How to hide followers on Instagram: what works and what does not

A public Instagram account cannot hide its followers list, its following list, or the numbers on the profile. Instagram has no setting for it (Instagram Help, “Differences between public and private accounts”). Any app or video that says otherwise is wrong, or wants your login.

What you can do is narrower, and it comes with trade-offs. You can make the account private, which hides both lists from everyone you have not approved. You can remove a single follower, block a person, or restrict them.

This guide walks through each of those four options with steps, then explains what going private does to your growth. Because that is where most people get caught out.

How to hide followers on Instagram: the four real options

Option	Hides your lists from	Hides the numbers	Slows your growth
Private account	Everyone you have not approved	No	Yes, a lot
Remove a follower	That one person, until they follow again	No	No
Block a person	That one person, completely	Yes, for them only	No
Restrict a person	Nobody	No	No

Two things are true for all four. None of them hides the numbers from the general public, and none of them changes what your existing approved followers can see.

Option 1: switch to a private account

This is the only setting that hides your followers and following lists (Instagram Help, “Make your Instagram account private”). Once you switch, only approved followers can open either list.

1. Open the Instagram app and tap your profile picture in the bottom right corner.
2. Tap the menu, the three lines in the top right corner.
3. Tap Settings and privacy.
4. Tap Account privacy.
5. Turn on Private account and confirm.

Existing followers keep their access when you go private (Instagram Help). Anyone new has to send a follow request and wait for you to accept it.

The follower and following numbers on your profile stay visible to everyone. Instagram shows counts in full below 10,000 and shortens them above that, so 15,200 shows as 15.2K. Going private does not change either number.

If you are under 18, you are probably private already. Instagram moved accounts for teens to private by default when it introduced Teen Accounts in 2024 (Instagram announcement).

The trade-off: a private account is hidden from people who do not follow you, which is exactly the group you need for growth. Your posts do not show on hashtag pages or in Explore for non-followers (Instagram Help). New people cannot follow you without a request, and most people who see a locked profile just move on.

Option 2: remove a specific follower

If the problem is one person, you do not need to lock the whole account. Instagram lets you remove any follower, and it does not tell them.

1. Go to your profile and tap Followers.
2. Find the person, or search their name in the list.
3. Tap the three dots next to their name.
4. Tap Remove.

They stop following you and can no longer see your posts if your account is private. On a public account they can still see everything as a visitor, and they can follow you again. Instagram does not send them a notification when you remove them.

Option 3: block a person

Blocking hides everything from that one person. Your profile, your posts, your Stories, and your followers and following lists all vanish from their view (Instagram Help, “Controlling your visibility”).

1. Open the person’s profile.
2. Tap the three dots in the top right corner.
3. Tap Block and confirm.

Nobody else is affected. Your other followers and visitors see the profile exactly as before.

Option 4: restrict a person

Restrict is the gentle version. It limits what a person can do on your account without hiding your lists at all (Instagram Help, “Controlling your visibility”).

1. Open the person’s profile.
2. Tap the three dots.
3. Tap Restrict.

It limits what that person can do with comments and messages on your account (Instagram Help). Your followers and following lists stay exactly as visible as before.

Use this for someone who is annoying but not worth a block. It does nothing for the “hide my followers” problem.

Watch out: no app can hide your followers list on a public account, because Instagram does not expose a setting for it. Apps that claim to do this ask for your password so they can log in as you. That is the most common way Instagram accounts get stolen.

What Threads does differently

Threads is a separate app from Meta, and it has its own public or private switch. Changing your Instagram account to private does not change your Threads profile, and the other way round (Instagram Help). If you use both, set each one on its own.

Why “hide followers without going private” has no answer

People search this phrase because they want two things at once. A public profile that strangers can find, and a followers list strangers cannot open. Instagram does not offer that combination (Instagram Help, “Differences between public and private accounts”).

The reason is simple. Instagram treats the lists as part of the public profile. If anyone can see your posts, anyone can see who follows you. The only in-between is blocking people one at a time.

So the real question is which matters more. If you want privacy, go private and accept slower growth. If you want growth, stay public and accept that the list is open. Our guide on how to make your Instagram public covers the switch back, and the teen-account rule that sometimes blocks it.

What going private does to growth

This is the part most “hide followers” guides skip. Instagram recommends posts in Reels and Explore to people who do not follow you yet. A private account is not shown to those people (Instagram Help). That cuts off the main way new followers find an account.

It also blocks delivery services, including ours. Followers, likes and views cannot be delivered to a private account, because the delivery accounts cannot follow or see it without approval. Every order at GetLikes needs a public username, and that is all it needs. We never ask for a password.

If your count is dropping and you are wondering whether to hide it, read why you are losing followers on Instagram first. The cause is usually fixable, and hiding the list fixes nothing.

If the real problem is a small number

Most people who search for this are not hiding from one person. They are self-conscious about a low count. The number is public on every profile, so hiding it is off the table. The alternative is to change it.

We sell Instagram followers, 100 for $3.95 and 1,000 for $15.95, delivered over time so the growth looks natural. Here is the honest part. Bought followers are a look, not an audience. They make a new profile look established, and they do not like, comment or buy. Real growth still comes from posting.

The account must be public to receive them. And if you already have a count that looks off, our guide on how to check for fake Instagram followers shows what a bad list looks like from the outside. You can also watch your count without logging in using our free Instagram follower counter.

Tip: before you go private, write down your follower count. Check it again in a month. If it has stalled while it used to grow, that is the cost of the switch, and you can reverse it in the same menu.

A short checklist

• If one person is the problem, remove or block them. Leave the account public.
• If you want the lists hidden from everyone, go private and accept the slower growth.
• Remember that the numbers show on every profile, private or not.
• Never give your password to an app that promises to hide your lists.
• If the real issue is a small count, work on the count instead of the list.