Work out a post’s engagement rate.
Pick the platform, type in the numbers it shows you, and get the rate by followers and, where you have them, by views. Use one post, or several for an average you can measure new posts against. The formula is printed under every answer.
How the rate is worked out
An engagement is an action on a post that the platform counts and shows you: a like or reaction, a comment or reply, a share or repost, a save. Views, reach and impressions are not engagements. They are one of the two things the engagements are measured against.
engagements ÷ followers × 100How much of the audience you have built acted on the post.
engagements ÷ views × 100How many of the people who saw the post acted on it.
With several posts, the rate by followers uses the average engagements per post. The rate by views adds up the engagements and the views of the posts you gave views for, then divides one total by the other, so a post seen by more people counts for more than one seen by a few.
| Platform | Added up as engagements | Measured against |
|---|---|---|
| Likes, comments, saves (optional), shares (optional) | Followers, reach or views (optional) | |
| TikTok | Likes, comments, shares, saves | Followers, views |
| YouTube | Likes, comments | Subscribers, views |
| Reactions, comments, shares | Followers, reach or views (optional) | |
| X | Likes, reposts, replies | Followers, views (optional) |
| Reactions, comments, reposts | Followers, impressions (optional) |
Fields marked optional can be left empty: some appear only in the owner’s insights, and the rate is worked out without them.
Two engagement rates can only be compared when they come from the same formula. Tools differ in which actions they count and what they divide by, so keep to one method and note which one you used.
What the rate cannot tell you
It is one useful ratio. Here is what sits outside it.
- Who is engaging. A like from a long-standing customer and a like from an account that follows thousands of others count the same. The rate says nothing about the quality of the audience behind it.
- How far the post travelled. The rate by followers ignores reach altogether: a post seen by twice your following and one seen by a tenth of it can show the same rate. Where you have views or reach, the rate by views fills that gap.
- Where the engagement came from. Giveaways, engagement groups and paid engagement add to the count exactly as organic reactions do. The arithmetic cannot tell them apart, so a high rate is not proof of interest.
- Whether it led anywhere. Clicks, new followers, sign-ups and sales are not in the formula. A post can be liked widely and move nothing, or quietly send people to your site.
- Whether your number is good. Averages published online differ from study to study because each samples different accounts and counts different actions. Your own recent posts, measured the same way, are the benchmark that means something.
Questions about engagement rate
Should I divide by followers or by views?
Followers show how much of the audience you have built acts on a post; views (or reach) show how many of the people who actually saw it did. Where a platform recommends posts to people who do not follow you, as TikTok, YouTube and Instagram Reels do, the rate by views is usually the fairer of the two. Whichever you pick, use the same one every time you compare.
Why is my rate by followers over 100%?
Because more people engaged with the post than follow you. It happens when a post is shown well beyond your followers, which recommendation feeds such as TikTok's For You feed do. It is not an error, but it makes the rate by followers a poor yardstick for that post; use the rate by views instead.
Which actions count as engagements here?
The ones each platform shows for a post: likes, comments, saves and shares on Instagram and TikTok; likes and comments on YouTube; reactions, comments and shares on Facebook; likes, reposts and replies on X; reactions, comments and reposts on LinkedIn. Views, reach and impressions are never added in, because they are what the rate is measured against.
What is a good engagement rate?
There is no single figure. Published averages vary with the study, the accounts it sampled, the platform, the niche and the size of the account, and many use a different formula from this one. The fairest comparison is with your own recent posts measured the same way, which is what the several-posts option gives you.
How many posts should I average?
Enough to smooth out one-offs: your last five to ten posts of the same kind is a sensible start. Leave out posts that were promoted with ads or ran a giveaway, since they lift the average, and compare like with like, Reels with Reels and photos with photos.
Why does an app show me a different engagement figure?
Where a platform or an analytics tool shows its own engagement rate, it may count actions this calculator cannot see, such as link or profile clicks, and divide by reach or impressions rather than followers. Neither figure is wrong; they measure different things, which is why this page prints its formula under every result.
Does this tool look up my account?
No. It never connects to Instagram, TikTok or any other platform, and there is nowhere to enter a username or a password. You type the numbers, the page does the arithmetic in your browser, and nothing you enter is sent or stored.