How To Get Verified On Instagram In 2024: Beginner’s Guide
Want to learn how to get verified on Instagram? We’ve got you covered.
In this post, we’ll be sharing everything you need to know to get that coveted blue tick—and all the benefits that come with it.
First, we’ll explain what getting verified on Instagram means, and how that meaning has changed since Instagram started rolling out its new Meta Verified feature.
Then, we’ll discuss who’s eligible and show you two ways to get verified: the easy way and the hard way.
Plus, we’ll also share some tips to help you meet the eligibility requirements for traditional verification, explore the answers to some FAQs, and more.
What is Instagram verification?
Instagram verification is the process of having Instagram vet your account to confirm that you are who you say you are.
Once verified, a blue badge appears next to your name on Instagram, which tells everyone that you’re the real deal.
The idea behind it is to make it easier for people to find the real accounts of brands and celebrities, and avoid impersonators.
Regular Verification vs Meta Verified
In the past, only ‘notable’ figures—people who are likely to be impersonated—could get verified on Instagram.
We’re talking celebrities, popular influencers, brands, etc. And as such, the blue badge was seen as something of a status symbol.
But recently, Instagram began rolling out Meta Verified, which has opened it up to the general public.
Now, pretty much anyone can apply to get verified and get their own blue badge in exchange for a small subscription fee, much like on Twitter Blue. You no longer have to be well-known, important, or unique—your profile just has to be authentic.
However…
Meta Verified is currently only available to individuals (at least, at the time of writing it is).
So if you’re a brand/business, you still have to apply for a verified badge the old-fashioned way, following the regular ‘non-paid’ verification process.
Plus, Meta Verified only works if you can verify your account is in your legal name by sharing your ID. So it won’t work for Instagram accounts that use an alias or pseudonym either.
Who can apply to get verified on Instagram?
The eligibility requirements for getting verified on Instagram are different depending on whether you’re applying through Meta Verified or the regular non-paid verification process.
Here’s an overview of who can apply through each method.
Who can apply for Meta Verified?
Anyone can apply to Meta Verified, as long as they meet the following criteria:
- You must be at least 18 years old
- You must have a public or private profile associated with your full name (and align with naming standards)
- Your profile picture must include your face
- You must be able to submit a government-issued ID that matches your profile name and picture.
- You may need to submit a selfie video to verify your identity (selected regions only)
- You must meet minimum activity requirements with prior posting history
- You must have enabled two-factor authentication (2FA)
- You must adhere to Meta’s Terms of Use and Community Guidelines
Unfortunately, these eligibility requirements rule out brands and anyone whose Instagram profile is under a pseudonym/alias, as your profile name/photo must match your government ID.
Who can request a verified badge?
Public figures, celebrities, and brands can apply for a verified badge the old way, without having to pay for Meta Verified.
However, the eligibility requirements are more stringent. Your profile will need to meet four key criteria:
- Authentic (represent a real person or registered business/entity)
- Unique (only one unique profile per business/person can be verified)
- Complete (you must completely fill out your profile with a bio, profile photo, etc.)
- Notable (your profile must represent a well-known person/brand that people search for)
The ‘notable’ part is the trickiest requirement to fulfill, and where most people run into trouble.
Essentially, the person verifying your account has to be convinced that you (or your brand) are a big enough deal that you should be verified. That typically means you’ll need to be someone people ‘talk about’ in the media. For example, it helps if you’ve been featured in news stories.
Aside from the eligibility requirements above, you’ll also need to follow Instagram’s Terms of Use and Community Guidelines.
How to get verified on Instagram
Next, we’re going to show you how to get verified on Instagram. The exact process depends on which method you’re using: Meta Verified or non-paid verification.
Below, you’ll find step-by-step instructions for each method.
Note: Make sure you’re happy with your Instagram username before you get started, as you won’t be able to change it once you’re verified.
How to apply for Meta Verified (regular creators)
- Open the Instagram app and go to your profile
- In the top-right corner, click the hamburger icon (the three horizontal lines)
- Click Meta Verified
- Choose the profile you want to subscribe on (it will say Meta Verified available below eligible profiles)
- Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the payment
- Complete the verification process by submitting a photo of your ID (and a selfie video in select regions)
How to apply for non-paid verification (brands and public figures)
- Open the Instagram app and go to your profile page
- In the top right corner, click the hamburger icon (the three horizontal lines)
- Tap Settings and privacy
- Click Account type and tools (this is just below For professionals in the menu)
- Hit Request verification
- Enter your name and upload the required identification
- Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the verification form, and click Submit
Instagram can take up to 30 days to process verified badge requests. Once they’ve reviewed it, you’ll receive a notification in your Activity feed letting you know whether or not the application was successful.
If your verification request isn’t approved, you can submit another one, but you’ll have to wait 30 days.
Tips to help you get verified
Creators and brands often struggle to get their verification requests approved.
So, we’ve listed some tips to help you prove you’re worthy of a blue badge and maximize your chances of getting verified below.
Just a quick note before we jump into it: Nobody knows the exact process Instagram’s verification team follows to decide who deserves to get verified and who doesn’t, or what factors they look at—including us.
However, we can make an educated guess based on what we do know. With that in mind, the tips below aren’t guaranteed to get your verification request approved, but I’d be willing to bet they’ll increase your chances.
Make your profile more searchable
The reason it’s tough to get verified on Instagram (without using Meta Verified) is mostly down to the pesky ‘notable’ requirement.
After all, it’s pretty subjective—how do they decide which brands/figures are ‘notable’ and which aren’t?
Well, Instagram gave us a clue about what factors they consider when they said:
“Your account must represent a well-known, highly searched-for person, brand, or entity”
The keyword here is ‘highly searched for’. To me, that suggests there’s a good chance the verification team look at in-app data to see if a lot of people have searched for your brand/profile name when assessing your request.
The upshot of that is clear: If you want to boost your chances of getting verified, get more people searching for you. But how?
Well, one strategy you can try is to start using branded hashtags. This makes your profile more searchable and improves discoverability.
You could also try running an Instagram giveaway to get people searching for your profile.
You can use a social media contest tool like SweepWidget to set it up and require users to find and follow your account on Instagram in order to enter.
Get people talking about you
If lots of people are talking about you on Instagram, or elsewhere on the web, that serves as powerful social proof that you’re a well-known figure, and could help you get verified.
You can use social media monitoring tools like Brand24 to track your brand mentions and figure out how often people are talking about you.
Then, you can launch a social media campaign designed to get more people talking, boost your brand mentions, and track the results.
Get featured in the news
On their eligibility page, Instagram also says that they review ‘accounts that are featured in multiple news sources’.
So it’s safe to assume that if you want to stand a good chance of getting verified, you’ll need some credible press coverage.
A good PR team should be able to help with this. But ultimately, the best way to get featured in the news is to do something newsworthy.
That might mean raising a bunch of money for charity or doing a crazy PR stunt.
You can also try signing up for HARO (Help a Reporter Out), approaching local journalists directly, adding reports on social and feeding them stories about your brand, writing exciting press releases, etc.
Bonus tip: As tempting as it might seem, don’t bother trying to pay your way into the news cycle through sponsored posts. This won’t get you anywhere, as Instagram says they don’t consider paid/sponsored media content as sources when reviewing applications.
Apply at the right time
The best time to apply for verification is when people are talking about you or your brand. If you’ve just launched a new product, for example, and your brand has been featured in a bunch of news pieces or articles, then it’s probably a good time to apply.
Likewise, if you’ve just gone viral in your community, that’s another great time to apply.
In fact, in their ‘understanding verification post’, Instagram pretty much confirmed that recently going viral is something they consider during the review process:
“We try to ensure impartiality in the verification application process by… examining the person’s cultural impact. For example: are they currently a big part of what people in their community are talking about? Have they recently gone viral?”
Completely fill out the verification form
When you’re filling out the form to request verification, under Confirm notability, you should have the option to add up to five links with ‘evidence’ that demonstrates that your account is notable (i.e. in the public interest).
They’re optional, but make sure you use all of these links.
Similarly, there are also boxes where you can share information about your audience, the region you’re popular in, etc.
Again, these are all optional, but I’d recommend filling everything out anyway. The more context you can provide the review team with, the better.
Don’t use false information
I know it’s tempting, but it isn’t worth it.
If you use false information to ‘trick’ Instagram into verifying your profile and you’re caught, not only will your verified badge be removed, but Instagram might disable your whole account.
Plus, it’s unlikely to work. The verification process is pretty stringent, and I haven’t heard of anyone successfully getting verified with false information.
Google yourself
If you worked for Instagram as part of their verification team, and you received a request from someone you hadn’t heard of before, what’s the first thing you’d do?
Most people would probably do some research. And that might mean searching Google to find out who the person/brand behind the profile is.
So if you want to get verified, it’s important to make sure that when people Google you, they see evidence of notability.
Ideally, you want news stories featuring you to be above the fold. Make it easy for the verification team to instantly find out who you are when they do their research.
Get more followers
Instagram hasn’t said that follower count is something they look at when reviewing requests for verification.
So, it won’t necessarily help your case to have lots of followers—but it certainly won’t hurt.
The way I see it, if you already have hundreds of thousands of followers on your IG profile, it’s going to be hard for Instagram to ignore. After all, that’s pretty strong social proof that you’re a notable figure.
We’ve already put together a complete guide on how to get more Instagram followers, so start there.
The most important thing is to publish as much high-quality content as you can to bring in followers.
You can use an Instagram scheduling tool like Pallyy to make this easier—it lets you fill out your calendar, plan your feed, and schedule posts months in advance.
Link to your Instagram profile
Make sure you’ve linked to your Instagram profile from all your other socials, and if you have one, from your website.
This is a great way to prove ownership and could help to get your request for verification approved.
Remove social links from your bio
While it’s a good idea to link to Instagram from your other socials, it’s a bad idea to link to your other socials from Instagram.
Apparently, verified accounts aren’t allowed to encourage users to follow their other social accounts in their bio, so doing so might hurt your chances of getting verified.
That said, you are allowed to link to other websites and landing pages. So as a workaround, you can use a link in bio tool like Shorby to set up a custom landing page, then link to your socials from that page instead.
The benefits of getting verified
Getting verified on Instagram isn’t necessarily easy, but it can be worth it.
Here are some of the biggest benefits of getting verified on Instagram:
- Protection from impersonation. Once you have a verified account, it’ll be easier for your audience to distinguish the real you from any impersonators who may be imitating you on Instagram.
- Builds trust. Instagram users are more likely to trust accounts they know are verified. This is important if you’re using Instagram as a marketing channel.
- Serves as social proof. That blue badge is powerful social proof that elevates your brand’s credibility.
- Gives you access to exclusive features. Verified accounts can get access to exclusive features like the ability to add links to your Instagram Stories, swipe-up links, etc. And if you get verified through Meta Verified, you also get access to exclusive stickers and 100 Stars per month.
- Enhanced visibility & discoverability. Verified profiles often seem to rank higher in Instagram searches, comments, and feeds, making it easier for users to find your profile and content.
Frequently asked questions
Before we wrap up, here are the answers to some FAQs on how to get verified on Instagram.
How many followers do you need to get verified on Instagram?
There’s no minimum follower count needed to get verified on Instagram. It’s possible to get a verified Instagram account even with zero followers. However, I’d still recommend growing your audience as this will help you demonstrate notability, which is one of the requirements for traditional Instagram verification.
Can a normal person get verified on Instagram?
Yes, regular users who aren’t public figures, celebrities, or global brands can get verified on Instagram through Meta Verified. However, this is a relatively new feature, so it isn’t available in every region yet.
Is it free to be verified on Instagram?
Yes, it’s free to request to be verified on Instagram using the old non-paid method. However, if you want to get verified through the Meta Verified program, you’ll need to pay a monthly subscription fee.
How much does Meta Verified cost?
You can purchase a monthly Meta Verified subscription for $11.99 on the web and $14.99 on iOS and Android. Aside from blue badge verification, it also comes with other benefits, including increased reach and visibility, exclusive stickers, and 100 Stars/month.
Why is Meta Verified not available for my profile?
Meta Verified is currently only available in select regions. So if it’s not available on your profile, it may be due to your location. It might also not be available if you’re under the age of 18 or if your profile represents a business.
If none of the above is the case, try updating your Instagram app to see if this fixes the problem. Failing that, contact Instagram for support.
Final thoughts
That concludes our beginner’s guide to getting verified on Instagram.
Hopefully, you should now have all the information you need to finally get that blue Instagram verification badge on your profile.
While you’re here, you might want to check out some of our other Instagram posts. Find them in the related reading list below. Enjoy!
Related reading:
