What is a good engagement rate? How to check one
Last updated 26 September 2026.
An engagement rate is the share of an audience that did something with a post. It looks like one number and is really several, which is why published benchmarks disagree so widely. If you only need the number, the free engagement rate calculator does the sum.
On this page
The formula
Every version starts the same way: add up the interactions on a post and divide by the size of the audience.
Engagement rate = (likes + comments + shares + saves) ÷ followers × 100
A post with 400 likes, 35 comments, 10 shares and 15 saves on an account with 12,000 followers has 460 interactions. 460 ÷ 12,000 × 100 is 3.83%.
Two choices are hidden in that line. The first is what counts as an interaction: some benchmarks count likes and comments only, others add shares, saves, reposts or clicks. The second is what you divide by: followers, the number of people who saw the post (its reach), or its views. Change either and the same post gets a different rate.
For an account, work out the rate for each recent post and take the middle one. The next section explains why.
Why every benchmark disagrees
Search for a good engagement rate and you will find figures that differ several times over. Most are accurate for what they measured; they just measured different things.
| Benchmark choice | Effect on the rate |
|---|---|
| Divided by followers | The most common method, and the easiest to repeat, because follower counts are public |
| Divided by reach or views | Usually higher on Instagram, where a post reaches fewer people than follow the account. Often lower on TikTok, where views can outnumber followers |
| Brand accounts | Often lower. People follow a brand for news and offers, and a creator for the person |
| Creator accounts | Often higher, but not everywhere: Rival IQ's Influencers category came in below its all-industry median on TikTok |
| The mean (average) | Pulled up by a handful of viral posts or unusually active accounts |
| The median (middle) | Lower and steadier, because one outlier cannot move it |
Rival IQ's 2025 Social Media Industry Benchmark Report, published in February 2025, samples 150 accounts per industry, nearly all companies (its one Influencers category is well-known personal accounts), divides interactions by follower count and reports the median. Engagement fell on every platform it tracks compared with its 2024 report, including by 16% on Instagram and 34% on TikTok. That is a fair yardstick for a brand judging its own page. Its all-industry medians are mostly brand pages, so compare a creator with creators of a similar size.
Rates also vary with account size, so compare like with like. That is part of why some brands hire small accounts, and what a micro-influencer is covers that argument.
Why TikTok rates run high, and can pass 100%
On a feed that mostly serves followers, the follower count caps how many people see a post. TikTok's For You feed is built around showing videos to people who do not follow the creator, so nothing caps it.
Divide by followers and a video watched mostly by people who do not follow the creator can score far above 100%. Take an account with 5,000 followers whose video gets 200,000 views and 8,000 likes. Against followers the rate is 8,000 ÷ 5,000 × 100, which is 160%. Against views it is 4%. Both are arithmetically right, and only the second can be compared with anything.
So a by-follower TikTok rate runs high as a matter of course, and one viral video can drag an account's average far past its ordinary posts.
What counts as good
Here is the scale the Flixerpay engagement rate calculator uses, measured against followers:
| Rate by followers | Calculator label |
|---|---|
| 6% and above | Excellent |
| 3.5% to 6% | Strong |
| 1% to 3.5% | Average |
| Under 1% | Below average |
That scale has limits. The cut-offs match a scale another calculator publishes for Instagram alone. Our calculator applies them unchanged to every platform, and it divides only by followers, with no views or reach option, so a by-follower TikTok rate will often read Excellent there without meaning much.
Treat the label as a guide, and compare with accounts measured the same way. A creator whose rate holds steady post after post tells you more than one with a higher average built on two viral posts.
If you are a creator quoting your own rate, say how you worked it out: which posts, divided by what, and on what date. How to pitch brands as a creator in Nigeria covers the rest of the pitch.
How to check an influencer's engagement rate
- Open their profile and pick their last 10 to 12 posts. Skip pinned posts, which are usually their best, and giveaways, which inflate comments.
- For each post, add the likes and comments. Add shares and saves only where they are shown, and do the same for every post.
- Divide each total by the follower count and multiply by 100. On TikTok, divide by the video's views as well.
- Line the rates up and take the middle one (with an even number of posts, halfway between the two middle rates). If one post is ten times the rest, the median sets it aside.
- Compare the result with similar accounts on the same platform, measured the same way.
- Read the comments: they tell you whether real people did it.
Likes and comments on a public post are usually visible to anyone, so this is a figure you can work out yourself. Instagram lets accounts hide like counts, and comments can be switched off. Where they are hidden, ask the creator for their insights on the same posts, and treat the result as their figure, not yours.
Checking the work after a campaign is a different job. How to verify an influencer campaign after delivery covers that side.
Signs of bought or pod engagement
Followers, likes and comments are sold openly, including by growth panels priced in naira, and some sites pay people to follow, like and comment on request. Engagement pods, groups who agree to like and comment on each other's posts minutes after they go up, produce real clicks from real people who are not an audience. Patterns give it away more often than any single number does.
- Plenty of likes and very few comments, or comments of a single word or emoji that could sit under any post.
- The same handful of accounts commenting on every post, often other creators in the same niche, not the people the content is for.
- Comments that arrive in a burst straight after posting and then stop.
- Likes out of proportion to views, on platforms that show both. It can mean likes arrived without an audience watching.
- A sudden jump in followers that no post explains, followed by flat or falling engagement, where you can see an account's growth over time.
- Every post earning almost the same number of likes, whatever its quality.
- Sponsored posts drawing far more engagement than the creator's ordinary posts, which can mean the numbers were topped up for the brand's benefit.
None of these proves anything alone. A creator whose friends fill the comments is not running a pod, and a new account can grow in a jump for honest reasons. Look for several at once, and ask the creator before you decide.
Flixerpay does not detect fake followers or bought engagement, so this judgement stays yours. Buying engagement or misrepresenting an audience is against the Flixerpay Terms.
Metrics you can check, and metrics you take on trust
Likes, comments and, on video, views are public, so you can count them yourself. Reach and impressions sit in the creator's insights and reach you as a typed figure or a screenshot, which you cannot check. How creators prove their reach to brands covers that gap.
Follower counts are the one metric Flixerpay reads for you. A creator profile shows follower numbers only from accounts the creator has connected. Anything they typed is never shown, and a platform they have not connected reads Unverified. Counts carry the date they were confirmed and refresh at most once a day. Profiles are visible to signed-in brands on Flixerpay, not as public links.
A connected account on a platform Flixerpay supports gives you a follower count nobody typed, to divide by. A connected TikTok does not yet show a follower number on Flixerpay, so on TikTok the videos' own view counts are the figures to use. Whether those followers are real people is still your judgement. Engagement is the part Flixerpay does not measure: it does not read likes, views or impressions on creator profiles or campaign posts, and average engagement on a profile is shown as Unverified for that reason.
Pay on Flixerpay is set per approved claim, never by views or engagement. Each campaign advertises its bounty before anyone claims, and brand and creator can agree a different rate on a claim before the work is approved, so a rate with its method shown can be part of that conversation. Read how Flixerpay campaigns and bounties work, or browse the other guides for creators and brands.
Questions
What is a good engagement rate on Instagram?
It depends on how it was measured. Against followers, the Flixerpay calculator treats 1% to 3.5% as average, 3.5% to 6% as strong and 6% or more as excellent, using cut-offs another calculator publishes for Instagram. The fairer test is against accounts of a similar size in the same niche, measured the same way, using the middle of their recent posts.
Is a 10% engagement rate on TikTok good?
It depends on what it was divided by. Against views there is no agreed standard, so compare it with the creator's own recent videos and with similar accounts measured by views. Against followers it is not unusual on TikTok, where videos reach many people who do not follow the creator, so it says less than it would on Instagram. Ask which it is, and look at several posts.
How do I check an influencer's engagement rate?
Take their last 10 to 12 posts, add the likes and comments on each, divide by the follower count and multiply by 100. On TikTok, divide by views as well. Use the middle rate, not the average, so one viral post does not carry the result, and read the comments.
Can an engagement rate be over 100%?
Yes, when interactions are divided by followers and the post reached far more people than follow the account. It happens most on TikTok. The sum is right, but the figure cannot be compared with anything, so divide by the post's views instead.
Is there a free tool to check for fake followers?
Several free checkers exist, but their results are estimates, so check whether a tool says how it works them out. Flixerpay does not detect fake followers. It shows follower counts only from accounts a creator has connected, on the platforms it supports, so the count was read rather than typed. Whether those followers are real people is still a judgement you make by reading the account.
Does Flixerpay measure engagement?
No. Flixerpay reads follower counts from connected accounts on the platforms it supports and dates them, but it does not measure likes, views or engagement on creator profiles or campaign posts, which is why average engagement on a creator profile is shown as Unverified. Campaigns pay per approved claim, at the advertised bounty or a rate agreed for that claim, so an engagement rate can inform the rate but never triggers payment.
Work out a rate with the free engagement rate calculator.