followers_1.json: what it is and how to read it

How it works

1. 1

   Request the export from Accounts Centre

   In the Instagram app go to your profile → menu (☰) → Settings and privacy → Accounts Centre → Your information and permissions → Export your information → Create export. Select only Followers and following, date range All time, format JSON, and Download to device.

2. 2

   Download the ZIP within 4 days

   A followers-only export usually takes 10–20 minutes to prepare. Instagram emails you a download link that expires after 4 days; save the ZIP to your phone or computer.

3. 3

   Upload the ZIP or the JSON files

   Drop the whole ZIP on this page, or drag in followers_1.json and following.json on their own if you have already unzipped it. Everything is read in your browser. The results step includes free CSV buttons for your followers and following lists.

Where followers_1.json lives

Request a followers-only export (Followers and following, JSON) and followers_1.json sits near the top of the ZIP alongside following.json. In a full-account export it's buried under connections/followers_and_following/, next to files for pending requests, blocked accounts and close friends. The guide to the export contents maps the whole folder. If your request has been pending for ages, the export delay guide explains why a full request takes so much longer than a followers-only one.

What each entry looks like

The file is a bare JSON array. Each element describes one follower and has three parts:

• title — usually empty; some older exports put the username here instead.
• string_list_data — an array with a single object holding href (the profile URL, e.g. https://www.instagram.com/theirname), value (the username) and timestamp (the follow time as Unix seconds).
• media_list_data — present in some exports and always empty for followers.

Why there is a followers_2.json

Instagram writes the followers list in chunks. An account with a few hundred followers gets a single followers_1.json; beyond a few thousand, the list continues into followers_2.json, followers_3.json and so on, each in the same array format. There is no index telling you how many parts exist — you look for the highest number. Any tool that reads only the first file undercounts large accounts, which is one of the ways spreadsheet comparisons go wrong. Everything on this site reads all the parts and merges them before doing anything else.

Turning it into a readable list

Nobody wants to read a JSON array of a thousand ten-digit timestamps. Drop the ZIP — or the followers_N.json files on their own — on this page, and the results step shows your follower count with a Your followers list (N) — CSV button. The download is followers.csv with Username, Profile URL and Date They Followed You columns, dates in yyyy-mm-dd, and opens directly in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets. It's free, and the followers list download page covers what to do with it once it's a spreadsheet.

Pairing it with following.json

On its own, followers_1.json answers "who follows me?". Paired with following.json — the same entry shape under a relationships_following key, described on the following.json page — it answers the questions people actually export for: who you follow that doesn't follow back, who follows you that you don't follow, and who's mutual. Paired with an older copy of itself, it answers who unfollowed you; the two-list comparison does that with the files from two exports. The export analyzer page is the overview of all of it.

What this tool can't do with the file

It can't add anything the file doesn't contain: no display names, follower counts, bios or profile pictures, just usernames, links and dates. It can't tell whether a listed account is active, a bot or a business. It can't repair a file that's been hand-edited into invalid JSON — if the upload fails, re-download the original. And it can't fetch anything from Instagram itself; it reads the file you give it and nothing else.

Frequently asked questions