How to See When Someone Followed You on Instagram (3 Places That Show a Date)

Way 2: your notifications show recent follows

When someone follows you, Instagram can send you a notification. Its help page lists “Follows you” as one of the things that trigger one (when Instagram sends notifications).

Those follow notifications also land in your activity list. Tap the heart at the top of your feed to open it. Each line says who started following you and how long ago.

This is the quickest check for a follow from the last few days. It’s a poor tool for anything older. Instagram’s help pages don’t say how far back the list goes, so don’t count on finding a follow from months ago. If you turned follow notifications off, there may be nothing to find.

A last detail: if the person later unfollowed you, don’t treat an old notification as proof they still follow you. Check your followers list, or their profile.

Way 3: your data export has your followers list in one file

Instagram lets you export a copy of your information through Accounts Center (review and export your Instagram information). This is the only way to get your whole followers list as a file you keep.

To request it:

1. Go to your profile, open the menu, and tap Accounts Center.
2. Tap Your information and permissions, then Export your information.
3. Tap Create export and pick your Instagram profile.
4. Choose Export to device, then pick the information you want, a date range and a format.
5. Tap Start export.

Pick only your followers and following information if you can, which keeps the file small. Instagram warns it “may take up to 30 days” to send the link, and once it’s ready you have four days to download it.

What about dates? Guides from export tools say each entry in the followers file carries a timestamp, a long number you convert into a date. Instagram’s help pages don’t describe what’s inside the file, so open your own export and check before you rely on it. The same guides say the JSON format is easier to search than HTML.

The export also needs your password, because it holds your own data. That’s Instagram asking, inside Instagram. No outside site needs it.

Why can’t you see when someone else followed someone?

Because Instagram shows no dates on anyone else’s lists. Open any public profile and tap Followers or Following. You’ll get names, not dates.

There used to be a way to watch other people’s follows. Until October 2019, Instagram’s activity page had a Following tab showing what the people you follow were liking and following. Instagram removed it that month, so the activity page now “only shows actions as they relate to you” (The Next Web, October 2019). That’s history, not a hidden setting you can turn back on.

Shared activity doesn’t fill the gap. It covers only you and the account you open. And the order of someone’s following list isn’t a date order either, so the top of the list doesn’t tell you who’s new. We wrote up what still works in how to see who someone recently followed.

How a tracker puts a date on a follow

If you need dates on follows that don’t involve you, the only method is to watch the list. Save it today, look again later, and any new name is a new follow. Its date is the day you spotted it.

That’s what our recent-follow tracker does for the accounts a profile follows. Type a public username. We only need the username, never your Instagram password or login. Your first check shows real accounts from its lists, but it doesn’t start tracking. With Premium, we save the full following list and keep checking it for you. Each new follow shows up with the date we found it, which can be a little after the real follow. We double-check a new follow before it shows. The follower tracker does the same job for a profile’s followers.

Two limits to know before you start. Nothing can date follows from before tracking began, because there was no earlier list to compare. And it works only on public accounts with up to 15,000 followers and 15,000 following. Above 15,000 followers, we track the following list only.

What no tool can show you

• The exact moment someone followed another account. Instagram doesn’t publish it for other people’s lists, so any date a tool shows is the day it noticed.
• Follows from before anyone was watching. A comparison needs an earlier copy of the list.
• A private account’s lists, unless that account has approved you as a follower.
• Shared activity for two other people. It only ever covers you and one other account.

Will they know you checked?

No. Opening someone’s shared activity, profile or lists sends them no notification. Instagram’s list of notification triggers covers actions: a follow, a like, a comment, a message. Looking isn’t on it.

The same goes for a check with us. We read public data through a data provider, so nothing touches their account and nobody is told.

To start dating new follows on a public account, run a first check on the recent-follow tracker. Premium starts with a 2-day trial ($0.99 in the US), then $5.99 a month, cancel anytime. One plan tracks one account.