See your new Instagram followers since last time

How it works

1. 1

   Request an export today

   Open Instagram → your profile → menu (☰) → Settings and privacy → Accounts Centre → Your information and permissions → Export your information → Create export. Tick only Followers and following, set the date range to All time, pick JSON, and choose Download to device.

2. 2

   Download and keep the ZIP

   Instagram emails a link when the file is ready, usually within 10–20 minutes for a followers-only export. The link works for 4 days, so download the ZIP promptly and keep it — renaming it with the date (for example instagram-2026-10-12.zip) makes later comparisons easier.

3. 3

   Request a second export later

   Come back in a week or a month and repeat step 1. If an older ZIP from a previous export is already sitting in your downloads, you can skip the wait and use that as the older file.

4. 4

   Upload both exports

   Drop the earlier ZIP into Older export and the later one into Newer export, then press Compare the two exports. Both resulting lists — who unfollowed you and who newly followed you — are shown in full, free, with CSV downloads. Nothing is uploaded; the comparison runs in your browser.

Why the activity feed isn't a record

The heart icon shows new followers one by one, then starts bundling them — "username and 14 others started following you" — and after a couple of weeks the entries are gone. There is no screen that lists everyone who followed you in September. Insights on a professional account gives a daily follows number, which is a chart, not names. If you want to know who the 60 people were, the activity feed has already forgotten most of them.

The followers list on your profile runs roughly newest-first, but it has no dates, no cut-off and no download. For a growing account, scrolling to find where last month ends is guesswork.

The new followers tab

The export comparison answers it precisely. Upload an earlier ZIP as Older export and a later one as Newer export, press Compare the two exports, and switch to the new followers tab. Every account that appears in the newer followers file but not the older one is listed — in full, free, with no account limit — alongside the date they followed you. Export CSV saves the tab as new_followers.csv. The other tab, unfollowed you, covers the people going the other way.

Nothing here needs a login. The files come from Instagram's own export feature, and the comparison runs in your browser without sending them anywhere.

Dates on the new-followers list

Each entry in followers_1.json carries a timestamp for the moment the follow happened, and the CSV exposes it as Date They Followed You, in yyyy-mm-dd form so it sorts correctly in any spreadsheet. The date is the follow date, not the export date — so if you compare exports three months apart, the column tells you which week within those months each person arrived. Line it up against your posting calendar and you can see which post or story brought them.

Dates are also how you spot a follow-for-follow wave: a cluster of new followers on one day, many of whom turn up on the unfollowed list in the next comparison. The guide to when you followed someone covers the equivalent date in your following file.

Matching new followers against who you follow

New followers split into two groups: people you already follow, so the follow made you mutual, and people you don't. The comparison lists them together, but the newer export contains your following file too, so the tool can go further. The free fans list from a single export shows every follower you don't follow back, which is where recent arrivals you haven't noticed tend to sit; the mutual followers page shows the two-way relationships.

Below the two tabs the tool also mentions how many accounts you follow that don't follow you back, from the newer export. The count is free; the names are the single paid list on the site, $2.99 one-time, and entirely optional.

Net change: gained minus lost

The subline under the result heading reads Followers went from X to Y between the two exports. Y minus X is your net change, and it's the sum of the two tabs: new followers minus lost followers. A flat count can hide a lot of movement — 40 in and 40 out is a very different month from no change at all — and the two lists make that churn visible. If you want the raw followers list itself rather than the difference, the followers CSV is free from a single export.

What this tool can't do

It can't show new followers from before your first export, and it can't tell you how each person found you — the file holds usernames and dates, not sources. It can't show follow requests still pending on a private account, because they aren't followers yet. It doesn't update on its own: a new follower appears in the list only after you export again. And it can't show follower counts, bios or profile pictures for the new accounts — those are on Instagram, one tap away from the profile link in the CSV.

Frequently asked questions