Help center

How SocialTrace works — snapshots, coverage, tracking, comparisons, and exports, with the same honesty rules applied everywhere.

Getting Started

Getting started with SocialTrace

Search a public Instagram profile, read the coverage badge honestly, and understand what this build does and does not do.

Snapshots

How snapshots work

A snapshot is one indexed pass of a profile at a moment in time — its counts, its follower/following lists, and how completely those lists were captured.

Methodology

What coverage means

Coverage is the fraction of a profile's real follower or following list that a snapshot actually captured. Below 99.5%, diffs are withheld.

Tracking

Tracking profiles

Tracking adds a profile to your visitor dashboard. This build identifies you by an anonymous browser cookie, not an account.

Comparisons

Comparing two snapshots

Pick any two snapshots and see who was gained or lost between them. Same coverage rule as the automatic diff.

Saved searches

Save a query over a profile's followers or following, and on future snapshots see how many matching accounts were gained or lost.

Exports

Exporting profile data

The Export dropdown returns a JSON, XML, or CSV file of the currently visible dataset, generated inside the request and capped at 500 items per list.

Methodology

Every dataset the product shows follows the same coverage rule. Read the data methodology for how we collect, index, and report — including exactly what "coverage" means and what this build does not do.