What Is a Good Follower Growth Rate on Instagram?

A good Instagram follower growth rate is one that beats the average for accounts of your size. In 2025, accounts grew their followers by 11% to 22% over the year depending on size, according to Socialinsider's Instagram benchmarks. That is roughly 0.9% to 1.7% per month. Small accounts grow faster in percentage terms; above 100,000 followers, about 1% a month is on par.

This guide gives you the formula, the 2025 benchmarks by account size, how to read your own rate, the metrics to track next to it and the legitimate ways to grow faster.

How to calculate your Instagram follower growth rate

The follower growth rate measures how fast your audience grows over a period, relative to where you started:

Follower growth rate (%) = (followers at the end of the period minus followers at the start) ÷ followers at the start × 100

Example: you had 5,293 followers on March 1 and 5,428 on March 31.

1. Net new followers: 5,428 minus 5,293 = 135.

2. Divide by the starting count: 135 ÷ 5,293 = 0.0255.

3. Multiply by 100: your growth rate for March is 2.55%.

Three details make the number comparable over time:

• Use net growth. New follows minus unfollows. Instagram shows both in the followers section of your account insights; our Instagram Insights guide shows where to find them.

• Keep the same period. Monthly is the usual choice. Weekly figures swing too much, yearly figures hide what changed.

• Convert with care. Monthly rates compound: 1.7% a month is about 22% over a year, not 20.4%.

What is a good follower growth rate on Instagram?

Growth depends mostly on account size: gaining 100 followers is 10% for an account of 1,000 and 0.01% for an account of one million. That is why benchmarks by size are more useful than a single average.

Socialinsider analysed 35 million posts from 447,613 Instagram accounts between January and December 2025. The table converts its annual figures into the equivalent monthly rate.

Socialinsider describes 2025 as a reset year for organic Instagram performance, with follower growth slowing for every account size. So if your growth feels slower than a few years ago, you are not alone.

How to read your own growth rate

Compare your monthly rate with the benchmark for your size, then look at the trend over three to six months rather than a single month.

How to track your follower growth month by month

A simple spreadsheet beats any single screenshot. In the Instagram app, open your professional dashboard, go to your account insights and read the followers section for the period: it shows follows and unfollows. Log them on the same day each month, with a note on what you did.

After three to six rows, the "what happened" column tells you more than any benchmark: you see which actions move your own audience.

Metrics to track alongside follower growth

Follower growth tells you whether your audience is expanding. These metrics tell you why.

For more ways to raise interaction, see eleven tactics that lift engagement across networks.

How to grow your Instagram followers the right way

1. Favour formats that reach non-followers. In Socialinsider's 2025 data, carousels had the highest average engagement rate (0.55%), followed by Reels (0.52%) and single images (0.37%). Reels remain the main way to be shown to people who do not follow you yet.

2. Make your profile searchable. Put the words people search for in your name field and bio, and keep the bio clear about what followers will get.

3. Collaborate. Collab posts and joint Lives with accounts close to your audience put you in front of people who already like your topic.

4. Answer every comment and DM. Replies keep conversations going under your posts and show visitors that the account is alive. This is where most brands fall behind as volume grows.

5. Turn comments into conversations. A "comment a keyword to get the link" post invites people to interact and lets you send the resource by DM. Our walkthrough of keyword comment-to-DM on Instagram shows how to set it up.

6. Run giveaways with care. They bring quick spikes, but many entrants leave afterwards. Our giveaway playbook covers rules and follow-up.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Buying followers or using follow/unfollow bots. It breaks Instagram's terms, inflates your count with accounts that never engage, drags your engagement rate down and can get the account restricted.

• Comparing yourself with much bigger or smaller accounts. Always compare with your size bracket.

• Judging one month. One viral post can double a month's growth. Look at a three-month trend.

• Chasing followers over engagement. A smaller audience that comments, shares and buys is worth more than a large silent one.

Related guides

• Engagement benchmarks to read next to your growth rate

Where Blabla fits

Blabla sells no followers and never comments on or likes other people's posts. It works on the part of growth you control: turning the visitors who comment into people who stay. With Blabla's automations, anyone who comments your keyword gets the promised link by DM, which is the keyword tactic above without the manual sending. AI replies answer the questions under your posts and in your DMs from the answers you have written, so a visitor deciding whether to follow sees an account that responds. Spam and scam comments are hidden automatically, so a new visitor's first impression is not a bot. See how it works on our follower growth use case, and read how to turn on auto replies for Instagram comments and DMs for setup tips. You can try it free for 7 days, no credit card required.

The bottom line

Measure your net monthly growth with the same formula every month and compare it with the 2025 benchmark for your size bracket in the table above. Track reach from non-followers, profile conversion and engagement next to it, grow with formats and collaborations that reach new people, and keep up with every comment and DM. Skip any shortcut that buys numbers.