Instagram Metrics Explained: A Field-by-Field Glossary

Instagram’s dashboard shows you labels like “Accounts reached” or “Saves.” When you pull the same data through an API or an AI assistant, those labels become field ids like reach and media_saved. This glossary maps one to the other, ordered by how often each field actually gets requested, so the ones people ask about most are at the top.

Post and media fields, caption, reach, saves, shares, comments, likes, views, dominate. Profile and account basics come next. Audience breakdown fields and Story fields are pulled far less often, which is why they’re grouped separately near the end rather than mixed into the main table.

Field glossary

Instagram dashboard label	Field id	What it means
Media type	media_type	Whether the post is an image, video, carousel, or Reel
Media created	timestamp	Date and time the post was published (Stories use story_timestamp instead)
Accounts reached	media_reach	Unique accounts that saw this specific post
Caption	media_caption	The post’s caption text
Saves	media_saved	Unique accounts that saved this post
Shares	media_shares	Number of times this post was shared
Comments	media_comments_count	Comment count on the post, excluding caption and child media comments
Likes	media_like_count	Like count on the post
Views	media_views	Times this specific post has been seen
Permalink	media_permalink	The post’s URL on Instagram
Engagement	media_engagement	Likes, comments, saves, and shares added together for this post
Profile followers	followers_count	Current total followers on the account, a snapshot, not a history
Profile media count	media_count	Total number of posts on the profile, as of today
Total interactions	total_interactions	Interactions across posts, Stories, Reels, and video combined
Views (account-level)	views	Total times any content on the account was played or displayed
Instagram user name	username	The account’s handle
Shares (account-level)	shares	Shares across all content types on the account
Likes (account-level)	likes	Likes across posts, Reels, and videos on the account
Comments (account-level)	comments	Comments across posts, Reels, videos, and live videos
Saves (account-level)	saves	Saves across posts, Reels, and videos
Profile follows	follows_count	Number of accounts this profile follows
Accounts engaged	accounts_engaged	Accounts that interacted with any of your content, ads included
Media product type	media_product_type	Where the media appears: ad, feed, IGTV, or Story
Profile reach (1 day)	reach_1d, alias reach	Unique accounts that saw any of your media in a day
New followers (1 day)	follower_count_1d, alias follower_count	New followers gained in a day (not available under 100 total followers)
Reel average watch time	media_reel_avg_watch_time	Average time viewers spent watching this Reel, in milliseconds
Media follows	media_follows	Accounts that started following you after viewing this specific post
Reel skip rate	media_reel_skip_rate	Share of viewers who skipped the Reel within the first 3 seconds
Biography	biography	The profile’s bio text
Profile visits from media	media_profile_visits	Profile visits triggered by viewing this post (not supported for Reels)
Profile links taps	profile_links_taps	Taps on your address, call, email, or text button
Linked website	website	The website link shown on the profile
Reel total interactions	media_reel_total_interactions	Likes, saves, comments, and shares on a Reel, net of removals
Profile (account) name	name	The display name on the profile
Reel total watch time	media_reel_total_watch_time	Total time the Reel was played, including replays

Audience demographics fields

These break down your follower base by country, gender, age, or city. All four follow the same pattern: a _name field for the group label and a _size field for the count in that group, audience_country_name / audience_country_size, audience_gender_name / audience_gender_size, audience_age_name / audience_age_size, audience_city_size / city, plus a combined audience_gender_age_name / audience_gender_age_size pair. Instagram only allows one breakdown per request, see the rules below.

Instagram Stories fields

Story-specific fields are requested far less often than post fields, mostly because Stories expire after 24 hours and need to be actively archived to analyze later: story_id, story_timestamp, story_reach, story_views, story_replies, story_shares, story_interactions, story_exits, story_swipe_forward, story_taps_back, and story_taps_forward. If you want Story history to persist, pull these on a daily schedule rather than checking them after the fact, once a Story expires its data goes with it.

Names that don’t exist

These are the field names people and AI assistants commonly guess that Instagram’s API doesn’t actually use. If you send one of these, you’ll get an “Unexpected field” error:

What people type	What they meant
media_timestamp	timestamp
website_clicks	profile_links_taps
permalink / caption	media_permalink / media_caption
followers	followers_count
media_likes / media_comments	media_like_count / media_comments_count
saved	media_saved
audience_city_name	city
media_total_interactions	media_engagement

Four rules that explain most Instagram errors

1. New followers per day only reaches back a limited window. This is the single most common Instagram error teams hit. See the follower tracker for the fix.
2. Most metrics are capped to roughly the last two years. Older history isn’t retrievable after the fact, only a running scheduled pull builds it going forward.
3. Only one audience breakdown per request. Asking for country and gender together in one call fails, run them as four separate requests instead.
4. Insights require a Professional account. A personal Instagram account can’t pull most of the fields above; the account needs to be a Business or Creator account.

Related reading

• Full Instagram field list
• Instagram Analytics: A Complete Guide
• Instagram Follower Tracker