# What Is a Good Engagement Rate? (2026 Benchmarks)

Source: https://www.seedinfluencers.com/blog/what-is-a-good-engagement-rate
Published: 2026-10-25

What counts as a good engagement rate depends on whether you divide by followers or by views. Two named 2026 benchmark reports, with links, and how to use them.

There is no single good engagement rate, because two credible 2026 reports put the same platform's number in very different places. Quid's 2026 benchmark report, which divides interactions by followers, puts TikTok's all-industry median at 2.01% and Instagram's at 0.30%. Dash Social's H1 2026 report, which divides TikTok by video views instead, puts TikTok at 3.4% and Instagram Reels at 2.7%. Both are real, named, dated sources. They're measuring different things, and that difference is the actual answer to this question. Use the [free engagement rate calculator](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/free-engagement-rate-calculator) to work out a creator's own number both ways before you compare it to either benchmark below.

## Benchmark one: engagement by followers (Quid, 2026)

Quid's [2026 Social Media Industry Benchmark Report](https://www.quid.com/knowledge-hub/resource-library/blog/2026-social-media-industry-benchmark-report) (published March 5, 2026) states its formula plainly: engagement rate is total interactions divided by follower count. Across 18 industries, it reports these all-industry medians:

| Platform | Median engagement rate | Direction vs. prior period |
| --- | --- | --- |
| TikTok | 2.01% | Softened from the prior year's highs |
| Instagram | 0.30% | Down from 0.36% |
| YouTube | 0.21% | First year in the report, no prior comparison |
| X | 0.03% | Up from 0.015% |

These are medians across every account size and every one of the report's 18 industries, pulled by a platform that tracks social content at scale, not a hand-picked set of influencer accounts. That is exactly why they read lower than the percentages you see thrown around in influencer-marketing sales decks: this is what a typical account actually gets, not what a strong one gets.

## Benchmark two: engagement by views (Dash Social, H1 2026)

Dash Social's H1 2026 benchmark reports ([all-industries](https://pages.dashsocial.com/hubfs/social-media-benchmark/2026/H1/all-industries.pdf) and [Instagram](https://pages.dashsocial.com/hubfs/social-media-benchmark/2026/H1/instagram.pdf) PDFs) use a different denominator for TikTok: engagements divided by video views, not followers. On that basis:

| Platform / format | Engagement rate |
| --- | --- |
| TikTok, overall | 3.4% (down from 3.9%, views were up 3%) |
| Instagram Reels | 2.7% |
| Instagram carousel | 1.4% |
| Instagram static image | 1.3% |

A views-based rate and a followers-based rate from the same post can land nowhere near each other, as our [engagement rate formula post](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/blog/how-to-calculate-engagement-rate) shows with a worked example. Neither report is wrong. They answer different questions: Quid asks how much of an account's audience engages, Dash Social (for TikTok) asks how much of the actual viewership engages.

## Why the numbers move this much

Three things drive the gap between these two reports, beyond the denominator. Sample composition: Quid spans 18 industries and reports medians, which pulls the number toward whatever the most common, lower-engagement accounts in its sample look like. Dash Social's numbers come from its own platform's tracked accounts, a different sample with its own skew. Time period matters too: Dash Social's own comparison shows TikTok dropping from 3.9% to 3.4% in roughly six months, so "good" on the same platform, by the same formula, moved in half a year.

## How to actually use a benchmark

Don't hold a creator's engagement rate against either table above like a pass or fail line. Both are medians across accounts, industries and time periods that may not resemble the creator you're evaluating at all. A better test, in order:

- **Compare the creator to themselves.** Is their newest post close to their own recent average, or well below it? A creator whose engagement has been sliding for months is a different risk than one having a single flat week.
- **Compare similar creators to each other.** Run two or three creators you're considering through the same formula, same platform, same by-followers-or-by-views choice. Comparing like with like beats comparing to a number from a report built from accounts you've never seen. Our [micro-influencer scoring](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/blog/micro-influencer-scoring) post covers the other signals worth weighing alongside engagement rate when you're ranking a shortlist.
- **Use a published benchmark as a sanity check, not a verdict.** If a creator's rate is an order of magnitude off either table above, in either direction, that's worth a second look, not an automatic pass or fail.

For the formulas themselves and more worked examples by platform, read [how to calculate engagement rate](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/blog/how-to-calculate-engagement-rate). For signs that a high rate might not mean what it looks like, see [avoiding influencer gifting fraud](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/blog/avoiding-influencer-gifting-fraud).

Work out a creator's rate both ways with the [free engagement rate calculator](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/free-engagement-rate-calculator). It averages up to 12 posts, shows the best and lowest in the set, and runs entirely in your browser — also in [Deutsch](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/de/engagement-rate-rechner), [Español](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/es/calculadora-de-engagement) and [Français](https://www.seedinfluencers.com/fr/calculateur-taux-engagement).

## FAQ

**What is a good engagement rate on Instagram?**
It depends which benchmark you're reading. Quid's 2026 cross-industry report, which divides interactions by followers, put the all-industry Instagram median at 0.30%. Dash Social's H1 2026 report, which looks at engagement by content format, put Instagram Reels at 2.7%, versus 1.4% for carousels and 1.3% for static images. Neither is wrong, they're measuring different things.

**What is a good engagement rate on TikTok?**
Quid's 2026 report (interactions ÷ followers) puts the all-industry median at 2.01%. Dash Social's H1 2026 report, which divides by video views, puts it at 3.4%, down from 3.9% the period before. TikTok outranks Instagram and YouTube in both reports.

**Why do engagement rate benchmarks disagree so much?**
Mostly the denominator. Dividing by followers (Quid's method) and dividing by views (Dash Social's TikTok method) produce very different numbers from the same post, because views and followers are rarely the same size. Sample size, industry mix and time period also move the number.

**Should I use a published benchmark to judge one creator?**
Use it as rough context, not a pass or fail line. A cross-industry median is an average of accounts you've never heard of in industries that may not match yours. Comparing a creator's newest posts to their own recent average, and comparing similar creators to each other with the same formula, tells you more than matching either number against a published median.

**What is a good engagement rate on YouTube?**
Quid's 2026 report put the all-industry YouTube median, by subscribers, at 0.21%. That's the only 2026 cross-industry YouTube figure we found with its formula stated plainly. We did not find a comparable views-based YouTube benchmark we trust enough to publish.