The direct answer: Explore is where Instagram shows you content from accounts you do not follow, chosen from the accounts you do follow, the posts you have engaged with, and your connections. Instagram publishes how it selects and ranks that content. There is no way to buy placement on it. This page answers two different questions: how to fix your own Explore page, and how to become eligible to appear on somebody else's.
1. What the Explore page is
You find it under the magnifying glass at the bottom of the app. Instagram's Help Center says Explore "shows you recommendations such as photos and reels to help you discover new things from accounts you don't follow", and that posts are "automatically selected based on a variety of factors including: Instagram accounts you follow; Photos and reels you've engaged with on Instagram; Your connection on Instagram".
The difference from Feed is simple: Feed is mostly people you follow, Explore is people you do not. Posts from private accounts do not appear in Explore for anyone outside their approved followers.
2. How posts are chosen for Explore
There are two official sources. First, Instagram's ranking post: "The most important actions we predict in Explore include likes, saves, and shares", and information about the post itself "matters much more in Explore than it does in Feed or in Stories".
Second, Meta's Explore system card in the Transparency Center (last updated 22 June 2026). It describes stages: a retrieval stage that fetches up to 1,500 media, an early ranking stage that narrows to the top 100, then late-stage ranking. Among the predictions it names: how likely you are to follow the author, how likely you are to watch more than 95 percent of a video, and how likely you are to click "Not Interested".
Important: 1,500 and 100 are pipeline sizes inside the system, not thresholds you have to pass. The card itself says the signals "are dynamic and change frequently". No weights are published.
3. Explore is one of several ranking systems
Instagram states plainly that it does not have a single algorithm and that each surface has its own. Explore is one of them; Feed, Stories, Reels and Search read different signals. The full picture is in how the Instagram algorithm works.
4. How to reset or fix your Explore page
If your Explore has filled up with content you do not want, there are two documented controls:
Not Interested
- Open the post you do not want to see more of.
- Tap the three-dot menu.
- Select "Not Interested".
Meta's system card states that the system "will attempt to filter out similar content in the future".
Your Algorithm
A control Instagram announced on 10 December 2025 for the Reels tab, extended to Explore on 15 April 2026, and per the update dated 10 June 2026 now available across Feed, Reels and Explore globally in English. You open it from the icon in the upper right of Explore or Reels (the two lines with hearts). It shows the topics shaping your recommendations and lets you add or reduce them, and the change carries across surfaces.
These paths were checked on 18 August 2026. App interfaces move, so if the option is not where described, look under your suggested-content settings.
5. Explore gone, down, or only Reels?
Explore mixes photos and reels, and the proportion follows your own behaviour. Watch more reels and your Explore becomes more reels. Instagram publishes no announcement of an "Explore change" that could be cited here, so any article claiming Explore "changed in 2026" without an official dated source is guessing.
If you want it to change, use the two controls in the previous section. This is not a penalty and not a fault.
6. How to get on the Explore page: the honest answer
There is no button and no trick. There are two conditions, in order:
- Eligibility. Explore is one of Instagram's recommendation experiences, so the Recommendation Guidelines apply, and Instagram calls them "a higher standard than our Community Standards". Content largely repurposed from another source with only minor edits is not recommended.
- Signals. After eligibility, the system predicts likes, saves, shares and full watches. Content worth saving or sending to someone has a better chance than content that is scrolled past.
In practice: original, clearly about something from the first second, and technically clean. Production steps are in how to make Reels.
7. Check first: is your account eligible for recommendation?
Before you change your content, open Account Status and see whether anything has been removed or restricted. Instagram states that accounts that have "repeatedly engaged in misleading practices to build followings, such as purchasing 'likes'" are not recommended.
The full procedure is in shadowban and Account Status.
8. What "Explore boost" services actually sell
| The claim | Classification | What is actually true |
|---|---|---|
| "We will put you on Explore" | Sales claim | No interface exists that lets a third party place content in Explore |
| "Fast engagement pushes a post to Explore" | Circulating theory | Instagram publishes no engagement threshold and no time window |
| "Purchased likes help" | Contradicted by the published rules | The Recommendation Guidelines name purchasing likes as a reason an account is not recommended |
What these services actually do is deliver numbers to a post. Numbers are not eligibility, and eligibility comes before ranking. If you are looking for a views service as an entirely separate option from Explore placement, it is on the Instagram views service page, and it does not make content eligible or recommended.
9. Do #explore hashtags get you on Explore?
No official Instagram page names hashtags as a route to Explore, and the Reels system card does not mention hashtags among its signals at all. A hashtag is a label for hashtag pages and Search. The current limit and how to choose tags are in Instagram hashtags.
10. How to see whether Explore brought you viewers
Open the post's insights and look at Accounts engaged, split between followers and non-followers. A rise in non-followers is the practical indicator that content travelled through recommendation surfaces. Instagram's own reach-tips page recommends exactly this split.
If the number is low on Reels specifically, there is an ordered diagnosis in why your Reels views are low.
11. Is FYP the same as the Explore page?
No. "FYP" is TikTok's For You feed. Instagram's equivalents are Explore and the Reels tab, and they are ranked by different systems. Using #fyp on Instagram does not connect you to anything, because Instagram has no surface by that name.
12. FAQ
How do I get to the Instagram Explore page?
Tap the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the app.
How does the Instagram Explore page work?
It retrieves candidate posts based on accounts you follow, content you have engaged with and your connections, then ranks them by predicted actions such as likes, saves and shares. Sections 1 and 2 cover it in detail.
Why is my partner's Explore page full of models?
Explore is personalised per account from that account's own following and engagement history. It reflects what that account has interacted with, not a setting you or they chose.
How do I get on the Instagram Explore page?
Be eligible for recommendation first, then publish original content people save and share. There is no shortcut and no purchasable placement. Section 6 covers it.
How many followers do you need to appear on Explore?
No threshold is published. Follower count appears in Instagram's documentation only as a poster-popularity indicator inside the Reels signals, not as an Explore requirement.
13. Practical summary
Your own Explore is controlled by two things: Not Interested, and Your Algorithm. Appearing on other people's Explore starts with eligibility rather than tricks: check Account Status, publish original content worth saving and sharing, then read the non-follower share in Insights to see whether it is working. Anyone promising you Explore placement is selling something they do not have.
The rest of the Instagram library is collected in the Instagram Resource Hub.
14. Official sources
- How posts are chosen for Explore (read 18 August 2026).
- Search and Explore on Instagram.
- Explore system card, Meta Transparency Center (updated 22 June 2026).
- Instagram ranking explained (31 May 2023): likes, saves and shares in Explore.
- Your Algorithm (10 December 2025, updated 10 June 2026).
- Recommendation Guidelines.
- Account Status.
- Instagram tips for improving your reach.