What you can hide, and what you cannot
People look for a toggle called "hide followers", and it does not exist. The Help Center describes no setting that hides your followers list or your following list on its own.
What exists is account privacy. On a public account anyone can open both lists; on a private account only the followers you approved can. Everything else on this page is a way of deciding who counts as an approved follower.
| You want to hide the list from | Possible? | How |
|---|---|---|
| Strangers and people who do not follow you | Yes | Make the account private. |
| One specific follower | Yes | Remove them as a follower, or block them. |
| All of your followers | No | Approved followers can always open both lists. |
| Anyone, on a business account | No | Business profiles cannot be private. |
| Only the count, not the names | No | Follower and following counts are shown on every profile. |
Step one: make the account private
The steps are the same on iPhone and Android:
- Tap your profile picture in the bottom right to go to your profile.
- Tap the menu in the top right.
- Under "Who can see your content", tap Account privacy.
- Tap the switch next to Private account.
- Tap Switch to private to confirm.
Going private does not remove anyone. Everyone who followed you before still follows you, and still sees your lists, which is what the next steps are for.
Accounts of people under 18 are private by default, and teens under 16 need a parent's or guardian's permission to switch to public.
Who can see what, according to Instagram
Instagram publishes a comparison of public and private accounts. These are the rows that concern your lists:
| Who can see | Public account | Private account |
|---|---|---|
| Who can follow you | Anyone on Instagram. | Only people you approve. |
| Public accounts you follow, and public accounts that follow you | Anyone on Instagram and Threads. | Anyone on Instagram and Threads. |
| Private accounts you follow, and private accounts that follow you | Anyone on Instagram. | Your followers. |
| Your photos and videos | Anyone on Instagram. | Your followers. |
| Profile photo, name, username and bio | Anyone, on or off Instagram. | Anyone, on or off Instagram. |
The second row is the one people miss. Even with a private account, your connection to a public account is visible from that account's side: follow a public brand, and your username sits in its public followers list, where anyone can see it. A private account hides your list. It does not take you out of other people's.
Hide your followers list from one person
After going private, the people who can still see your lists are your followers. To close the list to one of them, they have to stop being a follower. There are three tools, and they behave differently:
| Tool | What it does | Are they notified? | Use it when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Remove follower | Takes them off your followers list. On a private account they lose access to your posts, stories and lists. | No. | You want distance without a scene. They can ask to follow again, and you can ignore the request. |
| Block | They cannot find your profile, posts or story. Their likes and comments are removed from your posts. | No. | You want no contact at all. Instagram can also block other accounts the person has or creates. |
| Restrict | Their comments are visible only to them, their messages go to requests, and they cannot see when you are online. | No. | The problem is what they say, not what they see. Restrict does not hide your lists. |
Remove a follower
- Go to your profile and tap Followers at the top.
- Tap the X to the right of the follower.
- Tap Remove to confirm.
The person is not notified. What else people can and cannot see about you follows its own rules: story and highlight viewers are covered in can people see if you view their highlights, screenshots in does Instagram notify when you screenshot, and disappearing messages in how to turn off vanish mode.
How to hide who you follow
The following list obeys the same rule as the followers list: a private account closes it to everyone except approved followers, and there is no separate control for it. The list also has a ceiling: 7,500 accounts, as how many people you can follow on Instagram sets out.
The row from Instagram's table applies here too. The public accounts you follow can be seen by anyone, because your name sits in their followers lists. If following a particular public account is what you want to keep quiet, the only reliable way is not to follow it; you can still view public content without following.
Business and creator accounts
Business profiles cannot be made private. To go private you first switch back to a personal account, giving up the professional tools, and how to turn off a business account sets out what goes with them.
For a brand that is rarely the right trade. A followers list is public proof that real people follow the account, and hiding it looks like hiding something. If competitors browsing your followers is the worry, the list tells them far less than your content does.
What a business can do is keep the list clean:
- Remove spam and bot followers. They make the list look worse than an honest small number does.
- Block accounts that harass you or your customers.
- Never buy followers. Bought followers are the one thing in a followers list that really does need hiding.
Follower quality is one of the things the free social media audit checks.
Tricks that do not work
- A "hide followers" setting. Some articles describe one under privacy settings. The Help Center documents no such switch.
- Third party apps. No app can change what Instagram shows on your profile. Apps that claim to will ask for your login, which is how accounts get stolen.
- Hiding the follower count. You can hide like counts on posts; the follower count is not covered by that setting.
- Restricting someone. It limits comments and messages. A restricted follower still sees your lists.
If you want the whole account out of view for a while rather than just the lists, deactivating Instagram hides it and is undone by logging back in.
How we will test this
Not run yetEverything above comes from the published sources listed below, and nothing here is presented as something we measured. Our own test on live accounts has not been run yet.
This is the test we will run: we use three of our own accounts: a private one, a follower of it, and an account that does not follow it.
From each we open the followers and following lists of the private account, before and after removing the follower, and we check the followers list of a public account that the private account follows.
Platforms change behavior without announcing it, so once the first test is run we repeat it every quarter, and this section will say when it was run and on which devices and app versions.
Sources
Read on September 18, 2026.
- Instagram Help Center, Make your Instagram account private
- Instagram Help Center, Differences between public and private accounts on Instagram
- Instagram Help Center, Remove a follower on Instagram
- Instagram Help Center, What happens when you block someone on Instagram
- Instagram Help Center, Restrict or unrestrict someone on Instagram
Questions people ask next
How do I hide my followers list on Instagram?+
Make the account private under Account privacy. Only followers you approve can then open your followers and following lists. There is no separate hide setting.
How to hide followers on IG from one person?+
Remove them as a follower, or block them. On a private account a removed follower loses access to your lists, posts and stories. They are not notified in either case.
Can I hide my following list on Instagram?+
Only by making the account private, which hides it from people who do not follow you. The public accounts you follow can still be seen by anyone through those accounts' own followers lists.
Can I hide my followers from my followers?+
No. Approved followers of a private account, and everyone for a public account, can open both lists. There is no setting that changes this.
Can a business account hide its followers list?+
No. Business profiles cannot be made private. You would have to switch back to a personal account first, and give up the professional tools.
Can I hide my follower count?+
No. You can hide like counts on posts. The numbers of followers and following on the profile stay visible.
Does making my account private remove followers?+
No. Everyone who already followed you keeps following you. Go through the followers list and remove the ones you do not want.
Will someone know if I remove them as a follower?+
They are not notified. They may notice later that they no longer follow you, and they can send a new follow request, which you can leave unanswered.
Does restricting someone hide my followers list from them?+
No. Restrict limits their comments and messages and hides your activity status. If they follow you, they still see your lists.
Can people see which public accounts I follow if I am private?+
Yes. Instagram's own comparison says public accounts you follow, and public accounts that follow you, can be seen by anyone on Instagram and Threads, for public and private accounts alike.