Instagram Engagement Rate Calculator

How Instagram Engagement Rate Calculator works

You type in the username of any non-private Instagram account (influencer or brand) and get the Engagement Rate (ER). Simple, isn’t it? 

You don’t need to connect your account to use our Instagram ER Calculator. The analysis is based on posts that the influencer has right now; therefore, you could easily check the ER on your own profile or the profiles of your competitors.

In some cases, we’ll ask you to check CAPTCHA.  

How to calculate ER

Instagram ER calculator takes the total number of likes and comments from the most recent 18 posts. These are then divided by 18 (to gain average per post). The calculator divides this by the account’s current quantity of followers, then multiplies it by 100%. So, the Engagement rate formula looks like this:

ER = (( Likes + Comments ) / Posts ) / Followers * 100%

Post Engagements / Number of Followers 

The last 18 posts are analyzed as follows:

ER = (( Post 1 Likes + Post 1 Comments + Post 2 Likes + Post 2 Comments + … + Post 18 Likes + Post 18 Comments) / 18 ) / Followers * 100%

As a worked example, take an account with 100k followers and 200 posts. The past 18 posts can be summarized as 6 posts with 10k likes and 10 comments, 6 posts with 8k likes and 20 comments, and 6 posts with 11k likes and 3 comments. 

So engagement rate formula will be: ((((10000+10)*6+(8000+20)*6+(11000+3)*6)/18)/100000)*100% = 9.68%

In real life, every post has a unique number of likes and comments (otherwise, there could be fake likes), so this formula will be much longer. On the surface, this calculation looks complicated, but this is one simple formula in Excel.So it’s time-consuming, not complicated, because you need to type in all the posts statistics by hand. 

Why do we check the last 18 posts? 

We’ve completed research to determine that a review of 18 posts is sufficient to understand ER for the majority of accounts – from profiles with one post per week to fan groups with dozens of publications per day. If the account has published fewer than 18 posts, we’ll divide by the number of posts. 

In addition,there is a question if we should add statistics of deleted posts. 

It is common practice in some countries to limit the time that promotions are active. For example, an influencer posts something mentioning a brand, but there are 3 price options: 1 day, 3 days, and forever. That means the influencer deletes the publication after this period of time. So, our calculator summarizes this type of post too. 

Why do you need an Engagement Rate Calculator for Instagram 

Having seen the long calculation process, it is very time-consuming to complete this by hand. Furthermore, in order to gather the data necessary, you need to export all the posts’ statistics and then use a formula to get the final ER value. Hooray! It’s Excel time. 

Why would anybody calculate ER by hand when there is a free online solution?

Our free online Instagram ER calculator helps to: 

1. Get ER in a few seconds
2. Analyze any non-private account from 500 followers
3. See the main info about an account
4. Get a follower growth history

So, you get basic information about accounts for free. By the way, a follower growth graph shows  if there is an organic or suspicious increase in subscribers. It’s one of the simplest ways to reveal giveaway or inauthentic growth.

Read our article about tools for tracking daily followers growth. 

How to use the Engagement Rate Calculator to find influencers for your brand

Start with an Engagement Rate check.

Whilst there may be a lot of methods for manual searches, including: 

• Promo campaigns from non-competitive brands
• Instagram recommendations 
• Google searches (like “top sports influencers in Brazil”)
• Hashtag searches
• Other influencers’ mentions
• Direct collaboration offers for managers
• Your colleague or mom likes this influencer (word of mouth) 

All these methods, however, will lead you to the moment when you need to check ER. It’s the most common and basic check. It helps you to figure out if it’s ok to continue communications with an influencer or not. 

For example, you have an offer from an influencer’s manager in Direct. Just use this calculator to  quantify this influencer ER. If their ER is below average, you could decide not to waste time on integration and politely refuse their offer. 

If you need hundreds of influencers, you could use our influencer discovery feature, which boasts a 90M+ database and 15+ filters, including category, size and demographics, and keywords. Try it for free.

What is an Instagram Engagement Rate

Engagement rate (ER) is one of the metrics used to gain an overall evaluation of an Instagram account. In its most common meaning, it’s the sum of likes and comments divided by the number of posts and the number of followers. More about how to use Engagement Rate

What does Engagement rate tell us about influencers

ER is one of the most commonly used metrics in influencer marketing. So, why is Instagram Engagement so important?

The reason is Instagram algorithms. In fact, if you post something, it will not necessarily be shown to all of your followers. Dozens of algorithms are used to decide whether content will appear in someone’s feed or explore section. ER is particularly influential in this because Instagram wants more engaging posts in its customers’ feeds. More engaging posts → more time spent on Instagram.

It is important to understand that follower quantity means nothing in influencer marketing. 

There could be an influencer with one million subscribers and 0.1% ER. Or someone with 10k followers and 10% ER. They will both have a similar reach. If you are looking for an influencer to collaborate with, you will choose the one with an engaged audience and higher reach. That’s the main point of marketing, and therefore, ER is incredibly important. 

So, in short, ER helps you to choose the right influencers at the start of a campaign. 

What is the average Instagram Engagement Rate in 2022

Average ER depends on the country, category, and size of the influencer’s following. 

For example, influencers from the USA have higher ER than similar accounts in Brazil or India; nano influencers have better average ER compared to macro-influencers; sports influencers engage their audience better than lifestyle-focused influencers. Brands often have lower ER than influencers. 

Average and good Engagement Rate according to influencer’s size:

• Nano-influencers (5-10k followers): average — 2.6%; good — 5.9%; excellent — 11.2%
• Micro-influencers (10-100k followers): average — 1.8%; good — 4.1%; excellent — 8.1%
• Macro-influencers (100k-1m followers): average — 1.5%; good — 3.6%; excellent — 7.3%
• Celebrities (1m and more): average — 1.5%; good — 3.7%; excellent — 7.2%

This data is our benchmark based on an analysis of 7.5 million Instagram accounts.

So, you need to compare similar accounts by size, type and category  to make a decision.  

For example, you shouldn’t compare Mary, who has 832k followers and 4.3% ER, to Katty (18k followers, 14% ER). They are fundamentally different. In this case, you could even have different goals for campaigns with these opinion leaders. To compare, you need to predict the CPM or conversion rate for your campaign.

Why is my Instagram engagement so low?

There could be a lot of reasons, from a low-quality audience gathered previously to problems with your content (your audience wants to see something else from you). We have an article about low ER and methods to increase it.

Does Engagement Rate Calculator help to find fake followers

The answer is, most likely, no.

Whilst a very low ER (0.5% and below) could give you an indication of fake followers; you would need a full report to know for sure. 

Basically, ER shows the number of reactions but not the authenticity of these reactions or accounts. There are a lot of methods to get fake or inauthentic likes, comments, or followers, including:

• Bots
• Follows for follows
• Liketime and giveaways
• Engagement pods (a community of individuals who have united with the purpose to assist each other with the promotion of Instagram posts and get an increase in ERs)
• Mass following and mass likes 

All these methods could result in a high number of likes and followers but not a loyal audience. They will also all affect Engagement Rate.

So a low ER is an indicator of possible fake followers, and a high ER means that you need to research more to understand why this creator or opinion leader has such good statistics.   

Why our online Engagement rate calculator is free

trendHERO is an advanced platform used for the discovery and analysis of influencer accounts. We have a lot of expertise and an abundance of data about accounts’ statistics and behavior. Some useful metrics are available in our free subscription. 

We decided to create an online tool to simplify influencer marketers’ work.

You could use it totally free for your marketing purposes. 

If you need an in-depth analysis or to check for fake followers, trendHERO also offers full reports (90+ metrics). Our main features include:

1. Influencer discovery
2. Influencer analysis and fake follower detection
3. Audience overlaps
4. 500 similar accounts 
5. Tracking
6. Ad posts
7. Export accounts (with contacts)
8. Outreach

Try it for free 

“I want to see Engagement Rate history”

For marketing purposes, you might want to know how ER has changed day by day. This data isn’t included in the ER calculator, but you can easily get it using trendHERO tracking.

Tracking is a key feature that helps you to monitor daily statistics about accounts, including ER and changes in the number of followers. You don’t even need to connect your profile in any way – just type in the username and get the info, therefore enabling you to track your or your competitors accounts. Try it for free in our Tracking section.