01
The short answer
An Instagram followers JSON file is a structured text file containing follower-related account records. Instead of presenting those records as a polished table, JSON stores them in a format software can read and compare consistently.
You usually do not need to understand every bracket or field. For follower analysis, the important part is identifying the account records and matching them against the records in your Following data.
Social Janitor does that parsing for you and turns the raw export into readable relationship lists.
02
What JSON means
JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation. It is a common format for storing structured data as text.
A JSON file is made from objects, arrays, field names and values. That can make it look technical in a normal text editor even when the data itself is simple.
In an Instagram export, the structure is useful because software can reliably extract the account information and compare records from different files.
03
What follower records contain
The exact field names and nesting can vary between export versions, but follower records typically contain enough information to identify the Instagram account represented by that entry.
For relationship analysis, the useful job is to extract the account identifier or username from each record and build a clean list.
The raw file may contain extra structure, but the comparison still comes down to which accounts appear in Followers, which appear in Following and which appear in both.
04
Followers and Following are used for different sides of the comparison
Your Followers data represents accounts that follow you. Your Following data represents accounts you follow.
Once the account records are extracted from both sides, you can divide them into three relationship groups.
- Mutual: the account appears in both Followers and Following.
- Following only: the account appears in Following but not Followers.
- Followers only: the account appears in Followers but not Following.
For the relationship logic itself, see Instagram Followers vs Following.
05
Can you read the JSON manually?
Yes. A JSON file is still plain text, so you can open it in a text editor or code editor and inspect the records yourself.
That works well when you are checking a few entries or learning the structure. It is much less convenient when you want to compare hundreds or thousands of follower records.
- Open the follower JSON file in a text or code editor.
- Identify where the account records are stored.
- Extract the usernames or account identifiers.
- Repeat the process for the Following file.
- Compare the two resulting lists.
If you still need the export itself, start with how to download your Instagram followers and following list.
07
What to do next
Once you can identify the follower and following records, the next step is deciding what question you want the data to answer.
- To compare both sides directly, read how to compare Instagram Followers and Following.
- To find one-way relationships, read how to see who doesn’t follow you back.
- To understand historical changes, read how to find who unfollowed you between snapshots.
Explore example results, then use the free preview when you are ready to inspect your own export.
06
Turn Instagram JSON into readable lists with Social Janitor
Social Janitor is designed to remove the tedious part of the process. You select the relevant Instagram JSON files, and the browser reads the structured records and builds the relationship lists for you.
The result is easier to review than raw JSON: you can see Mutual, Following only and Followers only accounts in separate lists. Pro adds complete results, search, profile links, review markers, snapshot comparisons and CSV export.
Open the free preview and turn the raw Instagram export into a readable result without sharing your Instagram password.