Analytics & Benchmarks

Instagram Engagement Rate Benchmarks 2026

Followerus Team22 min read

Last updated August 11, 2026. This report separates creator accounts from brand accounts and keeps follower-based, reach-based, and view-based engagement rates in different tables.

Ask five social media tools for a good Instagram engagement rate and you may get five answers ranging from 0.3% to 5%. That spread looks absurd until you inspect the math. One tool divides likes and comments by followers. Another includes saves and shares, then divides by reach. A third reports the average while another reports the median. Some studies track large retail brands; others include small creators whose first followers know them personally.

So, what is a good Instagram engagement rate in 2026? For a brand account measured by follower count, 0.30% to 0.45% sits around the current platform median, while 1% or more counts as strong performance in most industries. Creator accounts need a size-adjusted answer. A creator with 1,000 to 5,000 followers moves above average at roughly 3.85%; an account with 10,000 to 50,000 followers does so at about 0.65%. Once an account passes 100,000 followers, a rate near 0.5% can already beat a large part of its peer group.

Those figures don't contradict one another. They describe different account populations. The useful question isn't, “Is 2% good?” It is, “Is 2% good for this type of account, in this follower band, using this formula?”

2026 answer in 30 seconds

  • Brand accounts: the all-industry median fell to 0.30% in Quid's 2026 report. Socialinsider measured 0.45% across Instagram in both Q1 and Q2 2026.
  • Creator accounts: small creators still post the highest follower-based rates. In Modash's 84-million-profile dataset, the median was 3.51% for accounts with 1,000 to 5,000 followers and about 0.38% to 0.51% across most tiers above 50,000 followers.
  • Strong performance: 1% or higher remains a sensible cross-industry target for established brands. For creators, use the follower table below because 1% can be weak, average, or excellent depending on audience size.
  • Highest-engagement brand niches: higher education and sports lead the current follower-based studies. Beauty and retail sit near the bottom.
  • Best organic feed format for brands: carousels reached 0.50% in Q2 2026, just ahead of Reels at 0.48%; single images averaged 0.33%, according to Socialinsider.
  • Never mix denominators: 4% by reach and 0.4% by followers can describe the same post.

Instagram engagement benchmarks at a glance

Quick reference for follower-based Instagram engagement in 2026
Account type Typical or median rate A strong rate How to read it
Brands, all industries 0.30%–0.45% 1%+ Current follower-based brand studies; niche matters
Creators, 1K–5K followers 3.16%–3.85% 3.85%+ Small, relationship-heavy audiences lift the percentage
Creators, 5K–10K 0.88%–1.13% 1.13%+ The first sharp normalization happens in this band
Creators, 10K–50K 0.49%–0.65% 0.65%+ Use audience quality and median views alongside ER
Creators, 50K–100K 0.32%–0.43% 0.43%+ A 1% rate is already high in this peer group
Creators, 100K–500K 0.35%–0.46% 0.46%+ Check whether one viral post distorts the mean
Creators, 500K+ Roughly 0.39%–0.57% About 0.51%–0.57%+ Celebrity distribution can make the curve rise slightly again

The creator ranges above come from the “average” band in Modash's November 2025 data and serve as the latest large-scale creator reference available for a 2026 benchmark. The brand range combines the all-industry medians reported by Quid and Socialinsider for 2026. We don't average those two figures because their samples differ.

How this 2026 benchmark was built

This article uses a source hierarchy. Large datasets with a stated formula, sample, date, and account type carry the most weight. Reports that publish a number without enough information about the sample still add context, but they don't set the primary benchmark.

Source comparison and why the published averages differ
Source Sample and date Calculation or population Result used here
Quid 2026 Industry Benchmark 18 industries; 150 companies sampled per industry from a database of 200,000+ companies Post interactions divided by followers; industry medians 0.30% all-industry Instagram median
Socialinsider Instagram Benchmarks 35 million posts from 447,613 active pages during 2025, followed by 2026 quarterly updates Likes plus comments divided by followers, per post 0.45% overall in Q1 and Q2 2026; format benchmarks
Modash Creator Benchmarks 84 million+ influencer profiles; data collected November 2025 Median engagements across recent posts divided by followers; two-month content window Follower-tier ranges and percentile-style labels
Dash Social 2026 Instagram Benchmarks Large brands averaging 2.3 million followers Reports separate rates by followers and by views 0.4% by followers; 1.9% by views
Rival IQ 2025 Industry Report More than 4 million posts and 9 billion interactions from 2,100 brands All measurable interactions divided by followers; median performance 0.36% overall; industry values later cited in Sprout Social's 2026 guide
Buffer Instagram Study 27 million+ posts from 273,000 accounts; published September 2025 Buffer's glossary defines ER as engagements divided by impressions Useful reach/impression context, not merged with follower-based rates

There is one more timing issue. A report labeled “2026” often analyzes the full 2025 calendar because a full-year 2026 dataset can't exist in February. Socialinsider states this directly in its methodology and then publishes quarterly updates as fresh data arrives. For that reason, this article uses its Q2 2026 update for the current platform figure, while retaining the much larger full-year sample for structural comparisons.

We also keep brands and creators apart. Quid selects established national and international companies. Modash indexes influencer profiles, including millions of small creators. Combining them would create a tidy number with almost no practical meaning.

The formula comes before the benchmark

Engagement rate isn't one standardized Instagram metric. It is a family of ratios. Write the denominator next to every ER figure in a report, campaign brief, or creator shortlist.

Engagement rate by followers

ER by followers = average engagements per post ÷ followers × 100

This is the best public comparison metric because follower counts, likes, and comments remain visible on most public profiles. Followerus uses recent posts when you run the free Instagram engagement rate calculator, which reduces the effect of an old viral hit.

For public competitor or influencer analysis, define engagements as likes plus comments. Account owners can build a fuller version by adding saves and shares from Instagram Insights. Don't compare the public version with the owner-only version without labeling them; the second numerator includes actions an outside analyst can't see.

Engagement rate by reach

ER by reach = engagements ÷ accounts reached × 100

This answers a different question: among people who actually received the post, how many interacted? It works well for judging creative quality, but only the account owner or an authorized analytics platform can calculate it. Reach-based rates normally look much higher than follower-based rates because Instagram shows an organic post to only part of the follower base while also reaching some non-followers.

Engagement rate by views

ER by views = engagements ÷ views × 100

Use this for Reels and for cross-format reporting after confirming what Instagram counts as a view. Repeat views can increase the denominator, so the rate doesn't represent unique people. Dash Social's 2026 brand sample shows the practical gap: 0.4% by followers and 1.9% by views for the same broad account population.

Average versus median

The mean adds every rate and divides by the number of accounts. A handful of viral posts or tiny accounts can pull it upward. The median places the middle account at the center and usually gives a better operating benchmark for a skewed social dataset. Quid and Rival IQ emphasize medians; Socialinsider reports averages. Both can be valid, but they answer slightly different questions.

Suppose a 25,000-follower account averages 210 likes and 12 comments across its latest 12 posts. Its public follower-based rate is:

(210 + 12) ÷ 25,000 × 100 = 0.888%

Against the Modash 10K–50K creator group, 0.888% sits above the 0.49%–0.65% average band and inside the 0.65%–1.27% above-average band. If Insights shows that those posts reached 5,500 accounts and generated another 46 saves and shares, the owner-side rate by reach becomes 4.87%. Same content, different question.

Instagram engagement rate by follower count

The most useful creator benchmark in this report comes from Modash because the dataset covers more than 84 million influencer profiles and publishes the boundaries between low, below-average, average, above-average, and high performance. Its calculation uses the median number of engagements across recent content, then divides by followers. That choice limits the damage from one outlier post.

Instagram creator engagement benchmarks by follower count
Follower count Low Below average Average Above average High
1K–5K Below 1.85% 1.85%–3.16% 3.16%–3.85% 3.85%–6.16% Above 6.16%
5K–10K Below 0.46% 0.46%–0.88% 0.88%–1.13% 1.13%–2.09% Above 2.09%
10K–50K Below 0.24% 0.24%–0.49% 0.49%–0.65% 0.65%–1.27% Above 1.27%
50K–100K Below 0.15% 0.15%–0.32% 0.32%–0.43% 0.43%–0.91% Above 0.91%
100K–500K Below 0.16% 0.16%–0.35% 0.35%–0.46% 0.46%–0.93% Above 0.93%
500K–1M Below 0.19% 0.19%–0.39% 0.39%–0.51% 0.51%–1.00% Above 1.00%
1M+ Below 0.22% 0.22%–0.45% 0.45%–0.57% 0.57%–1.08% Above 1.08%

Read these cutoffs as screening bands, not universal grades. Modash's database spans countries, categories, posting habits, and creator types. A US personal-finance educator shouldn't treat a global fashion profile as a direct peer. Once you assign the follower band, narrow the comparison by niche, audience country, post format, and whether recent posts include paid collaborations.

Why the rate drops so sharply after 5,000 followers

The 1K–5K band contains many accounts whose early audience includes friends, colleagues, customers, and people from a tight local community. A post needs only 175 engagements to produce 3.5% on a 5,000-follower account. At 50,000 followers, the same percentage requires 1,750 engagements on every measured post.

Audience composition changes, too. Growth adds casual followers who arrived for one Reel, giveaway entrants who never cared about the regular content, dormant accounts, and people who simply miss most posts. None of that proves the account is unhealthy. Percentage engagement declines as distribution expands.

The small uptick among profiles above 500,000 followers doesn't cancel this pattern. The population changes again at the top. Celebrity accounts, sports stars, musicians, and major entertainment pages can trigger bursts of mass attention that an ordinary 200,000-follower subject-matter creator rarely sees. This is one reason a straight line from nano to mega accounts fails.

Brand Reels show the same size effect

A Socialinsider video study reported Reels engagement of 0.87% for brand pages with 1,000 to 5,000 followers, 0.72% for 5,000 to 10,000, 0.58% for 10,000 to 50,000, 0.50% for 50,000 to 100,000, and 0.45% for 100,000 to 1 million. These aren't creator benchmarks and cover Reels only, yet the direction matches: larger follower bases produce lower follower-based rates.

Instagram engagement rate benchmarks by niche

Niche changes the expected rate because people don't use every category in the same way. A university's graduation carousel gives students, parents, alumni, and faculty a reason to react at once. A bank's rate update may deliver useful information without prompting anyone to tap “like.” Retail pages also face heavy competition, product fatigue, and large audiences accumulated through years of promotions.

The cleanest numeric niche comparison with a follower denominator comes from Rival IQ's 2025 dataset as reproduced in Sprout Social's April 2026 engagement guide. Quid's newer 2026 report then confirms the direction of the ranking across a broader set of 18 industries. It puts Instagram's new all-industry median at 0.30%, down from 0.36% a year earlier, while higher education and sports remain the leaders and beauty and retail remain near the bottom.

Follower-based Instagram engagement by brand niche
Industry or niche Median engagement rate Position versus 0.36% baseline 2026 reading
Higher education 2.10% 5.8 times the baseline Still a 2026 leader
Sports teams 1.30% 3.6 times the baseline Still a 2026 leader
Nonprofits 0.56% Above baseline Cause and event content remains competitive
Health and beauty 0.44% Slightly above the older baseline Beauty moved near the bottom in Quid's broader 2026 set
Media 0.44% Slightly above baseline Posting volume can dilute per-post performance
Food and beverage 0.40% Near baseline Carousels and recipes can lift saves
Financial services 0.26% Below baseline Low public interaction doesn't automatically mean low business value
Retail 0.16% Less than half the baseline Still near the bottom in 2026
All industries 0.36% in 2025; 0.30% in 2026 Reference line About a 17% year-over-year decline
Top 25% of brands 1.05% High-performance reference Supports 1% as a strong brand target

Do not paste these brand values into a creator media kit. A 20,000-follower fitness coach and a multinational beauty company may share a category label while operating with entirely different audience relationships, content budgets, and follower histories. For creators, start with the follower-count table. Use the niche ranking as a second adjustment: education, sports, cause-based, pet, and tightly defined hobby communities often deserve a higher bar; crowded commercial categories need a more conservative one.

Why some 2026 industry tables show 3% to 4.4%

Hootsuite's June 2026 industry page reports 3.5% for Instagram overall, with 4.4% for nonprofits and construction, 4.2% for education, 3.8% for financial services, 3.3% for technology, and 3.0% for media and retail. The page calls these per-post engagement rates and its calculator can include likes, comments, shares, saves, clicks, and DMs. It doesn't publish enough sample and aggregation detail beside the table to reconcile the series with Quid's 0.30% median.

That doesn't make the Hootsuite values useless. They work inside Hootsuite's own reporting system and help compare one category with another under a common method. The mistake comes when a marketer takes Hootsuite's 3.8% financial-services figure and treats it as directly interchangeable with Rival IQ's 0.26% follower-based median. Keep each vendor series intact.

A benchmark without its denominator, account population, and aggregation method isn't a benchmark. It's a percentage without a job.

Instagram engagement benchmarks by content format

Format creates another layer of context. Socialinsider's Q2 2026 update gives the clearest recent comparison for brand feed posts, using a common follower-based method:

Instagram brand engagement rate by post format, Q1 and Q2 2026
Format Q1 2026 Q2 2026 Quarterly change
Carousels 0.52% 0.50% Down 0.02 percentage points
Reels 0.50% 0.48% Down 0.02 percentage points
Single images 0.35% 0.33% Down 0.02 percentage points

Carousels hold a small lead, not an overwhelming one. They also generated the most saves in Socialinsider's 35-million-post study, while its newer analysis of 15 million posts found that Reels produced higher comment and share activity. In that second study, median Reels received 33 comments, 35 saves, and five shares. Carousels recorded 25 comments, 37 saves, and three shares; images trailed with 20 comments, 10 saves, and one share.

The practical conclusion depends on the job. Use a carousel when the material rewards swiping and keeping: a checklist, a before-and-after sequence, a set of findings, or a compact tutorial. Use a Reel when voice, movement, timing, or a human reaction carries the idea. A good single image still works when the picture itself is the event, but static posts no longer deserve the default slot in a brand calendar.

Instagram's own guidance adds an important correction to the obsession with raw ER. In January 2025, Instagram head Adam Mosseri named watch time, likes, and sends as the three main ranking signals, with likes slightly more important for connected reach and sends more important for reaching non-followers. A standard public ER built from likes and comments doesn't capture watch time or private sends. It remains useful, but it never tells the whole story.

What counts as good, average, or suspicious?

For established brands, the 2026 evidence supports a simple operating scale. Below 0.30% needs investigation unless the niche normally runs low. Between 0.30% and 0.50% sits around the platform's current middle. A rate from 0.50% to 1% performs well for many commercial categories, while 1% or more clears the high-performance threshold for most brand accounts. Higher education, sports, and certain community organizations can demand more.

Creators need the seven-band table, not the brand scale. A 0.9% rate looks excellent for a 70,000-follower creator but below average for a profile with 4,000 followers. At the other extreme, 12% on a 300,000-follower account isn't automatically proof of fraud, though it deserves inspection because it sits far beyond the normal band.

“Suspicious” shouldn't mean “high.” Look for combinations that don't fit:

  • A high rate paired with generic one-word comments from accounts that have little content of their own.
  • Nearly identical engagement totals on every post, even when topics, formats, and reach vary.
  • Large follower jumps without a viral post, press event, giveaway, collaboration, or other visible cause.
  • A strong likes-to-followers ratio but very weak views, saves, meaningful comments, and Story activity when the creator shares owner-side Insights.
  • Most commenters come from an unrelated country or niche, or the same cluster comments on each other's posts within minutes.

Run those checks before drawing a conclusion. The free Instagram fake follower checker combines audience and engagement signals, but no outside service can see every piece of Instagram's internal data. Treat a score as evidence for review, not a verdict.

A repeatable Instagram engagement audit

A reliable audit should take the same steps every time. That consistency matters more than finding a perfect formula.

  1. Choose the account population. Decide whether you are analyzing a creator, a brand, a publisher, or a celebrity. Record the follower count on the audit date. Don't place all four in one comparison set.

  2. Use a recent window. For a quick public review, analyze the latest 12 feed posts, which is the window used by the Followerus calculator. For a campaign or seasonal business, use 30 to 60 days and preserve the date range. Exclude pinned posts only if they fall outside the period; explain any exclusion.

  3. Calculate the median post. Add likes and comments for each post, order the totals, and take the middle value. Divide that median by the current follower count. Also calculate the mean so you can see whether a viral hit creates a large gap.

  4. Assign the follower band. Compare the result with accounts of similar size. If the account has 42,000 followers, use the 10K–50K row, not a broad “micro-influencer” range that may stretch to 100,000.

  5. Add niche and format context. Split Reels, carousels, and images if the account posts enough of each. Compare a finance educator with other finance educators, not with a college athletics page.

  6. Inspect engagement quality. Read at least 30 to 50 comments across several posts. Note repeated phrases, unrelated accounts, sudden timing clusters, and whether the creator replies. Check follower growth and audience geography when those data are available.

  7. Connect ER to the campaign goal. For awareness, ask for median Reel views, non-follower reach, and sends. For education, inspect saves and carousel completion signals. For sales, request link clicks, code uses, qualified DMs, or attributed orders. Engagement rate earns a place in the decision; it doesn't make the decision alone.

For prospecting, you can also search Instagram accounts by niche or username, shortlist profiles in the correct size band, then run the same audit on each finalist. That order prevents a common waste: spending an hour inspecting a creator who never matched the campaign audience in the first place.

How to improve Instagram engagement without gaming the rate

Start with the numerator and denominator separately. If follower-based ER falls because reach collapsed, a better comment prompt won't fix distribution. If reach holds steady but people stop interacting, the creative or audience fit needs work.

Fix the comparison set first

Audit at least 20 recent posts by format and topic. A blended account rate can hide the useful pattern: product Reels may earn reach but few responses, while educational carousels earn half the views and four times the saves. Keep both if they serve different jobs. Drop the formats that consume time without supporting any defined result.

Build posts around an action people already want to take

A saveable post contains information someone expects to need later. A sendable post gives the viewer a specific person to think about. A comment-worthy post creates a real choice, disagreement, recognition, or question. “Thoughts?” pasted under a generic graphic rarely does any of that.

For a fitness account, compare two squat variations and state who each suits. A restaurant can show the dish, price, neighborhood, and the exact nights it is available. A software brand can post the six settings that caused an avoidable reporting error. Specific material gives the audience something to use or dispute.

Protect the first seconds and first slide

Reels need enough immediate context to stop the correct viewer, not every viewer. The opening should identify the problem, show the result, or create a clear information gap. Carousels need a first slide that promises a useful payoff and a second slide that starts delivering it. Delaying the point for a long logo animation usually costs watch time.

Reply while the post still has momentum

Replying won't rescue weak content, though it can turn a one-line comment into a conversation and show future readers that a person runs the account. Ask a follow-up only when you actually want the answer. Copying “Thanks for sharing” 40 times makes the comment section look automated.

Remove incentives that attract the wrong audience

Broad giveaways can produce a pleasant spike followed by months of weak reach and low engagement. If a giveaway makes sense, tie the prize and entry requirement to the category. A specialty running store should give away running shoes or a gait analysis, not a general-purpose smartphone that attracts anyone with an account.

Review progress in 30-day blocks and compare like with like. A brand that moves from 0.31% to 0.43% has improved by 0.12 percentage points, or about 39% relative to its starting rate. Report both figures. Saying “engagement increased 39%” without the base rate makes a modest change sound much larger than it is.

How to report engagement rate to a client or brand

A useful report puts the rate beside the facts needed to interpret it. Include the formula, date range, number of posts, follower count at the end of the period, median ER, mean ER, and the benchmark group. Then add the actions that match the business goal, such as saves, sends, qualified comments, profile visits, clicks, or conversions.

Don't hide a falling follower-based rate if total engagement and reach grew. Show the tradeoff. An account may expand from 20,000 to 40,000 followers while average engagements rise from 300 to 480. Total engagement increased 60%, yet ER fell from 1.5% to 1.2% because the audience doubled. Calling that result a failure would miss the growth; calling it an unqualified win would ignore the dilution.

Sponsored content deserves its own row. Paid posts often produce a lower interaction rate than an account's usual editorial content, especially when the product fit feels loose. Compare sponsored posts with other sponsored posts from the same creator and category. A creator shouldn't sell a brand the organic high-water mark as the expected campaign result.

Limits of Instagram engagement benchmarks

Every benchmark ages. Instagram changes distribution, user behavior shifts, and the mix of accounts in a vendor database changes. Country also matters; a global dataset can hide local differences in commenting habits, internet access, language, and platform maturity.

Public data leaves out private actions. An analyst can count visible likes and comments but usually can't see saves, sends, Story replies, link clicks, retention, or unique reach. Instagram can also hide like counts at the user's choice, and API access varies by account type. That is why creator vetting works best in two stages: public screening first, authorized Insights for finalists.

Finally, engagement isn't revenue. A small B2B account may receive only 20 interactions on a post, yet one comment can open a six-figure sales conversation. A meme page can earn 100,000 likes without sending a single qualified buyer. The rate measures audience response to content; it doesn't price that response.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good Instagram engagement rate in 2026?

For established brand accounts, 0.30% to 0.45% sits around the current follower-based middle, and 1% or more is strong across most industries. For creators, “good” changes sharply with follower count. Modash's above-average threshold starts at 3.85% for 1K–5K followers, 1.13% for 5K–10K, 0.65% for 10K–50K, and 0.43% for 50K–100K. Large creator accounts can perform well around 0.5%.

Is a 3% engagement rate good on Instagram?

Yes for most accounts, but the strength depends on size. Three percent sits below Modash's average band for some creators under 5,000 followers, while it clears the “high” cutoff for every follower band above 5,000. For a national brand, 3% would rank far above the 2026 all-industry median.

Is 1% a good Instagram engagement rate?

One percent is a strong brand result and roughly matches the top-quartile reference from Rival IQ's large-brand study. It is high for creators between 50,000 and 1 million followers. For an account with 5,000 followers, 1% lands around average or slightly below average, depending on the exact cutoff and dataset.

How do I calculate Instagram engagement rate?

For a public account, take the median or average likes plus comments per recent post, divide by followers, and multiply by 100. Account owners can add saves and shares from Insights. If you divide by reach or views instead, label the result because it won't match a follower-based benchmark.

How many posts should I use?

Twelve recent feed posts give a quick current snapshot and match the Followerus calculator's window. A 30- to 60-day period works better for accounts that post frequently. Use enough posts to cover normal content without pulling in a different season or an outdated strategy. Report both the window and any exclusions.

Should I use the average or median engagement rate?

Use the median as the primary public audit figure because one viral post can pull the average far upward. Keep the average as a second number. A wide gap between them tells you that performance is uneven, which matters when a brand needs dependable campaign delivery.

Do saves and shares count as engagement?

Yes. They often carry more strategic value than a passive like, especially for distribution and return intent. Only the account owner or an authorized tool can see complete save and share data, so public influencer comparisons usually rely on likes and comments. Never compare the two numerators without a note.

Which Instagram niche has the highest engagement rate?

Higher education and sports lead the current large-brand, follower-based studies. Quid's 2026 report kept both above the industry median, while beauty and retail remained near the bottom. Creator niches don't follow the brand table exactly; follower size and audience concentration still explain more of the rate than a broad category name.

Why do nano-influencers have higher engagement?

Their audiences often contain people with a direct or local connection to the creator, and a small number of interactions creates a larger percentage. As creators grow, they add casual, inactive, and one-post followers. That lowers the share of the total audience that engages with each post even when raw engagement rises.

Why is my engagement rate falling while my account grows?

The denominator may be growing faster than the numerator. Check raw engagements, reach, follower sources, and format mix before changing strategy. If raw engagement rises while ER slips modestly, the account may simply be moving into a larger peer band. A collapse in both raw engagement and rate points to a deeper reach or audience-quality problem.

Can an Instagram engagement rate be too high?

A high rate can be genuine after a viral event, on a tightly focused page, or among small accounts. Treat it as a prompt to inspect consistency, comments, audience geography, views, and growth history. Rates far beyond the size benchmark warrant review, but the percentage alone can't prove purchased engagement.

Are Reels better than carousels for engagement in 2026?

Carousels held a narrow lead in Socialinsider's Q2 brand data at 0.50% versus 0.48% for Reels. The deeper action split matters: carousels generated more saves, while Reels drove more comments and shares in a separate 15-million-post analysis. Choose by objective instead of declaring one format the permanent winner.

Should I compare engagement by followers or by reach?

Use followers for public competitor and creator comparisons. Use reach for an account you own or a creator who shares authorized Insights, because it shows how people reacted after seeing the post. Keep both in an internal report when possible. Follower ER measures audience efficiency; reach ER measures content response among delivered viewers.

The 2026 benchmark that actually matters

There is no honest universal Instagram engagement rate. The closest useful answer for brands is a current follower-based middle of roughly 0.30% to 0.45%, with 1% marking strong performance across most industries. The creator answer lives in the follower-count table: small accounts need several percentage points to beat peers, while large creators can clear their benchmark below 1%.

Use that rate as a filter, then look underneath it. Check whether the engagement comes from the right audience, whether it repeats across posts, which format produces it, and whether it supports the campaign result. A properly labeled 0.6% tells you more than an unexplained 4% ever will.

Sources and data notes

Editorial note: All percentages retain the source's published calculation and account population. We don't combine vendor averages into a synthetic global average. Where a 2026 report analyzes 2025 activity, the article identifies that timing in the methodology.

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