Free Instagram Likes and How to Get Them

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Karen Lin

Instagram 101 | May 31, 2024

Want More Real Instagram Followers?

You may opt to hide like counts for your posts and other people’s posts, but they still count toward an account’s Instagram performance. Businesses and influencers still need to work hard to keep their engagement rates high. Strategies to collect free Instagram likes remain as relevant as ever, even if nobody else but you can see how many likes your posts get.

Wooden letter blocks spelling LIKE.

Why Do You Need More Instagram Likes?

Likes are among the metrics used to measure an account’s success on Instagram. Even without looking at your full performance analytics, your number of likes can already tell you a lot about how well your regular feed post, carousel post, or Reel is doing. 

A post with hundreds of likes is more likely to attract even more likes. Instagram’s algorithm will see the high number of likes as a sign that the post is relevant to its target audience. As a result, the algorithm will show it to more people who may be inclined to also give the post a double tap. The same rationale applies when users see the impressive like count. They’ll equate the like count to the post’s value, and they may be persuaded to like the post. 

Knowing how to get free Instagram likes can, therefore, help drive your engagement higher and higher. And, yes, likes are still as important as ever, even if only you can see how many you have. There are a lot of ways to get free Instagram likes. You can buy Instagram likes, or you can earn them organically. Let’s take a look at both options. 

5 Tips to Get Free Likes on Instagram Organically

Every successful business or influencer must strive to master how to organically get free likes on Instagram. Organic likes are high-quality likes from people who are genuinely interested in your content. And when people are genuinely interested, they will keep delivering quality engagement as long as you keep giving them valuable content. Keep the following tips in mind every time you create content.

Get Free Likes on Instagram Tip #1: Learn Hashtag Targeting

You don’t even need to cram your caption with dozens of hashtags to get free Instagram likes. You just need to figure out the right combination of hashtags that are most relevant to your target audience. Users can also follow hashtags on Instagram. You can find a page dedicated to almost any hashtag you can think of and all its variations. To find out what hashtags your target audience is interested in and use these hashtags as inspiration for future content. Just remember to only choose popular hashtags that are also relevant to your brand.

Check out the #coffeeaddict results below and the dedicated page for #coffeeaddiction:

Dedicated page for #coffeeaddiction displaying posts using the hashtag.

Get Free Instagram Likes Tip #2: Share Content Specifically for Tagging

Higher visibility leads to more likes. You can make your content visible to more people and get free Instagram likes just by tagging other users. You can share user-generated content (UGC) and tag the original post owner. The perfect UGCs to use are those that feature your product/s, mention your brand, and/or tag your location or event.

You can also create content specifically for tagging other people. For example, take photos with other exhibitors/attendees if you’re attending an event. Tag their Instagram pages when you post your photos. The tagged people will most likely give your photos a double tap; their followers will also see your post and might also give you their likes.

As much as possible, ask for permission before sharing a UGC and inform the person you want to tag that you’ll be tagging them in a post.

Message on a brick wall saying, "We like you, too"

Get Free Instagram Likes Tip #3: Reward Likes

Earn tons of free Instagram likes by running a contest. An Instagram contest is a simple but no-fail strategy if you want to drive engagement and gain new followers. Your contest can be as straightforward as “Like this post to win!” Or you can get more creative and give participants more chances of winning any of your prizes by tagging friends in the comments or sharing your post and tagging a specific number of people. They can earn additional entries if the people they tagged follow your page and like your post.

Get Free Instagram Likes Tip #4: Jump on the Meme Bandwagon

Sharing memes will show your brand’s lighter side, which will help you gain plenty of free Instagram likes. Again, don’t forget to stay true to your brand when choosing what memes to share. At the same time, just have fun with it! It’s okay to share memes because they’re too funny. Just get creative with your caption to make your post still relatable to your target audience.

Check out this Wordle meme! You can use it to start a conversation with followers who may have also fallen into the Wordle rabbit hole.

Actor lifting a sign with Wordle's black, green, and yellow blocks.

Get Free Instagram Likes Tip #5: Get Involved in a Cause

This is not about doing charity work for the sake of engagement. Giving back to your community by getting involved in a cause should always be a part of your overall mission. At least, it should be if you want to be a valued member of your community.

Getting free Instagram likes when you actively participate in a cause will just be a bonus. Showing social responsibility will demonstrate to your followers that you have other goals than just becoming a popular influencer or earning bigger profits. And people are often motivated to participate in causes that they can relate to. Ask your followers to help spread awareness by simply sharing your cause-related post on social media. The more shares your post gets, the more exposure you’ll also receive and the more likes you can generate.

Apps to Get Free Likes on Instagram

You can try apps to get free likes on Instagram if your engagement needs a push to get the ball rolling in the right direction. If you’re thinking of buying Instagram likes, you can test the water first with an offer of free Instagram likes from an app or a site.

Instagram Likes Free Trial

Check out these apps that offer Instagram likes with a free trial. Use all the free Instagram likes you can get. Just remember to space them out so your account won’t be flagged for spam activity.

  • MegaFamous
    Get 10 to 50 free Instagram likes from MegaFamous’ free trial offer. You only need to provide your Instagram username and email address. Your free likes will be delivered to your most recent post, or you can split the likes and distribute them to multiple posts.
  • Famoid
    Famoid encourages users to test their services with their free likes for Instagram. You’ll get likes on the last photo/video you posted gradually over 10 to 15 minutes after you opt-in for the trial. You can even use the free trial every 24 hours for a daily boost in likes.
  • Instaviral.io
    Get 20 free IG likes daily without filling out surveys, watching ads, or collecting exchange points.
  • SocialShaft
    Enter your username and select the post in your account to apply 50 free likes. You will also be asked to provide your email address for verification purposes. You won’t have to complete a survey or share requests to receive your free likes.
  • Poprey
    Their trial service offers 25 IG likes free of charge. Just provide your username and email address to add more free Instagram likes to a post!

Free IG Likes and No Human Verification

If you prefer not to provide your email address, here are some more sites you can check out which offer free IG likes with no human verification.

  • Stormlikes
    Use the trial package and get 10 free likes per Instagram account. You don’t need to answer a survey or subscribe to anything. You only need to provide the Instagram username.
  • Instafollowers
    This trial offer sends 10 free Instagram likes to any specific post. You just need to provide the URL of the post. Make sure the post is public. You can use their free services once a week.

Phone screen displaying a heart notification for Instagram.

How to Hide Instagram Likes

You may prefer hiding like counts if you don’t put a lot of stock in the number of likes on a post, no matter how high. You can hide Instagram likes on other people’s posts, as well as on your posts.

When you hide like counts on your posts, only other people won’t be able to see how many likes you get. Just follow these steps:

  1. Before sharing a post, tap Advanced settings at the bottom.
  2. Toggle the switch beside “Hide like and view counts on this post” to turn this setting on.
  3. To hide like counts on a post you’ve already shared on your feed, tap the three dots on the top right of your post.
  4. Tap “Hide like count” to turn this setting on.

If you don’t want to see like counts on other people’s posts on your feed, here’s how to do it:

  1. Tap the menu upper right corner, then tap Settings.
  2. Tap Privacy and security.
  3. Toggle the switch next to “Hide likes” to turn this setting on.

Remember that whether or not other people can see how many likes your posts are getting, your like counts are still a key metric that determines your performance. Instagram’s algorithm still considers them to determine whether or not to rank you higher on the feed, show you on the Explore page, and include you in search results. So it’s crucial that you always stay up-to-date on the latest tips to get free Instagram likes.

Graffiti saying, "All we need is more likes."

Get Quality Likes for Real Instagram Growth

Very few likes on your posts result in a continued decrease in visibility and likes. On the other hand, getting more likes can help your posts rank higher on people’s feeds so that they generate even more double taps.

Ideally, sharing great content should be enough to collect free Instagram likes. But you actually need to figure out the right combination of “ingredients” to consistently earn high like counts. The goal is to fill up on likes until the proverbial dam breaks, and the likes continuously flow in your direction.

Two of the key ingredients you need to reach this goal are precise audience targeting and expert content promotion. The first requires advanced AI technology; the second requires social media expertise. You can have both when you team up with Path Social, a trusted expert in Instagram growth strategy.

Running Instagram ads can also give you both of these advantages. But if you don’t have the time to learn the ropes and figure out how to best optimize your boosted posts, Path Social can simplify things for you.

Focus your time and energy on creating valuable content and let Path Social’s advanced audience-targeting technology track down the right audience for it. Path Social’s team of social media specialists will take care of your content promotion using their extensive know-how in digital marketing strategies.

Path Social ensures that you’ll get followers and likes from people who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer. Trusted by more than 20 thousand Instagram brands across all niches and industries, Path Social is your best bet for lasting and rewarding growth. Start growing and gaining Instagram followers today!