Instagram profile tools

Viewers and checkers for public Instagram profiles

These tools look at public Instagram accounts from the outside: browse posts and stories without an account, check follower and like counts, measure engagement, audit a profile, estimate fake followers, compare whom two accounts follow, and see whether Instagram is down. You type a username or paste a link, and that is all: no sign-in, no app, and no Instagram password requested at any point.

They show only what an account has made public. Private accounts show their name, picture, bio and counts, and nothing more, because that is all Instagram shows to people who do not follow them.

How the lookups work

When you enter a username, our server asks a data provider for that account's public information and passes it to your page. Results are kept for a short time so that repeated lookups are quick: profile details for about 30 minutes, posts for an hour, stories for 5 minutes. The lookup service's own log records which tool was used, not the username or your IP address; the web server's standard log is described in the privacy policy. Your recent searches and the follower tracker are saved only in your browser, and you can clear them at any time.

To keep the tools free, each visitor can make up to 40 lookups an hour and 150 a day. If many people use the tools at once, you may see a "busy" message; try again later.

Who uses profile tools, and for what

Small businesses use them to watch what competitors post and how their audience reacts. Brands and agencies check a creator's engagement and the quality of their followers before paying for a collaboration. Creators audit their own profile and track growth without a paid dashboard. And many people simply want to watch a public account's stories on a computer, or without an Instagram account of their own.

Whatever the reason, the same rule applies: these tools are for public information. Use them to learn and compare, not to follow a person who does not want contact.

What no profile tool can do

• Show posts or stories of a private account.
• Tell you who visited a profile; Instagram does not make this information public.
• Show direct messages, Close Friends stories or someone's likes on other posts.
• Show another account's reach, saves or audience; only the owner sees those in insights.

If a site promises any of these, it is guessing, showing made-up data, or trying to get your password.

Profile tool questions