About to buy an Instagram account or pay an influencer? Check if the followers are real first.
Follower counts are the cheapest thing to fake. Paste the public handle and get a free read on the audience in about 30 seconds, before you wire anything.
Your first audit is $0. Add a card to unlock it, then buy credits only if you want more. The account owner is never notified.
Three deals that go wrong when the followers are fake
Buying an Instagram account
Accounts listed for sale are priced on follower count, and follower count is exactly what sellers inflate. One buyer used EngageCheck on a 70K account that was up for sale: around 40% of its comments looked bot- or pod-driven, and the scan surfaced it before any money changed hands.
Hiring an influencer
A creator's rate card is built on reach they may not have. If the audience is padded with dormant and bot accounts, you pay real money for impressions no human sees, and you only find out after the campaign flops.
Paying for a shoutout
Shoutout sellers live and die on the size of their following, so bought followers are common. A 100K page with a dead audience sends you less traffic than a real 5K one. Check the engagement quality before you send payment.
What the audit shows you before you pay
Fake-follower estimate
The share of followers that look dormant, mass-created, or bot-like, so you know how much of the headline number is real.
Bot-engagement signals
Whether likes and comments come from real people or match bot and engagement-pod patterns that make a dead account look active.
Comment samples
Real examples of the comments behind the numbers, so you can judge for yourself whether the audience is genuine.
Growth pattern
Sharp, unexplained follower jumps that point to purchased reach, a common tell on accounts being dressed up for sale.
Audience Quality Score
One 0 to 100 read on how real the audience is, built from AI plus statistical signals rather than the raw follower count.
PDF evidence
A shareable report you can use to negotiate the price down, or as the record behind walking away.
From handle to decision before money moves
Paste the handle
Enter the public username of the account you are about to buy or the creator you are about to pay. No login, and the owner is never notified.
Free 30-second scan
See the headline Audience Quality Score and a first signal free, so you know within seconds whether the deal deserves a closer look.
Unlock the full report
Open the complete breakdown: fake-follower percentage, bot-engagement evidence, comment samples, and the growth history.
Decide with evidence
Pay the asking price, negotiate it down with the report in hand, or walk away. Either way, you decide before the money moves.
Built for the moment money is on the line
Account buyers
Vet a page listed for sale before you transfer funds, and price the deal on the real audience instead of the follower count.
Brands hiring creators
Run due diligence on an influencer before the contract, the product shipment, or the first invoice.
Shoutout and promo buyers
Check whether a promo page's engagement is human before you pay for a post that may reach nobody.
Comparing several accounts or creators?
Send up to five handles and we will return an audience-quality and fraud review you can use before committing to any of them.
Common questions
How do I check if an Instagram account's followers are real before buying it?
Paste the account's public handle into EngageCheck. We analyze engagement rate, follower authenticity, comment quality, growth pattern, and username signals, then return an Audience Quality Score from 0 to 100 plus an estimated fake-follower percentage. The first scan is free and takes about 30 seconds.
Will the seller or creator know I checked their account?
No. The audit uses only public profile data. We never log in to, follow, message, or otherwise touch the account, so the owner is never notified.
Can you audit a private account?
No. Private accounts cannot be audited because their followers and engagement are not publicly visible. If a seller will not make the account public long enough for a check, treat that as a signal in itself.
Can EngageCheck verify who owns the account or make the sale safe?
No. We score audience quality only. We cannot verify the seller's identity, confirm ownership, or protect the payment. For the transaction itself, use a reputable escrow service. Think of the audit as the audience half of your due diligence, not the whole deal.
How accurate is the fake-follower percentage?
It is an evidence-based estimate from multiple signals, not a verdict. No tool can see Instagram's internal data, so we do not claim 100 percent accuracy. What you get is a consistent, defensible read you can weigh against the price being asked.
What score means it is safe to pay?
As a guide, 80 to 100 reads as a real, high-quality audience, 60 to 79 warrants a manual look at the breakdown, and below 60 means enough fake or inflated engagement was found to pause the deal or renegotiate. The score is leverage, not a guarantee.
Is the check free?
Your first audit is free. You add a card to unlock it, which keeps bots from farming the tool, and nothing is charged for it. After that you buy credits only if you want more audits — one-off packs or an optional monthly plan, no subscription required.
Check the account before the money moves
Run your first audit free and see the fake-follower percentage before you buy the account, sign the creator, or pay for the post.