How to calculate Instagram engagement rate
Instagram shows two kinds of engagement on other people's posts: likes and comments. Shares and saves are only visible to the account owner, so they can't go into a rate you work out for someone else.
Some tools add shares and saves from the creator's own insights, or divide by reach. Both need access to the creator's account, and the results aren't comparable with a rate from public numbers.
A worked example
<!-- example -->A Reel has 30,000 plays, 900 likes and 30 comments. The creator has 40,000 followers.
A carousel by the same creator with 600 likes and 20 comments has no plays, so it only gets a rate by followers: 620 ÷ 40,000 = 1.6%.
<!-- /example -->One post or several
One post compares a single post with every post by creators in the same tier and category: Reels and videos by plays, any post by followers. Several posts takes the median rate across 5 to 12 of a creator's posts and compares it with other creators' medians. Paste an @handle and the calculator fetches the creator's recent posts for you.
What is a good engagement rate on Instagram?
The median UK or US micro Instagram creator (10,000 to 99,999 followers) had an engagement rate by plays of 3.1% on their Reels and videos from July to September 2026, across 13,894 creators with at least 5 of them.
The top quarter of micro creators had a median by plays above 4.8%, and the top tenth above 7.0%, July to September 2026.
By followers, counting every post, the median micro creator had 0.89%, across 16,803 creators with at least 5 posts, July to September 2026.
The median Reel or video by a UK or US micro creator had an engagement rate by plays of 3.1%, across 287,673 videos and Reels, July to September 2026.
| Tier (current followers) | Median creator, by plays | Middle half of creators | Median creator, by followers | Median post, by plays | Creators (5+ posts) | Posts | Of which videos and Reels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nano (1,000 to 9,999) | 2.8% | 1.3% to 4.4% | 1.9% | 2.9% | 1,400 | 33,962 | 24,508 |
| Micro (10,000 to 99,999) | 3.1% | 1.8% to 4.8% | 0.89% | 3.1% | 16,803 | 392,676 | 287,673 |
| Mid (100,000 to 499,999) | 3.2% | 1.8% to 5.1% | 0.33% | 3.2% | 57,970 | 1,589,593 | 1,142,170 |
| Macro (500,000 to 999,999) | 3.5% | 2.0% to 5.3% | 0.38% | 3.4% | 8,905 | 296,867 | 222,276 |
| Mega (1,000,000+) | 3.4% | 2.0% to 5.1% | 0.36% | 3.3% | 7,632 | 248,301 | 181,801 |
Each creator's median rate across their posts, creators with at least 5 posts. By plays = (likes + comments) ÷ plays, videos and Reels only, creators with at least 5 of them. By followers = (likes + comments) ÷ followers, every post.
| Category | Nano | Micro | Mid | Macro | Mega |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All categories | 2.8% | 3.1% | 3.2% | 3.5% | 3.4% |
| Lifestyle | 2.5% | 3.0% | 3.1% | 3.4% | 3.3% |
| Entertainment | too few | 4.0% | 4.1% | 4.3% | 4.0% |
| Fashion | too few | 2.7% | 2.8% | 2.8% | 3.0% |
| Sports | too few | 3.3% | 3.3% | 3.6% | 3.7% |
| Society | too few | 3.8% | 4.2% | 4.9% | 4.1% |
| Food & Drinks | too few | 2.7% | 2.6% | 3.1% | 3.0% |
| Comedy | too few | 3.7% | 3.9% | 4.5% | 4.2% |
| Beauty | 2.9% | 2.9% | 2.5% | 2.6% | 2.7% |
| Education | too few | 2.9% | 2.7% | 2.8% | 2.9% |
| Animals | too few | 6.2% | 6.2% | too few | too few |
| Fitness & Health | too few | 2.8% | 2.6% | 2.9% | 2.4% |
| Automotive | too few | 4.3% | 3.9% | too few | too few |
| Technology | too few | too few | 2.4% | too few | too few |
| Art | too few | 4.3% | 3.5% | 3.7% | too few |
| TV/Film | too few | too few | 4.1% | too few | too few |
| Travel | too few | 3.1% | 2.9% | 2.9% | too few |
| Family | too few | 2.5% | 2.7% | too few | too few |
| Motivation | too few | 3.7% | 3.6% | 4.5% | too few |
| Drama | too few | too few | too few | too few | too few |
"Too few": under 200 creators with 5+ videos or Reels or under 2,000 of them, so the calculator compares with the whole tier instead.
Good depends on the category
Creators of the same size get different rates depending on what they post. Among UK and US micro creators, the median by plays ranged from 2.5% for family to 6.2% for animals and pets, July to September 2026.
The median micro beauty creator had 2.9%, the median micro fashion creator 2.7% and the median micro food and drink creator 2.7%, July to September 2026.
Pick the creator's category in the calculator to compare like with like.
Why engagement rate by followers falls as accounts grow
By plays, the median creator sits between 2.8% and 3.5% in every tier. By followers it falls from 1.9% for nano creators to 0.89% for micro and 0.33% for mid-size creators (100,000 to 499,999 followers), July to September 2026.
Most of a big account's followers don't see a given post, and Reels reach people who don't follow the creator at all. So plays don't grow in step with followers, and a rate by followers mostly tells you how far a post travelled. Compare creators of different sizes by plays where you can.
FAQ
Does Instagram engagement rate include shares and saves?
Not ours. Instagram only shows shares and saves to the account owner, so a rate anyone can check uses likes and comments. If a creator sends you their insights, a rate with shares and saves will be higher and isn't comparable with these benchmarks.
Why does a photo or carousel only get a rate by followers?
Photos and carousels have no play count, so there's nothing to divide by except followers. Their rate by followers is compared with every post, photos, carousels and Reels together, as in the benchmarks.
What if the creator hides likes?
Then there's no engagement rate for that post. Hidden likes aren't zero, and a rate without them would be wrong. When you look up a handle, posts with hidden likes are left out and listed with the reason.
Can I check a creator by their handle?
Yes. Paste their @handle and the calculator fetches their recent public posts, skips any under 7 days old, paid or with hidden likes, and compares the median of the rest with other creators' medians. Private accounts can't be fetched. Kyra One shows every creator's real engagement if you're vetting creators for a campaign.
Why does a post need to be 7 days old?
A post keeps gathering plays and likes after its first day, so a new post isn't comparable yet. The benchmarks only use posts captured at least 7 days after posting, and the calculator only ranks posts that old.
Why aren't paid posts ranked?
Posts flagged as advertising are left out of the benchmarks, because paid posts tend to get lower engagement and ranking them against unpaid posts wouldn't be fair. You still get the rate.
Can an Instagram engagement rate be over 100%?
By followers, yes: a Reel that reaches far beyond the creator's audience can get more likes and comments than they have followers. By plays, no. More engagements than plays is a counting error.
Method
The benchmarks cover 2,561,399 Instagram posts by 112,812 UK and US creators with at least 1,000 followers, uploaded July to September 2026: 1,858,428 Reels and videos, 517,429 carousels and 185,542 photos. Kyra is a creator marketing company, and these are posts Kyra tracks, not every post on Instagram. Kyra tracks more mid-size and large accounts than small ones, so the nano tier is the smallest. Updated 21 October 2026; we refresh it every quarter.
Instagram and TikTok count different things, so compare an Instagram rate with other Instagram rates. The TikTok engagement rate calculator has TikTok benchmarks by tier and category.