Instagram Insights

Instagram Insights provides an app overview covering Views, Interactions, New followers and Content you shared, while instagram.com provides Account and Content overviews.1 Tap the information icon in the top-right corner of an Insights detail view to read the definitions of its measurements.1 Instagram’s Help Center warns that certain messaging-related measurements are unavailable for businesses and ads delivered to and from Europe and Japan.1 Mosseri also describes Reels performance insights in Edits, an app for creating videos.8 For paid partnerships using Instagram’s partnership tag, both the creator and the business partner can access insights for the tagged post.9

Instagram Insights breaks Accounts Reached into followers and non-followers, distinguishing people who already follow an account from those who do not.23 Mosseri said in May 2026 that understanding why a post reached more or fewer people means examining engagement rates: the proportion of people who saw it and then liked, sent, commented on or saved it.7 He recommends examining average watch time, likes per reach and sends per reach—the likes and sends relative to the number of accounts reached.10 He identifies watch time, likes and sends as the three most important indicators Instagram uses to decide which content to show, with likes slightly more important for reaching followers and sends slightly more important for reaching non-followers.10

Instagram Insights can also help with posting schedules: Mosseri recommends checking when followers are online each day and, when trying to optimize timing, posting about an hour before their activity peaks.6 He says there is no universal best posting time because each account’s followers may live in different countries and time zones.6 Despite this guidance on using audience-activity measurements, Mosseri said in June 2026 that posting time is not the most important factor in maximizing the number of people content reaches.6 For evaluating results, he advises following a post’s performance over one, two or even three weeks rather than only its first few hours or days.11 Although most posts receive most of their reach within about two days, he says most recommendations—content shown from accounts someone does not follow—are more than two days old.11

Instagram’s broadcast-channel insights connect measurements with guidance: Meta’s Newsroom describes total interactions, story shares and poll votes, alongside suggested actions based on a creator’s chosen channel goal.518 Instagram for Creators describes the Edits assistant as analyzing an account’s Instagram measurements together with comments, trends and audience interests to explain patterns that may be difficult to see in the numbers alone.4 In September 2026, Instagram for Creators also announced competitive insights in Meta One plans and suggested scheduling times for posts and Stories based on when followers are most active.19