How to Hide Likes on Instagram Posts (Step by Step)

To hide likes on Instagram posts, you have two options: hide them on one specific post (before or after you publish, using the post’s Advanced Settings) or hide like counts everywhere at once from Settings → What you see → Like and share counts. On a new post, tap Advanced Settings before sharing and turn on “Hide like and view counts on this post.” For a post that’s already live, open the three-dot menu on that post and choose to hide the count. That’s the whole answer, and below I’ll walk you through every tap slowly, plus the part that actually matters: why you might want to do this at all.

Okay, let’s be honest for a second. If you’ve ever posted something you were proud of and then spent the next hour refreshing to watch the like number crawl, you are so far from alone. I’ve done it. Nearly every creator I know has done it. There’s a reason Instagram built the option to turn those numbers off, and there’s a reason so many thoughtful people are quietly using it. Learning how to hide likes on Instagram posts isn’t about pretending you don’t care how your content does. It’s about taking back the part of your brain that a little counter was renting for free.

What happens when you hide likes on Instagram posts?

Let’s clear up the confusion first, because this trips people up all the time. When you hide likes on Instagram posts, you’re only changing what other people see. The heart still works exactly the same. People can still tap it, you still get the notification, and the engagement still counts toward how Instagram decides to distribute your post. Nothing about the mechanics changes.

What changes is the public number. Instead of “1,204 likes” sitting under your photo for everyone to size up, viewers see something like “liked by yourname and others.” The count is tucked away. And here’s the reassuring part: you never lose access to your own data. Your like count, plus everything more useful than it, is always sitting right there in your post insights whenever you want to check. So you’re not flying blind. You’re just choosing who gets to see the scoreboard.

This matters because a lot of people hesitate to turn likes off out of a fear that they’ll lose track of their performance or that the algorithm will somehow punish them. Neither is true. You keep every ounce of your own information. You simply remove the public pressure and the comparison trap that comes with it.

How to hide likes on Instagram posts (per post)

Let’s start with the surgical option: hiding the count on one single post. This is perfect when you want most of your feed to keep its numbers but you’d rather one particular post, maybe something vulnerable, maybe a launch you’re nervous about, go out without a visible tally.

Before you publish a new post

This is the cleanest way to do it, because you set it and forget it. As you’re creating a post, you’ll move through the usual screens: pick your photo or video, edit it, write your caption. On that final sharing screen, before you actually hit share, look for the option that expands into more choices, usually labeled as advanced or additional settings, sitting below the tagging and location fields.

• Open that advanced settings area. It’s collapsed by default, so you may need to tap it to expand the extra options.
• Find the toggle for hiding like and view counts. It’ll say something close to “Hide like and view counts on this post,” with a short note explaining that only you will see the totals.
• Flip it on. The toggle slides over to show it’s active.
• Go back and share as normal. Your post publishes with the count hidden from everyone but you.

That’s it. Four taps and your post goes out into the world without a number attached to it, while you still keep full visibility on the back end.

On a post you’ve already shared

Changed your mind after the fact? No problem, you can hide the count on a post that’s already live, and you can flip it back later too. Nothing here is permanent.

• Open the post you want to change from your profile grid.
• Tap the three-dot menu in the top corner of that post to open its options.
• Choose the option to hide the like count. It appears in that menu alongside things like edit and share.
• To undo it, return to the same three-dot menu anytime and choose to unhide the count. The public number reappears as if it never left.

I love that this is reversible, because it means you can experiment without any risk. Try hiding likes on your next five posts and see how it feels. If you hate it, you’re one tap away from putting the numbers back.

How to hide likes on Instagram posts across your whole account

If the per-post dance sounds like too much fiddling, there’s a bigger switch that handles everything at once. This is the account-wide setting, and honestly, it’s the one I’d nudge most people toward if the numbers genuinely mess with your head. It does two things: it hides the like counts on your posts from other people, and it hides the like counts on everyone else’s posts from you as you scroll.

Here’s how to find it:

• Go to your profile and open the main menu (the lines in the corner), then head into your settings.
• Look for the section about what you see, sometimes grouped under your content preferences or a similarly named area.
• Tap “Like and share counts.” This is the master control.
• Turn on hiding counts. Once it’s active, like totals disappear from your view across the app, and yours are hidden from others too.

That second effect is the quiet gift here. When you can’t see how many likes the accounts you follow are racking up, the comparison spiral you didn’t even realize you were in just… stops. You start watching content because it’s good or useful, not because a number told you it was popular. For a lot of people, that alone is worth the whole exercise.

And again, reversibility: everything in this menu flips back on just as easily. Instagram wants this to feel low-stakes, and it is.

Why do creators hide likes on Instagram?

Now for the part that actually matters, the why. Because knowing how to hide likes on Instagram posts is easy; understanding whether you should is the real conversation. Here are the honest reasons the creators I respect most reach for this switch.

1. The mental health of it, plainly

Let’s not tiptoe around this. Watching a public number get attached to something you made and put out into the world does something to your nervous system. When the number is high, you feel a little hit of validation. When it’s low, you feel exposed, like everyone can see that your thing didn’t land. Neither of those feelings has much to do with whether the post was actually good.

Hiding likes cuts that cord. You post, you move on with your day, and you’re not tethered to a counter that keeps score of your worth in real time. Here’s the part nobody tells you: the relief is almost immediate. People describe feeling lighter about posting within a week of turning likes off, because the stakes of each individual post drop back down to something human.

2. It kills the comparison trap

Even if your own numbers don’t rattle you, seeing everyone else’s can. You scroll, you see a peer’s post with a big count, and a tiny voice goes “why isn’t mine doing that?” That comparison is corrosive, and it’s usually based on incomplete information anyway. You have no idea what that person spent on promotion, how long they’ve been at it, or whether those likes even translate to anything real. The account-wide setting simply removes the fuel for that fire.

3. It protects a slow-starting post

This one’s more strategic. A post’s early like count can create a bandwagon effect, people are a little more likely to engage with something that already looks popular, and a little less likely to bother with something showing three likes. By hiding the count, you let every post be judged on its own merits rather than its head start. Your genuinely great post that happened to go out at a slow hour gets a fairer shot.

4. It shifts the focus to real feedback

When the like number isn’t shouting at you, you naturally start paying attention to the stuff that actually tells you something, the comments people leave, the DMs a post sparks, the saves. Likes are the shallowest form of engagement; a like costs someone half a second and zero thought. Turning them down in the mix makes room for you to hear the signal instead of the noise.

If growing a genuinely engaged audience is your goal, this mindset shift pairs beautifully with our guide on how to grow on Instagram, which leans hard on connection over vanity numbers.

The metrics that actually deserve your attention

Okay, so if likes aren’t the star of the show, what is? This is where I want to spend real time with you, because swapping likes for better metrics is the whole point. Hiding the count is only step one. Step two is retraining yourself to look at the numbers that predict actual growth and actual connection.

The two I’d tattoo on your brain are saves and comments. Here’s why each one matters so much more than a like.

A save is someone saying “this is valuable enough that I want to come back to it.” That’s an enormous signal. It means your content did a job, taught something, inspired something, or was worth referencing later. Saves are one of the strongest indicators that a post is genuinely resonating, and they tend to correlate with the kind of reach that compounds. If you post something and it gets saved a lot, make more of that thing.

A comment is someone spending real effort to respond to you. It’s the difference between a nod across the room and an actual conversation. Comments tell you what people felt, what confused them, what they want more of. They’re also a two-way street: every comment you reply to deepens a relationship and tells the platform your post is sparking discussion. Watch not just how many comments you get, but their quality, are people asking questions, tagging friends, telling you a post helped them?

Here’s a simple way to think about the hierarchy of engagement, from shallowest to deepest:

Metric	What it really means	How much to weight it
Likes	A half-second of low-effort approval. Nice, but shallow.	Low, and totally fine to hide
Reach / impressions	How many people saw it. Useful for context, not a goal by itself.	Medium, as a denominator
Shares	Someone found it worth passing to another person. Strong signal.	High
Saves	“I want to find this again.” Real value delivered.	Very high
Comments	Effort and emotion. The start of a relationship.	Very high
Profile visits & follows	A post that made someone want more of you.	Very high

Notice that likes sit right at the bottom. That’s not to say they’re worthless, they’re a fine directional signal in bulk. But if you’re going to obsess over any number, obsess over saves and meaningful comments. Those are the ones that turn a stranger into a follower and a follower into a fan.

Here’s a small reframe that helped me more than anything: a like is a reaction, but a save is a decision and a comment is a contribution. When someone saves your post, they’ve decided your content earns a spot in their little vault of things worth keeping. When someone comments, they’ve contributed a piece of themselves to your corner of the internet. Reactions are cheap and fleeting. Decisions and contributions are where the real relationship gets built, and those are the two you can actually nurture over time by making more of what earns them.

Once you start tracking the right things, you’ll want a fuller picture of what to measure and how. Our guide to social media metrics to track breaks down exactly which numbers move the needle across every platform, not just Instagram.

How to actually find these better metrics

Here’s the good news: hiding likes publicly doesn’t cost you a scrap of data. Everything you need lives in your insights, and it’s more detailed than the public heart count ever was. To see it, open one of your posts and tap into its insights (you’ll need a professional account, meaning a creator or business account, which is free to switch to). There you’ll find saves, shares, reach, profile activity, and comment counts all laid out.

A little habit that’ll change how you post: once a week, glance at your last several posts and note your top two by saves and by comments, not by likes. Ask yourself what those top posts had in common. A format? A topic? A hook in the first line? Then make more of that. This weekly ten-minute check will teach you more about your specific audience than any generic “best practices” article ever could, mine included.

One caution as you do this: give each post a little time before you judge it. Saves and comments often trickle in over days as a post keeps getting served to new people, so a post that looked quiet on day one can turn out to be one of your best by the end of the week. This is actually another quiet argument for hiding likes, when you’re not reacting to an early number, you’re far more patient, and patience is exactly what lets the slower-burning, genuinely valuable posts reveal themselves.

Comparing performance across a handful of posts is fiddly to do inside the app, tapping into each one, jotting numbers down, trying to remember what you saw. This is exactly the kind of thing a dedicated dashboard makes painless, letting you see saves and comments side by side across all your posts at a glance instead of thumb-scrolling through insights one post at a time.

Should you hide likes on every post, or just some?

This is a genuinely personal call, and I don’t think there’s one right answer. Let me give you a simple way to decide based on what you’re actually trying to do.

• Hide them account-wide if the numbers, yours or other people’s, meaningfully affect your mood or how often you post. If checking likes has become a compulsive little loop, cut it off at the source. Your peace is worth more than a visible tally.
• Hide them per-post if you mostly feel fine but want protection on specific posts, a vulnerable share, a product launch, or content you’re testing and don’t want prejudged by an early number.
• Leave them on if the counts genuinely don’t bother you and you like the social proof they provide. Some creators find visible likes help with credibility, and if that’s you and it’s not costing your mental health, there’s no rule that says you must hide them.

The point of learning how to hide likes on Instagram posts isn’t to follow a trend. It’s to give yourself a tool you can use exactly as much as you need. You get to design your own relationship with the app instead of letting its defaults design it for you.

Build a posting rhythm that takes the pressure off

Here’s something I’ve noticed: a lot of the anxiety we blame on likes actually comes from posting in a frantic, reactive way, scrambling to make something each day, hitting publish while it’s still warm, and then hovering over it because it’s the only post in flight. When you’re calmer about the whole system, the individual numbers matter less automatically.

The fix is to get ahead of yourself. When you batch a week or two of content in one sitting and schedule it out in advance, each post stops feeling like a make-or-break event. It’s just one of many, already handled, going out on its own. You’re not staring at it because you’re already onto the next creative thing. If you’ve never set up a scheduling workflow, our walkthrough on how to schedule social media posts will show you how to plan your week so you’re never posting in a panic again.

And if you want the bigger philosophy that ties hiding likes, tracking the right metrics, and building a sane posting habit all together, our pillar guide on social media management tips is the place to go next. It’s the framework that makes all these small choices add up to a healthier, more effective presence.

A few gentle reminders before you go

Before you close this tab and go flip some switches, let me leave you with the mindset that makes all of this stick. Hiding your likes is a tool, not a cure. It removes a source of pressure, which is wonderful, but it works best alongside a genuine shift in what you’re chasing. If you hide likes but still secretly measure your worth by reach, you’ve just moved the anxiety, not resolved it.

So try this: for the next month, decide that a “successful” post is one that got a thoughtful comment or a save from someone it genuinely helped. One real connection beats a hundred reflexive taps. Post things you’d be proud of even if only ten people saw them, and let the numbers, the ones you can still see, quietly confirm what your gut already knows. That’s how you make peace with the platform and do your best work on it at the same time.

You’ve got this. Go hide those likes if they’re weighing on you, keep an eye on your saves and comments, and get back to making the stuff you actually love. I promise it feels lighter on the other side.

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