How to calculate engagement rate
Engagement rate is the number of times people interacted with a post, divided by how many people could have. There are two common versions.
Some tools also divide by reach, the number of unique accounts that saw the post. Only the account owner can see reach, so it's no use for checking someone else's creator. Views are public on TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube.
What counts as an engagement depends on what each platform shows publicly:
| Platform | By views | By followers |
|---|---|---|
| TikTok | (likes + comments + shares + saves) ÷ views | (likes + comments + shares + saves) ÷ followers |
| (likes + comments) ÷ plays, videos and Reels | (likes + comments) ÷ followers, any post | |
| YouTube | (likes + comments) ÷ views | (likes + comments) ÷ subscribers |
Instagram doesn't show shares or saves on other people's posts, so they're left out there. That makes rates on different platforms different measures: compare a TikTok rate with other TikTok rates, not with Instagram.
A worked example
<!-- example -->A TikTok post has 20,000 views, 1,500 likes, 60 comments, 40 shares and 100 saves, from a creator with 25,000 followers.
An Instagram Reel with 900 likes, 30 comments and 30,000 plays, from an account with 40,000 followers, has 930 engagements: 3.1% by plays and 2.3% by followers.
<!-- /example -->What is a good engagement rate on TikTok?
A good rate is one that beats most creators of the same size, so it depends on the tier. Here's the middle of the range for UK and US creators.
The median UK or US micro TikTok creator (10,000 to 99,999 followers) had an engagement rate by views of 8.2% from July to September 2026, across 265,362 creators with at least 5 posts.
A micro TikTok creator whose posts have a median engagement rate by views above 11.9% was in the top quarter of UK and US micro creators, July to September 2026.
The median UK or US nano TikTok creator (1,000 to 9,999 followers) had an engagement rate by views of 8.7%, and the median mega creator (1 million followers or more) 8.4%, July to September 2026.
Category matters as much as size. Pick one in the calculator to compare with creators who make the same kind of content.
| Tier (current followers) | Median creator, by views | Middle half of creators | Median creator, by followers | Median post, by views | Creators (5+ posts) | Posts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nano (1,000 to 9,999) | 8.7% | 6.2% to 12.0% | 1.5% | 8.7% | 22,375 | 270,618 |
| Micro (10,000 to 99,999) | 8.2% | 5.3% to 11.9% | 0.64% | 8.1% | 265,362 | 4,464,724 |
| Mid (100,000 to 499,999) | 7.7% | 5.0% to 11.1% | 0.15% | 7.7% | 119,889 | 2,648,863 |
| Macro (500,000 to 999,999) | 7.8% | 5.0% to 11.6% | 0.17% | 8.0% | 16,742 | 401,045 |
| Mega (1,000,000+) | 8.4% | 5.5% to 12.0% | 0.18% | 8.5% | 14,766 | 370,863 |
Each creator's median rate across their posts, creators with at least 5 posts. By views = (likes + comments + shares + saves) ÷ views.
Why engagement rate by followers falls as accounts grow
By views, TikTok rates barely move with size: the median creator sits between 7.7% and 8.7% in every tier. By followers, they fall fast. The median nano creator's rate by followers was 1.5% and the median mid-size creator's (100,000 to 499,999 followers) 0.15%, July to September 2026.
That's because most of a big account's followers never see a given post. TikTok shows posts to people based on what they watch, not only to followers, so views don't grow in step with follower count. A rate by followers mostly tells you how far a post travelled. A rate by views tells you how people who saw it reacted, which is why it's the fairer way to compare creators of different sizes.
What is a good engagement rate on Instagram?
The median UK or US micro Instagram creator had an engagement rate by plays of 3.1% on their Reels and videos, and 0.89% by followers across all their posts, July to September 2026.
Photos and carousels have no plays, so the calculator ranks them by followers only. The Instagram engagement rate calculator has Instagram benchmarks by tier and category, and the TikTok engagement rate calculator TikTok's.
YouTube
The calculator gives YouTube rates with their formulas, but doesn't rank them yet. We're checking those benchmarks the same way as TikTok's and Instagram's before we publish percentiles.
FAQ
What is engagement rate?
The share of people who interacted with a post: likes, comments and, on TikTok, shares and saves, divided by views or by followers.
How do you calculate engagement rate on TikTok?
Add the post's likes, comments, shares and saves, then divide by its views. Divide by followers instead for the rate by followers. All four numbers are public on every TikTok post.
What is a good engagement rate on TikTok?
It depends on size and category. For UK and US micro creators, the median creator had 8.2% by views and the top quarter had more than 11.9%, July to September 2026.
Should I use views or followers?
Views, when you're comparing creators. A rate by followers rewards posts that went viral beyond the creator's audience and punishes big accounts, as the section above shows.
Can engagement rate be over 100%?
By followers, yes. A post that reaches far more people than the creator has followers can get more engagements than there are followers. By views it can't: a post with more engagements than views is almost always a counting error.
Why doesn't the calculator rank my post?
It only ranks posts that match the benchmark data: creators with at least 1,000 followers, posts at least 7 days old, and posts that aren't paid or marked #ad. On TikTok it also needs all four numbers; on Instagram, likes and comments, plus plays for a Reel or video. A missing number is never counted as zero, so a post whose likes are hidden gets no rate. Otherwise you still get the rate.
Why does "several posts" use the median, not the average?
One viral post pulls an average up a long way, while a median shows a creator's usual post. Our creator benchmarks are each creator's median, so the calculator compares like with like. Typed-in averages get a rate but no ranking.
Is the calculator free?
Yes. No sign-up, and nothing you type is saved.
Method
The TikTok benchmarks cover 8,156,113 posts by 642,741 UK and US creators with at least 1,000 followers, uploaded July to September 2026. Kyra is a creator marketing company, and these are posts Kyra tracks, not every post on TikTok. Updated 21 October 2026; we refresh it every quarter.
The Instagram benchmarks cover 2,561,399 posts by 112,812 UK and US creators, uploaded July to September 2026, with the same rules: by plays for Reels and videos, by followers for every post. The Instagram calculator's method has the details.