Public and private Instagram accounts: what can be looked up
Updated 30 September 20264 min read
Whether a search returns a result depends on one setting of the account you look up: public or private. This guide explains the difference and the rules we follow.
What a public account shows to everyone
A public account can be opened by anyone, with or without following it. Its posts, its profile text, its follower and following counts and the lists behind those counts are visible. A search on this site only reads that public information.
What changes when an account is private
A private account shows its posts and its lists only to approved followers. We do not look up private accounts. If you enter one, you get the notice that the account is private, and the attempt does not count as your free search.
There is no way around this, and tools that promise to open private profiles should be treated with caution. They usually ask for your Instagram password or for a payment and deliver nothing.
Private accounts inside a result
A public account can follow private accounts. In that case the private account appears in the result with its username and the label Private. Nothing else about it is shown, because nothing else is public.
If an account switches between public and private
The setting is checked at the moment of each search. An account that was public yesterday and is private today can no longer be looked up. Results are only kept for a short time and are not published anywhere.
You do not want your account to appear
The most effective step is to set your account to private in the Instagram settings. In addition you can write to hello@simongrimm.at from an address that lets us verify you and name the account. We then exclude it from searches and results on this site.
Try it with a username
One search per day is free. No Instagram login needed.