The short version
To pick a giveaway winner on Instagram: copy the link to your giveaway post, paste it into the box above, and press Read comments. The picker lists who commented, applies the rules you choose, and draws a winner at random. It works on public posts and reels, in any browser, without an app and without signing in to Instagram.
How to do a giveaway on Instagram
- Decide the prize, the rules and the closing date. Say who can enter, how to enter and when the giveaway closes. There is a set of rules to copy further down.
- Publish the giveaway post. Put the rules in the caption or in a pinned comment and ask people to comment.
- On the day, paste the post link here. The picker reads the comments and shows how many people entered.
- Draw and announce. Choose your rules, pick the winner and copy the result to post in your Stories.
How to pick a giveaway winner on Instagram
- It reads the comments. Reading takes ten to twenty seconds for every hundred comments, and a counter shows how far it has got.
- You set the rules. Keep one entry per person or count every comment, require a number of tagged friends, leave out your own account, and choose how many winners you want.
- Your browser picks. The winner is chosen by your browser's cryptographic random number generator, with every entry given the same chance. Draw again and you get a fresh, independent result.
What it checks, and what it cannot
- It counts comments, and replies if you ask. Replies to other people's comments stay out of the draw unless you tick "Count replies as entries".
- It shows how its numbers compare with Instagram's. The number on a post includes replies, and sometimes comments Instagram does not give out in the post's list. The picker shows how many comments it read, how many replies there are and how many it could not get, and it can read the post again to check.
- It can require tagged friends. A comment that tags the same friend twice counts that friend once, and tagging yourself does not count.
- It cannot see who follows you or who liked the post. If following is one of your rules, check the winner's profile yourself before you announce them.
- It only reads public posts. A post from a private account is refused, because its comments are not public.
Instagram giveaway rules
Instagram lets you run a giveaway from any account, and it makes you responsible for running it properly. Its Promotion Guidelines ask for four things:
- Official rules. Say who can enter, how, what the prize is and when the giveaway closes.
- A release. Each entrant has to release Instagram from responsibility for the giveaway.
- A disclaimer. State that the giveaway is not sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Instagram.
- Honest tagging. Do not ask people to tag themselves or anyone else in a photo they are not in. Asking them to mention a friend in a comment is fine.
Here is a set of rules you can copy and adapt. Replace the parts in brackets, then put the text in your caption or in a pinned comment.
GIVEAWAY RULES Prize: [prize]. How to enter: follow @[youraccount] and comment on this post, tagging one friend. Entries: one per person. Who can enter: anyone aged 18 or over living in [country]. Closes: [date and time, with time zone]. Winner: drawn at random from the comments on [date] and announced in our Stories. We will message the winner from this account only, and we never ask for payment or card details. This giveaway is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Instagram. By entering, you release Instagram from any responsibility for it.
Laws on prize promotions differ by country and state, and some require registration for larger prizes. Check the rules where you and your entrants live. This page is not legal advice.
Posts with more than 300 comments
The free picker reads up to 300 comments. Instagram hands comments over in its own ranked order, not oldest or newest first, so on a bigger post those 300 are not a fair sample of everyone who entered. The picker tells you when this happens and labels any draw you run as partial. Draws that read every comment on a large post are not available yet.
Privacy
The comments are read once and sent to your browser for the draw. Instappa does not save the comments, the list of people who entered or the winner, and closing the tab discards them.