The engagement rate formula, and which one to use

The three formulas

Every version divides interactions by an audience. “Interactions” (or engagements) means the reactions you can count on a post: likes, comments and, where they’re shown, shares and saves. What changes is the audience you divide by.

By followers

The oldest version, and the one most benchmark reports use. It answers: of everyone who follows this account, how many reacted? Its problem on short video is that followers don’t decide who sees a post anymore. TikTok, Reels and Shorts show videos to non-followers all the time, so one post can reach ten times the follower count and the next a tenth of it.

By views

Of the people who actually watched, how many reacted? This is the most useful version for short video. It measures the content, not the size of an old following, and you can calculate it from numbers on the post itself.

By reach

Reach counts unique accounts that saw a post. It’s the most precise audience, but only the creator can see it. If you’re about to pay someone, ask for screenshots of their insights. For deciding who gets a gift, you won’t have it.

A worked example

A hypothetical creator with 24,000 followers posts a video. It gets 18,400 views, 1,210 likes, 46 comments, 38 shares and 52 saves.

1. Engagements: 1,210 + 46 + 38 + 52 = 1,346
2. By views: 1,346 ÷ 18,400 × 100 = 7.3%
3. By followers: 1,346 ÷ 24,000 × 100 = 5.6%

Same post, two answers. Neither is wrong; they measure different things. Now do the same for the creator’s last 10 or so posts and you have a baseline. Our engagement rate calculator does this for several posts at once and shows both rates side by side, plus views as a share of followers. There are versions that open on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.

What each platform shows

You can only count what the platform makes public, and each one shows something different. A formula that adds shares and saves on TikTok can’t be compared with one that only has likes and comments on YouTube.

• TikTok. TikTok’s own developer documentation lists a video’s view, like, comment and share counts. The app also shows a save count on each video.
• Instagram. Since May 2021, anyone can hide the like counts on their own posts. When a creator does, you’re left with comments and views, so a likes-based rate isn’t possible. Meta’s API reference also leaves the like count out in some cases when the owner has hidden it. Reels show a view count.
• YouTube. Views, likes and comments are public. YouTube made dislike counts private in November 2021; only the creator sees them in YouTube Studio. YouTube’s help center says that from August 24, 2026, views on every format, Shorts included, are counted the moment a video starts to play. So a YouTube video’s views from before and after that date may not compare directly; check post dates when you compare.

So: when you compare creators, compare them on the same platform with the same inputs. Don’t compare a TikTok rate that includes saves and shares with a YouTube rate that can’t.

Why per-post engagement by views is best for vetting

When you’re picking creators to gift, you’re asking two questions: will people see the video, and will they care? Views answers the first. Engagement by views answers the second. Follower-based rates blur the two together.

• It reflects how short video is distributed. Followers are a weak predictor of who sees a post.
• It isn’t inflated by a viral outlier. Work per post and look at the middle of the range, not the average dragged up by one hit.
• It works from public numbers, so you can check a creator before you ever message them.
• It compares small and large creators fairly. A nano creator and a creator with 200,000 followers can be judged on the same scale.

Use it alongside plain views. A 12% engagement rate on 300 views is a small, warm audience; a 4% rate on 40,000 views is a lot more people seeing your product. Neither is “better” in general; it depends on what you want from the wave. For sizing up small creators specifically, see our guide to nano and micro influencers.

What is a good engagement rate?

There’s no single good number. It depends on the platform, the formula, the niche and the account size, and published benchmarks disagree because they measure different things.

One example of a published benchmark: Rival IQ’s 2025 Social Media Industry Benchmark Report found a median engagement rate per post, by followers, of 0.36% on Instagram and 1.73% per video on TikTok, across 14 industries. But look at what it measured: 2,100 brand accounts (150 per industry, each with at least 5,000 followers on those platforms), counting interactions on organic and boosted posts, divided by followers. Those are companies, not creators, and it’s the follower formula, not views. It tells you engagement by followers is usually low; it doesn’t tell you what a good creator looks like.

A more useful “good” for gifting: better than this creator’s own normal, and in line with the other creators you’re considering on the same platform. Take each candidate’s last 10 to 12 posts, calculate engagement by views for each, and look at the middle of the range. Then compare like with like.

Red flags

• Views far below followers on every recent post. The following is old, bought or no longer watching.
• Likes without conversation. Thousands of likes and a few one-word comments, or the same generic comments on every post.
• Wild swings with no reason. One post at 50,000 views and the next at 200 can happen, but if every post is like that, look closer.
• Engagement that’s all giveaway entries. “Follow and tag three friends” inflates comments without telling you anything about interest.
• A rate that seems too good on tiny views. 25% engagement on 150 views may just be friends and family.
• No recent posts on the platform you care about. Past numbers don’t help if they’ve stopped posting there.

After the post: what to measure

Engagement rate helps you decide who to gift. Once posts come in, the questions change: did they post, how many people saw it, and what was it worth? Track post rate, views per post, cost per post and EMV. Our CPV calculator gives you cost per view and per engagement for a campaign, and the EMV calculator puts a value on the views.