How to Reset Your Instagram Algorithm, and What It Won't Fix
Profile, menu, Content preferences, Reset suggested content. It wipes what Instagram recommends to you in a few taps. It does nothing for who sees your posts, which needs different checks.
To reset your Instagram algorithm, open the app, go to your profile, tap the three-line menu, open Content preferences and tap Reset suggested content, then confirm. It clears what Instagram recommends to you in Explore, Reels and Feed and starts learning your interests again from scratch (Meta, 2024). It does not change who sees your posts, and if that is the real reason you searched, the answer is in the second half of this page.
Most guides on this answer only the first question. This one covers both: the reset for what you see, the gentler topic controls Instagram rolled out across the whole app in June 2026, and the checks that actually explain a creator's reach going flat.
Key Takeaways
- Reset suggested content wipes your recommendations in Explore, Reels and Feed. It works only in the app, keeps your follows and your ads, and makes Instagram "much less interesting at first," in Adam Mosseri's words.
- Since June 10, 2026, Your Algorithm lets you see and edit the topics Instagram thinks you like, across Feed, Reels and Explore at once (Instagram, 2026). For most people it beats a full reset.
- Nothing resets a creator's reach. Check Account Status for recommendation eligibility, then compare your engagement rate with accounts your size.
- In OwlStat's study of 22,646 accounts, median engagement falls from 4.69% at 100 to 1K followers to 0.68% at 10K to 50K. A falling rate while you grow is the curve, not a penalty.
How do you reset the Instagram algorithm?
These are Meta's own steps, last updated by Meta in July 2025 and checked in October 2026 (Meta, 2025):
- Open the Instagram app and go to your profile.
- Tap the three-line menu icon.
- Tap Content preferences.
- Tap Reset suggested content.
- Instagram walks you through the accounts you follow, so you can unfollow any that post things you no longer want to see. Unfollowing is optional.
- Confirm by tapping Reset suggested content again. Instagram's Help Center warns it can't be undone.
It only works in the mobile app. Instagram's Help Center lists the feature for the iPhone and Android apps and says plainly that it isn't available on computers (Instagram Help Center, checked October 2026). If you mostly scroll on a laptop, you still have to do this once from your phone.
Instagram announced the reset as a test in November 2024 and said it would soon roll out globally. The Globe and Mail dated the release to January 2025 (The Globe and Mail, 2025).
What does the reset clear, and what does it keep?
| After a reset | |
|---|---|
| Recommendations in Explore, Reels and Feed | Cleared, then rebuilt from what you do next |
| Accounts you follow | Kept, unless you unfollow them during the review |
| Ads you see | Unchanged |
| Your own posts, followers and Insights | Not part of it: the reset is only about content recommended to you |
Sources: Meta for recommendations and follows; Instagram's Help Center for "won't change who you follow or the ads you see."
The review step is the part people skip and should not. Your Feed is built partly from the accounts you follow, which is exactly why Instagram puts that review inside the reset flow. If the content you are tired of comes from accounts you chose to follow during a rough month, a reset alone changes less than you hope. Unfollow them in that step.
What happens right after you reset?
Your Explore page gets worse before it gets better, and Instagram says so. Launching the feature, Adam Mosseri called it "a big thing to do" and warned: "It's going to make your Instagram much less interesting at first, because we're going to treat you as if we know nothing about you and your interests, and it'll take us some time to learn those things again" (The Globe and Mail, 2025).
The Globe and Mail's Samantha Edwards tested it. Her fresh Explore page filled with meat processing videos, misogynistic memes, cruel pranks and a lot of AI generated posts. After a few days, every new interest she engaged with, from bridal hairstyles to a recipe, brought a surge of related content. Concordia University researcher Fenwick McKelvey called it "the cold-start problem": with no history, the system gives you "a bunch of random stuff" to see what sticks.
So treat the first days after a reset as training data, because that is what they are. Instagram says your recommendations "will start to personalize again over time" based on the content and accounts you interact with (Meta, 2024). Watch to the end, save and send only the things you want more of. On everything else, use Not interested from the three-dot menu. Meta's documentation says that on suggested posts in Feed, Not interested stops posts from that author and tries to demote similar content (Meta Transparency Center, 2026). Scrolling past quietly teaches it far less than saying no.
Is there a gentler option than a full reset?
Yes, and for most people it is the better one. Instagram launched Your Algorithm on December 10, 2025, first on the Reels tab in the US. It expanded to Explore on April 15, 2026, and since June 10, 2026 it is "live across all of Instagram, including Feed, Reels, and Explore," globally in English (Instagram, 2026).
It shows you an AI generated summary of the topics Instagram thinks you are into, and you can tell it what you want more or less of, or type in new topics. Instagram calls it "one unified system," so a change you make in Reels carries over to Explore and Feed. To open it, tap the icon in the upper right corner of Reels or Explore, or go to Content preferences and tap Your algorithm. On Explore you can also add or remove interests from the topic pills at the top, and recommended posts now carry a label like "From Running" that you can tap to adjust.
Instagram is still building on it. In June 2026 Mosseri said he wants to evolve Your Algorithm "from a setting to something that feels central to your experience," with tests of a pull down in Feed that opens the menu and buttons under each Reel to see more or less like it. His own caveat: "Some of this is testing now, some is coming soon, some might not work" (TechCrunch, 2026).
Here is every control, from lightest to heaviest:
| Control | What it changes | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Not interested | Hides that author's suggested posts and demotes similar ones | One creator or format keeps showing up |
| Your Algorithm | The topics behind Feed, Reels and Explore together | One or two topics have taken over |
| Snooze suggested posts | Hides suggested posts in Feed for 30 days | You want a break from recommendations |
| Following feed and Favorites | Shows only accounts you follow, or puts your favorites higher | You want friends first |
| Reset suggested content | Wipes every recommendation | Feed is mostly things you do not want and the rest has failed |
Sources: Meta Transparency Center, Instagram, Meta, 2022, Instagram Ranking Explained, Meta, 2024.
My advice: open Your Algorithm first and remove the topics you are sick of. Give it a week of honest Not interested taps. Reset only if your Feed is still mostly noise after that, and go in knowing the first few days will be worse.
Can you reset just Reels, or just search?
There is no separate reset button for Reels. Your Algorithm started on Reels and is the closest thing to a Reels only reset: remove the topics that dominate your Reels tab and they fade from it. Because it is one system, the same edit applies to Explore and Feed too.
Search is separate. Clearing your search history removes your recent searches, but Instagram's Help Center warns that cleared searches can come back once you search for them again (Instagram Help Center, checked October 2026). Search history is one input among many, so clearing it on its own rarely changes much of what you see.
Does resetting the algorithm help your reach as a creator?
No. This is the misunderstanding behind a lot of searches for "reset Instagram algorithm," and the top results either ignore it or blur the two together. Reset suggested content changes what your account is shown. Instagram describes it entirely in terms of the content recommended to you. Nothing in that flow touches how your posts are distributed to anyone else.
Who sees your posts is decided by how viewers react to them. Instagram's ranking explainer is clear that there is no single algorithm: Feed, Reels and Explore each rank on predictions such as how likely a viewer is to watch a reel all the way through or reshare it (Instagram, 2023). Pressing reset on your own phone does not move any of those predictions for anyone else. It mostly costs you the niche content your Explore page had learned to show you, which is the research feed most creators actually rely on.
So the honest answer for a creator is that there is no reset button. There are four checks, and they explain far more than a mysterious algorithm penalty does.
What should you check when your reach feels stuck?
1. Account Status
Account Status, available on professional accounts in your settings, is the only place Instagram tells you directly whether you are being held back. It shows whether your content can be recommended to non-followers in places like Explore, Reels and Feed recommendations, and since April 2023 whether your account itself can be recommended in Search and Suggested Accounts (Instagram, 2023).
If you are not eligible, your followers still see your posts, but they are not recommended to non-followers. Instagram's Help Center adds the harsh part: if your account is not eligible, none of your content will be recommended, even if only some of it breaks the guidelines. Account Status shows a sample post and the guideline it hit. Edit or delete that content, check your profile photo and bio as well, and request a review where the option appears (Instagram Help Center, checked October 2026). This is what people call a shadowban, and it is the first thing to rule out.
2. Compare your engagement with accounts your size
Most "my reach died" moments are an account growing into a lower engagement band. In OwlStat's Instagram engagement benchmark study, 22,646 public business and creator accounts measured between August and October 2026, the median rate drops hard as accounts grow and then stops falling at 50K followers:
| Followers | Bottom quarter | Median | Top quarter |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100-1K | below 1.69% | 4.69% | above 12.37% |
| 1K-10K | below 0.50% | 1.38% | above 3.72% |
| 10K-50K | below 0.21% | 0.68% | above 2.22% |
| 50K-100K | below 0.17% | 0.57% | above 1.71% |
| 100K-500K | below 0.17% | 0.59% | above 1.72% |
| 500K-1M | below 0.16% | 0.52% | above 1.59% |
| 1M+ | below 0.17% | 0.62% | above 1.98% |
Source: OwlStat, Instagram engagement rate benchmarks 2026. Engagement rate here is average likes plus comments on the last 12 posts, divided by followers. The sample leans toward accounts that watch their numbers.
Read it this way. An account that grows from 900 to 12,000 followers moves from a 4.69% median band to a 0.68% one. That is a drop of more than 85% with nothing broken at all. The signal worth acting on is different: sitting below the bottom quarter for your tier for several weeks, or a sharp fall while your follower count barely moved. You can see where any public account sits with the free engagement calculator.
3. Are your reels in a format Instagram holds back?
Instagram itself lists low resolution and watermarked reels among the things that reduce a reel's distribution, along with reels that are muted, have borders, are mostly text or were already posted on Instagram (Instagram, 2023). Reposting your TikToks with the logo on is the first thing to stop.
4. Retrain your audience with trial reels
Trial reels are the closest thing a creator has to a reset. They are shown to non-followers first and do not appear on your grid or Reels tab unless you share them later. About 24 hours after posting you get views, likes, comments and shares, and you can let Instagram share a trial with your followers automatically if it performs well on views in its first 72 hours (Meta, 2024).
heyDominik's method is the most concrete version I have seen: a few steps to put your reels in front of buyers instead of random scrollers, then a check of the stats once they have run for 72 hours.
One warning from Build Your Tribe's October 2026 update: Instagram is cracking down on duplicate trial reels (Build Your Tribe, 2026). Each trial has to be genuinely different.
Should you start a new account instead?
Usually not. Mosseri's advice in May 2025 was direct: "Generally speaking, it's better to continue to use your existing account." For a change of direction he suggested posting a video telling followers about it, archiving old content "so it's not confusing," and testing the new direction with trial reels first, because "all of this allows you to maintain your follower base." A fresh account only makes sense for what he called a really hard pivot, where the new content is nothing like the old (Social Media Today, 2025).
What I would do
If your problem is what you see: open Your Algorithm, remove the topics you are tired of, and spend a week tapping Not interested. Reset suggested content only if that fails, use the review step to unfollow what is feeding the noise, and spend the first days engaging only with what you actually want.
If your problem is your reach: do not touch the reset. Check Account Status today. Then compare your engagement with your tier in the table above, because the most common cause of a "dead" account is simply that it got bigger. Then run trial reels on one topic for two weeks and judge them on follows and shares.
Whatever you do, keep a record. Instagram Insights only lets you look back over the past 90 days (Meta Business Help Center, checked October 2026), so by the time you suspect the algorithm changed, the baseline you need to prove it is often already gone. OwlStat's Instagram analytics records your follower count every day and your engagement per post from the day you connect, and keeps it, so a drop shows up against months of your own history instead of a feeling.
Where to go next
- How the Instagram algorithm works: the signals behind Feed, Reels, Stories and Explore.
- Instagram engagement rate by follower count: the full 2026 study, with the data as a CSV.
- Instagram saves and shares: the two interactions that move reach most.
Sources
- Meta, "Reshape Your Instagram With a Recommendations Reset," November 19, 2024, updated July 14, 2025: https://about.fb.com/news/2024/11/introducing-recommendations-reset-instagram/
- Instagram Help Center, "Reset your suggested content," checked October 2026: https://help.instagram.com/556617736965724/
- The Globe and Mail, Samantha Edwards, "I reset my Instagram algorithm for a fresh start," February 10, 2025: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/article-how-to-reset-your-instagram-algorithm/
- Instagram, "Introducing a new way to see and control your algorithm," December 10, 2025, updated April 15 and June 10, 2026: https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/reels-algorithm-control
- TechCrunch, Anthony Ha, "Instagram is testing more ways to customize Your Algorithm," June 27, 2026: https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/27/instagram-is-testing-more-ways-for-users-to-customize-your-algorithm
- Meta Transparency Center, "Instagram Feed Recommendations," updated June 29, 2026: https://transparency.meta.com/features/explaining-ranking/ig-feed-recommendations/
- Meta, "Testing More Ways to Control What You See on Instagram," August 2022: https://about.fb.com/news/2022/08/testing-ways-to-control-what-you-see-on-instagram/
- Adam Mosseri, "Instagram Ranking Explained," May 31, 2023: https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/instagram-ranking-explained
- Instagram Help Center, "Clear your Instagram search history," checked October 2026: https://help.instagram.com/354860134605952/
- Instagram, "Understanding Instagram Outages and Account Status," updated through October 14, 2025: https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/instagram-outages-and-account-status
- Instagram Help Center, "Recommendation eligibility on Instagram," checked October 2026: https://help.instagram.com/653964212890722
- OwlStat, "Instagram engagement rate benchmarks 2026," 22,646 accounts, October 2026: https://owlstat.io/instagram-engagement-benchmarks/
- Meta, "Test Content With Non-Followers Using Trial Reels," December 10, 2024, updated June 26, 2025: https://about.fb.com/news/2024/12/trial-reels-try-content-non-followers-first-see-what-perfoms-best/
- Social Media Today, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri on switching your content approach, May 15, 2025: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/instagram-advice-switching-content-approach-impacts/748315/
- Meta Business Help Center, "About Instagram insights," checked October 2026: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/788388387972460
- heyDominik, "How To Train The Instagram Algorithm (to show your content)," YouTube, June 23, 2026: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHwvio875L8
- Build Your Tribe, "NEW Instagram Algorithm: How To Go Viral And Get Followers," YouTube, October 5, 2026: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzYQ2bTku2U
Frequently asked questions
Does resetting the Instagram algorithm unfollow people?
No. During the reset Instagram shows you the accounts you follow so you can unfollow some of them, but that step is optional. Instagram says the reset won't change who you follow or the ads you see.
Can you reset the Instagram algorithm on a computer?
No. Instagram's Help Center says Reset suggested content isn't available on computers, only in the iPhone and Android apps (checked October 2026). Do it once from your phone.
How can I hide suggested posts in my Instagram Feed for 30 days?
Tap the X in the top right corner of a suggested post in your Feed, then choose to snooze all suggested posts for 30 days. Those are Meta's instructions from 2022; its 2023 ranking explainer describes the same option as a way to take a break from recommendations.
How long does Instagram take to relearn your interests after a reset?
Instagram gives no number. Adam Mosseri said it will take Instagram some time to learn your interests again. A Globe and Mail reporter who tried it found that after a few days, every new interest she engaged with brought a surge of related content.
Francesco Vagliante
Founder, OwlStat
Founder of OwlStat. Building Instagram, TikTok and YouTube Shorts analytics used by agencies and creators to measure what actually grows an account.
@francescovaglia
