Method 1: Check by hand in the Instagram app
This works if you only want to check a few accounts.
- Open your profile and tap Following.
- Open an account from the list.
- If they follow you, Instagram shows a sign of it on their profile, such as a “Follows you” label. If you follow them and see nothing like that, they don’t follow you back.
For hundreds of accounts this gets slow, and it’s easy to lose track of who you’ve checked. That’s where comparing the full lists helps.
Method 2: Compare your followers and following lists
Instagram lets you download your own data, including your complete followers and following lists. Comparing the two lists shows every account you follow that doesn’t follow you back.
- Request a download of Followers and following from Instagram’s Accounts Center. Our step-by-step download guide shows where to find it.
- When Instagram notifies you that your files are ready, download the ZIP file.
- Open the UNFOLLOWED follow-back checker and add the ZIP as it is. There’s no need to unzip it.
- Open the Not Following You Back tab. That’s your list of non-followers.
The files are read in your browser and never uploaded, and you never type your Instagram password into UNFOLLOWED. To learn what each result list means, read how to use a follow-back checker and read the results.
Non-followers vs. unfollowers
These two words get mixed up a lot, but they answer different questions:
- Non-followers are accounts you follow that don’t follow you right now. Some never followed you; some did and stopped. One export is enough to find them.
- Unfollowers are accounts that used to follow you and stopped. To know who unfollowed you, you need to know who followed you before, so you need two snapshots taken at different times.
UNFOLLOWED compares the lists inside one export. It doesn’t monitor your account, save past results or send alerts, so it can’t tell you exactly when someone unfollowed you.
How to find recent unfollowers with two exports
- Run the checker on your current export, open All Results, and use Export CSV to save the list to your device. Followers have a “followed you on” date where Instagram provides one.
- Some weeks later, download a new export from Instagram and run the checker again.
- Compare the two CSV files in a spreadsheet. Accounts that followed you in the old file but not in the new one stopped following you between the two exports (or deactivated, or changed their username).
Instagram’s export may also include a list of accounts you recently unfollowed. That list is about accounts you unfollowed, not people who unfollowed you.
Be careful with apps that ask for your password
Many “unfollower tracker” apps ask you to sign in with your Instagram username and password. Giving your password to a third party puts your account at risk, and automated access may go against Instagram’s terms. Instagram’s official data download gives you the same lists without sharing your login with anyone.