How to See When You Followed Someone on Instagram (2026)

What the app shows (and doesn't)

On your profile, tap Following, then the sort control at the top of the list. You can pick Date followed: latest or Date followed: earliest. This puts the list in order, which answers "who did I follow most recently?", but there are no dates on screen and no way to search by date. The Followers list has no sort at all, only a search box.

Your notifications show recent new followers, but only for a short window and only for people who followed you, not the other way round.

Where the dates are: your data export

1. Go to Settings → Accounts Center → Your information and permissions → Export your information. Choose JSON, tick Followers and following, set the range to All time. Steps with screenshots: how to download your Instagram data export.
2. Download the ZIP and open the connections/followers_and_following folder.
3. Open following.json. Each entry has the username, a link to the profile, and a timestamp. That number is a Unix time: seconds since 1 January 1970. Paste it into any "Unix timestamp converter" to get the date, or use the method below to convert them all at once.
4. followers_1.json has the same structure, with the timestamp being when that person followed you.

If you chose HTML format instead of JSON, the dates are printed as readable text next to each username, so no conversion is needed. JSON is easier to sort and filter; HTML is easier to read by eye. The layout of both is in what's inside your Instagram data export.

Sorting your whole following list by date

Upload the ZIP to UnfollowChecker and it converts every timestamp for you. The list of accounts that don't follow you back can be sorted by name or by the date you followed them, and the CSV you download includes the date on each row. The fans breakdown shows the date each person followed you. It runs in your browser, so the export is never uploaded anywhere.

To do it in a spreadsheet instead, import the JSON, put the timestamp in a column, and convert with =timestamp/86400 + DATE(1970,1,1), then format the cell as a date.

What the dates are useful for

• Deciding who to unfollow first. An account you followed four years ago that never followed back is an easier cut than one from last week who may not have seen you yet. The workflow is in how to unfollow people who don't follow you back.
• Working out which post brought followers. Sort followers by date and look for clusters. A spike on one day lines up with whatever you posted then.
• Spotting bought or bot followers. Hundreds of follows within the same few minutes is the signature of a purchased batch or a bot wave.
• Settling the "who followed who first" question. Compare your follow date for them with their follow date for you.

Frequently asked questions