Engagement rate calculator
From the post insights. Leave it empty if you do not track saves.
From the post insights: accounts reached, or impressions.
Engagement rate by followers
1.00%
Likes, comments, shares and saves ÷ followers.
- Engagement rate by reach
- 4.00%
- Total engagements
- 120
With impressions entered, this is the rate by impressions.
Engagement rate formula
Engagement rate by followers = (likes + comments + shares + saves) ÷ followers × 100
Engagement rate tells you what share of your audience did something with a post instead of scrolling past it. Dividing by followers is the version most people mean, and the one benchmark reports use, because anyone can see a follower count. It lets an account with 2,000 followers and one with 200,000 compare posts fairly: 100 likes is a lot for the first and very little for the second.
Count the interactions you can see for the post. On most platforms that is likes (or reactions), comments, shares and saves. If a platform doesn't show one of them, leave it out and do the same every time, so this week's rate compares with last month's.
Engagement rate by reach, by impressions and across several posts
The same engagements can be divided by other numbers, and each answers a different question.
- By reach = engagements ÷ reach × 100. Reach is the number of accounts that saw the post, from your post insights. This is the best measure of the content itself, because it only counts people who had the chance to react.
- By impressions or views = engagements ÷ impressions × 100. Impressions count every time the post was shown, so one person can count twice. The rate comes out lower than by reach. Use it when your tool reports views rather than reach.
- Across several posts: add the engagements of all the posts, divide by the number of posts, then divide by followers and multiply by 100. That is your average engagement rate per post. One viral post can pull an average up, so the median of the per-post rates is often the steadier number to track.
The calculator takes reach or impressions in one field. Enter whichever your insights show; with impressions, the second result is the rate by impressions.
A worked example
These numbers are made up to show the math. An account with 12,000 followers posts a carousel. Its insights show 96 likes, 8 comments, 4 shares and 12 saves, and the post reached 3,000 accounts.
| Calculation | Result | |
|---|---|---|
| Total engagements | 96 + 8 + 4 + 12 | 120 |
| Engagement rate by followers | 120 ÷ 12,000 × 100 | 1.00% |
| Engagement rate by reach | 120 ÷ 3,000 × 100 | 4.00% |
The post reached as many accounts as a quarter of the followers, and 4% of the people who saw it interacted. Without the saves, the total is 108 and the rate by followers is 0.90%, which is the number to use against a benchmark built from public data.
How to read your result
Against a published benchmark. Rival IQ's 2026 Social Media Industry Benchmark Report puts the all-industry median engagement rate on Instagram at 0.30% per post, down from 0.36% in its previous report. On TikTok the median is 2.01% per video. Both divide engagements by followers. The sample is about 150 brands picked at random in each of 18 industries, so these numbers describe brand accounts. A personal account, a local business with a few hundred followers or a creator can sit far from them in either direction.
Against your own posts. This is the comparison that tells you what to do next. Work out the rate for your last 10 to 20 posts and take the median. A post well above it found something your audience wanted: a topic, a format, an opening line. Make more like it. A post well below it is a cue to change the hook or the first frame, not to post less. The ad hook generator gives you opening lines to try, and the ad mockup shows how a post or Story will look before you publish.
Like with like. Compare a rate with rates made by the same formula, on the same platform, for the same kind of post. A Reel and a single photo, or a rate by reach and a rate by followers, are different numbers.
When you put money behind a post as a Facebook or Instagram ad, judge it as an ad instead: clicks and sales matter more than likes, and the CTR calculator works out its click-through rate.
Limits
- Followers are not all active. Inactive and fake accounts count as followers and never engage, so they lower the rate by followers without saying anything about the post.
- Platforms count differently. Each platform reports its own set of interactions and changes its definitions from time to time. A rate on one platform does not compare with a rate on another.
- Engagement is not revenue. A post can collect likes and bring no customers. Track profile visits, link clicks and sales next to it.
- Benchmarks move. The Instagram median fell between the last two Rival IQ reports, so a rate that beat it last year may only match it now.
Sources
- Rival IQ (Quid), 2026 Social Media Industry Benchmark Report, published March 5, 2026, checked November 9, 2026. All-industry medians, engagement divided by followers.