How to Remove Instagram Followers Without Blocking Them

Sometimes you don’t want a particular person following you, but blocking feels like too much. Instagram has a quieter option: removing them as a follower.

How to remove a follower

1. Go to your profile and tap Followers.
2. Find the person (use the search bar for long lists).
3. Tap Remove next to their name and confirm.

That’s it. They’re no longer in your followers.

Will they know?

Instagram doesn’t notify them. They might notice later that they no longer follow you, for example if your posts stop showing up in their feed or if they visit your profile.

Can they follow you again?

• Public account: yes, they can follow you again whenever they like.
• Private account: they’d have to send a new follow request, which you can ignore.

If you want to stop someone from coming back, making your account private before removing them is the most effective non-blocking option.

Remove vs. block vs. restrict vs. mute

• Remove: they stop following you. Silent, and reversible from their side if your account is public.
• Block: they can’t find your profile, see your posts or message you. They stop following you, and you stop following them.
• Restrict: their comments on your posts are only visible to them unless you approve them, and their messages go to message requests. They keep following you.
• Mute: you stop seeing their posts or stories. Nothing changes for them.

Removing followers in bulk

Instagram has no bulk remove button, so cleaning out a lot of followers means removing them one by one. If you’re doing this to get rid of spam accounts, go at a steady pace and take breaks, for the same reasons as with mass unfollowing.

To review your followers more easily, Unfollower Tracker shows your Fans list (people who follow you but you don’t follow back), with filters for accounts without a profile picture, which is a common sign of a spam account.