How to See Who Unfollowed You on Instagram (2026)

Instagram has no unfollower list and sends no notification when someone stops following you. You can still find out with three methods that cost nothing and never require handing your password to anyone: check specific people in the app, compare two exports of your follower list, or compare snapshots by hand. Which one fits depends on how many followers you have and how often you want to check.

One thing upfront, because this guide is published by SpySecret: our tool can't do this for your own account. It tracks other public profiles, and the details are at the end. If you first want to know what Instagram tells either side, read whether Instagram notifies anyone about an unfollow.

Method 1: Check specific people in the app

If you're wondering about one or a few accounts, Instagram's own search is the fastest way.

• Open your profile and tap Followers.
• Type the person's username into the search field at the top.
• If the account shows up, they still follow you. If it doesn't, they unfollowed you, blocked you, or their account is deactivated or deleted.

You can also check from their side: open their profile, tap Following and search for your own username. That works if their account is public or if you follow them.

Good to know: Instagram lets you sort the accounts you follow by the date you followed them, but your Followers list has no date sorting. So the app can answer "does this person still follow me?" but not "who left this week?".

Effort: seconds per name. Limit: you need to know whom to check.

Method 2: Compare two data exports

Instagram lets you download a copy of your account information, including your current followers and the accounts you follow. Two exports taken a few weeks apart show everyone who left in between.

How to request the export (menu names can differ slightly between app versions):

• Go to Settings, then Accounts Center, then Your information and permissions.
• Choose Export your information (older versions call it Download your information) and select your Instagram account.
• Pick only the Followers and following category to keep the file small, choose a format (HTML is easier to read, JSON easier to process) and the date range All time.
• Export to your device. Instagram tells you when the file is ready, which can take anywhere from minutes to a few days.

Inside the ZIP file you'll find a followers file and a following file. Keep this first export, repeat the process later, and compare the two followers files. Accounts that are in the old file but not in the new one have unfollowed you, removed their account, or are deactivated.

Effort: a few minutes per export plus waiting time. Advantage: complete lists, straight from Instagram, and nothing is shared with a third party.

Method 3: Compare the lists yourself

You don't need special software for the comparison. A spreadsheet does the job:

• Paste the usernames from your older list into column A and the newer list into column B, starting in row 2.
• In cell C2, add a formula that returns every name from column A that is missing in column B. In Google Sheets: =FILTER(A2:A, A2:A<>"", ISNA(MATCH(A2:A, B2:B, 0)))
• The result is the list of accounts that left between the two dates.

For a small account you can skip the export: take screenshots of your Followers list today and again in a week, then compare them by eye. Beyond a couple of hundred followers this gets unreliable fast.

Effort: about ten minutes per comparison. Limit: you learn who left between two dates, not the day each person left.

Why your count can drop without an unfollow

Not every drop means someone unfollowed you. Your follower count also goes down when:

• a follower deactivates their account (they reappear if it's reactivated),
• a follower deletes their account,
• Instagram removes spam or fake accounts,
• you remove a follower or block someone yourself.

An export comparison can't tell these cases apart. If a name is missing, look for the profile directly: if it can't be found at all, it most likely wasn't an unfollow.

Be careful with unfollower apps

Many apps promise an automatic unfollower list. A lot of them ask you to sign in with your Instagram password, which gives the app full control of your account. Instagram can flag the automated activity, which may lead to password resets or temporarily blocked actions. Some apps also hide their results behind surveys, app downloads or subscriptions that are hard to cancel.

If you use any tool at all, the safe minimum is simple: never enter your Instagram password outside Instagram, and check who operates the app and what it costs before you pay.

What SpySecret can and cannot do here

SpySecret answers a different question: what changes on another public Instagram profile. You enter a username, the first scan saves that profile's following and follower lists, and later scans show which accounts it newly follows and who newly follows it, each dated by the scan that found the change. On the Pro plan, an unfollow check lists the accounts a public profile no longer follows, compared with the saved list.

What SpySecret does not do is list the people who stopped following you. If you enter your own public username, you'll see new followers as they're detected, but not the ones who left. For that, the three methods above are the honest answer, and they're free.

If you want to keep an eye on changes to another public profile, start with a first scan on SpySecret. Plans and prices are shown in the app before you pay.