How to Find Common Followers Between Two Instagram Accounts

Export and compare two Instagram follower lists to find shared followers, accounts unique to each list, and a clearly defined overlap ratio.

Aug 24, 2026Instagram

To find common followers between two Instagram accounts, you need two account-level Followers lists—not two follower counts. Profile totals tell you how many accounts appear in each audience, but not how many are the same accounts.

The shortest workflow is to export Followers for account A and account B with the same ceiling and similar collection times, then calculate Shared, Only A, and Only B in a spreadsheet. Report the absolute counts first; calculate an overlap ratio only after defining its denominator.

Shared = Followers A ∩ Followers B
Only A = Followers A − Followers B
Only B = Followers B − Followers A

These results describe overlap between two observed files. They do not prove interest, relationship strength, purchase intent, collaboration value, or permission to contact an account.

Disclosure: Web Tidy publishes this guide and develops Instagram Follower Exporter. Product facts were checked against current product materials on August 23, 2026. Other pages informed the set explanations and article structure, not Web Tidy product claims.

Equal follower counts can hide completely different audiences

Suppose both profiles display 800 followers. That total cannot distinguish between these cases:

600 stable identifiers appear in both observed files.
Only 20 stable identifiers appear in both files.

The totals are equal, but the observed overlap is very different. Use the phrase observed files deliberately: if the real audience is larger than the current 1,000-confirmed-row ceiling, the file intersection is not the complete audience intersection.

“Mutual followers” has two meanings

People often use “mutual” for two different comparisons:

Mutual relationships inside one account: compare Following and Followers for the same profile.
Followers shared by two accounts: compare Followers A and Followers B.

This guide covers the second task. To compare Following with Followers for one profile, use Who Doesn't Follow You Back on Instagram.

Decide what the comparison is meant to answer

Question	What to inspect	Supported description	What it cannot establish
Do two profiles you manage reach the same observed accounts?	Shared, Only A, Only B	Duplication and differences between the two files	Content strategy, preference, or account value
How much does a potential partner's observed audience overlap mine?	Shared and a defined overlap ratio	Degree of overlap in the observed rows	Guaranteed collaboration results or true incremental reach
Do two similar profiles have comparable observed audiences?	All three sets and stable identifiers	Which accounts appear on both or only one side	Interest, quality, identity, or purchase intent

The set result is a starting point. A business conclusion requires separate context about the profiles, content, interactions, and purpose of the comparison.

Choose a comparable account pair and time window

Record why these two profiles belong in the same analysis.
Run the exports as close together as practical.
If you repeat the analysis, keep the same account pair, Audience, ceiling, deduplication setting, and formula.
Avoid interpreting low overlap between unrelated profiles as a meaningful failure.

These selection rules are part of your research design, not features built into Web Tidy.

Make the two files comparable

For account A and account B:

select Followers for both;
use the same 100, 200, 500, or 1,000-row ceiling;
use the same deduplication setting;
run them within a similar time window;
record completed or partial states and confirmed rows;
confirm the same output schema.

If either account is much larger than 1,000 followers, the current export is a bounded subset. Do not present overlap between two bounded subsets as complete audience overlap.

Step 1: export Followers for account A

Open Instagram Follower Exporter:

Use a browser session that can access account A.
Select Followers.
Choose the row ceiling and deduplication setting.
Select XLSX or CSV, run the task, and save the result.
Record the terminal state and confirmed rows.

Example filename:

instagram-followers-@accountA-2026-08-23-1000rows.xlsx

Step 2: export account B with the same settings

Repeat the workflow for account B:

instagram-followers-@accountB-2026-08-23-1000rows.xlsx

Before comparing, confirm that both files use Followers, point to the intended A and B profiles, have close collection periods, and use comparable task states and confirmed-row coverage.

Step 3: build a stable comparison key

Column	Field	Comparison use
A	`id`	Preferred stable identifier when present
B	`pk`	Platform key when returned
C	`username`	Readable fallback; it can change

Add comparisonKey to both worksheets:

=IF(A2<>"",A2,LOWER(TRIM(C2)))

Import long identifiers as text. Prefer id; username-only matching can turn a rename into a false Only A and Only B pair.

Step 4: calculate Shared, Only A, and Only B

Create worksheets named AccountA and AccountB. If comparisonKey is in column O, add this formula to AccountA:

=IF(COUNTIF(AccountB!$O:$O,O2)>0,"Shared","Only A")

In AccountB, use:

=IF(COUNTIF(AccountA!$O:$O,O2)>0,"Shared","Only B")

Shared appears in both sheets, so deduplicate it when reporting the count. Use profileUrl to review important accounts in Instagram.

Define the denominator before calculating overlap

There is no single universal overlap percentage.

Jaccard overlap

Shared / (Only A + Shared + Only B)

This asks what proportion of the observed union appears in both lists.

Smaller-audience coverage

Shared / MIN(confirmed A, confirmed B)

This asks what proportion of the smaller observed set also appears in the other file.

Do not mix the two. Report the formula name, confirmed rows, ceilings, dates, and task states with any percentage.

Worked example

These usernames are fictional.

Followers A = @amber, @birch, @coral, @dune, @ember, @fjord
Followers B = @coral, @dune, @fjord, @gale, @haven

Set	Accounts	Count
Shared	`@coral`, `@dune`, `@fjord`	3
Only A	`@amber`, `@birch`, `@ember`	3
Only B	`@gale`, `@haven`	2
Union	All distinct accounts above	8

Jaccard overlap = 3 / 8 = 37.5%
Smaller-audience coverage = 3 / MIN(6, 5) = 60%

Both numbers are valid, but they answer different questions.

Interpret overlap without a universal threshold

There is no rule that makes 50% “high” for every pair of Instagram accounts. Sample size, account relationship, coverage, and the purpose of the analysis all change the interpretation.

Use this order:

Report Shared, Only A, and Only B as absolute counts.
Add a clearly named ratio and formula if useful.
Record confirmed rows, ceilings, dates, and task states.
Compare repeated results only against the same account pair or another clearly comparable baseline.
Review important accounts manually.

A 60% result from two 100-row files does not carry the same information as 60% from two 1,000-row files. A partial input first describes incomplete coverage.

Keep a reviewable report

Add a Comparison Readme worksheet containing:

account A and account B;
Audience direction;
snapshot dates;
row ceilings and confirmed rows;
task states;
match key;
Shared, Only A, and Only B counts;
ratio name and formula;
a note that the result covers observed rows only.

Example counts are formatting aids, not product test results.

Common sources of error

Different row ceilings make the ratio describe coverage more than audience relationship.
Partial or attention states shorten one side.
Time drift allows accounts to arrive, leave, rename, deactivate, or become unavailable between runs.
Username-only matching creates false differences after a rename.
Private or inaccessible profiles remain outside what the current browser session can access.

Data and privacy boundaries

Web Tidy creates local CSV/XLSX files from each user-started Followers export. It does not request Chrome's cookies permission, compare the two accounts automatically, score or identify leads, find contact details or demographic attributes, send outreach, follow or unfollow accounts, prove interest, or bypass private profiles, login, verification, or rate limits.

Observed overlap is not permission to profile, contact, or target an account.

Need the export steps first? Read How to Export Instagram Followers.

For one account's current mutual relationships, read Who Doesn't Follow You Back on Instagram.