How is Instagram engagement rate calculated?
Engagement rate is the share of people who interacted with a post. On someone else's Instagram post you can see likes and comments, so the calculator adds those two and divides by one of two numbers.
By followers:
(likes + comments) ÷ followers × 100
A post with 4,000 likes and 200 comments from an account with 300,000 followers has an engagement rate of 1.4% by followers.
By views:
(likes + comments) ÷ views × 100
The same post, if it's a Reel with 150,000 views, has an engagement rate of 2.8% by views.
To get a creator's overall rate, work out the rate for each of their recent posts and take the middle value, or add up the likes and comments across those posts and divide by the total. Use the same set of posts every time you compare creators.
Should you use followers or views?
They answer different questions.
- Followers tells you how much a creator's audience reacts to them. It's the number brands and most benchmark reports use, so it's the one to use when comparing against a published average.
- Views tells you how people who actually saw a Reel reacted to it. Instagram recommends Reels to people who don't follow the creator, so a Reel's views can be far above or below the follower count. For Reels, the rate by views is often the fairer measure of the content itself.
Photos and carousels don't show a view count on Instagram, so for those, followers is the only option.
If you want to know how views are counted in the first place, see how Instagram Reels views work.
What is a typical Instagram engagement rate?
Rival IQ's 2025 Social Media Industry Benchmark Report found a median Instagram engagement rate of 0.36% per post, by followers, across brands in 14 industries. Rival IQ counts likes, comments, shares and reactions and divides by follower count.
Two cautions before you use that number:
- It measures brand accounts, not individual creators.
- It's by followers. A rate by views from this calculator isn't comparable with it.
The more useful comparison is a creator against themselves, which is the next section.
Why one average hides the posts that matter
A single engagement rate for a whole profile tells you whether the account is generally healthy. It doesn't tell you which posts worked.
Say a creator's posts usually get 80,000 views, and one Reel got 900,000. Averaged into their profile rate, that Reel barely moves the number. Looked at on its own, it's 11 times their usual, and it's the post you want to study.
SortViral scores each post against the creator's own median: the median views of their 30 most recent posts, leaving out pinned posts and posts under 3 days old. Photos and carousels, which have no view count, are scored on likes. Each score shows what it was compared against, for example "12× · median of 12 Reels". A real case: MKBHD's Reel from 4 August 2026 got 32,010,675 views, 12.1× his usual of 2.6M across his latest 12 Reels (public data, 6 October 2026).
How do you get every post's engagement rate without typing?
This calculator is handy for one post or one creator. To get the numbers for a whole profile, SortViral reads them for you. It's a free Chrome extension for computers, with no sign-up and no post limit.
Open a creator's Reels or Posts tab on instagram.com and a bar appears above the grid. Click the engagement chip to sort every post by engagement, or Outlier to sort by views compared with the creator's usual. Hover any post to see its views, likes, comments, outlier score, engagement, views per day and posting date. Export a CSV to keep the numbers.
Get every post's views, likes, comments and engagement on any Instagram profile. Free, no sign-up.
Add to Chrome, freeTo find the posts with the most views or likes, see most viewed Reels. For TikTok, use the TikTok engagement rate calculator.
Frequently asked questions
Should I divide by followers or views?
Divide by followers to compare a creator with published benchmarks or with other creators of similar size. Divide by views to judge how people who saw a Reel reacted to it. Photos and carousels have no view count, so use followers for those. Whichever you pick, use the same one for every creator you compare.
Does Instagram show saves and shares?
Not on other people's posts. Instagram shows saves and shares to the account that posted, in its insights, but other people only see likes and comments. That's why this calculator uses likes and comments.
Why is my engagement rate different from another tool's?
Tools use different formulas. Some divide by followers and some by views or reach, some include saves and shares, and some average a different number of posts. Compare rates only when they're worked out the same way.
Is this calculator free?
Yes. It runs in your browser, nothing is sent anywhere, and there's no sign-up.