Instagram guides

Every Instagram guide and free tool on this site, grouped by what you are trying to do. The guides follow Instagram’s own help pages and what we checked ourselves, and they point out when a third-party app asks for more than it should. A short section at the end covers TikTok and Spotify.

Reach, followers and engagement

How Instagram’s discovery system worksWhich ranking signals decide whether your posts and Reels are recommended to people who don’t follow you yet.

Instagram shadowban: signs and fixesWhy most shadowbans are limited recommendations, how to check Account Status, and what to fix.

Engagement rate formulaHow to calculate your engagement rate, what a healthy followers to engagement ratio looks like, and how to improve it.

Keeping the followers you haveWhy people unfollow, and practical ways to keep the audience you already built.

Tracking follower growth and unfollowsHow to read follower growth in Insights, spot unfollows yourself, and avoid apps that ask for your password.

Free Instagram followers trials comparedWhat each free followers trial really asks for, from an email code to your password, and what Instagram removes.

How to pick an Instagram giveaway winnerHow to collect entries, remove duplicates and pick a winner at random within Instagram’s promotion rules.

Instagram hashtag generator Free toolShows which hashtags creators use with your keyword right now, with usage counts and more ideas.

Instagram giveaway picker Free toolPicks random winners from pasted comments, with a keyword filter and more than one winner if you need it.

Instagram follower count Free toolShows a public account’s follower, following and post counts from its username.

Profile, username and account details

How to change your Instagram usernameHow to change your username on mobile or desktop, check whether a name is free, and when you can switch back.

What an Instagram user ID isWhat the numeric ID behind every account is, how it differs from your username, and how to find it.

Instagram post and profile picture sizesInstagram’s official photo widths and aspect ratios, what happens to images outside them, and tips for profile photos.

Can you see who views your profile?What Instagram does and does not show about who sees your Stories, Reels, posts and profile, and why viewer apps are not safe.

Instagram username checker Free toolChecks whether a username follows Instagram’s rules and whether a public profile already uses it.

Instagram username generator Free toolGives dozens of username ideas from a name or keyword.

Instagram user ID finder Free toolFinds the numeric user ID behind a public username.

Instagram profile picture viewer Free toolShows a profile photo at full size, with the exact dimensions Instagram uses.

Instagram font generator Free toolTurns text into Unicode fonts you can paste into your bio, captions and comments.

Fixing problems and missing numbers

Is Instagram down or is it just me?How to tell in about a minute whether Instagram has an outage, your network is the problem, or it is your account.

Instagram keeps crashing on iPhoneApple’s fixes in order, from force closing to reinstalling, once you have ruled out an outage.

How often stats updateHow often Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Spotify refresh their counts, and why public numbers and dashboards differ.

Is Instagram down right now? Free toolTests whether Instagram is answering right now, so you know if the problem is the app or your connection.

TikTok and other platforms

How to go live on TikTokHow many followers you need to go live, how to set up a LIVE, and how to fix the common problems.

How to make money on TikTokHow the Creator Rewards Program and LIVE Gifts pay, who qualifies, and what to avoid.

Free TikTok views apps and botsWhat free TikTok views generators, apps and Discord bots actually ask for, and the cap on each.

Spotify monthly listeners vs streamsHow Spotify counts monthly listeners and streams, and which of the two numbers is worth tracking.

TikTok hashtag generator Free toolShows which hashtags short-form creators use with your keyword, with usage counts.

TikTok username generator Free toolGives unique TikTok username ideas from a name or keyword.

Growing on YouTube as well? See the YouTube growth guides. Every post is also on the blog, and every tool is on the free tools page.