What are exits on Instagram stories?
In short
Exits is the number of times a viewer closed stories altogether while on your story — not moving on to the next frame or account, but stopping.
Of the four navigation actions, exits is the one that matters. A forward tap or a swipe to the next story keeps the viewer watching; an exit ends the session on your frame.
Turn it into a rate to make it comparable: exits ÷ views, per frame. The frame where the exit rate spikes is the frame that broke the sequence — a long text slide, a hard sell, a sudden change of subject.
Replies are the metric people often expect to see beside exits. Note that story replies read zero for viewers in Europe and Japan whatever actually happened, so they cannot be compared across audiences.
Is higher better?
Lower is better
Compare exit rate between frames and between your own stories, not against a platform figure.
Where to find it
While the story is live, open it and swipe up to see its activity. Afterwards it is in your Professional dashboard under the content you shared.
Questions people ask
Is a high exit rate on an Instagram story bad?
It means viewers stopped watching stories on that frame. Compare frames within the story: the one where exits jump is the one to change. Forward taps and next-story swipes are not exits.
Why does my story show no insights?
Instagram does not report story insights until at least five accounts have viewed the story. Below that there is simply nothing to read.
Related metrics
- Story navigationNavigation is the total number of times viewers moved through your story — tapping forward, swiping to the next account, tapping back, or exiting — added into one number.
- Forward vs next storyForward means a viewer tapped through to your next frame; next story means they swiped away to another account's story — one is watching, the other is leaving you.
- BackBack is the number of times viewers tapped to return to the previous frame of your story — they wanted to see it again.
Sources
- Meta — Instagram Platform insights — The metrics served per media type and for the account
- Meta — Instagram Media insights reference — Metric names and definitions for posts, reels and stories