Reach, impressions and Views on Instagram: what each one counts

Open your Insights and you will see a few numbers that sound alike. They are not the same number, and mixing them up leads to decisions about the wrong thing.

Instagram's own Help Centre pages would not load for us, so this post leans on Meta's developer documentation and on Instagram's August 2024 announcement as reported by Social Media Today. Where they disagree, we say so.

What does reach mean?

Meta's documentation defines reach for reels as the "Number of unique Instagram users that have seen the reel at least once." Reach counts people, not showings. If one person watches your reel five times, reach goes up by one.

The same page marks the metric as estimated, so treat it as a close figure rather than an exact count.

What happened to impressions?

Impressions counted the total number of times your media was seen. Meta's documentation defines it as the "Total number of times your app user's Instagram Media object has been seen." The same page contrasts it with reach: "Reach is different from impressions, which can include multiple views of a reel by the same account."

Then it was retired. The documentation warns: "For media created after July 2, 2024, this metric is deprecated." For older media it says the metric "will still be available." So for anything you posted after that date, an impressions figure is not what the platform now offers.

What does Views count?

In August 2024 Instagram said, as reported by Social Media Today: "We're introducing 'Views' as the primary metric across all formats including reels, live, photos, carousels, and stories." It added: "As part of this change, repeat views of content will be counted, similar to how plays and replays are counted for reels."

So the new Views number counts repeats, which makes it closer in spirit to impressions than to reach.

Here is where two sources do not line up. Meta's developer documentation defines views as the "Total number of times IG Media has been played on Instagram" and labels it "Metric in development." That says played, while Instagram's announcement talks about views of content. We cannot tell you from these sources exactly how a photo's view is counted, so we will not.

Which number should you look at?

It depends on the question. To ask how many different people saw this, look at reach. To ask how often did it get watched, look at Views.

• Judging a topic or a hook: reach, because it counts people.
• Judging whether a reel was worth rewatching: Views, because repeats are counted.
• Comparing posts from before and after July 2024: be careful, because the figures changed meaning.

We could not confirm which labels your app shows today, or where reach now sits on the Insights screen. Open yours and read the labels before you compare anything.

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