What Instagram Content Interactions Count, and What They Subtract

What are Instagram content interactions?

Meta's name for Instagram content interactions is plain Interactions, which the Instagram Help Center defines as "The number of actions people take when they engage with your content, such as likes, comments, saves and shares." Through the Instagram API the same number is the metric total_interactions.

The app shows Interactions in two places. The insights overview on your professional dashboard lists "Views, Interactions, New followers, and Content you shared" for a timeframe "within the past 90 days". Per-content insights, opened with View insights under a post or reel or by swiping up on a story or live video, list Views, Viewers, Interactions and Accounts engaged.

The Help Center definition says "such as". It is a list of examples, not a formula. The formula only appears in Meta's developer reference, and it contains a subtraction the app never mentions.

How does the API define total_interactions?

Meta defines total_interactions twice, once per endpoint, and the two definitions disagree on ads and on the in development label. Both quotes below come from Meta's Instagram Platform reference.

Two oddities sit in the media-level text. It says "on the reel" while listing feed posts and stories as supported types, so the wording was written for reels and stretched. It also names four actions. Story replies and reposts are not in it.

Why can Instagram interactions go down?

Because the media-level count subtracts. Meta's definition takes likes, saves, comments and shares, then removes "the number of unlikes, unsaves, and deleted comments." Every reversal lowers the total you already reported.

Work it through on one post:

Pull that post on Monday before the unlikes and your report says 173. Pull it again on Friday and it says 164. Nothing broke. The number did what Meta's definition says it does.

Meta does not say whose deletion counts. "Deleted comments" could mean the commenter removing their own comment, you removing it as the account owner, or both. If you moderate spam heavily, expect your own clean-up to pull the figure down under the broader reading.

Reposts sit outside the formula. Meta reports them as a separate metric, reposts: "The number of reposts on the IG media minus the number of deleted reposts." Same subtraction logic, different field.

Do Instagram interactions include ads and boosted posts?

It depends on which endpoint you ask. At media level Meta states: "Metrics such as comments, likes, views, and total_interactions report organic interaction metrics only; interactions on ads containing a media object are not counted." At account level, total_interactions includes "any interactions on boosted content", and its media_product_type breakdown can return an AD value.

The app sits on the boosted side. The Help Center says "You can view insights on organic and boosted posts that you create on Instagram."

The practical result: add up media-level total_interactions for every post published on a day and you will not match the account-level figure for that day, once any post was boosted. Meta does offer ad-inclusive per-post fields, total_likes and total_comments, but only with Instagram API with Facebook Login, and there is no ad-inclusive per-post equivalent for saves, shares or the combined interaction count.

Is Instagram interactions an in development metric?

Meta gives three answers on three pages. The media-level API reference marks total_interactions "Metric in development." The account-level reference shows no disclaimer on the same field. Meta's metrics labeling page lists "Interactions" among its in development metrics.

The labeling page says what that label means for you: "Businesses shouldn't use in development metrics for: Historical comparison of advertising performance. Strategic planning or important business decisions." Meta also writes that it "may make adjustments until they're accurate."

Interactions is not marked estimated. Estimated metrics are sampled or modelled, and the Help Center attaches "estimated and in-development" to Viewers and Accounts engaged, the account-based figures. Meta's estimated list does not include Interactions. It is a count of actions that Meta still reserves the right to recalculate.

Where do you find Interactions for reels?

In the app, from View insights under the reel, according to Meta's general insights article, which lists Interactions among per-content metrics for "individual posts and reels". Meta's dedicated reels insights article disagrees by omission. Its list of "Available insights for reels" is Views, Watch time, Viewers, Average watch time and Follows. Interactions is not on it.

The API settles it for developers: total_interactions supports REELS. For the app, the two Help Center pages contradict each other, and the reels page is the one that is missing a metric the API returns.

What replaced the engagement metric?

total_interactions did. Meta's changelog entry of 12 September 2023 deprecated ENGAGEMENT and CAROUSEL_ALBUM_ENGAGEMENT, among others, for v18.0 and later, and for all versions from 11 December 2023. Meta listed total_interactions as the alternative and warned it was "currently only available using version 18.0 and does not work with older versions."

Old dashboards that still request engagement are asking for a deprecated metric. The same thing happened to impressions later: the account-level impressions metric was deprecated for all versions on 21 April 2025, and at media level it is unavailable for media created after 2 July 2024. The background on what an impression on Instagram meant explains the metric those reports were built on.

How do you request total_interactions?

Call the insights endpoint for the media object or the account. The current version in Meta's reference is v25.0.

GET https://graph.facebook.com/v25.0/<INSTAGRAM_MEDIA_ID>/insights
  ?metric=total_interactions
  &access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>
 
GET https://graph.facebook.com/v25.0/<IG_ACCOUNT_ID>/insights
  ?metric=total_interactions
  &period=day
  &metric_type=total_value
  &breakdown=media_product_type
  &access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>

Permissions are instagram_business_basic and instagram_business_manage_insights with Instagram Login, or instagram_basic, instagram_manage_insights and pages_read_engagement with Facebook Login. The limits that bite most often:

• Data "can be delayed up to 48 hours" and is "stored for up to 2 years."
• Missing data returns "an empty data set instead of 0."
• Carousel children have no insights of their own.
• Story metrics last 24 hours, and a story with values under 5 returns error 10, "(#10) Not enough viewers for the media to show insights".

How should you report Instagram interactions?

Report the account-level figure for totals and the media-level figure for comparing posts, and never mix them in one column. Store each pull with its date, because the media-level number moves backwards when people unlike, unsave or delete comments. Put accounts engaged on Instagram next to it, since that counts people while Interactions counts actions.

If you calculate an engagement rate, state which interactions figure is the numerator and whether it includes boosts. Pulling these numbers on a schedule across networks is what social media analytics in adaptlypost is for, with the Instagram analytics tool as the Instagram view.

Frequently asked questions

What counts as an interaction on Instagram?

Meta's Help Center says Interactions are "actions people take when they engage with your content, such as likes, comments, saves and shares." The API's media-level total_interactions counts likes, saves, comments and shares, then subtracts unlikes, unsaves and deleted comments. Reposts and story replies are reported as separate metrics.

Why did my Instagram interactions number go down?

The media-level total_interactions subtracts "the number of unlikes, unsaves, and deleted comments." When people reverse an action after your last pull, the total drops. A post showing 173 interactions on Monday can show 164 on Friday after 6 unlikes, 2 unsaves and 1 deleted comment.

Do reposts count toward total_interactions?

Meta's media-level definition does not name reposts. Meta reports them in a separate reposts metric, defined as "The number of reposts on the IG media minus the number of deleted reposts." Add the two yourself if your report needs reposts inside the interaction total, and label the column so readers know.

Does total_interactions include boosted posts?

At account level, yes: the definition includes "any interactions on boosted content." At media level, no: Meta says total_interactions reports "organic interaction metrics only; interactions on ads containing a media object are not counted." The Instagram app shows insights for organic and boosted posts.

What is the difference between interactions and accounts engaged?

Interactions counts actions. Accounts engaged counts the unique accounts that took them. One account that likes, saves and comments adds 3 to Interactions and 1 to Accounts engaged. Meta labels Accounts engaged estimated because it samples account counts. Interactions is not on Meta's estimated list and carries the in development flag instead.

Why does the API return nothing for a story's interactions?

Story metrics are only available for 24 hours. Meta's workaround is the story_insights webhook, available only with Facebook Login, which captures story insights before they expire. Meta adds that the webhook can deliver data after expiry if the story is added to a highlight. Stories with values under 5 return error (#10) Not enough viewers for the media to show insights. When data is unavailable, Meta returns an empty data set, not a zero.

What replaced the engagement metric in the Instagram API?

total_interactions did. Meta deprecated ENGAGEMENT and CAROUSEL_ALBUM_ENGAGEMENT on 12 September 2023 for v18.0 and later, and for all versions from 11 December 2023. Meta warned that total_interactions is "currently only available using version 18.0 and does not work with older versions."

Which permissions do I need to pull total_interactions?

With Instagram Login you need instagram_business_basic and instagram_business_manage_insights. With Facebook Login you need instagram_basic, instagram_manage_insights and pages_read_engagement.

How long is Instagram interactions data delayed and stored?

Meta says data "can be delayed up to 48 hours" and is "stored for up to 2 years." Missing data returns "an empty data set instead of 0," so read a blank result as unavailable, not as zero interactions.

Why don't per-post interactions add up to the account total?

Media-level total_interactions counts organic activity only. Account-level total_interactions includes "any interactions on boosted content." Once any post was boosted, the sum of your per-post numbers will not match the account figure for that day.