Two sections in the panel show numbers, and because their names sound alike they are often confused: Insights and Reports. The difference fits in one sentence — Insights measures what Instagram did to you, Reports measures what the panel did for you. This guide helps you tell them apart and know which screen answers which question.
💡 The two sections read two different data sources. Insights reads metrics fetched from Meta and archived locally; Reports reads the panel's own records of messages, contacts and flow runs. That is why their numbers are not expected to match.
What Insights measures
Insights shows how your connected Instagram account is performing on Meta. The panel produces none of these numbers; every one of them is fetched from Meta and archived.
- How many people you reached (Accounts reached) and how many times you were shown (Views).
- How many likes, comments, shares and saves you received.
- How your follower count changed during the period.
- The age, gender, city and country of your followers and of the people who engaged with you.
- Which individual post performed best.
In short: how your content was received. Post, reel and profile performance live in this section.
What Reports measures
Reports shows what happened inside the panel. Every number here comes from the panel's own records.
- How many messages arrived and how many went out; of those sent, how many came from automations and how many from a teammate.
- How many new contacts were added.
- How many conversations were opened and closed.
- How many automation runs started, completed or failed.
- How many conversions were recorded and their total value.
- How many replies each agent wrote and how fast they answered.
In short: how your conversations and automations are working.
A concrete example
A bakery posts a Ramadan campaign. The following week it asks two questions:
- "How many people saw the post, and how many saved it?" — That is an Insights question. Open the Posts tab, find the post and read reach and saves.
- "Of the people who commented, how many got an automatic DM, and how many ordered?" — That is a Reports question. Read the automation's started runs and conversions in the By automation table.
Both measure the same campaign, but they do not produce the same number: 12,000 people may see the post, 90 may comment, 84 runs may start. That is not an inconsistency; they are two different funnels.
Where they live, and who can see them
Their entry points and permissions differ too — this is the second thing that confuses people.
Insights
- It is not in the left menu. You enter it from the Insights tile under the My profile screen (the one that says "Reach, views and audience").
- It only appears on Instagram accounts. Meta does not provide these metrics for WhatsApp, so the section never opens there.
- In the portfolio's access policy it is closed by default: owners and admins always see it, while an editor, agent or viewer needs the portfolio owner to switch it on.
Reports
- It has its own row in the left menu: Reports.
- It works on both Instagram and WhatsApp accounts; it is channel-independent.
- By default it is open to editors and viewers and closed to agents.
For where roles and sections are configured, see the access policy guide.
Their periods are not the same either
The two sections do not ask for a period in the same way:
- Insights: Today, Last 7 days, Last 28 days, Last 90 days, This month, Last month — plus a custom range where you enter your own start and end dates. The default is Last 28 days (Meta's own window is 28 days, not 30).
- Reports: Last 7 days, Last 30 days, Last 90 days, This month, Last month. There is no custom range, and the default is Last 30 days.
Both show a "Compared with" line underneath the period, holding the equally long window immediately before it. For details, see Choosing a period and comparing.
Which question belongs on which screen
- "Did my reach drop this week?" → Insights
- "How many messages did we answer this week?" → Reports
- "Which post was saved most?" → Insights › Posts
- "Which automation brought the most sales?" → Reports › By automation
- "Which city are most of my followers in?" → Insights › Audience
- "How fast does each teammate reply?" → Reports › By agent
- "How long was my reel watched on average?" → Insights › Post analysis
- "How many conversations did we close?" → Reports
Common mistakes and how to fix them
- Trying to add the two sections' numbers together. They measure different things; summing or dividing them is meaningless.
- Treating Reports' "Messages received" as Insights' "Replies" metric. In Insights, Replies is Meta's story-reply counter; in Reports, Messages received is every inbound message the panel recorded.
- Looking for Insights on a WhatsApp account. That section exists only for Instagram accounts; use Reports for WhatsApp.
- Hunting for Insights in the left menu. Its entry point is the My profile screen, not the menu.
- Assuming a missing section is a bug. Most of the time it is the role policy; sign in as an owner or admin and it appears.
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