How to Export Your Instagram Followers in JSON Format

Instagram's data export feature gives you access to your complete followers and following lists. But the format you choose matters — and JSON is the right choice if you plan to analyze the data with any tool, including FollowGone.

Here's exactly how to export your Instagram followers in JSON format, and what the resulting file looks like.

Why JSON Instead of HTML?

Instagram offers two export formats:

HTML produces human-readable web pages. They're easy to open and skim in a browser, but they're harder for tools to parse accurately. HTML formatting can also change between Instagram updates, breaking any tool that relies on the HTML structure.

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is structured data. It's less immediately readable to humans, but it's the standard format for data exchange between applications. Every analysis tool — including FollowGone — works with JSON.

If you're downloading your data to analyze it with any tool, always choose JSON.

Step-by-Step: Exporting in JSON Format

On the Instagram Mobile App

1. Open Instagram and tap your profile photo in the bottom right
2. Tap the three horizontal lines (☰) in the top right
3. Tap Your Activity
4. Scroll down and tap Download Your Information
5. Tap Download or Transfer Information
6. Choose Some of your information
7. Scroll to the Connections section and check Followers and Following
8. Tap Next
9. On the "Transfer or download" screen, tap Download to Device
10. Set the Date range to All time
11. Set the Format to JSON ← this is the critical step
12. Tap Create Files

On Instagram.com (Desktop)

1. Go to instagram.com and log in
2. Click your profile photo in the top right → Settings
3. In the left sidebar, click Meta Accounts Center
4. Click Your information and permissions
5. Click Download your information
6. Click Download or transfer information
7. Select your Instagram account
8. Choose Some of your information
9. Check Followers and Following under Connections
10. Click Next → Download to device
11. Set format to JSON
12. Click Create Files

What Happens Next

Instagram sends you a notification (and email) when your file is ready. The preparation time varies:

• Small accounts (under 5,000 followers): usually a few minutes
• Medium accounts (5,000–50,000 followers): 15 minutes to a couple of hours
• Large accounts (50,000+): potentially several hours

When it's ready, download the ZIP file from the notification or from your email.

What's Inside the ZIP File

After unzipping, you'll find a folder structure. For follower data, the relevant files are:

connections/
  followers_and_following/
    followers_1.json
    following.json

Note: Very large follower lists may be split across followers_1.json, followers_2.json, etc.

What followers_1.json looks like

[
  {
    "title": "",
    "media_list_data": [],
    "string_list_data": [
      {
        "href": "https://www.instagram.com/username",
        "value": "username",
        "timestamp": 1711929600
      }
    ]
  }
]

Each entry represents one follower. The value field is their username, href is their profile URL, and timestamp is when they followed you (as a Unix timestamp).

What following.json looks like

The structure is identical — each entry is an account you follow, with the same fields.

How FollowGone Uses This File

When you upload your ZIP file to FollowGone, we read the followers_1.json and following.json files and:

1. Parse every account in your followers list
2. Parse every account in your following list
3. Compare against your previous upload (if one exists) to identify unfollowers and new followers
4. Generate your "not following back" list (accounts in following but not in followers)

You never need to open or understand the JSON files yourself — FollowGone handles the parsing. The only thing you need to do is make sure you chose JSON format when you requested the export.

Troubleshooting

"I don't see a followers_1.json file in my export." Check that you selected JSON format (not HTML) when requesting the export, and that you checked Followers and Following under Connections.

"My followers are split across multiple files." Upload the full ZIP file (not individual files). FollowGone reads all followers_*.json files automatically.

"The timestamps seem off." Instagram's timestamps are in Unix format (seconds since January 1, 1970). FollowGone converts these to readable dates automatically.

Upload your JSON export to FollowGone and see your follower data in a clear, human-readable format.