A like count will not tell you whether a post worked. How many people it reached, how many saved it, and how many of the commenters entered an automation — that is the real information. The Post analysis screen gathers every number for one post on a single page. This guide explains each tile, badge and line on it.
💡 This screen is only reached from the Posts tab. Click a row in the table, or the arrow at the end of it.
Opening the screen and reading the header
Open My profile › Insights › Posts and tap the row you want to inspect.
A back link at the very top says Posts; it returns you to the list.
The heading reads Post analysis. Underneath sits the post's publish date and time (in the account's time zone). If the date is unknown, that line is not drawn.
An Open on Instagram button sits to the right and opens the post in a new tab. If the post's Instagram address is unknown, the button does not appear.
If the post is in the list but its metrics have not been fetched yet, a blue banner appears under the heading: "Metrics for this post have not been fetched yet. They fill in when the maintenance run reaches it."
The left column: the post itself
The box headed Post holds the content's details:
The cover image — Square, full width. If the image cannot load (Meta's addresses are short-lived), a placeholder icon appears in its place.
The caption — In full, with its line breaks. If there is none, it reads "No caption".
A type badge — Photo, Video, Reels, Carousel or Story. If an unrecognised type arrives, Meta's own code is printed.
An automation session badge — Something like "12 automation sessions". It is coloured when the count is above zero and neutral when it is zero.
Below the badges, an explanatory line: "Real sessions started from this post (comment trigger)."
What the automation session count means
This number is how many real automation sessions started from this post through the comment trigger. Three things are worth knowing:
Only real sessions are counted; your own test runs and simulator sessions are excluded.
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The number is not filtered by period: it is the running total from the day the post went out.
It does not have to match the comment count. If a comment did not start the trigger (the keyword did not match, the person was already in the flow, the loop guard kicked in), the comment is counted but no session is.
Eight or ten tiles sit on the right. Each holds the metric's name and its value; when there is no value it shows —.
Accounts reached — The number of unique accounts that saw the post.
Views — How many times the post was shown.
Total interactions — Likes, comments, shares and saves added together.
Likes — Likes received.
Comments — Comments written.
Shares — How many times the post was forwarded. (This metric is not in the post list; it exists only here.)
Saves — How many times the post was saved.
Engagement rate — Total interactions divided by reach. The formula is printed under the tile: "Total interactions / accounts reached".
Two extra tiles for Reels
If the post is a Reel, two more tiles are added:
Average watch time — The average watch time per person, in seconds with one decimal (for example "8.4 s").
Total watch time — The total duration of all views.
Meta provides these two metrics only for Reels. On photo and album posts the tiles are not drawn at all — so that you do not see two dash-filled tiles on every post.
Reading the engagement rate
The engagement rate is written as a percentage, rounded to one decimal place. You will see — in three cases:
The reach metric never arrived.
Reach is zero (nothing can be divided by it).
The total interactions metric never arrived.
The rate is calculated against reach, not against your follower count. That is why a post that landed on the Explore page can show a low rate: it reached a lot of people, and most of them did not know you.
The freshness lines
Two lines in small type sit below the metric tiles:
"last synced {date time}" — When this post's metrics were last fetched. If they never were, it reads "This post has never been synced" instead.
The Meta lag note: metrics can lag by up to 48 hours, so numbers for the most recent days may fill in later.
Post metrics are refreshed during the maintenance run every 12 hours, at most 12 posts per run. So a new post's numbers complete over a few runs.
The AI commentary panel
An AI commentary panel may sit at the bottom of the page. It differs from the period commentary: the model is given not only the numbers but also the post's caption and cover image — it has to see the content to answer "why did this post work".
Inside the same panel there is a collapsible box called Commentary prompt setting, where you change the instruction given to the AI. That setting applies to every post commentary on this account. For details see AI commentary.
A concrete example
A florist posts a Reel for Mother's Day. A week later they open the post analysis:
Accounts reached 18,400, views 31,200 → the content landed on the Explore page.
Likes 620, comments 214, saves 890 → an engagement rate of 9.4%.
Average watch time 6.1 s with a high total watch time → the video is not watched to the end, but the opening seconds hold.
Automation sessions 186 → of the 214 people who commented, 186 entered the automation.
The decisions that follow: the first three seconds work, so the product detail should come before the sixth second; saves outnumber likes, so this format can be repeated as "inspiration" content; and 28 commenters received nothing, so the keyword rule needs a review.
If the screen will not open
If you open a post's address and get a not-found page, the reason is this: the post is not in the post picker's cache. That happens in two cases — the post was deleted on Instagram, or the list was never fetched. The panel will not show invented details, so it does not open the page at all.
Common mistakes and how to fix them
Expecting the engagement rate to be based on followers. It divides by reach; the formula is printed under the tile.
Looking for the average watch time on a photo post. It exists only for Reels.
Equating automation sessions with the comment count. Not every comment starts a session.
Looking for your own test runs in the session count. Only real sessions are counted.
Treating "This post has never been synced" as a fault. The maintenance run has not reached it; wait, or use the Refresh button.
Looking for the Shares metric in the list. That metric exists only on this screen.
Assuming a post was deleted because its cover will not load. Meta's image addresses are short-lived; the cover returns when the list is refreshed.