What's a good engagement rate on X?
Updated
A good engagement rate on X is one that beats your own recent median. Published benchmarks are too far apart to work as a single target. One large study of brand accounts puts X's average at 0.10%, while other tables give small accounts 2% to 6%. They use different formulas and different accounts. So work out your median first, then try to raise it.
The formula
There are two common versions:
- By impressions: engagements ÷ impressions × 100. This shows how a post did with the people who saw it.
- By followers: engagements ÷ followers × 100. This shows how well an account activates its audience, and it can top 100% if a post spreads widely.
Which actions count as engagements varies by tool, so a rate from one tool won't always match another. Pick a list and stay with it.
Here's an invented example. A post gets 12,000 impressions, 90 likes, 12 replies, 6 reposts, 2 quotes, 15 bookmarks and 40 clicks. That's 165 engagements.
- By impressions: 165 ÷ 12,000 = 1.38%
- With 800 followers: 165 ÷ 800 = 20.63%
The same post has two very different rates. That's why you can't compare a rate without knowing how it was calculated. Try your own numbers in our engagement rate calculator.
Why published benchmarks disagree
Here's a sample from what we found on November 3, 2026. Treat all of them as estimates.
| Source | Figure | Accounts | Formula |
|---|---|---|---|
| Socialinsider | 0.10% average, Q3 2026 | Brands with 1,000 to 1 million followers | Likes and reposts ÷ followers |
| Creaticalc, citing a SociaVault study | 2.18% median | Under 10,000 followers | Engagements ÷ followers |
| Wild & Free Tools | 3% to 6% | Under 1,000 followers | Likes, reposts, replies and bookmarks ÷ impressions |
These don't conflict so much as measure different things. Socialinsider covers brands and counts only likes and reposts. Creaticalc looks at smaller accounts and counts more actions. The Wild & Free Tools page divides by impressions and doesn't name its data source. None of them makes a fair target for someone with 300 followers.
Small accounts often show higher rates because the people who see their posts tend to be friends and existing fans. That usually falls as reach grows, so a falling rate can be a good sign if impressions and followers are rising.
Set your own target
- List your last 20 original posts. Leave out replies, since they behave differently.
- Work out each post's rate by impressions.
- Sort them and take the middle value. That's your median.
- Note your top three. What do they have in common: the topic, the format, a number?
- Next month, try to beat that median, and compare it with the same method.
Use the median because a single viral post can distort an average on a small account.
Which numbers matter more than the rate
The rate alone can mislead you. A post with 40 impressions and 4 likes shows 10%, and it may have told you very little.
For a growing account, also watch:
- Replies per 1,000 impressions. X's published ranking code gives predicted replies a far higher weight than predicted likes. That doesn't mean reply counts cause reach, but replies show that people cared enough to answer.
- New followers per post, when you can tell. This is what you actually want.
- Impressions from your typical post. Use the median again, since one outlier can hide a trend.
How to raise it
Our suggestions:
- Be more specific. Use a real number or example. There are 30 prompts here.
- Reply to everyone who answers you. This is the easiest conversation to keep going.
- Make the post useful without a click. Here's what we know about links.
- Stay on your topic. Readers who followed you for one thing are likelier to respond to more of it.
- Avoid engagement bait. It can raise the rate on one post while also drawing mutes and "not interested" clicks.
Check once a week. On a small account, a daily number mostly shows noise. Repli's analysis does this using your own posts, and the demo shows a sample on an invented account.