I Unfollowed 50 People Who Didn’t Follow Me Back

Last Updated on January 10, 2026 by Ethan

Okay so. I finally did the thing I’d been avoiding forever. Went through my Instagram. Found 50 accounts that weren’t following me back. Unfollowed all of them.

Took maybe 20 minutes. And honestly? I should’ve done this two years ago.

My engagement went up 23% in three weeks. My feed doesn’t feel like a chore anymore. But the weird part – and I didn’t expect this at all – is that I actually gained 6 followers after doing it. Not lost them. Gained.

Let me walk you through the whole thing.

Why I Was Even Thinking About This

So I’ve had Instagram since 2016. Eight years of following random accounts. Brands I bought from once. People from follow-for-follow phases back when that was a thing. Accounts I scrolled past every single day without ever stopping.

By last month, I was following 847 people. My followers? 612.

That ratio bugged me. Not because I’m obsessed with numbers (okay, maybe a little) but because my feed sucked. I was missing posts from actual friends. Scrolling through content I didn’t care about. The whole experience felt… off.

Pew Research says the average person follows around 150 accounts. I was at nearly 6x that. No wonder everything felt overwhelming.

Finding Out Who Wasn’t Following Back

You can check this manually. Go to someone’s profile, tap their followers, search your name. If you’re not there, they don’t follow you.

I tried that for like 10 minutes and gave up. Way too slow.

Ended up using UnfollowGram to see who unfollowed me on Instagram. Got a full list in maybe 5 minutes.

And dude. 289 accounts weren’t following me back. Out of 847. That’s over a third of my entire following list just… not reciprocating.

Some made sense. Taylor Swift isn’t gonna follow me back lol. Neither is Nike. But most were random accounts I genuinely couldn’t remember following in the first place.

If you wanna do this yourself, there’s a full breakdown on how to see who doesn’t follow you back on Instagram.

Picking the 50 to Unfollow

I didn’t just nuke everyone. That felt too aggressive. Plus Instagram’s guidelines are pretty clear about spam-like behavior. Mass unfollowing can get you action-blocked.

So I picked 50 based on vibes, honestly:

– Accounts I straight up didn’t recognize
– People who hadn’t posted in months
– Content I always scrolled past
– Old follow-for-follow exchanges from like 2019

I kept some non-followers. A few photographers I really like. A couple of industry accounts that post useful stuff. The point wasn’t to be petty about the ratio. Just wanted my feed not to be garbage anymore.

What Actually Happened (The Numbers)

Alright, here’s the before and after. These are real numbers from my account.

Before I started:

Following: 847
Followers: 612
Likes per post: around 34
Comments: like 2 or 3
Story views: 80ish

Three weeks later:

Following: 797
Followers: 618 (went UP by 6)
Likes per post: 42 average
Comments: 4-5 now
Story views: breaking 100 consistently

That’s a 23% bump in likes. Didn’t change anything else. Same posting times, same content, same hashtags. The only variable was cleaning up my following list.

My Theory on Why This Works

I think it’s two things happening at once.

First – and I can’t prove this, but I believe it – Instagram notices your ratio. An account following 2000 people with 300 followers looks spammy. An account following 400 with 500 followers looks legit. The algorithm probably treats them differently.

The second thing is simpler. With a cleaner feed, I was actually engaging more. Liking posts I cared about. Leaving real comments. And when you engage more, people engage back. It’s not rocket science, but I wasn’t doing it before because my feed was so cluttered that I just scrolled through everything mindlessly.

I noticed my Explore page actually got better, too. Instagram was suddenly showing me stuff I actually wanted to see.

Stuff I Didn’t Expect

The engagement boost was cool but not the biggest surprise, honestly.

What caught me off guard was how much better the app felt afterward. Like. I actually wanted to open Instagram again. My feed showed me stuff from people I knew. Content I was interested in. It went from feeling like a chore to feeling fun again.

Also, nobody noticed. Or if they did, they didn’t say anything. Instagram doesn’t send notifications when you unfollow someone, so unless they’re actively checking (which… why would they,) they have no idea.

We overthink this stuff way too much.

Things I Learned

A couple of takeaways from doing this:

Your following list is like your email inbox. If you never clean it out, it becomes unusable. I let mine pile up for years. Dumb move.

The ratio matters, but not for the reasons you think. It’s not about looking cool. It’s about how Instagram categorizes your account. And probably how other people perceive you when they land on your profile for the first time.

And unfollowing isn’t mean. It’s not personal. It’s just… cleaning up. Nobody’s getting hurt here.

Should You Try This?

If any of this sounds familiar, then yeah, probably.

You know you need to do this if:

– You scroll past most posts without stopping
– Half your following list is accounts you forgot existed
– Your following count is way higher than your followers
– Engagement has been dropping, and you don’t know why
– Opening Instagram feels exhausting instead of fun

I’ve seen people find 200+ non-followers they had no idea about. One person told me they cleaned out 150 accounts over two weeks, and their engagement almost doubled. Results vary obviously, but the pattern is consistent.

How to Actually Do This

Here’s what worked for me:

1. Get the data first. I used the UnfollowGram Follower Tracker app, but there’s also a web version. Shows you exactly who doesn’t follow back.

2. Don’t go crazy. 50-100 unfollows per day max. Go faster, and Instagram might think you’re a bot.

3. Actually think about each one. Some non-followers are worth keeping. Don’t be weird about it.

4. Check your numbers before and after. Otherwise, you won’t know if it worked.

The whole thing took me 20 minutes. Wish I’d done it sooner, honestly. My friend Sarah did this after I told her about it. She found 180 non-followers and said her DMs started getting more active within a week.

Wrapping Up

Look. Unfollowing 50 people isn’t gonna make you Instagram famous overnight. That’s not the point.

The point is having a feed you actually enjoy. Engaging with content that matters to you. Not drowning in posts from accounts you can’t even remember following.

Sometimes growth isn’t about adding more stuff. It’s about getting rid of what’s not working.

So, who are you unfollowing this week?

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Wanna see who’s not following you back? Try UnfollowGram – takes like 5 minutes. No password needed.

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More stuff: Instagram Unfollowers Tracker • Follower Tracker • Story Viewer