Why Instagram metrics may differ between Instagram and Metricool

If metrics in your Instagram account do not match what you see in Metricool, the discrepancy is usually caused by one of five common differences in how Instagram and Metricool collect, group, or display data.

Time zone differences

Instagram and Metricool may assign the same interactions to different days depending on how each platform groups data by date.

What happens: Instagram groups data by its own internal time zone. Metricool groups data by the time zone configured in your account. A single interaction can fall on different days depending on which time zone is used.

How to identify it:

• Totals match, but the daily distribution is different.

• Differences are more visible in follower metrics or when comparing recent data or short periods.

Note: The variation is usually small, but can be more noticeable for recent data or short comparison periods.

Missing posts

Some Instagram content may not be returned by Meta's API, so it does not appear in Metricool analytics.

What happens: Certain posts are restricted or excluded from the API and therefore cannot be retrieved.

Common cases:

• Posts restricted by age or country.

• Collaborative posts. Only the creator account will see the post in Metricool.

How to identify it:

• The post is visible on Instagram but does not appear in Metricool.

See also: Why some Instagram posts don't appear in your analytics.

Promoted posts

Metricool can only display the metrics that Meta's API provides for promoted content.

What happens: Some metrics for promoted posts are not available through the API.

How to identify it:

• The discrepancy appears on posts with an active or past promotion.

See also: Why Doesn't Promoted Post Data Appear on Instagram?.

Stories

Instagram story metrics are only available after the story ends, and they depend on Meta's API delivery timing.

What happens: Metricool receives story data only once the API provides it, which happens after the story ends.

What to keep in mind:

• No data is available while a story is active.

• In rare cases, if Meta's API has a delivery problem, the data may not be recoverable later.

How to identify it:

• The difference is limited to stories.

• Data may be incomplete or missing entirely.

See also: Why I can't see my stories published from Metricool in the Instagram archive.

Content shared with Facebook

When content is automatically published to both Instagram and Facebook, Instagram may display combined interactions while Metricool separates them by platform.

What happens: Instagram's interface may show interactions from both Instagram and Facebook together.

How data appears in Metricool: Metricool shows metrics separately for each platform.

How to identify it:

• Instagram shows a notice that the interactions include Facebook activity.

• The total shown on Instagram is higher than what appears in Metricool.

See also: Differences in Instagram metrics due to content shared on Facebook.

Important

• Metricool displays data exactly as Meta's API returns it.

• Some metrics available in Instagram's interface are not available through the API.

• Instagram may combine or process data differently in its own interface.

FAQs

Related articles

• What to do if your social media data isn't updating in Metricool

• Instagram Metrics