Definition: Organic reach is the number of unique people who saw a post or account through unpaid distribution (feeds, search, shares and recommendations), excluding anyone reached through ads.
Also called: unpaid reach, organic impressions
Updated October 11, 2026
Organic reach rate = organic reach ÷ followers × 100Paid reach comes from ads or boosted posts; organic reach is everything else. When a post is boosted, most platforms split the two in their insights. Keep them apart in reports, because a boost can hide the fact that the content itself is not travelling.
Feeds are ranked, not chronological, so each post is shown first to a slice of your followers and then to more people (including non-followers) if it earns interactions. That is why organic reach can be well below your follower count on one post and above it on another.
An Instagram account with 12,000 followers posts a carousel that reaches 3,600 accounts without any boost. Organic reach is 3,600 and the organic reach rate is 3,600 ÷ 12,000 × 100 = 30%.
Reach is the number of unique people who saw a post or account at least once in a given period.
Impressions are the total number of times a post was displayed on screen, counting repeat views by the same person.
A social media algorithm is the set of ranking systems a network uses to decide which posts each person sees, and in what order, based on predictions of what that person is likely to engage with.
Engagement rate is the percentage of people who interacted with a post (liked, commented, shared, saved or clicked) out of the people who saw it or follow the account.
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