22,646
public Instagram accounts measured
0.93%
median engagement rate
6x
more comments per like at 100-1K followers than over 1M
Key findings
Three things the data shows
01 · The curve
The drop ends at 50K followers
Median engagement falls from 4.69% at 100-1K followers to 1.38% at 1K-10K and 0.68% at 10K-50K. From 50K followers up it stops falling: every tier sits between 0.52% and 0.62%.
02 · Likes vs comments
Big accounts get likes, small ones get conversations
At 100-1K followers the median account gets 8.4 comments for every 100 likes. Over 1M followers it gets 1.3.
03 · The spread
Size explains less than you think
In every tier from 1K followers up, accounts in the top quarter have 7 to 12 times the engagement rate of the bottom quarter. A 10K-50K account at 2.22% is already in the top quarter.
Benchmarks
Median engagement rate by follower count
100-1K
4.69%
1K-10K
1.38%
10K-50K
0.68%
50K-100K
0.57%
100K-500K
0.59%
500K-1M
0.52%
1M+
0.62%
What a good engagement rate looks like at your size
| Followers | Bottom quarter | Median | Top quarter | Accounts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100-1K | < 1.69% | 4.69% | > 12.37% | 1,885 |
| 1K-10K | < 0.50% | 1.38% | > 3.72% | 6,413 |
| 10K-50K | < 0.21% | 0.68% | > 2.22% | 5,418 |
| 50K-100K | < 0.17% | 0.57% | > 1.71% | 2,014 |
| 100K-500K | < 0.17% | 0.59% | > 1.72% | 3,840 |
| 500K-1M | < 0.16% | 0.52% | > 1.59% | 1,067 |
| 1M+ | < 0.17% | 0.62% | > 1.98% | 2,009 |
Half of the accounts in each tier fall between the bottom and the top quarter.
Conversation
Comments for every 100 likes
100-1K
8.36
1K-10K
7.83
10K-50K
5.64
50K-100K
4.31
100K-500K
2.80
500K-1M
2.03
1M+
1.33
Median number of comments per 100 likes on the last 12 posts, by follower count.
Methodology
How we measured
- Sample
- 22,646 public Instagram business and creator accounts tracked in OwlStat, each measured once: its latest snapshot between 1 August and 20 October 2026.
- Formula
- Engagement rate = (average likes + average comments on the last 12 posts) ÷ followers × 100. Pinned posts are left out, and posts with hidden like counts do not count toward the like average. Saves, shares and views are not public, so they are not included.
- Included
- Accounts with at least 100 followers that posted in the 90 days before their snapshot.
- Left out
- Private accounts; accounts that agencies track in bulk (workspaces with 50+ accounts) or that come from partner lists, so no single client portfolio weighs on the result; 123 accounts above 100% engagement, which are viral outliers or bad reads.
- Bias
- This is not a random sample of Instagram. These are accounts someone chose to look up or track on OwlStat, which leans toward brands and creators who watch their numbers.
- Statistics
- Medians and quartiles, not averages: a few viral accounts would pull an average up and hide the typical account.
- Data
- The aggregated numbers are free to use: download the CSV. Please cite “OwlStat, Instagram engagement rate benchmarks 2026” with a link to this page.