How to mass unfollow on Instagram
Officially Instagram users are only able to follow a maximum of 7,500 accounts, which can prove to be a problem for busy compers!
The limit is regardless of how many followers you have, or how famous you are. I’ve reached my 7,500 limit several times, so I wanted to share a few tips on how to mass unfollow Instagram accounts.
Note that in 2026, some users are able to follow way more than 7500 accounts, while others are still restricted!
First of all, I should warn you that Instagram do not like you unfollowing lots of accounts! So even though I use the term ‘mass unfollow’, you should limit your unfollows to around 30-40 accounts at a time – just to ensure Instagram doesn’t restrict or ban your account. Find out more about bans in my post How to avoid an Instagram ban.
Here I’ve shared a few methods you can use to unfollow accounts!
Unfollow from a list of accounts
Go to your profile, and tap the ‘following’ number next to your profile pic. You’ll be taken to a screen showing a list of the accounts and hashtags you follow.
Unfortunately some users might not be able to view their following list at all on mobile – this is a form of Instagram ban! You may be able to view the list at www.instagram.com but you won’t be able to sort it.
Sort the list by tapping the double arrows, and change Default to Date Followed: Earliest (there’s no option to do this if you’re using www.instagram.com).
The accounts at the top are the ones I followed years and years ago, so are more likely to be accounts I’m no longer interested in, or that are no longer active.
Finding inactive accounts to unfollow
As you scroll through your list, you can see at a glance which accounts you follow are definitely active by seeing who has shared to their story. The coloured ring around their profile pic shows that they have posted in the last 24 hours.
I don’t tend to unfollow active accounts, unless I’m really not interested in the brand or person any more. Brands that share to their stories usually run Instagram giveaways, so it’s a good idea to stick with them.
Tap Following on the list to unfollow accounts you definitely aren’t interested in. The button will change from Following to Follow
For accounts on the list you don’t recognise, tap the photo to visit their profile.
- First, glance at the bio – some closed accounts will state at the top that they’re no longer active
- Look for giveaway posts on their grid to see if they’re running comps
- Tap to view the latest post on their grid (NOT any pinned posts) to see the date it was posted. If it was more than a few months ago, it’s likely the account is no longer active, and you should unfollow
- Finally, tap the back arrow to return the list and then tap Following on the list to unfollow them – this is quicker than unfollowing from a profile page. The button will change from Following to Follow
You can also filter accounts you follow by typing words or letters into the search bar. For example, I want to unfollow food & drink accounts as I want to enter those giveaways from my @discohat account. I searched for GIN, TEQUILA and RUM in my follows, and went through the list unfollowing them all (I then re-followed my favourites from @discohat). I no longer drink coffee, so unfollowed all results from a ‘coffee’ search!
Sometimes Instagram takes a few days to actually update the numbers on your profile after your unfollow spree, so it may still show 7500 for a while, preventing you from following any more accounts. Rest assured your following count will eventually update though, so be patient!
A lot of my unfollows are parent/mum/baby related accounts that I followed many years ago! It’s amazing how many Instagram brand accounts haven’t been used since 2016.
Unfollow from your Following feed
By default Instagram shows you a curated feed (like ‘For You’ on Twitter or TikTok). But if you tap the word Instagram at the top of your home screen you can switch this to show only content from accounts you are Following. Swipe through and you’ll see posts from users you follow, who you may no longer be interested in. Just unfollow directly from the feed by tapping … at the top then Unfollow.
Create a spreadsheet linking to every account you follow
This is the most thorough method – it’s a bit fiddly to set up, but you’ll end up with a full spreadsheet of every account you follow on Instagram, with clickable links to their profile. Then when you get chance you can go through the list, unfollowing accounts you’re no longer interested in.
How to download your Instagram following data
- In Instagram go to Settings → Accounts Centre → Your information and permissions → Export Your Information → Create Export.
- If you choose Customise information you can Clear All except Followers and following (scroll down to find this).
- You’ll receive an email ‘Your Meta information download is ready’ – click the link to return to the Export your Information screen and download a ZIP file.
- Once expanded, open the Connections folder and look for Followers and Following, then the following HTML file.
- Double click the following file and it will open in a browser window. Select All then Copy
- Go to Google Drive and create a new Sheet. Then paste in your list – all the links will be clickable.
- The oldest accounts you follow will be at the end of the list so you can start there
Tip: If you have a Google Gemini subscription, ask it to ‘hide all rows that are not links’ in your sheet to tidy it up and remove the dates. Or just upload your html file to any AI chatbot and ask it to ‘remove any information that is not a link from this file, then give me a list of the links’ – you can copy this list back into your Google sheet.
Tip: Set up a second Instagram account
As it’s time consuming to unfollow, consider setting up a second Instagram account that you can add new follows to. I did this with @discohat and have been moving across my likes from @superluckydi, focusing on food, drink and beauty giveaways on my new account. If I see a giveaway I’d like to enter on my @superluckydi feed, I just send the post via DM to @discohat then unfollow from @superluckydi. It’s easy to switch between the two accounts by double tapping your profile photo in the corner of the screen on mobile. Just make sure you don’t accidentally enter the same competition from both accounts – but it’s easy to see when your other account follows a profile or likes a post!
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I’ve been trying to do this today and when I unfollow some accounts and go out of that part my followings amount has not changed
As I mention in the post, it can tale a few days for the numbers to update. They don’t go down immediately.
I want to remove 7,500 following people
Hiya!! I’ve been tryng to do this today and when i unfollow some accounts and then go out of that part my following amount has not changed!!
This has happened to me too! How do I fix it?
Great advice, thank you