How to remove followers in bulk on Instagram

If you've been on Instagram for a while, it may be time to give your followers a spring clean. See how you can remove bulk followers from your Instagram account.

Removing mass followers on Instagram: Sounds scary, especially if you've spent years cultivating a sizable following.

But sometimes, it becomes necessary to remove Instagram followers who are no longer aligned with your personal or brand goals.

Maybe you've changed your focus and want to attract a different audience, or you're dealing with spammy, fake, or inactive accounts that dilute the quality of your follower base.

Whatever the reason, you need an efficient and effective way to clean up your follower list without the time-consuming one-by-one approach.

Fortunately, there are tools and techniques to help you remove multiple Instagram followers at once, allowing you to customize your audience to your current goals and preferences.

Let's explore the various methods available to remove followers in bulk on Instagram, from manual strategies to automated solutions.

With the right tools and knowledge, you can confidently select an audience that reflects your current focus and values.

Remove followers in bulk vs. Restrict vs. Block Followers

There are three ways to get rid of accounts, real or fake, that follow you on Instagram. You can remove the follower, restrict or block them.

Each of these has a slightly different result, so it's important to figure out which one you want to use.

What happens when you remove a follower on Instagram

This is the least restrictive thing you can do for a soon-to-be ex-follower on Instagram. When you remove a follower, they will not be notified of this.

However, they will no longer see your posts and stories in their feed.

If they search hard enough, they might find that they are no longer following you on Instagram.

Unless it's someone who really likes your content or knows you, they probably won't even notice. If they find out, nothing will stop them from following you again.

Restricting Instagram Followers

One step above removing a follower is restricting them. This is not the same as muting that follower, as this controls what you see of their content.

It's not as serious as blocking the account. Restricting Instagram followers is an effective way to ensure they cannot interact with your account.

When you restrict someone on Instagram, the following things happen:

• They won't be able to see when you're online or if you've read their messages.
• If they comment on your posts, you won't see it unless you tap See comment. Others of your followers won't even see that the restricted account left a comment unless you approve it.
• You will not receive any notifications when this person comments on your posts.

Please note that this does not remove followers or prevent them from seeing your content.

Blocking a follower on Instagram

When you block a follower on Instagram, you effectively disappear for them. They won't see that you've blocked them, but you won't appear in their feed, follower list, or if they search for you.

If they have multiple Instagram accounts or other Meta accounts, you may need to block each one individually. Of course, this can become quite tedious.

How to Manually Manage Your Instagram Followers

Now that you know the different ways to remove, restrict or block an Instagram follower, let's see how to manage this list of followers. I'll start with the manual method, but this can be time-consuming if you have more than a few followers you want to get rid of.

First, if the follower recently liked or commented on your content, you can tap their username to access their profile. To remove, restrict, or block them from here, follow these steps:

1. Tap the three dots in the top right corner.
   
2. To choose Restrict, Blockor Remove follower of the menu.
   
3. Confirm your selection in the next dialog box.
   
4. You can also remove followers from your own profile page. Tap the profile icon in the bottom right corner of the Instagram app and tap Followers. If you just want to remove a follower, just tap the To remove button.
   
5. On the other hand, if you want to restrict or block the account, you will need to tap on the account name and follow the previous steps.

As I'm sure you can imagine, this will be very time consuming if you want to remove multiple followers. With that in mind, let's look at ways to remove followers in bulk from Instagram.

How to remove followers in bulk using a third-party app

Since Instagram doesn't offer an in-app or website way to do this, you'll need to use a third-party app to remove multiple followers at once.

This gets complicated because Instagram's API limits how many actions you can take per day.

These actions include following, unfollowing, blocking, removing followers, and liking other people's posts.

Apps that exceed these limits may block or restrict your account. So be careful here.

During my research and experimentation, I found a few options to help “weed out the herd” of your followers.

One is a very expensive option aimed at content creators who need to remove followers regularly.

The Cheap Option to Remove Followers in Bulk

Another app, Unfollow for Insta, allows you to remove up to 15 followers without paying anything. It appears to be iOS-only, but there are similar apps in the Google Play Store.

This brings some disadvantages. During my testing, the app logged me out of the Instagram app. When I logged back into the Instagram app, I was logged out of Unfollow for Insta.

Furthermore, the only option you have to remove followers is to block them.

After the initial usage limit, you will have to pay for unlimited usage. At the time of writing this article, this requires a one-time in-app purchase of US$ 3.99.

The Professional Option to Remove Followers in Bulk

If you're a serious content creator, especially one who monetizes your content, you may want a more professional option.

One such option is SpamGuard for Instagram, which can detect spam, ghost followers, and bots.

During its scan, SpamGuard identifies Instagram followers that are likely to be ghosts, companies, bots, infrequent and inactive users.

You can stop these accounts from following you with just a few clicks.

You can also import a whitelist of exceptions to ensure that followers you want to keep aren't accidentally removed.

The app's developers are well aware of Instagram's API limits and issue follower removals to avoid exceeding them.

However, SpamGuard comes at a high price. Its pricing starts at US$28.20 per month, assuming you pay for six months.

If you prefer to pay month by month, the service starts at US$47 per month. Both options offer a 14-day money-back guarantee.

Why should I care about clearing my Instagram followers?

In the Instagram scenario, “ghost followers” are accounts that link to your profile without interacting with it. They don't like, comment, or engage with your content in a meaningful way.

Ambivalent about beneficial consequences

A few ghost followers aren't the end of the world, especially if you're still building your audience. These tagalongs do some possible good, at least if they are few. They can offer you:

• Cosmetic Prestige: A high follower count exudes a veneer of popularity and gravitas to the untrained eye. However, this effect probably won't last long.
• Preparation effect: Certain algorithmic conditions allow for a slight increase in attention simply by a bloated follower count. This may provide a temporary boost in attention for newer accounts.
• Psychosocial Influence: The allure of a large follower count could galvanize genuine followers into more consistent interactions, guided by herd instincts or perceived authority.
• Peripheral Analysis: Although passive, ghost followers increase your reach and impression statistics – quantitative touchpoints that some advertisers consider.

Harmful consequences

In the long run, though, too many ghost followers will only make things worse. The Instagram algorithm will eventually penalize an account with a lot of ghost followers compared to genuine audience members.

On Instagram, engagement is measured by merging interactions and dividing them by the number of followers, a number amplified by a factor of 100.

This quotient plummets in the presence of ghost followers, negatively affecting the way your content fights for visibility within Instagram's capricious algorithm.

An overabundance of ghost followers can also have the following negative consequences:

• Erosion of brand trustworthiness: For digital experts and companies alike, a jarring ratio between high followers and low engagement is a warning sign for potential collaborators. This raises questions about your audience's sincerity and undermines your digital integrity.

• Algorithmic Repercussions: Instagram’s clandestine algorithm favors those with rising engagement levels. An influx of ghost followers can make your content less likely to appear in your audience's feeds, thus limiting organic discovery.

• Dissipation of resources: In the search for effective marketing, ghost followers are like pouring water into a sieve. They offer no contributions to conversion rates or any tangible return on investment (ROI), wasting the valuable resources you've invested in your content.

• The Specter of Shadowbanning: Suspicion of inorganic increase in followers, especially if ghost followers constitute a considerable fraction, may lead Instagram to limit the reach of your content. Despite Instagram's official denial, the potential for shadowbanning remains an underlying concern.

Clean up your Instagram followers to keep your content discoverable

Taking the time to cleanse your Instagram follower list of inauthentic or non-engaging followers is like spring cleaning your digital life.

Not only does this increase your engagement rates, but it also gives you a clearer picture of who your real audience is.

Remember, it's not just about impressive numbers; it's about creating a community that values your content as much as you do.

So, go ahead and organize that list of followers; Your Instagram profile – and peace of mind – will thank you for it. Happy 'gramming!