Remember when ‘likes’ were the ultimate measure of success on Instagram? Today, you have access to a wealth of data to evaluate your content’s performance—impressions, views, comments, shares, and more. While this abundance of metrics is exciting, it can also feel overwhelming.

For creators and small business owners, Instagram analytics are a powerful resource. These insights can shape your strategy, revealing what type of content resonates best with your audience and drives growth.

But how do you access these insights? How can you identify patterns, make data-driven decisions, and refine your content strategy? More importantly, are there tools that can simplify the process for you?

In this article, I’ll break down the key Instagram analytics you should track and recommend top tools to help you turn data into actionable strategies.

>> Read more: 10 Instagram trends to watch in 2025

Quick Overview: Top Instagram Analytics Tools

Which Instagram Metrics Matter Most?

Instagram analytics offer a wealth of data, but do you really need to track everything? While you can monitor all available metrics, focusing on the most relevant ones will give you clearer insights into your social media performance.

For many creators and brands, expanding their reach is a top priority. If that’s your goal, Instagram’s head, Adam Mosseri, suggests paying attention to key engagement metrics like average watch time, like rate, and send rate. These indicators can help you understand how well your content resonates with your audience and where to refine your strategy.

However, if your social media strategy goes beyond just maximizing views, a more nuanced approach is needed. For instance, Instagram coach Elise Darma focuses on metrics that directly impact her business, such as:

• The number of people transitioning from her content into meaningful conversations via DMs
• The depth and quality of engagement in her comments
• The reach of her content among non-followers

To help you determine which Instagram metrics to prioritize based on your goals, refer to the table below.

You can access these Instagram metrics directly within the app, and most analytics tools provide these insights along with additional data.

Should you only track analytics for your top-performing posts? Or just for the ones that didn’t perform well? According to Elise, the best approach is to monitor every single post.

“Here's the thing about metrics — every post is data, even the ones that seem to "flop." Instead of getting caught up in day-to-day numbers, use each post as an experiment. What's working? What's not? Then use those insights to refine your strategy.”

>> Related topic: 8 Strategies to Boost Instagram Engagement in 2024

How to Access Instagram Analytics in the App

Instagram provides built-in analytics for business and creator accounts, giving you access to key performance insights.

There are two main ways to check your Instagram analytics within the app:

• Analyze a single post or Reel's performance
• Review overall account insights

To check analytics for a specific post or Reel, tap "View Insights" below the post. This will show engagement metrics such as likes, shares, comments, and saves. Additionally, you can see how many accounts the post reached, where those views came from (home, explore, profile, etc.), and how many were new viewers.

To access your complete Instagram analytics, follow these steps:

Step 1: Open your Instagram profile.

Step 2: Tap the three horizontal lines in the top right corner to open the "Settings and activity" menu.

Step 3: Select "Insights" to view detailed performance metrics for your account.

Within the Insights tab, your Instagram metrics are grouped into three main categories:

• Views – Tracks profile activity, audience demographics, top-performing posts, and the ratio of followers to non-followers.
• Interactions – Displays engagement data, including the number of accounts you've interacted with, along with likes, saves, replies, and shares on posts and Stories.
• Total Followers – Shows follower growth trends over a specific period (up to 90 days) and provides demographic insights about your audience.

If you have an Instagram business account, you can compare insights for both Instagram and Facebook side by side using Meta Business Suite.

Meta Business Suite provides more in-depth insights than Instagram’s app. It allows you to analyze your Instagram and Facebook pages side by side, compare performance with competitors, track how your content is performing, and gain detailed audience insights.

However, relying solely on Instagram’s built-in analytics has several drawbacks:

• Manual data analysis – You have to piece together insights yourself, such as determining the best times to post, ideal posting frequency, and the most effective content types. The platform only provides surface-level metrics, leaving you to do the deeper analysis manually.
• Limited reporting customization – You can’t create branded reports directly from Instagram Insights or Meta Business Suite. In contrast, most third-party analytics tools offer white-labeled reports and allow you to select which metrics to display.
• Short data retention – Instagram only stores insights for up to 90 days, making it impossible to analyze long-term trends or year-long campaigns. If you're a creator testing new content strategies every few months, you won’t be able to compare past experiments effectively.
• Challenges in influencer marketing – Evaluating influencer performance manually is time-consuming. Instagram doesn’t provide deep insights into a creator’s paid post performance, audience demographics, or overall reach. Without an analytics tool, you’ll need to request media kits from each influencer—an exhausting process.

The Bottom Line: Instagram’s native analytics work well as a free solution. But as your marketing strategy grows and your budget allows, investing in a dedicated Instagram analytics tool will save time, offer deeper insights, and provide the data you need to scale effectively.

The 6 Best Instagram Analytics Tools for 2025

When choosing an Instagram analytics tool, start by assessing your specific needs.

• Need advanced reporting? Social media managers may require a robust tool for generating detailed Instagram analytics reports, while creators can often manage without this feature.
• Running a social media agency? A comprehensive Instagram analytics dashboard is essential for quickly accessing client performance metrics.
• Solo marketer on a budget? Look for flexible Instagram analytics tools that also serve as social media management platforms.
• Building a personal brand? Affordable and user-friendly analytics tools may be the best fit for creators.

Your ideal Instagram analytics tool depends on your reporting requirements and budget. To help, I’ve curated a list of top options covering different needs and use cases.

1. SO9

Best Instagram Analytics Tool for Social Media Management

• Free Trial: Free plan available with limited analytics
• Pricing: Starts at $3/month (1 channel)

If you're looking for an all-in-one social media management platform with built-in Instagram analytics, SO9 is a top choice. Beyond providing detailed insights into your Instagram performance, it streamlines your entire social media workflow by allowing you to:

✔ Store and organize content ideas

✔ Respond to comments efficiently

✔ Schedule posts across multiple platforms

✔ Leverage AI to refine and optimize captions

✔ And much more!

I personally use SO9 to manage my social media, and what I love most is its ease of use—there’s no steep learning curve, so you can dive right in.

What’s even better? SO9 supports analytics across multiple platforms, not just Instagram. It’s the perfect tool to evaluate your entire social media strategy or creator presence in one place.

2. SocialBlade

Best for Basic Instagram Analytics

Free Trial: Analyze one Instagram profile for free daily

Price: Starts at $3.99/month

If you're looking for a simple and free Instagram analytics tool, SocialBlade is a solid choice. It focuses on the essentials—tracking follower fluctuations, average likes and comments, and overall engagement rate—without any advanced features.

While it’s not the best option for developing a detailed Instagram marketing strategy, it can be useful for social media managers overseeing influencer campaigns. It allows you to monitor an influencer’s follower growth over time, making it easier to assess their audience trends.

However, keep in mind that SocialBlade primarily tracks follower growth. It doesn’t provide charts or historical engagement rate trends. That said, one particularly useful feature is its 30-day data history, which helps pinpoint exactly when a profile gained or lost followers based on specific posts.

3. Mintor

Best Instagram Analytics Tool for Agencies

Free Trial: 14 days

Price: Starts at $9/month

Mintor is a comprehensive social media analytics platform that supports Instagram, X, TikTok, Facebook, Threads, and LinkedIn. It’s an excellent choice for agencies managing multiple Instagram accounts, as it allows seamless switching between profiles within a single dashboard for easy data tracking.

One standout feature of Mintor is its extended Instagram Stories data storage, which retains insights beyond Instagram’s default two-week limit.

While the Instagram analytics it provides are similar to those available in the app, Mintor simplifies the process by consolidating all insights into one dashboard. It also tracks account mentions, benchmarks performance against similar profiles, and provides a detailed comparison of paid and organic analytics—making it particularly useful for businesses running Instagram ads.

4. Social Status

Best for Analyzing Various Instagram Campaigns

Free Trial: Free plan available (limited to Instagram profile analytics)

Price: Starts at $9/month

Social Status is a powerful Instagram analytics tool designed for small businesses engaged in Instagram marketing, influencer collaborations, and ad campaigns. It offers insights across multiple platforms, including Instagram, Facebook Pages, X, YouTube, LinkedIn, and TikTok.

This tool is a budget-friendly option for social media managers handling diverse campaigns. It provides:

• Influencer analytics for tracking influencer marketing performance
• Ad analytics to measure Meta ad success
• Competitor analysis to benchmark against industry rivals

Alongside its robust Instagram analytics, Social Status consolidates all campaign data into a single platform, eliminating the need for multiple tools.

The free version includes only an Instagram profile analyzer, offering insights into post performance, follower trends, and audience demographics.

5. Reportei

Best for Automated Instagram Reporting

Free Trial: 3 days

Price: $29/month

Reportei is an ideal tool for social media managers who need to generate customized and automated Instagram analytics reports. Instead of manually compiling data and formatting presentations, Reportei streamlines the process, making reporting faster and more efficient.

As an AI-powered platform, Reportei allows users to interact with AI for deeper insights, turning raw numbers into meaningful takeaways. It also offers a range of ready-to-use report templates, simplifying the creation of professional presentations.

One standout feature is the "timeline" tool, which enables users to document campaign milestones in a chronological story format, complete with dates and events. This feature helps provide a clearer and more structured view of Instagram performance over time.

6. Keyhole

Best for Social Listening and Instagram Analytics

Free Trial: Not available

Price: Demo required

Keyhole is both a social media analytics and social listening tool, offering in-depth insights to help track and optimize Instagram performance. It provides essential analytics, including:

• Instagram Story performance metrics
• Historical data for tracking trends over time
• Audience demographic insights
• Detailed hashtag analytics
• And more

These insights are valuable for demonstrating the impact of your Instagram strategy to stakeholders.

What sets Keyhole apart is its social listening capabilities. It allows you to track industry trends, monitor competitors, and stay updated on relevant conversations within your niche. If your social media strategy revolves around real-time audience insights and trend analysis, Keyhole is a top choice.

How to Make the Most of Your Instagram Analytics

Instagram analytics tools provide valuable data, but it’s up to you to interpret and apply these insights effectively. Raw numbers alone won’t shape your strategy—you need to analyze them in context.

Start by reviewing your goals. Are you hitting your key performance indicators (KPIs)? Identify which metrics you’ve successfully achieved and where you’re falling short.

Next, take a step back and assess broader trends in your data. Were there any unexpected shifts? Your audience analytics might reveal a larger market than anticipated, or changes in the Instagram algorithm could have impacted your reach and engagement. By tracking key performance indicators like engagement rates and content performance, you can uncover patterns in what works best for your audience.

Breaking down your analytics not only helps you create more insightful reports but also ensures that your overall Instagram strategy evolves in the right direction.