Your Instagram Close Friends list, exported, and who on it doesn't follow you

How it works

1. 1

   Request the export

   In Instagram, open Accounts Centre → Your information and permissions → Export your information → Create export. Choose only Followers and following, then All time, JSON and Download to device. That one category includes the smaller files this page reads.

2. 2

   Download the ZIP

   Instagram usually has it ready in 10–20 minutes and tells you by email and in the app. Download it from the same screen; the link only works for a few days, so don't leave it.

3. 3

   Upload it here

   Drop the ZIP on this page. Everything runs in your browser tab and the file is never uploaded. Your counts appear immediately, free.

4. 4

   Unlock the lists

   The full non-followers list is a one-time $2.99. The account audit add-on, $3 on top, delivers this list with dates as a CSV together with the other audit lists.

What the list is for, and why it drifts

Close Friends started as a way to share a story with a smaller circle, marked by the green ring, and Instagram has since extended it to posts and notes. The list is private: nobody is told when they are added or removed, and nobody can see who else is on it. You manage it from your profile menu under Close friends, where you can add or remove accounts and search by name.

What that screen doesn't show is when you added someone, and nothing on Instagram's side checks whether the people on it still follow you. Nobody is removed from the list when they unfollow you. Over a few years the list drifts: old friendships, accounts that went quiet, people who left Instagram altogether, and the odd name you can't place any more.

What close_friends.json contains

The export's Followers and following category includes close_friends.json whenever the list isn't empty. Each entry is one account: the username, a link to the profile and a timestamp, which is the date you added them. The tour of the export's files shows where it sits among the other smaller files.

On its own that gives you a dated, countable copy of the list. Combined with followers_1.json in the same ZIP, it answers the question Instagram won't: which of your close friends don't follow you.

Close friends who don't follow you back

The audit cross-references the close friends file with your followers file and lists every close friend whose username isn't among your followers. Some of those are accounts that unfollowed you at some point; some you may have added without them ever following back; some have been renamed or deleted, which looks the same from the export's point of view. Whether to remove them is your call. The list tells you who they are, with the date you added each one, and their count appears on this page next to the size of the whole list.

It is a different question from who doesn't follow you back in general. That list is everyone you follow who doesn't follow you; this is the subset you chose to share more with.

Getting the list from your export

Create the export from Accounts Centre → Your information and permissions → Export your information → Create export, choose only Followers and following, then All time, JSON and Download to device. Instagram usually has it ready in 10–20 minutes. Upload the ZIP here; everything runs in your browser tab and the file is never sent anywhere.

The page shows how many accounts are on your Close Friends list and how many of them aren't following you, next to the non-follower, fan and mutual counts from the same export.

What's free, what's in the audit add-on

Free: both close friends counts, the three relationship counts, and CSV downloads of your full followers and following lists. Paid: the full non-followers list is a one-time $2.99, and the account audit is a $3 add-on chosen at checkout. The audit delivers close_friends.csv and close_friends_not_following_back.csv, each with usernames, profile links and the date added, together with blocked and restricted accounts, pending requests, recent unfollows, accounts hidden from your story and a month-by-month follower growth table.

If you'd rather do it by hand, close_friends.json opens in any text editor and the guide to opening the export walks through it; the cross-reference against followers is a spreadsheet job.

Things to know

Adding and removing close friends is done in the app, and Instagram notifies nobody either way; this page only reads the list. The export is a snapshot of the moment Instagram built the file, so a new answer needs a new export. Accounts deleted since you added them may appear as placeholders or be dropped, because there is no username left to show.

And the list says nothing about who sees your ordinary stories. For that, the relevant file is the one for accounts you've hidden your story from, which works the opposite way round.

Frequently asked questions