Hey! How many times have you wondered who’s really watching your stories — and who you follow without them following back? Instagram doesn’t show you this directly, but it does have a hidden option to export all this data.

I’ve been searching for this forever, so I decided to share it with you — so you don’t have to waste a whole day figuring it out yourself.

The trick is to ask Instagram to prepare your data, and then it gives you a file with everything inside. Sounds amazing? It’s actually super easy!

Why bother doing this? Because once you download these files, you can check:

• Who you follow mutually.
• Who you follow, but they don’t follow you back.
• Who follows you, but you don’t follow them.

And the most important part: this is not a shady third-party app tutorial. This is an official Instagram feature. We do everything through Meta’s Account Center.

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Step 1: Open Settings

On my Instagram profile, I tap the small gear icon in the top-right corner. From the drop-down menu, I choose “Settings and privacy”.

Step 2: Find the Account Center

I scroll through the settings until I find “Accounts Center”. It’s a big rectangular banner. This is where Meta keeps everything connected to you. Click!

Step 3: Request Your Data!

Inside the Accounts Center:

• Choose the tab: “Your information and permissions”.
• Then click: “Export your information”.

A new window will appear. I don’t read all the options, I just click the blue “Create export” button.

Step 4: Specify What You Want

Now a few quick choices:

• Platform: Select “Instagram”.
• Delivery method: Choose “Export to device”.
• What data? Here’s the key part! Click “Customize information” and check only “Followers and following”. Then click on “Format” and choose “JSON”.

Step 5: Wait for the File and Download

Click “Start export”. The Accounts Center will say something like “Got it, we’ll prepare this for you”. It doesn’t take long, just a few minutes. I refresh the page.

When the file is ready, a “Download” button appears. Click it. On the next screen, there’s another “Download” button, why twice? I don’t know, but let’s trust them. Click it again. Instagram asks for your password for security and finally lets you save a .zip file to your computer.

Step 6: What’s Next?

Unzip the file. Inside you’ll find several files, but the ones that matter are:

• followers_1.json – the list of everyone who follows you.
• following.json – the list of everyone you follow.

These are just plain text files that you can open with Notepad. You’ll see usernames and a few extra details about them.

How to Compare Them?

You can do it manually, but the fastest and easiest way is to use the tool I made on my blog. In the menu at the top of the page, click Blog, and you’ll find a form where you can paste the contents of your JSON files.

Why is it worth it? Just paste, click, and you’re done. The entire comparison happens right in your browser. Your files are never uploaded anywhere, so it’s super safe. The results are neatly sorted into three groups, and each username is a direct link to the Instagram profile.

You can even paste these files into ChatGPT and analyse them in other ways if you want.

I hope this guide and my tool save you the hours I wasted figuring this out!