How to See Who Follows You That You Don't Follow Back on Instagram

The three groups every follower falls into

Any account connected to yours is in exactly one of these:

• Mutuals: you follow each other. See how to see your mutual followers.
• Non-followers:you follow them, they don't follow you. The most-searched group, covered in how to see who doesn't follow you back.
• Fans:they follow you, you don't follow them. This guide.

Your follower count is mutuals plus fans. Your following count is mutuals plus non-followers. That's why two accounts with the same follower number can have very different relationships with their audience.

Checking one person: the "Follow back" button

Open any profile. If the blue button says Follow back instead of Follow, that account follows you and you don't follow them. This is the only place Instagram surfaces the relationship, and it only works one profile at a time. There is no filter on your Followers list for it.

Getting the whole list from your data export

1. Request your export from Settings → Accounts Center → Your information and permissions → Export your information. JSON format, only Followers and following, All time. Full steps: how to download your Instagram data export.
2. Download the ZIP from the email or from Download your information.
3. Take every username in followers_1.json that does not appear in following.json. Those are your fans. The followers file also records when each person followed you, so you can sort fans by newest first.

UnfollowChecker does this split for you in the browser when you upload the ZIP, and shows the fans list with the date each person followed you as part of the fans and mutuals breakdown when you unlock your results. No login and nothing uploaded.

What the fans list is for

• Finding people worth following back. Real accounts that chose to follow you are the most likely to become mutuals and engage. Sorting by newest first shows who arrived after a particular post.
• Spotting fake followers. A large fans group full of accounts with no posts, no profile picture and random usernames is a sign of bought or bot followers, whether you bought them or not. More in what are ghost followers.
• Measuring pull versus push. If fans are a large share of your followers, people find and follow you on their own. If your followers are almost all mutuals, your growth is mostly follow-for-follow, which tends to churn.

Should you follow your fans back?

Only the ones you'd want in your feed. Following back out of politeness fills your home feed with posts you scroll past, and following hundreds of accounts in one go can trigger an action block. Go through the list, follow the accounts you like, and leave the rest. Nobody is notified that you looked.

Frequently asked questions