How to Compare Two Instagram Follower Lists

"Compare two Instagram follower lists" usually means one of two different things: checking who unfollowed you by comparing your followers against your following, or comparing two separate lists of usernames you already have - your own export, a competitor's followers, or a list you typed by hand. Which method you need depends on which data you're starting with.

Which method do you need?

• Checking who unfollowed you - you need Instagram's own data export (followers_1.json and following.json), then a purpose-built tool. See Method 1 below.
• Comparing two lists of usernames you already have - pasted from somewhere, typed by hand, or exported and cleaned up - a general list comparison tool works directly. See Method 2 below.
• Comparing your followers against another account's followers - for research or finding a shared audience - also uses the general comparison tool. See Method 2.

Method 1: See who unfollowed you automatically

If you have (or can download) Instagram's data export, this is the fastest and most accurate route - the tool reads the export directly and sorts everything for you.

Don't have the export yet? Here's how to download it from Instagram - it takes about 30 minutes for Instagram to prepare, and checking the results afterward takes seconds.

Method 2: Compare two plain lists of usernames

Use this when you already have two lists of usernames as plain text - copied from somewhere, exported and cleaned up, or typed by hand. This also covers comparing your list against someone else's follower list, which the Instagram Checker doesn't do since it's built specifically around your own followers-vs-following data.

1. Open Compare Two Lists.
2. Paste the first list of usernames into List A, one username per line.
3. Paste the second list into List B.
4. Results update instantly as you type or paste - no button to press.

Reading the results

• A Only - usernames in the first list but not the second.
• B Only - usernames in the second list but not the first.
• A ∩ B (Intersection) - usernames appearing in both lists.
• A ∪ B (Union) - every unique username across both lists combined.

If List A is your followers and List B is who you follow, A Only is who follows you but you don't follow back, and B Only is who you follow but doesn't follow you back.

Getting accurate results

Username formatting varies depending on where a list came from, which can cause real matches to get missed. Check these options before trusting the results:

• The @ symbol - make sure both lists either include it or don't. A list with @username won't match a list with username.
• Case sensitivity - Instagram usernames aren't case-sensitive, but a text comparison is unless you turn Case Sensitive off in the options panel.
• Extra spaces - copying from a table or spreadsheet sometimes carries trailing spaces that make otherwise-identical usernames look different. Ignore Leading/Trailing Spaces handles this automatically.