Free Instagram Comment Picker for Giveaways

How to pick a winner from Instagram comments

Picking a giveaway winner by hand means scrolling through hundreds of comments, copying usernames into a list and hoping you didn't miss anyone. InstaPicker does the same job in a minute or two, and every step is visible, so you can show your followers exactly how the winner was chosen.

1. Copy the link to your giveaway post

On your phone, open the post or Reel, tap the three dots (…) or the share icon, and choose Copy link. On a computer, open the post and copy the address from your browser bar. The link will look like instagram.com/p/… for a post or instagram.com/reel/… for a Reel.

2. Paste it into InstaPicker

Paste the link into the Instagram Post URL box above. It can be your own post, a collab post you share with another account, or any other public post, for example when a brand runs a giveaway on a creator's page.

3. Set your entry rules

Choose how many winners you need and switch on the filters that match the rules in your caption: one entry per person, a required @mention, a keyword or hashtag, words to exclude, a minimum comment length, and whether replies count. Each filter is explained in the next section.

4. Load the comments and pick your winners

Press Scrape Comments & Pick Winners. InstaPicker loads every public comment, removes the entries that break your rules, and shows you how many comments were loaded and how many are eligible. It then draws your winners at random from the eligible entries only.

5. Save the result and announce it

Export the full comment list and the winner list as CSV files so you have a record of the draw. Screen-record the reveal or take a screenshot of the result to post in your Stories, then contact the winner and announce them on your post.

Giveaway filters that keep your draw fair

Most giveaway captions have rules: tag two friends, comment a certain word, one entry per person. A fair draw only counts the people who followed those rules. InstaPicker's filters do that checking for you before the winner is picked.

Remove duplicate users (one entry per person)

Some people comment ten times to improve their odds. Turn on Remove duplicate users and each account counts once, however many times it commented. Leave it off only if your rules say every comment is a separate entry.

Tag-a-friend filter

If your giveaway says “tag a friend to enter”, switch on the tag filter and only comments that include an @mention go into the draw. Comments like “good luck everyone” or a single emoji are left out automatically.

Include words or hashtags

Asked people to comment a specific word, answer a question or use your campaign hashtag? Add those words, separated by commas, and only comments that contain them are counted.

Exclude words

Use the exclude list to leave out comments you don't want in the draw, such as your own replies, a team member's handle, a competitor's name or obvious spam phrases.

Minimum comment length

Set a minimum number of characters to filter out low-effort entries. It is useful when your rules ask people to answer a question or share an opinion rather than drop a one-word comment.

Include or exclude replies

Decide whether replies to other comments count as entries. Most giveaways only count top-level comments, but if your rules allow replies, switch them on and they join the draw.

Multiple winners, prize tiers and backup winners

One giveaway often has more than one prize. InstaPicker lets you set the number of winners and pick them all in a single draw, so nobody can claim you ran the draw again until you liked the result.

• Multiple winners: pick 2, 5 or 20 winners at once from the same pool of eligible entries.
• Prize tiers: give different prizes to different winners, for example a first prize, a second prize and a few runner-up gifts.
• Backup winners: pick reserve winners in the same draw. If a winner doesn't reply or turns out to break the rules, you move to the next name on the list instead of running a new draw.

Say in your caption how long winners have to reply, and use your backup list if that time runs out. It keeps the process fair for everyone who entered.

How the random draw works, and how to prove it was fair

Once the filters have run, every eligible entry has exactly the same chance of being picked. InstaPicker selects the winners at random from that list. You don't choose, and neither do we.

Followers are more likely to enter your next giveaway when they trust the last one. A few habits make a draw easy to trust:

• Write clear rules before you post. State how to enter, the closing date and time, who can enter and how the winner will be picked.
• Close the giveaway before you draw. Pick the winner after the closing time you announced, not while people are still commenting.
• Show the draw. Screen-record the moment you press the button, or share a screenshot of the result showing the number of eligible entries.
• Keep the record. Export the comment and winner lists so you can answer questions later.
• Check the winner before you send the prize. Make sure the account is real and followed the rules. Our guide on how to verify a giveaway winner covers what to check.

What InstaPicker works with

InstaPicker can only read comments that are publicly visible. If you hid comments, restricted an account or deleted comments before the draw, those comments won't be loaded. That is usually what you want, since hidden and deleted comments shouldn't count as entries anyway.

Common problems and how to fix them

“The link doesn't work”

Make sure you copied the link to the post itself, not to your profile or a Story. A post link contains /p/ and a Reel link contains /reel/. If you copied it from the app, remove anything after the question mark, such as ?igsh=…, and try again.

“Fewer comments loaded than Instagram shows”

Instagram's comment count includes replies, hidden comments and sometimes comments that have been deleted. If replies are switched off in InstaPicker, they won't be counted. Switch Include Replies to Yes if your rules allow replies, and remember that hidden and deleted comments are never loaded.

“The account is private”

Comments on private accounts can't be read by any outside tool. Switch the account to public for the giveaway, or post the giveaway as a collab with a public account.

“The winner broke the rules”

It happens, especially when rules can't be checked automatically, such as following a partner account. Check the winner before you announce them, and if they don't qualify, move to the first backup winner from the same draw.

Export comments and winners

Every draw can be exported. Export Comments downloads all the comments that were loaded; Export Winners downloads the winners from the draw. Both come as CSV files that open in Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers.

A saved export is useful long after the giveaway ends. You can show it if someone questions the result, compare how many people entered across different giveaways, or use the comment list to see which posts and prizes got the most interest.

Free trial, Creator and Growth plans

You don't need a credit card to start. Create a free InstaPicker account and you get 3 trial attempts to use on any of our tools, enough to run a real giveaway and see how it works.

Both paid plans unlock every InstaPicker tool with no limits: the comment picker, filters, multiple and backup winners, exports, and the wheel and randomizer tools. Growth costs about $10 less over a year than paying monthly. Payments are handled securely by Stripe, and you can cancel from your profile at any time. See pricing for details.

InstaPicker vs other ways to pick a winner

Some tools ask you to log in with Instagram or Facebook and grant access to your account. InstaPicker doesn't. It only reads the public comments on the post you paste, so your account details stay with you. For a closer look at other tools, read our comment picker comparison.

Who uses InstaPicker

• Creators celebrating a follower milestone or thanking their audience with a giveaway.
• Small businesses running comment-to-win giveaways to reach new local customers.
• Brands and creators running collabs, where the giveaway is posted as a collab post or on the creator's account.
• Agencies and social media managers who run giveaways for several clients and need a clean record of every draw.

Tips for a smooth Instagram giveaway

1. Pick a prize your real audience wants. A product from your own range attracts people who might buy from you; a generic gadget attracts people who only want free stuff. Need ideas? Try the giveaway prize generator.
2. Keep the entry rules short. Two or three steps get more entries than six. “Follow, like and tag a friend” is enough for most giveaways.
3. Write the rules down. Include the closing time, who can enter and how the winner is picked. The giveaway rules generator writes them for you.
4. Add a disclaimer. Instagram requires giveaways to state that they are not sponsored or run by Instagram. Copy one from our disclaimer templates.
5. Use a caption that's easy to act on. See our giveaway caption ideas for examples that work.
6. Announce the winner publicly. Tag them in your Stories and the post comments, so entrants can see the giveaway ended fairly. Our guide on announcing a giveaway winner has templates.
7. Be ready for scam accounts. Fake accounts sometimes copy your profile and message entrants claiming they've won. Warn your followers that you will only contact the winner from your real account.

New to running giveaways? Our step-by-step guide to running an Instagram giveaway covers everything from planning to delivering the prize.

More free giveaway tools

Your InstaPicker account works across all our tools, so the same trial and plan cover every one of them.

• Wheel picker — spin a wheel of names for a live draw on Instagram Live or Stories.
• Random name picker and list randomizer — pick winners from any list, such as Story replies or DMs.
• Instagram user ID finder — keep a permanent record of the winner even if they change their username.
• Giveaway rules generator and giveaway ROI calculator — plan the giveaway and measure what it brought in.
• Team generator and tournament bracket generator — split players into teams or set up brackets for contests and events.

See them all on the tools page.