Manage unwanted followers on Instagram
This product or feature may not be available to you yet.
Protect your account from unwanted followers by removing potential spam and bot accounts from your followers on Instagram. You can also stop suspected spam accounts from affecting your discoverability and your ability to build authentic engagement with real followers by reviewing potential spam follower activity.
Before you begin
- This feature is automatically available for any account with 1,000 followers or more.
- Keep in mind that a temporary limit, including approving follow requests on Instagram, may be placed on your Instagram account if you switch between your public and private accounts too often.
How to remove existing spam and bot followers
To remove potential spam and bot followers on Instagram:
- In the Instagram app, go to your profile and tap Followers or Following.
- If Instagram has detected potential spam followers, you’ll see a notification where you can tap Potential spam.
- From here, tap Remove all spam followers to remove all spam followers at once.
- To review and remove each individual account, tap Remove next to the account.
- To identify an account as not spam, tap on the 3 dots
next to the account and tap Not spam to confirm.
- Tap Remove to confirm.
Once these potential spam followers are removed, they’ll also be removed from your follower count and follower list. They won’t be notified that they’ve been removed from your followers.
How to review incoming suspected spam and bot follower activity
To review suspected spam and bot followers on your account:
- In the Instagram app, go to your profile and tap Followers or Following.
- In the Potential spam folder, you can review all follow requests from potential spam accounts.
Note: Tap Delete all requests to remove all spam follower requests at once, or you can choose to Delete or Confirm each individual account. - Tap Delete to confirm.
Note: If you don’t approve these follower requests within 30 days, they’ll be automatically declined. You can turn off automatic spam and bot account filtering at any time by following these next steps.
How to turn off spam and bot follower requests filtering
To opt in to or out of filtering spam and bot follower requests:
- Tap
on your profile and go to Settings and privacy. Note: You can also tap Manage settings on the notification.
- Tap Followers.
- Turn off the Filter spam followers toggle. Note: You can toggle this back on at any time.
Learn more
Related Articles
| English (US) | + |