Key takeaways
- IGDetective ranks first for a dated, honest record of who a public account recently followed, with a free check before you pay and no Instagram login.
- Since September 2026 the order of an Instagram following list means nothing, so every tool can only date a follow from the day it first noticed it.
- DolphinRadar is the quickest free look. Recent Follow, The Ick and Lurk suit people who want everything on a phone.
Open any profile’s Following list in the Instagram app and you get names with no dates and no sort control. Until last year the top of the list was a rough guide to the newest follows. In September 2026 Instagram changed how these lists are returned, and the order now has nothing to do with when each account was followed. Anyone who wants to know who someone recently followed now needs a tool that keeps its own record.
Five of those tools are compared below, using what each provider states on its own site as of October 20, 2026. Each was judged on four points: where it runs, what you get before paying, how it dates a follow, and the published price. This guide is for anyone checking a public account from a phone or laptop; it does not cover private accounts or statistics about your own followers. IGDetective comes first because it is the clearest about what a date means and shows you what can be tracked before you pay.
How the five compare
| Tool | Where it runs | Before paying | How a follow is dated | Published price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IGDetective | Browser | Free account check | Day first seen | About $1 a day, US price |
| DolphinRadar | Browser | Free search | Time first found | See site |
| Recent Follow | iPhone and Android app, web | Free preview | Provider says real time | In-app purchase |
| The Ick | App | Free to try | Time detected, hourly checks | Subscription, see site |
| Lurk | App and web | Free search | Provider says real time | From $1 a week, see site |
1. IGDetective
IGDetective starts with a free check. Type a public username and it shows what can be revealed for that account before you pay anything. There is no Instagram login at any point, and the account you look up gets no notification and no view.
On the paid plan, each account the profile recently started following is listed with the day it was first seen. Recent followers are shown the same way, and since October 4, 2026 so are unfollows in both directions, each checked before it is shown. The date is a first-seen date, not a timestamp of the follow itself, and a new follow can take a few days to appear. Recent means new since you started tracking: accounts the profile already followed before that are not presented as recent. Tracked accounts refresh automatically every day, you can refresh on demand, and one subscription covers up to five accounts. Plans start at about $1 a day at the US price, with monthly and weekly options and no free trial.
Limits: public accounts only. Very large lists cannot be tracked, and the free check says so before you pay.
2. DolphinRadar
DolphinRadar offers a free search on public accounts with no Instagram login. Its own help text is careful: the time shown is when DolphinRadar first found an account, and it says an existing following list cannot reliably be turned into a chronological history. A sensible free first look.
3. Recent Follow
Recent Follow, from IGExport, is an app for iPhone and Android with a web version. Its site describes a free preview, a chronological list of newest follows, push notifications and a CSV export, with an in-app purchase to unlock full names. Treat the chronological claim as the provider’s description and compare it against a second source.
4. The Ick
The Ick is a phone app that, by its own description, checks up to five public profiles every hour and sends a notification when it spots a new follow or unfollow. It is free to download and try, and a subscription unlocks the full history. Its FAQ notes that accounts followed before you started tracking are shown without a date, which is the same honest limit every tracker has.
5. Lurk
Lurk is an app with a web search. Its site describes real-time follow tracking sorted newest first, an anonymous Story viewer and instant alerts, with tiers from $1 a week for one profile to $9.99 a week for up to five. Again, the ordering is the provider’s claim.
Why the Instagram app cannot tell you
Instagram once showed this kind of activity itself. The Following tab, which listed what the people you follow were liking and following, was removed in 2019. Since then the only native view has been another account’s Following list, with no dates, and since September 2026 no meaningful order either. The same account can sit near the top one day and far down the next. About half of American adults use Instagram, according to Pew Research Center, so the gap the app left is a wide one.
That is why every tool on this list works the same way underneath: it keeps a record of a public account over time and tells you what is new since it started. It also means no tool can show you who someone followed last month if nobody was tracking the account last month.
Three steps
- Check the account is public. Private following lists are visible only to approved followers, and no legitimate tool can show them.
- Run a free check on IGDetective or a free search on DolphinRadar to see whether the account can be tracked.
- If you want an ongoing record, pick a paid plan and read the new follows once or twice a week. Each one carries a first-seen date.
Reading a recent follow without jumping to conclusions
- A first-seen date means the follow happened on or before that day.
- One sighting is a lead. Two tools agreeing is better.
- A follow shows that it happened, not why.
- Never give any tracker your Instagram password. A tool for public accounts has no reason to ask.
Frequently asked questions
Can I see who someone recently followed on Instagram for free?
DolphinRadar offers a free search and IGDetective offers a free check that shows what can be tracked. An ongoing dated record is a paid feature on every tool here.
Does the top of the Following list show the newest follow?
Not since September 2026. The order of the list no longer reflects when each account was followed.
Will they know I looked?
IGDetective states that your Instagram account is never used, so the profile sees no view and gets no notification.
Does this work on private accounts?
No, on any tool. Private following lists are visible only to approved followers.
Verdict
For a dated record of who a public account recently followed, IGDetective is the pick: it tells you what a date means, shows what is trackable before you pay, and covers five accounts on one plan. DolphinRadar is the free cross-check, and Recent Follow, The Ick and Lurk are the choices for people who want alerts on a phone.
Details about other providers reflect their own websites as of October 20, 2026 and may have changed.
David Prior
David Prior is the editor of Today News, responsible for the overall editorial strategy. He is an NCTJ-qualified journalist with over 20 years’ experience, and is also editor of the award-winning hyperlocal news title Altrincham Today. His LinkedIn profile is here.
