View account and content insights on Instagram.
What do the insights mean? Views, Viewers, Interactions and Accounts engaged
Views is how many times your content was played or displayed. Viewers is how many unique accounts saw it on screen at least once. Interactions counts likes, comments, saves and shares, and Accounts engaged counts the unique accounts that interacted. These are the metrics Instagram’s insights articles define:
| Metric | Instagram’s definition | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|
| Views | Times your content (reels, posts, stories, live videos, ads) was played or displayed. For a reel, each start or replay | Account overview, posts, reels |
| Viewers | Unique accounts that saw your content on screen at least once, whether or not a reel played | Account insights, reels |
| Interactions | Likes, comments, saves and shares. On stories: replies, shares, sticker and link taps | Account overview, posts, stories |
| Accounts engaged | Unique accounts that interacted with your content | Account insights. Followers vs non-followers for posts, stories, Live |
| Profile activity | Actions people take when they visit your profile after engaging with your post | Posts |
| Watch time | Total time the reel was played, including time spent replaying it | Reels |
| Average watch time | Watch time divided by the number of initial views (the first play in a reel session) | Reels |
| Follows | Accounts that started following you as a result of viewing your reel | Reels |
| New followers | Shown in the app’s insights overview for your timeframe; Instagram’s article names it without a separate definition | Account overview |
| Total followers | Growth (followers gained or lost), top locations, age range, most active times. Needs 100+ followers | Account insights |
| Audience demographics | Top countries, cities, age ranges and gender of accounts reached or engaged. Needs a preset timeframe and over 100 accounts | Account insights |
| Content you shared | Stories, reels or posts you shared in the timeframe, with a filterable library | Account overview |
| Ad insights | Ad goal results, cost per ad goal and spend | Boosted content (professional accounts only) |
Checked against Instagram Help Center: About Instagram insights.
Checked against Instagram Help Center: About Instagram insights (Viewers, Accounts engaged, Total followers).
Checked against Instagram Help Center: View insights on your Instagram reels (Watch time).
Checked against Instagram Help Center: About Instagram insights (Total followers).
Instagram labels Viewers and Accounts engaged “estimated and in-development”, and says Views “is being gradually introduced and may not be available to you yet.”
Choosing which of these numbers to track as goals is covered in social media KPIs.
Does Insights still show Impressions and Plays?
Views is the metric Instagram’s current insights articles define; the only dated change to Impressions and Plays is on the developer side. In a developer changelog entry dated 21 January 2025, Meta added a views metric to its Insights API and deprecated impressions and plays for all API versions from 21 April 2025. Checked against Meta for Developers: Instagram Platform changelog (21 January 2025 entry) Instagram gives no date for the app itself.
How to see insights for a post, reel or story
Open the post, reel or story from your profile and tap View Insights, or Activity and then Insights for a story.
Post insights
Views, Interactions and Profile activity, for organic and boosted posts. Instagram gives the same steps for computer, iPhone and Android:
In the Instagram app:
- Tap Profile or your profile picture in the bottom right to go to your profile.
- Tap a post you'd like to view insights on.
- Tap View Insights.
Checked against Instagram Help Center: View insights on your Instagram posts.
Reel insights
Reels add Watch time, Average watch time, Viewers and Follows.
On the web:
- Go to the Reels tab on your Instagram profile.
- Click on the reel you'd like to view metrics for.
- Click View insights.
On iPhone:
- Tap Profile or your profile picture in the bottom right to go to your profile.
- Go to Reels, then tap the reel you'd like to view insights for.
- Tap View insights.
On Android:
- Tap Profile or your profile picture in the bottom right to go to your profile.
- Go to Reels, then tap the reel you'd like to view insights for.
- Tap View insights.
Checked against Instagram Help Center: View insights on your Instagram reels.
Story insights
Instagram story analytics outlast the story: stories leave your profile after 24 hours, Checked against Instagram Help Center: How long Instagram stories remain visible but their insights stay for up to two years. These steps start from a story that hasn’t expired:
On iPhone:
- Tap your profile picture on the top of your feed or profile to open your story.
- Tap Activity, then tap Insights.
On Android:
- Tap your profile picture on the top of your feed or profile to open your story.
- Tap Activity, then tap Insights.
On the web:
- Click your profile picture on the left to go to your profile.
- Click Options at the top right of your story image or video.
- Click View insights.
Checked against Instagram Help Center: View insights on your Instagram Stories.
For older stories, Instagram points to Content you shared in your dashboard. For the Forward count, see what Forward means on Instagram story insights.
Why does the plays number on my Reels tab differ from Views?
They count different things. The number in the bottom left of each reel on your Reels tab counts plays, how many times the reel starts to play, without replays. Views in reel insights counts starts and replays, so it runs higher whenever anyone rewatches. Checked against Instagram Help Center: See info about your reel on Instagram
Other reasons two numbers don’t line up:
- Facebook counts. If you recommend your reel to Facebook, Instagram says its play and like counts may include Facebook interactions.
- Older shares. Instagram says a reel’s Shares number “may not be accurate if your reel was shared before reshare counts were enabled.”
How far back does Instagram Insights go?
Account and content insights cover any range within the past 90 days. Insights on a single post, reel or story stay available for up to two years. The app opens on the past 30 days.
| What | How long Instagram keeps it |
|---|---|
| Account and content insights | Any range in the past 90 days. App presets: Last 7, 14 or 30 days, Previous month, Last 90 days (the computer article lists 7, 14, 30 or 90 days). Custom dates must be at least 1 day apart |
| Post insights | Up to two years |
| Reel insights | Up to two years after the reel’s publish date, for reels posted on or after 14 May 2021 |
| Story insights | Up to two years after the story is created |
| Story viewer list | Up to 48 hours after posting |
| Past data after going private or personal | Recoverable for 90 days (next section) |
Checked against Instagram Help Center: View insights on your Instagram reels (+ View insights on your Instagram posts).
What happens to insights if you go private or switch to personal?
Making your account private cuts off insights, and so does switching a business or creator account back to personal. In both cases Instagram keeps your past data for 90 days, so switching back within that window restores it. Checked against Instagram Help Center: View account and content insights on Instagram (+ Troubleshoot viewing Instagram Insights)
That personal-account rule comes from a troubleshooting article written for business and creator accounts; newer articles give public personal accounts insights too. Switching a private personal account to professional makes it public, and all pending follow requests are accepted automatically. Checked against Instagram Help Center: Set up a professional Instagram account to access business or creator tools and controls
Can Instagram Insights show who viewed your post or profile?
Not by name. The metrics Instagram’s insights articles define are counts or breakdowns, such as top cities or age ranges, not a list of names.
The one viewer list Instagram documents is for stories: only you see it, for up to 48 hours after posting, and its view count includes replays. Checked against Instagram Help Center: How to tell who's seen your Instagram story Who liked a post is a separate question, answered in how to see who liked your Instagram post.
Instagram warns against apps that offer likes or followers for your login: they can get complete access to your account. Checked against Instagram Help Center: Why you should not use apps that offer likes and followers on Instagram Treat any app that wants your Instagram login to show you profile visitors the same way.
Does Outfeed show Instagram insights?
If you were hoping a scheduling tool would pull these numbers into one place, here’s the answer for Outfeed AI, the tool behind this blog:
Schedule your next Instagram feed post in Outfeed AI
Instagram Insights FAQ
Can you see Insights on a personal Instagram account?
Yes, if it is public. Instagram’s current Help Center says dashboards and free insights are available to all public accounts: personal accounts open Your dashboard, professional accounts Professional dashboard. An older Help Center article still limits insights to businesses and accounts with high engagement, and features may vary by account type, region and eligibility.
Can I see Instagram Insights on a computer?
Yes. On instagram.com, select Dashboard from the left-hand menu, then Insights (professional accounts) or Your dashboard (personal accounts). Choose Account or Content, then pick the last 7, 14, 30 or 90 days, or a custom range within the past 90 days.
Does Instagram Insights still show impressions?
Instagram’s current insights article defines Views, the times your content was played or displayed, and says the metric is being gradually introduced. For apps using its API, Meta added views and deprecated impressions and plays for all API versions from 21 April 2025. Instagram gives no date for a change in the app.
What is the difference between views and reach on Instagram?
Views counts the times your content was played or displayed; for a reel, every start and replay. Viewers counts the unique accounts that saw it on screen at least once, the accounts-reached figure behind Instagram’s audience demographics. An account replaying a reel adds views but stays one viewer.
Can you see who viewed your Instagram post or reel?
Not by name. Instagram’s insights articles define counts and breakdowns, such as Viewers or top cities, not lists of accounts. The one viewer list Instagram documents is for your own stories: only you can see it, for up to 48 hours after posting.