150 Instagram Statistics for 2026

How many people use Instagram?

Instagram is one of the three largest apps in the world on Meta's own counts, and internet users name it as their favourite platform more often than any other. Meta's reported user figure covers all its apps together, so Instagram's own counts come from rounded statements on earnings calls.

1. 1 Facebook 58.1%
2. 2 Instagram 56.6%
3. 3 YouTube 56.2%
4. 4 WhatsApp 54.9%
5. 5 Messenger 37.9%

• At the end of 2025 Meta said Instagram's daily actives were "just shy" of those of Facebook and WhatsApp, which each had more than 2 billion. (Meta (Q4 2025 earnings call), Jan 2026)
• 3.64 billion people used at least one of Meta's apps (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and Threads) each day on average in September 2026, up 3% in a year. (Meta (Q3 2026 results), Oct 2026)
• Meta's daily active people averaged 3.58 billion in December 2025, up 7% from 3.35 billion in December 2024. (Meta (2025 Form 10-K), Jan 2026)
• Daily active people dipped to 3.56 billion in the first quarter of 2026, the slight decline Meta put down to internet disruptions in Iran and a restriction on WhatsApp in Russia, before rising to 3.60 billion in the second. (Meta (Q3 2026 earnings slides), Oct 2026)
• Instagram was the favourite platform of 17.8% of internet users aged 16 and over in GWI's survey, up from 16.7% a year earlier, and of 30.5% of Instagram's own active users. (Kepios (Digital 2027), Oct 2026)
• Instagram's active users spent an average of 1 hour 40 minutes a day in its mobile app in August 2026, second to TikTok's 1 hour 55 minutes, on Similarweb app data. (Kepios (Digital 2027, Similarweb data), Oct 2026)
• 53% of respondents across the Reuters Institute's online samples use Instagram weekly for any purpose, and Reuters describes it as substantially bigger than TikTok. (Reuters Institute (Digital News Report 2026), Jun 2026)

Instagram's monthly and daily actives are rounded statements by Meta's chief executive, not audited metrics. Daily active people is Meta's estimate of unique people using at least one of its apps each day, worldwide, with an error margin Meta puts at around 3%. The GWI and Reuters figures are survey shares of online samples, and the time figure is measured app-panel data for native mobile apps only; none of these is compared with Meta's counts.

How has Instagram grown since its 2010 launch?

Instagram went from a first-day sign-up count in 2010 to billions of users, on its own and Meta's announcements. The wording changed along the way, from sign-ups and registered users to "Instagrammers", then monthly and daily actives, so each milestone below says which measure it uses.

View data table

Instagram's announced audience, in millions. The 2014-2018 points are Instagram's "Instagrammers" or "community" counts, which do not say they are monthly; the 2022 and 2025 points are monthly actives stated by Meta's chief executive. Registered users and daily actives are left out. Each point comes from the announcement for that date; the link is to the latest one.

Period	Value	Note
Dec 2014	300m+	community
Jun 2016	500m+	community
Dec 2016	600m+	community
Apr 2017	700m+	community
Jun 2018	1bn	community
Oct 2022	2bn+	monthly actives
Oct 2025	3bn	monthly actives

• Instagram launched on 6 October 2010, and 25,000 people signed up on the first day. (Instagram (launch post), Oct 2010)
• In December 2014 Instagram said there were "more than 300 million Instagrammers", sharing more than 70 million photos and videos each day. (Instagram (300 million post), Dec 2014)
• In June 2016 Instagram said its community had grown to more than 500 million, with more than 300 million using it "every single day". (Instagram (500 million post), Jun 2016)
• In December 2016 the community passed 600 million, and "the last 100 million" joined in the previous six months. (Instagram (600 million post), Dec 2016)
• By April 2017 Instagram said its community had grown to more than 700 million. (Instagram (700 million post), Apr 2017)
• In June 2018 Instagram said it was "now a global community of one billion". (Instagram (IGTV launch post), Jun 2018)
• In July 2018 Facebook told investors Instagram now had "more than a billion actives". (Facebook (Q2 2018 earnings call), Jul 2018)
• In October 2022 Meta said Instagram had "more than 2 billion monthly actives". (Meta (Q3 2022 earnings call), Oct 2022)

Milestones are Instagram's and Meta's own rounded announcements, worldwide. Sign-ups and registered users count accounts ever created; "community" counts do not state a time window; monthly and daily actives count accounts used in a month or a day. They are not one series and should not be read as exact growth.

How much did Facebook pay for Instagram?

Facebook announced the deal in April 2012 and completed it in August 2012. Two different values are often quoted: the total consideration announced at signing, and the lower purchase price Facebook recorded in its accounts after completion.

• Facebook completed the acquisition in August 2012 and accounted for it at a total purchase price of $521 million, made up of about 12 million vested Class B shares and $300 million in cash. (Facebook (2012 Form 10-K), Feb 2013)
• Facebook also issued unvested shares to Instagram employee stockholders, with an aggregate fair value of $194 million. (Facebook (2012 Form 10-K), Feb 2013)
• In July 2012, between announcement and completion, Instagram said it had over 80 million registered users who had shared nearly 4 billion photos. (Instagram (80 million post), Jul 2012)

The "about $1 billion" is the total consideration in cash and Facebook shares announced on 9 April 2012. The $521 million is the accounting purchase price in Facebook's 2012 annual report, after the deal completed. They are different measures and are not added together. The 80 million are registered users, not active users.

How many people use Instagram in the EU?

Instagram now has more EU users than Facebook on the figures it must publish under the Digital Services Act, and its EU audience has grown in every six-month period Meta has reported. Germany, France and Italy are its largest EU countries.

View data table

Instagram average monthly active users or recipients in the EU-27, in millions, for each half-year Meta reported. Meta's reports for late 2023 and early 2024 used overlapping windows, so those periods are left out. Each period comes from the report for that period; the link is to Meta's DSA reports page.

Period	Value
H2 2022	250m
H1 2023	257m
H2 2024	272.0m
H1 2025	281.8m
H2 2025	288.7m
H1 2026	296.8m

• Instagram had approximately 250 million average monthly active users in the EU in the six months to December 2022, against approximately 255 million for Facebook. (Meta (DSA user report, Feb 2023), Feb 2023)
• In the six months to June 2023 Instagram had approximately 257 million average monthly active users in the EU and Facebook approximately 258 million. (Meta (DSA user report, Aug 2023), Aug 2023)
• Meta's Instagram reports for overlapping windows gave about 259 million EU users for April to September 2023, 264.3 million for October 2023 to March 2024 and 269.1 million for April to September 2024. (Meta (Instagram DSA reports, 2023-2024), Oct 2024)
• Instagram had approximately 272.0 million average monthly active users in the EU from July to December 2024. (Meta (Instagram DSA report, Apr 2025), Apr 2025)
• It had approximately 281.8 million from January to June 2025. (Meta (Instagram DSA report, Aug 2025), Aug 2025)
• Instagram had 288,737,559 average monthly active recipients in the EU from July to December 2025, including 48.18 million in Germany, 44.71 million in France, 42.88 million in Italy, 38.56 million in Spain, 19.32 million in Poland, 12.08 million in the Netherlands and 8.14 million in Sweden. (Meta (Instagram DSA report, H2 2025), Feb 2026)
• From January to June 2026 its largest EU countries were Germany with 49.75 million monthly recipients, France with 46.16 million, Italy with 43.86 million, Spain with 39.84 million and Poland with 19.87 million. (Meta (Instagram DSA report, H1 2026), Aug 2026)

Under the EU Digital Services Act, Meta reports Instagram's average monthly active recipients in the 27 EU countries, averaged over six months. Meta defines an Instagram monthly active user as a registered, logged-in account that visited Instagram in the last 30 days, so these are accounts, not unique people. These are EU-only figures and are not compared with worldwide counts or survey shares.

Who uses Instagram in the US?

Instagram use among American adults has grown for more than a decade and now reaches about half of them. Its users lean young, female, urban and towards graduates and higher earners.

View data table

Share of US adults who say they ever use Instagram, by age, 2026, from Pew's fact sheet.

Period	Value
18-29	79%
30-49	64%
50-64	41%
65+	21%

• Instagram use rose from 9% of US adults in 2012 to 35% in 2018, 40% in 2021, 47% in 2023, and 50% in both 2024 and 2025. (Pew Research Center (social media fact sheet), Oct 2026)
• 56% of US women use Instagram, against 45% of men. (Pew Research Center (social media fact sheet), Oct 2026)
• Instagram is used by 69% of Asian US adults (English speakers only), 60% of Hispanic adults, 55% of Black adults and 46% of White adults. (Pew Research Center (social media fact sheet), Oct 2026)
• 59% of US adults in households earning $100,000 or more use Instagram, against 42% of those earning under $30,000; by education, 59% of college graduates use it against 42% of adults with a high school diploma or less. (Pew Research Center (social media fact sheet), Oct 2026)
• 58% of urban US adults use Instagram, against 54% of suburban and 40% of rural adults. (Pew Research Center (social media fact sheet), Oct 2026)
• 56% of Democrats and Democratic leaners use Instagram, against 47% of Republicans and Republican leaners. (Pew Research Center (social media fact sheet), Oct 2026)

Pew measures the share of US adults aged 18 and over who say they ever use Instagram, from a survey run from January to June 2026. Pew changed survey methods in 2023 and 2024, so earlier years are not strictly comparable. Estimates for Asian adults cover English speakers only, and Pew does not show significance tests on the fact sheet.

How do American teenagers use Instagram?

Instagram reaches a clear majority of US teens and more than half use it every day. It is far more common among older teens and among Black and Hispanic teens, and the share of teen users on it almost constantly has crept up since 2023.

View data table

Share of US teens aged 13-17 who say they ever use Instagram, by survey year, from Pew's teen surveys. Each year comes from the survey for that year; the link is to the latest report.

Period	Value
2014-15	52%
2022	62%
2023	59%
2024	61%
2025	63%

• Instagram ranks third among US teens aged 13-17, behind YouTube (92%) and TikTok (68%) and ahead of Snapchat. (Pew Research Center (teens 2025), Dec 2025)
• 55% of all US teens use Instagram at least once a day: 12% almost constantly, 31% several times a day and 12% about once a day. (Pew Research Center (teens 2025), Dec 2025)
• Among US teens who use Instagram, 19% say they use it almost constantly and 49% several times a day; the almost-constant share was 16% in 2022 and 14% in 2023. (Pew Research Center (teens 2025), Dec 2025)
• Three-quarters of US teens aged 15-17 use Instagram, against 44% of those aged 13-14. (Pew Research Center (teens 2025), Dec 2025)
• 82% of Black US teens use Instagram, against 69% of Hispanic teens and 55% of White teens. (Pew Research Center (teens 2025), Dec 2025)

Pew surveyed 1,458 US teens aged 13-17 from September to October 2025, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 points. Shares are of all teens unless a figure says it is of Instagram's teen users (908 respondents). Daily and almost-constant use are self-reported. Asian teens are not shown separately because the sample is too small.

How many people use Instagram in Sweden and Australia?

Instagram use in Sweden has hardly moved in six years, while in Australia it is still growing. In both countries women use it far more than men, and in Sweden Instagram and Facebook are level for daily use.

View data table

Share of Swedish internet users who used Instagram in the past 12 months, by decade of birth, January 2026, from Internetstiftelsen. The 2010s group includes children from age 8.

Period	Value
Before 1950	40%
1950s	50%
1960s	67%
1970s	76%
1980s	75%
1990s	82%
2000s	87%
2010s	31%

• Instagram (46%) and Facebook (45%) are the most used social platforms on a daily basis in Sweden, ahead of YouTube (32%), Snapchat (24%) and TikTok (15%). (Internetstiftelsen (Svenskarna och internet 2026), Sep 2026)
• Past-year Instagram use in Sweden was 64% from 2021 to 2023 and 65% in 2024 and 2025, while daily Facebook use fell from 54% in 2021. (Internetstiftelsen (Svenskarna och internet 2026), Sep 2026)
• 76% of Swedish women used Instagram in the past year, against 56% of men; daily use was 58% against 35%. (Internetstiftelsen (Svenskarna och internet 2026), Sep 2026)
• Daily Instagram use in Sweden peaks at 63% among people born in the 2000s. (Internetstiftelsen (Svenskarna och internet 2026), Sep 2026)
• 49% of Swedish children aged 8-19 used Instagram in the past year (26% daily), against 69% of adults aged 20 and over (50% daily). (Internetstiftelsen (Svenskarna och internet 2026), Sep 2026)
• Instagram was the fourth most used platform among Australian adults in the six months to June 2025, behind Facebook (78%), YouTube (71%) and Facebook Messenger (71%). (ACMA (How we communicate), Feb 2026)
• 45% of Australian adults used Instagram in the past seven days, up from 41%. (ACMA (How we communicate), Feb 2026)
• Australian Instagram use grew among women (63%, from 60%), men (44%, from 40%), people aged 35-44 (63%, from 57%) and people in metropolitan areas (56%, from 52%). (ACMA (How we communicate), Feb 2026)
• 41% of Australian Instagram users used it multiple times a day, up from 37% in 2024. (ACMA (How we communicate), Feb 2026)
• Active engagement with Instagram in Australia rose to 33% from 30%, and Instagram and Messenger (17% each) were the most popular apps for posting content after Facebook (26%). (ACMA (How we communicate), Feb 2026)
• Australian women were more likely than men to send messages on Instagram (30% against 18%), and 51% of 18-24-year-olds used it for messaging. (ACMA (How we communicate), Feb 2026)

Internetstiftelsen surveys Swedish internet users aged 8 and over (fieldwork January 2026). ACMA surveys Australian adults aged 18 and over about use in the previous six months or seven days to June 2025; the multiple-times-a-day share is of Instagram users. The two surveys use different ages and time windows and are not compared.

How many people can Instagram ads reach, by country?

Meta's ad tools show India as Instagram's largest ad audience by far, ahead of the US, Brazil and Indonesia. Ad reach is a marketing measure, not a count of people.

1. 1 India 515m
2. 2 United States 180m
3. 3 Brazil 144m
4. 4 Indonesia 116m
5. 5 Japan 63.5m
6. 6 Turkey 60.2m
7. 7 Mexico 57.4m
8. 8 United Kingdom 33.7m
9. 9 Argentina 31.2m
10. 10 Philippines 29.8m

• Instagram's ad reach grew by 48.1 million (2.5%) between October 2025 and October 2026. (DataReportal (Instagram stats), Nov 2026)
• Instagram ads reached the equivalent of 23.5% of the world's population and 29.7% of people aged 13 and over, or 36.6% excluding China. (DataReportal (Instagram stats), Nov 2026)
• Instagram's worldwide ad audience was 52.5% male and 46.6% female in October 2026. (DataReportal (Instagram stats), Nov 2026)
• Men aged 25-34 were the largest group, at 18.8% of Instagram's ad audience aged 18 and over, followed by women aged 25-34 (15.1%) and men aged 18-24 (14.6%). (DataReportal (Instagram stats), Nov 2026)

Ad reach is the audience Meta's ad planning tools say advertisers can reach; DataReportal says it is not the same as unique or monthly active users, and it is not compared with Meta's monthly actives. The gender and age shares describe the ad audience worldwide. They measure something different from surveys such as Pew's in the US or Internetstiftelsen's in Sweden, where women are more likely than men to use Instagram, so the two are not set against each other.

How big is Reels, and how much time do people spend on Instagram?

Short video now takes up most of the time people spend on Instagram, on Meta's own figures. Meta gives shares and growth rates, not minutes, and credits much of the growth to AI recommendations of posts from accounts people do not follow.

• Reels made up more than 20% of the time people spent on Instagram in April 2022, Meta said. (Meta (Q1 2022 earnings call), Apr 2022)
• Video was more than 60% of time spent on both Facebook and Instagram in April 2024. (Meta (Q1 2024 earnings call), Apr 2024)
• In October 2022 Meta said there were more than 140 billion Reels plays a day across Facebook and Instagram, and that people reshared Reels 1 billion times a day through Instagram direct messages. (Meta (Q3 2022 earnings call), Oct 2022)
• By July 2023 Reels plays exceeded 200 billion a day across Facebook and Instagram. (Meta (Q2 2023 earnings call), Jul 2023)
• People reshared Reels 3.5 billion times a day by February 2024, Meta said, without splitting the figure by app. (Meta (Q4 2023 earnings call), Feb 2024)
• Reels were reshared over 4.5 billion times a day by January 2025, Meta said in its remarks on Instagram. (Meta (Q4 2024 earnings call), Jan 2025)
• In April 2023 Meta said about 40% of the content people saw across Instagram was recommended by AI, and that AI recommendations had driven a more than 24% increase in time spent on Instagram since Reels launched. (Meta (Q1 2023 earnings call), Apr 2023)
• Meta estimated in October 2023 that Reels had driven more than a 40% increase in time spent on Instagram since launch. (Meta (Q3 2023 earnings call), Oct 2023)
• Recommendation improvements raised time spent on Instagram by 6% in 2024 up to October, against 8% on Facebook, Meta said. (Meta (Q3 2024 earnings call), Oct 2024)
• Meta gave the same 6% uplift for Instagram over the six months to April 2025, with 7% for Facebook and 35% for Threads. (Meta (Q1 2025 earnings call), Apr 2025)
• In July 2025 Meta said Instagram video time was up more than 20% on a year earlier worldwide, and that recommendation changes added 6% to Instagram time spent in the second quarter alone. (Meta (Q2 2025 earnings call), Jul 2025)
• By October 2025 video time spent on Instagram was up more than 30% on a year earlier. (Meta (Q3 2025 earnings call), Oct 2025)
• In the US, Instagram Reels watch time rose more than 30% year on year in the fourth quarter of 2025 and 75% of recommendations came from original posts; nearly 10% of Reels viewed each day were made in Meta's Edits app. (Meta (Q4 2025 earnings call), Jan 2026)
• Ranking changes in the first quarter of 2026 drove a 10% lift in Reels time spent on Instagram. (Meta (Q1 2026 earnings call), Apr 2026)
• In October 2026 Meta said Instagram time spent per user worldwide had reached an all-time high and grown by double digits in a year, and nearly 45% of recommended Reels were less than a day old. (Meta (Q3 2026 earnings call), Oct 2026)

All figures are Meta's own statements on earnings calls, worldwide unless the text says US. Plays count views, not unique viewers. Uplifts that Meta credits to recommendation changes are not total growth and are not added together. Some reshare figures may cover Facebook as well as Instagram, as Meta did not split them by app.

How many people use Stories and Explore, and how many businesses are on Instagram?

Stories and Explore were Instagram's big growth features before Reels, and Facebook gave regular figures for them in 2018 and 2019. Since then Meta has talked more about creators than about business profiles.

• In July 2018 Facebook said 400 million people were sharing with Instagram Stories. (Facebook (Q2 2018 earnings call), Jul 2018)
• Instagram passed 500 million daily actives on Stories by January 2019. (Facebook (Q4 2018 earnings call), Jan 2019)
• People shared more than 1 billion stories every day across Facebook's apps in October 2018, and Explore made up about 20% of the time people spent in Instagram. (Facebook (Q3 2018 earnings call), Oct 2018)
• More than 50% of accounts on Instagram used Explore every month in July 2019. (Facebook (Q2 2019 earnings call), Jul 2019)
• Facebook said in January 2020 that 4 million advertisers were using Stories ads, up from 2 million a year earlier; it did not say how many were on Instagram alone. (Facebook (Q4 2019 earnings call), Jan 2020)
• Instagram had 25 million business profiles and two million advertisers in July 2018. (Facebook (Q2 2018 earnings call, business), Jul 2018)
• 130 million Instagram accounts tapped to reveal or learn more about products in posts every month in April 2019. (Facebook (Q1 2019 earnings call), Apr 2019)
• More than 90% of Instagram users followed a business, Facebook said in October 2019. (Facebook (Q3 2019 earnings call), Oct 2019)
• In July 2021 Facebook announced it would invest $1 billion in creators across Facebook and Instagram and keep its creator tools free through 2023; this was a plan, not a measured payout. (Facebook (Q2 2021 earnings call), Jul 2021)
• More than 10 million Facebook and Instagram creators were discoverable by advertisers in Meta's Creator Marketing Hub after its global rollout in the third quarter of 2026. (Meta (Q3 2026 earnings call, creators), Oct 2026)

These are Facebook's and Meta's own statements on earnings calls, worldwide, and most are from 2018 and 2019, when the company last gave them. The 400 million Stories figure was described as people sharing, while the later figure was daily actives, so they are not one series. Accounts are not people.

How many people use Threads?

Threads, Meta's text app built by the Instagram team, has grown fast on Meta's own figures, and Meta now says it has more monthly users than X. Its EU audience is still below the level at which the strictest Digital Services Act rules apply.

View data table

Threads monthly actives worldwide, in millions, as stated by Meta's chief executive on earnings calls. "+" means Meta said "more than"; "c." means it said "about to hit" or "almost". Each point comes from the call for that date; the link is to the latest one.

Period	Value
Feb 2024	130m+
Jul 2024	c.200m
Oct 2024	c.275m
Jan 2025	320m+
Apr 2025	350m+
Jul 2026	500m+

• Threads launched on 5 July 2023 as "a new app, built by the Instagram team", and people log in with their Instagram account. (Meta Newsroom (Introducing Threads), Jul 2023)
• Threads had more than 130 million monthly actives in February 2024. (Meta (Q4 2023 earnings call), Feb 2024)
• It was "about to hit 200 million monthly actives" in July 2024. (Meta (Q2 2024 earnings call), Jul 2024)
• It had almost 275 million monthly actives in October 2024. (Meta (Q3 2024 earnings call), Oct 2024)
• It had more than 320 million monthly actives in January 2025 and was adding more than 1 million sign-ups a day. (Meta (Q4 2024 earnings call), Jan 2025)
• It had more than 350 million monthly actives in April 2025. (Meta (Q1 2025 earnings call), Apr 2025)
• Threads passed 150 million daily actives by October 2025. (Meta (Q3 2025 earnings call), Oct 2025)
• Meta said in October 2026 that Threads had overtaken X in monthly actives, without giving a figure for X, and that time spent per Threads user grew over 20% in a year. (Meta (Q3 2026 earnings call), Oct 2026)
• Threads had 36.2 million average monthly active recipients in the EU in the six months to December 2025. (Meta (DSA user report, Feb 2026), Feb 2026)
• It had an estimated 41 million in the EU in the six months to June 2026, below the 45 million at which the DSA's rules for very large platforms apply. (Meta (DSA user report, Aug 2026), Aug 2026)

Threads figures are rounded statements by Meta's chief executive, worldwide, and mix monthly and daily measures; the chart uses monthly actives only. Meta's claim about X is its own and gives no X figure. The EU figures are DSA monthly active recipients for the 27 EU countries and are not compared with worldwide counts.

How many people use Instagram for news?

Instagram is a smaller news source than Facebook or YouTube in most countries, but it is the top network for news among young adults across markets and in Brazil. News video on Instagram has grown since 2023.

1. 1 Brazil 49%
2. 2 India 45%
3. 3 Australia 24%
4. 4 United States 18%
5. 5 Germany 17%
6. 6 United Kingdom 12%
7. 7 Japan 9%

• Instagram is the top social platform for news among 18-24-year-olds across 48 markets, reaching 42% of that age group each week. (Reuters Institute (DNR 2026 summary), Jun 2026)
• Across the 48 markets, Facebook (43%) and YouTube (34%) are used more for news each week. (Reuters Institute (DNR 2026 summary), Jun 2026)
• The share who watched news video on Instagram in the last week rose from 17% in 2023 to 22% in 2026 across all markets. (Reuters Institute (Digital News Report 2026), Jun 2026)
• 36% of 18-24-year-olds use Instagram weekly for news videos, against 15% of those aged 55 and over; for any purpose the figures are 67% and 39%. (Reuters Institute (Digital News Report 2026), Jun 2026)
• In the US, 44% of online adults use Instagram weekly for any purpose, and it ranks third for news behind Facebook (36%) and YouTube (33%). (Reuters Institute (Digital News Report 2026, US), Jun 2026)
• In the UK, 49% use Instagram weekly for any purpose, and it ties with WhatsApp for third place for news, behind Facebook (21%) and YouTube (16%). (Reuters Institute (Digital News Report 2026, UK), Jun 2026)
• In Brazil Instagram is the most used network for news, ahead of WhatsApp (46%) and YouTube (42%), and 70% use it for any purpose. (Reuters Institute (Digital News Report 2026, Brazil), Jun 2026)
• 23% of US adults say they regularly get news on Instagram, against 40% on Facebook and 34% on YouTube. (Pew Research Center (social media and news fact sheet), Oct 2026)

The Reuters Institute surveys online samples of about 2,000 adults in each of 48 markets and reports weekly use; the 48-market figures are averages of those samples, not shares of the world's population. Platform questions were asked again in March 2026, so year-on-year changes need care. Pew measures US adults who "regularly" get news on a site, a different question, so the two are not compared.

How much money does Instagram make?

Meta does not report Instagram's revenue on its own: its results combine advertising across all its apps. The best guides are Meta's total advertising revenue, its revenue per daily user and its own statements on what Reels earns.

View data table

Meta advertising revenue worldwide, all apps, in billions of US dollars. Each year comes from the release for that year; the link is to the latest one.

Period	Value
2022	$113.6bn
2023	$131.9bn
2024	$160.6bn
2025	$196.2bn

• Meta's advertising revenue was $58.137 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, up from $46.783 billion a year earlier. (Meta (Q4 2025 results), Jan 2026)
• Ad impressions across Meta's apps rose 12% in 2025 and the average price per ad rose 9%. (Meta (Q4 2025 results), Jan 2026)
• Meta's advertising revenue was $63.061 billion in the third quarter of 2026, against $50.082 billion a year earlier, and $177.449 billion in the first nine months of 2026, against $138.037 billion. (Meta (Q3 2026 results, Form 8-K), Oct 2026)
• In the third quarter of 2026 Meta's total revenue was $64.60 billion, up 26%, with ad impressions up 10% and the average price per ad up 14%. (Meta (Q3 2026 results), Oct 2026)
• Meta's average revenue per person was $57.03 in 2025, up 15%; revenue by user location grew 21% in the US and Canada, 24% in Europe, 20% in Asia-Pacific and 27% in the rest of the world. (Meta (2025 Form 10-K), Jan 2026)
• Average revenue per person was $17.72 in the third quarter of 2026, against $14.46 a year earlier. (Meta (Q3 2026 earnings slides), Oct 2026)
• Meta said in July 2022 that Reels ads had crossed a $1 billion annual revenue run rate. (Meta (Q2 2022 earnings call), Jul 2022)
• In October 2022 Meta put the combined Reels run rate across Instagram and Facebook at $3 billion. (Meta (Q3 2022 earnings call, Reels), Oct 2022)
• By July 2023 Meta said the Reels run rate across its apps exceeded $10 billion. (Meta (Q2 2023 earnings call, Reels), Jul 2023)

Advertising revenue and revenue per person are Meta's reported figures for all its apps worldwide, not Instagram alone. Revenue per person is Family of Apps revenue divided by average daily active people. Reels run rates are Meta's own annualised statements on earnings calls, not reported revenue; the 2022 Reels ads figure was later described as Instagram only, and the later ones cover Instagram and Facebook together.

How much content does Instagram remove?

Meta's enforcement report shows actions on suicide and self-injury content and adult nudity on Instagram rising, while actions on bullying, hate and incitement have fallen sharply since 2024. These are counts of Meta's own actions, so they show what Meta enforced, not how much harmful content was posted.

View data table

Instagram content actioned for suicide, self-injury and eating disorders each quarter worldwide, in millions, from Meta's enforcement report.

Period	Value
Q1 2024	5.8m
Q2 2024	6.3m
Q3 2024	6.1m
Q4 2024	8.4m
Q1 2025	9.9m
Q2 2025	10.0m
Q3 2025	10.0m
Q4 2025	11.7m
Q1 2026	12.3m
Q2 2026	12.8m

• Meta found 99.4% of the suicide, self-injury and eating disorder content it actioned on Instagram in the second quarter of 2026 before users reported it. (Meta (enforcement report: suicide and self-injury), 2026)
• Instagram content actioned for bullying and harassment fell from 10.3 million in the first quarter of 2024 to 1.4 million in the third quarter of 2025 and 924,000 in the second quarter of 2026; Meta estimates such content made up 0.04%-0.05% of views. (Meta (enforcement report: bullying and harassment), 2026)
• Content actioned for hateful conduct fell from 8.6 million in the first quarter of 2024 to 1.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2025, and was 1.4 million in the second quarter of 2026, with prevalence of 0.01%-0.02% of views. (Meta (enforcement report: hateful conduct), 2026)
• Adult nudity and sexual activity content actioned reached 16.1 million in the second quarter of 2026, from 8.1 million in the first; prevalence rose from 0.03%-0.04% of views in early 2024 to 0.10%-0.11%. (Meta (enforcement report: adult nudity), 2026)
• The prevalence of violent and graphic content rose from 0.04% of views in the first quarter of 2024 to 0.14%-0.15% in the second quarter of 2026, while content actioned fell from 12.1 million to 3.8 million. (Meta (enforcement report: violent and graphic content), 2026)
• Violence and incitement content actioned fell from 12.3 million in the first quarter of 2024 to 561,800 in the third quarter of 2025, and was 897,400 in the second quarter of 2026. (Meta (enforcement report: violence and incitement), 2026)
• Instagram child sexual exploitation content actioned was 5.1 million in the second quarter of 2026, up from 2.7 million in the first quarter of 2024, with 97.3% found before users reported it; child nudity content actioned was 2.0 million. (Meta (enforcement report: child endangerment), 2026)
• Terrorism content actioned was 2.6 million in the second quarter of 2026 (98.9% found before users reported it), and organised hate content 846,600, up from 162,300 in the first quarter of 2024. (Meta (enforcement report: dangerous organisations), 2026)
• Spam content actioned on Instagram was 36.3 million in the second quarter of 2026, after a peak of 93.2 million in the second quarter of 2025. (Meta (enforcement report: spam), 2026)
• Drug-related content actioned was 876,200 in the second quarter of 2026 and firearms content 125,400. (Meta (enforcement report: restricted goods), 2026)
• Across its apps, Meta removed over 159 million scam ads in 2025, 92% before anyone reported them, and took down 10.9 million accounts linked to scam centres in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. (Meta (integrity report H1 2026), Mar 2026)
• In the EU, Instagram took 55,916,456 moderation measures on its own initiative for breaches of its terms from July to December 2025, 44,990,373 of them after detection by solely automated means; 22.9 million were removals and 27.3 million account terminations. (Meta (Instagram DSA report, H2 2025, moderation), Feb 2026)
• EU users made 8,668,843 complaints to Instagram's internal appeals system in the same period. (Meta (Instagram DSA report, H2 2025, appeals), Feb 2026)
• Instagram received 353,997 notices of allegedly illegal content from EU users, 730 of them from trusted flaggers, and took 87,519 actions under its own terms and 1,756 under the law. (Meta (Instagram DSA report, H2 2025, notices), Feb 2026)

Worldwide figures are from Meta's Community Standards Enforcement Report pages for Instagram, read from each page's chart data. Content actioned counts pieces of content Meta removed, covered with a warning or otherwise acted on, not unique posts or users, and it moves with Meta's detection and policies as well as with what people post. Prevalence is Meta's estimate of the share of content views. EU figures are Meta's Digital Services Act counts for the 27 EU countries; they count measures, not pieces of content, and are not compared with the worldwide report.

What are Instagram Teen Accounts, and how many teens use them?

Instagram introduced Teen Accounts in September 2024, placing teenagers into restricted settings by default. Most of the figures on how they work come from Meta itself and have not been independently checked.

• Instagram introduced Teen Accounts on 17 September 2024, placing teens in them automatically and requiring a parent's permission for under-16s to loosen the settings; it planned to move teens in the US, UK, Canada and Australia within 60 days, the EU later in 2024 and the rest of the world from January 2025. (Instagram (Teen Accounts launch post), Sep 2024)
• 97% of teens aged 13-15 had stayed in the built-in restrictions by April 2025, Meta said. (Meta Newsroom (Teen Accounts, April 2025), Apr 2025)
• In a survey of US parents commissioned by Meta, 94% said Teen Accounts are helpful for parents and 85% said they make it easier to help teens have positive experiences on Instagram. (Meta Newsroom (Teen Accounts, April 2025), Apr 2025)
• By September 2025 Meta said it had placed "hundreds of millions" of teens in Teen Accounts across Instagram, Facebook and Messenger, without giving an exact number. (Meta Newsroom (Teen Accounts, September 2025), Sep 2025)
• Meta removed nearly 135,000 Instagram accounts for sexualised comments on, or requests for sexual images from, adult-managed accounts featuring children under 13 earlier in 2025, and a further 500,000 linked Facebook and Instagram accounts. (Meta Newsroom (child safety, July 2025), Jul 2025)
• In June 2025 teens blocked accounts 1 million times and reported another 1 million after seeing a safety notice. (Meta Newsroom (child safety, July 2025), Jul 2025)
• Facebook, Instagram and Threads sent over 9.9 million CyberTip reports of child sexual exploitation to the US National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in the first half of 2026. (Meta (integrity report H2 2026), Oct 2026)
• In Australia, 69.1% of children aged 8-15 who had an Instagram account before the under-16 minimum age took effect still had one afterwards, their parents told eSafety in early 2026. (eSafety Commissioner (compliance update), Mar 2026)

Teen Accounts figures and the parent survey are Meta's own and are not independently audited; the survey was commissioned by Meta about its own product. CyberTip reports are reports sent, not unique victims or images. The eSafety figure comes from a survey of 898 Australian parents and carers in January and February 2026.

Methodology and sources

Figures come from Meta's and Instagram's own filings, results, earnings calls, blog posts and transparency reports, from survey researchers (Pew Research Center, the Reuters Institute and the Swedish Internet Foundation), from regulators (ACMA and Australia's eSafety Commissioner), and from Kepios and DataReportal. Each figure links to the body that published it, with the date; EU figures link to Meta's DSA transparency page and enforcement figures to the Instagram page of Meta's enforcement report. Statements made on earnings calls are labelled as Meta's claims with their date. Community counts, registered users, monthly actives, daily actives, EU monthly active recipients, ad reach and survey shares are kept apart and never added together or compared, as are Meta's run-rate claims and its reported revenue. The page is reviewed monthly and the date is shown at the top.

• ACMA (How we communicate) · Feb 2026
• DataReportal (Instagram stats) · Nov 2026
• eSafety Commissioner (compliance update) · Mar 2026
• Facebook (2012 Form 10-K) · Feb 2013
• Facebook (Q1 2019 earnings call) · Apr 2019
• Facebook (Q2 2018 earnings call, business) · Jul 2018
• Facebook (Q2 2019 earnings call) · Jul 2019
• Facebook (Q2 2021 earnings call) · Jul 2021
• Facebook (Q3 2018 earnings call) · Oct 2018
• Facebook (Q3 2019 earnings call) · Oct 2019
• Facebook (Q4 2018 earnings call) · Jan 2019
• Facebook (Q4 2019 earnings call) · Jan 2020
• Instagram (300 million post) · Dec 2014
• Instagram (500 million post) · Jun 2016
• Instagram (600 million post) · Dec 2016
• Instagram (700 million post) · Apr 2017
• Instagram (80 million post) · Jul 2012
• Instagram (IGTV launch post) · Jun 2018
• Instagram (launch post) · Oct 2010
• Instagram (Teen Accounts launch post) · Sep 2024
• Internetstiftelsen (Svenskarna och internet 2026) · Sep 2026
• Kepios (Digital 2027) · Oct 2026
• Meta (2025 Form 10-K) · Jan 2026
• Meta (enforcement report: adult nudity) · 2026
• Meta (enforcement report: bullying and harassment) · 2026
• Meta (enforcement report: child endangerment) · 2026
• Meta (enforcement report: dangerous organisations) · 2026
• Meta (enforcement report: hateful conduct) · 2026
• Meta (enforcement report: restricted goods) · 2026
• Meta (enforcement report: spam) · 2026
• Meta (enforcement report: suicide and self-injury) · 2026
• Meta (enforcement report: violence and incitement) · 2026
• Meta (enforcement report: violent and graphic content) · 2026
• Meta (Instagram DSA report, H2 2025, notices) · Feb 2026
• Meta (integrity report H1 2026) · Mar 2026
• Meta (integrity report H2 2026) · Oct 2026
• Meta (Q1 2022 earnings call) · Apr 2022
• Meta (Q1 2023 earnings call) · Apr 2023
• Meta (Q1 2024 earnings call) · Apr 2024
• Meta (Q1 2025 earnings call) · Apr 2025
• Meta (Q1 2026 earnings call) · Apr 2026
• Meta (Q2 2022 earnings call) · Jul 2022
• Meta (Q2 2023 earnings call, Reels) · Jul 2023
• Meta (Q2 2024 earnings call) · Jul 2024
• Meta (Q2 2025 earnings call) · Jul 2025
• Meta (Q2 2026 earnings call) · Jul 2026
• Meta (Q3 2022 earnings call, Reels) · Oct 2022
• Meta (Q3 2023 earnings call) · Oct 2023
• Meta (Q3 2024 earnings call) · Oct 2024
• Meta (Q3 2025 earnings call) · Oct 2025
• Meta (Q3 2026 earnings call) · Oct 2026
• Meta (Q3 2026 earnings slides) · Oct 2026
• Meta (Q3 2026 results, Form 8-K) · Oct 2026
• Meta (Q3 2026 results) · Oct 2026
• Meta (Q4 2023 earnings call) · Feb 2024
• Meta (Q4 2024 earnings call) · Jan 2025
• Meta (Q4 2025 earnings call) · Jan 2026
• Meta (Q4 2025 results) · Jan 2026
• Meta Newsroom (child safety, July 2025) · Jul 2025
• Meta Newsroom (Facebook to Acquire Instagram) · Apr 2012
• Meta Newsroom (Introducing Threads) · Jul 2023
• Meta Newsroom (Teen Accounts, April 2025) · Apr 2025
• Meta Newsroom (Teen Accounts, September 2025) · Sep 2025
• Pew Research Center (social media and news fact sheet) · Oct 2026
• Pew Research Center (social media fact sheet) · Oct 2026
• Pew Research Center (teens 2025) · Dec 2025
• Reuters Institute (Digital News Report 2026) · Jun 2026
• Reuters Institute (DNR 2026 summary) · Jun 2026