The Instagram media kit, 2026 edition (what to put on it, and where each number comes from)

Search "Instagram media kit template" and you will get a hundred Canva files. They all have the same three things: a headshot, a follower count, and a pastel gradient. That is the easy part, and it is not what loses you deals.

The short version: a 2026 media kit is one page, and it is mostly numbers: reach, engagement rate calculated on reach, a per-format breakdown, audience demographics, and a rate per deliverable. The design matters far less than whether a brand manager can answer "will this reach my buyer, and what does it cost" in about fifteen seconds.

Here is what belongs on it, plus the part the template posts skip: exactly where each number comes from.

The seven blocks, in the order brands read them

1. Who you are, in one line. Not a bio. A positioning line: niche, audience, and what you make. "Home-cooking Reels for South Indian working parents" beats "content creator & storyteller ✨" every single time.
2. The headline metrics. Followers, monthly reach, engagement rate, average Reel views. Four numbers, big type.
3. Per-format performance. Reels, Carousels, Stories, each on its own line. This is the block most kits are missing.
4. Audience. Age bands, gender split, top 3–5 cities or countries.
5. Proof. Two or three past collaborations with a result attached, even if unpaid.
6. Rates. Per deliverable, with usage rights stated.
7. Contact. An email a human answers.

That's it. If it doesn't fit on one screen, it's a portfolio, not a media kit.

Where each number actually comes from

This is the bit that turns a template into a real kit.

Reach (last 30 days). Instagram app → Professional dashboard → Accounts reached. Use a clean 30-day window, not "last 7 days" (too noisy) and not lifetime (meaningless). Reach is unique accounts, which is what a brand's media planner is buying.

Engagement rate. Divide by reach, not followers:

(likes + comments + saves + shares) ÷ reach

Most niches land somewhere between 2% and 4% on this basis. If you're above your niche's band, put the comparison on the kit in words ("4.8% engagement vs a ~3% niche average"), because a naked percentage means nothing to someone reviewing forty kits that week.

Saves and shares belong inside that formula. They're the signals that tell Instagram to keep distributing a post, and a kit that ignores them undersells the creator whose content people actually keep.

Per-format numbers. Pull average views, saves, and shares separately for Reels, Carousels, and Stories over the same 30 days. A brand buying a Reel does not care about your blended average diluted by static posts. A brand buying a Story link swipe cares about exactly one pair of numbers, Story reach and link taps, and most kits don't have it.

Audience demographics. Professional dashboard → Total followers → the breakdown by age, gender, and top locations. Round to whole percentages. Nobody needs 34.7%.

Rates. Build them from reach, not followers. A baseline of roughly (monthly reach ÷ 1,000) × $1–$1.50 per in-feed Reel, adjusted for engagement, niche, and usage rights. We wrote the full method in what to charge for an Instagram Reel.

A sample one-pager

Sample data, an illustrative 25k fitness creator, not a real account:

| Block | What's on the kit | |---|---| | Positioning | Strength training for women returning after a break | | Followers | 24,800 | | Reach (30d) | 212,000 accounts | | Engagement | 4.8% on reach (niche avg ≈ 3%) | | Reels | avg 41k views · 980 saves · 610 shares | | Carousels | avg 9k reach · 1,400 saves | | Stories | avg 6.2k reach · 3.1% link tap rate | | Audience | 71% women · 25–34 dominant · Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune | | Proof | Two brands, with the result each one got | | Rates | Reel $390 · Carousel $260 · Story set $140 · +30% paid usage |

Notice how little of that is design. A brand manager reads that table and knows whether to reply.

[SCREENSHOT: Media Kit page, headline metrics row + per-format breakdown]

Three things that quietly kill a kit

It's a PDF, so it's already stale. You exported it in March with March's numbers. It's July. Every brand you send it to is reading numbers you can no longer stand behind, and if your account grew, you're pitching yourself at a discount. A link that's current on the day it's opened solves a problem no template can.

The engagement rate is calculated on followers. It inflates small accounts and punishes big ones, brands know the trick, and it makes the rest of your kit look less trustworthy than it is. Use reach.

There's no rate on it. "Rates available on request" reads as "I haven't decided" and invites the brand to open low. Transparent pricing upfront is closer to the norm now than the exception, a number with a reason attached is far harder to negotiate down than a blank space.

Yes, you can build this free today

Canva, Notion, Google Docs, any of them will produce a perfectly good one-pager, and a good kit built by hand beats a bad one built by a tool. Pull the numbers manually, put them in the seven blocks above, export it, and go pitch. That's a real afternoon's work and it will land you deals.

The catch is the second month. And the third. Instagram's own app shows you a rolling recent window, so the history you'd want to show a brand, "here's my last six months, trending up", quietly disappears behind you unless something is writing it down. Rebuilding the kit by hand every month is the kind of chore that gets skipped, and then you're back to sending March's numbers in July.

Where we come in

That specific chore is why we're building JuniFlo. It reads your real numbers through Instagram's official API, never your password, never scraping, keeps a daily snapshot so your history stops evaporating, and renders a live media kit page at your own link. Per-format breakdowns, audience, and a fair-rate band per deliverable, all labelled as model estimates, all private until you flip them on.

The version you send in December shows December's numbers, because you didn't have to do anything.

Build yours by hand this week, the seven blocks above are the whole recipe. And if you'd rather it stayed current on its own, join the waitlist.