Instagram engagement benchmarks, 2026
Five publishers released Instagram engagement benchmarks for 2026, and their headline rates run from 0.30% to 4.3%. The gap is mostly arithmetic: some divide by followers, one divides by impressions, and each studies a different set of accounts. This page puts the published figures side by side with the sample, period and formula behind each. IImagined did not collect any of this data.
Reviewed against 8 sources. Each figure names its publisher, the date the publisher gives and the date we read it. Counts, prices and rules move, so open the linked page before you quote one.
The short version
Measured against followers, a typical brand post on Instagram earns well under 1%: Quid's 2026 report puts the median at 0.30%, and Socialinsider's average for 2025 is 0.48%. Measured against impressions, Buffer's median for September 2026 is 4.3%. Carousels have the highest rate in both studies that publish one for each format. Before you compare your account with any of these numbers, match the formula.
0.30%
0.48%
Average engagement rate per post, 2025
Socialinsider2Published 20 Feb 2026, read 13 Oct 2026
4.3%
0.55%
Carousels, average rate by followers, 2025
Socialinsider2Published 20 Feb 2026, read 13 Oct 2026
The headline rate, by publisher
All five describe a per-post engagement rate across formats. They are not five measurements of the same thing: read the formula and the sample under each.
0.30%
Median engagement rate per post, brand accounts in 18 industries
Total interactions divided by followers. Down from 0.36% in the previous edition, which the report calls a drop of roughly 17%.
0.48%
Average engagement rate per post, 2025
Likes plus comments, divided by followers. The report calls this a 24% decrease on the year before.
Socialinsider2Published 20 Feb 2026, read 13 Oct 2026
0.45%
Average engagement rate, second quarter of 2026
From the quarterly update on the same page. All three formats fell from the first quarter.
Socialinsider2Published 20 Feb 2026, read 13 Oct 2026
4.3%
Median engagement rate per post, September 2026
Likes, comments and saves divided by impressions, for accounts connected to Buffer. It was 3.9% in July and in August.
3.5%
Average engagement rate per post across 12 industries
The page does not say how many accounts are behind it or what the rate is divided by.
3.54%
Engagement in the 2026 study
Down from 3.79% in the 2025 study. The public page does not state the formula.
By format
Two publishers give a rate for each format. Both rank carousels first and single images last.
0.55%
Carousels, average rate by followers, 2025
Unchanged from 2024. 0.50% in the second quarter of 2026.
Socialinsider2Published 20 Feb 2026, read 13 Oct 2026
0.52%
Reels, average rate by followers, 2025
Up from 0.50% in 2024. 0.48% in the second quarter of 2026, after two quarters of decline.
Socialinsider2Published 20 Feb 2026, read 13 Oct 2026
0.37%
Images, average rate by followers, 2025
Down from 0.45% in 2024, a 17% decrease. 0.33% in the second quarter of 2026.
Socialinsider2Published 20 Feb 2026, read 13 Oct 2026
5.9%
Carousels, median rate by impressions, September 2026
3.9%
Reels and other video, median rate by impressions, September 2026
3.8%
Images, median rate by impressions, September 2026
2.8%
Reels, average rate across 12 industries
Against 3.5% for Instagram posts overall on the same page.
By follower count
Only Buffer publishes an engagement rate for each follower tier, and it divides by impressions. Socialinsider reports what a post collects at each size instead.
12
Average comments on a Reel, accounts with 10K to 50K followers
Carousels average 10 and images 4. Reels draw the most comments at every size, from 3 at 1K to 5K followers to 60 at 100K to 1M.
Socialinsider2Published 20 Feb 2026, read 13 Oct 2026
8
Average saves on a carousel, accounts with 10K to 50K followers
Reels average 7 and images 3. At 100K to 1M followers: 98 for carousels, 96 for Reels, 43 for images.
Socialinsider2Published 20 Feb 2026, read 13 Oct 2026
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
| Followers | Reels | Carousels | Images | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1K to 5K | 580 | 993 | 417 | Socialinsider2 |
| 5K to 10K | 1,000 | 2,117 | 1,068 | Socialinsider2 |
| 10K to 50K | 2,460 | 4,275 | 2,340 | Socialinsider2 |
| 50K to 100K | 6,095 | 11,597 | 7,405 | Socialinsider2 |
| 100K to 1M | 16,035 | 35,370 | 22,900 | Socialinsider2 |
Posting and follower growth
3.69
Median posts per week, brand accounts
The second yearly decline in a row, and the lowest level in the six years the report covers.
8
Average Reels per month, 2025
Up from 6 in 2024. Carousels went from 4 to 5 a month and images from 10 to 7.
Socialinsider2Published 20 Feb 2026, read 13 Oct 2026
18
Average posts per month, accounts on Buffer
1.3%
Average follower growth per month, accounts on Buffer
17.20%
Average audience growth in 2025, accounts with 10K to 50K followers
Down from 33.80% in 2024. The 2025 range runs from 22.00% at 1K to 5K followers to 11.25% at 100K to 1M.
Socialinsider2Published 20 Feb 2026, read 13 Oct 2026
8.93%
Accounts that moved into a higher follower tier within the year
10.13% of accounts under 2K followers, 10.71% at 2K to 10K, 3.13% at 10K to 100K and 1.34% at 100K to 1M.
How each source defines engagement rate
The same post gets a different rate from each of these formulas. Meta reports counts and leaves the division to you.
21 January 2025
Meta added views to Instagram insights
The same changelog entry deprecated impressions and plays, so a rate built on impressions before that date does not compare with one built on views.
2 July 2024
Impressions are deprecated for media created after
Reach stays: the number of unique accounts that saw the post at least once.
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
| Publisher | Interactions counted | Divided by | Sample | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quid | Likes, comments, favorites, reposts, shares, reactions and video interactions | Followers | 150 companies picked at random in each of 18 industries; organic and paid posts | Quid1 |
| Socialinsider | Likes and comments | Followers | 35M posts from 447,613 pages, January to December 2025 | Socialinsider2 |
| Buffer | Likes, comments and saves | Impressions | Over 27 million posts from 273,000 active accounts connected to Buffer | Buffer3 |
| Hootsuite | Not stated for the benchmark | Not stated for the benchmark | 12 industries; sample size not stated | Hootsuite4 |
| Metricool | Not stated on the public page | Not stated on the public page | 24,364,803 posts from more than 375,000 accounts | Metricool8 |
| Meta (Instagram itself) | Likes, saves, comments and shares, minus unlikes, unsaves and deleted comments | Nothing: it reports counts, reach and views | Your own account | Meta7 |
How to read this
Match the formula before you compare. A rate divided by followers and a rate divided by impressions describe different things, and the same post can score 0.5% on one and 4% on the other. Work out your own rate the way the benchmark does, or do not use that benchmark.
Match the sample too. Quid and Socialinsider study brand and company pages. Buffer and Metricool study accounts connected to their own scheduling tools, which lean small: Buffer's median reach per post is 270. None of the five is a random sample of Instagram, and none isolates creators.
Medians and averages are not interchangeable. Quid and Buffer report medians. Socialinsider, Hootsuite and Metricool report averages, which a few very large or very active accounts can pull.
Every figure is quoted as its publisher states it, with the date the publisher gives and the date the page was read. Where a page does not state something, such as the sample behind the Hootsuite figure, this page says so instead of filling the gap.
What nobody has measured
A benchmark for creators alone
The two follower-based studies sample brand and company pages. Buffer and Metricool mix creators with businesses and do not split them. No study read for this page reports a rate for individual creators only.
A rate from Instagram itself
Meta documents interactions, reach and views and shows each account its own counts. We found no platform-wide engagement rate published by Meta.
A follower-based rate for each follower tier
Of the pages read, only Buffer gives a rate per tier, and it divides by impressions. HypeAuditor publishes tier figures for influencers in a report that sits behind a form, so they are not reproduced here.
Stories
The public pages read here cover feed posts, carousels and Reels. None gives an engagement rate for Stories.
What changed, and when
Buffer last updated its Instagram benchmarks, with September 2026 as the newest month: a median of 4.3%.Buffer3
Socialinsider last modified its benchmarks page, which now carries second quarter 2026 rates: 0.45% overall.Socialinsider2
Hootsuite published its 2026 update of average engagement rates for 12 industries.Hootsuite4
Metricool published its 2026 Instagram Study of 24,364,803 posts.Metricool8
Quid published the 2026 Social Media Industry Benchmark Report, the first edition under the Quid name. The Instagram median fell from 0.36% to 0.30%.Quid1
Socialinsider published its 2026 Instagram benchmarks from 35M posts.Socialinsider2
Meta introduced views as an Instagram insights metric and deprecated impressions and plays.Meta6
Questions people ask
What is a good Instagram engagement rate in 2026?
It depends on the formula. Divided by followers, the published median and average for brand accounts are 0.30% (Quid) and 0.48% (Socialinsider), so a post near 1% is well above both samples. Divided by impressions, Buffer's median is 4.3%. Compare your rate only with a benchmark that uses your formula, and treat your own recent posts as the more useful baseline.
What is the average Instagram engagement rate?
Socialinsider reports an average of 0.48% per post for 2025 and 0.45% for the second quarter of 2026, counting likes and comments against followers across 35M posts. Hootsuite reports 3.5% and Metricool 3.54%, without stating the formula on the pages read. Quid reports a median instead: 0.30%.
Which Instagram format gets the most engagement?
Carousels, in both studies that publish a rate per format. Socialinsider's 2025 averages are 0.55% for carousels, 0.52% for Reels and 0.37% for images. Buffer's September 2026 medians are 5.9%, 3.9% and 3.8%. Socialinsider also found that Reels draw the most comments at every account size.
Does engagement rate fall as follower count grows?
In Buffer's data, mostly. The median runs from 5.3% under 1,000 followers to 3.7% at 10K to 50K and 2.7% at 500K to 1M, with the 100K to 500K tier (4.0%) and accounts over 1M (3.1%) breaking the slope. That is a rate by impressions. None of the pages read publishes a follower-based rate for each tier.
Why do Instagram benchmark reports disagree so much?
Three choices differ between them: what the rate is divided by (followers or impressions), which interactions count (Socialinsider counts likes and comments, Buffer adds saves, Quid adds shares and video interactions), and who is in the sample (brand pages, or accounts on a scheduling tool). The spread from 0.30% to 4.3% comes from those choices, not from a tenfold difference in performance.
Is Instagram engagement going down?
Both follower-based studies say so. Quid's median fell from 0.36% to 0.30% between its last two editions, and Socialinsider reports a 24% decrease for 2025 and a further slip to 0.45% in the second quarter of 2026. Metricool's figure moved from 3.79% to 3.54%. Buffer's monthly median was 4.3% in September 2026, after 3.9% in July and August.
How do I calculate my own Instagram engagement rate?
Add one post's likes, comments, saves and shares, divide by followers, reach or views, and multiply by 100. Say which denominator you used, because the three give different numbers for the same post. IImagined's free Instagram engagement rate calculator works out all three from the counts in your own Insights.
Sources
Every number on this page belongs to one of these publishers, not to IImagined. Each link opens the current version of the page, which may have changed since the day it was read.
- 1Quid: 2026 Social Media Industry Benchmark Report
Published 5 Mar 2026, read 13 Oct 2026
Medians for 150 companies picked at random in each of 18 industries, from a database of over 200,000 companies. Organic and paid posts. Engagement rate is total interactions divided by follower count. Published by Rival IQ in earlier years.
- 2Socialinsider: 2026 Instagram organic benchmarks
Published 20 Feb 2026, read 13 Oct 2026
35M Instagram posts from 447,613 pages active between January 2025 and December 2025. Engagement rate per post is likes plus comments, divided by followers, times 100. The page was last modified on 15 July 2026 and now carries quarterly rates.
- 3Buffer: Instagram benchmarks
Published 11 Oct 2026, read 13 Oct 2026
Over 27 million posts from 273,000 active Instagram accounts connected to Buffer, updated monthly. Engagement is likes, comments and saves, and the rate divides it by impressions. Reach and engagement are medians. Tier and format values are those for September 2026 in the chart data the page ships.
- 4Hootsuite: average engagement rates for 12 industries
Published 17 Jun 2026, read 13 Oct 2026
Averages per post for 12 industries, credited to "our research". The page does not state the sample size, the period or what the rate is divided by. Last modified on 2 October 2026.
- 5Metricool: 2026 Instagram statistics
Published 18 Jun 2026, read 13 Oct 2026
Over 24 million posts from more than 375,000 accounts, from its 2026 Instagram Study. The public pages do not state how engagement is calculated; the full method is in a 40-page download.
- 6Meta: Instagram Platform changelog
Live page, read 13 Oct 2026
- 7Meta: Instagram media insights reference
Live page, read 13 Oct 2026
Meta's developer documentation for the metrics Instagram reports on a post.
- 8Metricool: 2026 Instagram Study
Published 16 Jun 2026, read 13 Oct 2026
The landing page for the study: 24,364,803 posts from more than 375,000 accounts.
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