Engagement rate calculator
Enter a follower count and the interactions on a post. You get the rate three ways, plus the part no other calculator shows: what one percentage point of it currently costs to buy, priced from the same live market data as the rest of this site.
What is your engagement rate?
One post, or your average post
Optional. Include them only if you also count them in the benchmark you are comparing against.
Optional. From your own analytics — it is the denominator the platforms themselves use.
By followers
3.38%
Strong
By reach
—
Enter reach to calculate
Interactions
338
Likes + comments + saves
What the number means
- 100 interactions is what one percentage point of follower-based engagement costs at 10,000 followers. That is the arithmetic behind the price table below.
- The follower-based rate falls automatically as an account grows, because the denominator grows and reach does not keep pace. Comparing a 5,000-follower account to a 500,000-follower one on this number compares two different things.
- A rate far above the typical band on an account with a large follower count is the classic signature of bought engagement on an organic audience — or of bought followers that were never real, which pushes the rate the other way.
Everything here is calculated in your browser. No figures are sent anywhere.
Which engagement rate formula should you use?
By followers: interactions ÷ followers × 100. This is what media kits and influencer marketplaces quote, because followers are the only denominator visible from outside an account. It penalises large accounts structurally — reach does not scale linearly with audience — so it is only meaningful between accounts of similar size.
By reach: interactions ÷ reach × 100. This is the figure the platforms report in their own analytics and the honest measure of whether a post worked, but it needs access to the account. It typically lands three to five times higher than the follower-based rate, which is why a media kit quoting reach-based engagement without saying so is quoting a different number from its competitors.
Either way, the interactions you count have to match the benchmark you are comparing against. Saves and shares are counted by some sources and not others, and including them can move a rate by half a point on its own.
Frequently asked
- What is a good engagement rate?
- On Instagram, follower-based rates between 1% and 3% are typical, 3% to 6% is strong, and anything sustained above 6% on a large account is more often a sign of bought engagement than of an exceptional audience. The rate falls naturally as an account grows, so a 2% rate on 500,000 followers is a much larger absolute audience than 6% on 5,000.
- Should I use followers or reach as the denominator?
- Reach, if you have it, because it measures response among people who actually saw the post — and it is the denominator the platforms use in their own analytics. Followers is the denominator agencies and media kits use, because it is the only one visible from outside an account. They routinely disagree by a factor of three or more, so state which one you are quoting.
- Does buying engagement improve the rate?
- Mechanically yes, and the table above prices exactly how much. What it does not improve is the thing the rate is a proxy for. Purchased interactions are stripped in waves, they come from accounts that never see the next post, and a rate propped up on an audience that does not respond is visible to anyone who checks comment quality. If the goal is a media kit number, the cost is on this page. If the goal is distribution, this is the wrong purchase.