Engagement rate: what it is and how to calculate it
What engagement rate is, the 4 formulas, what a good rate is on Instagram and TikTok (2025 benchmarks), worked examples and mistakes to avoid.
In 30 seconds
- Engagement rate tells you what share of the audience interacts with a piece of content: likes, comments, saves, shares.
- Basic formula: interactions ÷ reach × 100. Alternatively you divide by followers, impressions or views.
- In 2025 the median per-post rate for brand accounts was 0.36% on Instagram and 1.73% on TikTok, calculated on followers (Rival IQ).
- The most useful comparison is with your own previous posts, always calculated the same way.
Engagement rate is the percentage of people who interact with a piece of social media content by liking, commenting, saving or sharing it. You calculate it by dividing interactions by reach (or by followers) and multiplying by 100. It tells you whether the audience really responds, not just how big it is.
What engagement rate is for
- Comparing your own content: which themes and formats engage most.
- Choosing creators in influencer marketing: an account with fewer followers but an attentive audience can outperform a big one.
- Benchmarking competitors, using followers as the base (their reach isn’t visible).
- Understanding the algorithm: platforms show more of the content people interact with. See how social media algorithms work.
How to calculate engagement rate: the 4 formulas
| Formula | Calculation | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| By reach (ERR) | interactions ÷ reach × 100 | For your own posts: only counts people who saw them |
| By followers | interactions ÷ followers × 100 | To compare different accounts, including other people’s |
| By impressions | interactions ÷ impressions × 100 | For paid campaigns |
| By views | interactions ÷ views × 100 | For videos and reels |
Pick one and always use it when comparing: 4% on reach and 4% on followers aren’t the same thing.
To calculate an average engagement rate for a period, add up the interactions of all posts and divide by the sum of their reach, or average the individual posts’ rates. Again: always the same method.
You can do the maths in seconds with Peacchy’s free engagement rate calculator.
A worked example
A Five Leaf post with a matcha recipe:
| Interaction | Number |
|---|---|
| Likes | 180 |
| Comments | 25 |
| Saves | 15 |
| Shares | 5 |
| Total | 225 |
- Reach: 5,000 people → 225 ÷ 5,000 × 100 = 4.5%
- Followers: 12,000 → 225 ÷ 12,000 × 100 = 1.88%
Same post, two different numbers: that’s why you always need to say which base you used.
What’s a good engagement rate?
There’s no right number for everyone. As a benchmark, Rival IQ’s 2025 Social Media Industry Benchmark Report, which analyses thousands of brand accounts, gives these median per-post rates, calculated on followers:
| Platform | Median engagement rate per post | Posts per week (median) |
|---|---|---|
| TikTok | 1.73% | 1.97 |
| 0.36% | 4.5 | |
| 0.046% | 4.19 | |
| X (Twitter) | 0.015% | 2.16 |
The same report notes that between 2024 and 2025 the median engagement rate fell on all major platforms (−16% on Instagram, −34% on TikTok). Three things move the figure a lot:
- the platform: on TikTok videos often reach non-followers;
- the format: carousels and videos usually get more interactions than a single photo;
- account size: smaller accounts tend to have a more attentive community.
The fairest comparison is still with your own posts: if a piece of content beats your average from the last three months, it worked.
Engagement rate on Instagram
On Instagram you’ll find the numbers in the Insights section of a professional account (or in Meta Business Suite). For each post you see reach, likes, comments, saves and shares. Instagram’s head, Adam Mosseri, explained in January 2025 that the three most important signals for distribution are watch time, likes and sends (shares in private messages): so it’s worth looking at sends relative to reach too, not just total interactions.
The most common mistakes
- Comparing different platforms as if they were the same.
- Changing formula from one month to the next.
- Looking at a single post: better to average at least 10-15 posts.
- Counting only likes: saves and shares say more.
- Forgetting the goal: a post meant to get you known is judged mainly on reach, not engagement rate.
The other social media numbers are explained in social media metrics.
Sources
A post has 225 interactions and was seen by 5,000 people. What's the engagement rate on reach?
Correct! 225 ÷ 5,000 × 100 = 4.5%.
Not quite. Do the maths again: interactions divided by the people reached, times 100.
Frequently asked questions
Should I calculate it on reach or followers?
On reach, when you know it: it only counts people who saw the post. Followers are useful for comparing different accounts (including other people's, whose reach you can't see), but they include people who never saw the post.
What's a good engagement rate on Instagram?
It depends on sector, format and account size. As a benchmark, Rival IQ's 2025 report gives a median of 0.36% per post on followers for brands. If your posts beat your own average from the last three months, you're improving.
Why is engagement rate higher on TikTok?
Because on TikTok videos often reach lots of people who don't follow the account: their interactions push up the ratio to followers. That's why figures across platforms aren't directly comparable.
Do views count as interactions?
Usually not: watching is passive. Interactions are deliberate actions like liking, commenting, saving, sharing, sometimes clicks.
Is a very high engagement rate always good news?
Not always. A very high rate on a large account can point to bought interactions or groups trading comments. Read the comments: if they're generic or all the same, the figure isn't reliable.
Topics:Social mediaInfluencer marketing