Your Pending Instagram Follow Requests
30 of 1,180 accounts
- @briandraw_lifePending request
- @markfoodPending request
- @explore.nataliePending request
- @ski.mike23Pending request
4 of 30 rows from a demo archive. Your own archive produces your own list, in this browser — and your archive never leaves your device.
What counts as pending
A request you sent to a private account that has neither accepted nor declined it. It sits in that state indefinitely — Instagram does not expire these, and it does not notify you about them.
A request that was declined is not pending. It is a separate list in the export, and this page does not count it: the two mean opposite things about the other account.
Why this list is invisible in the app
The Instagram app shows requests coming to you. There is no screen listing the ones going out from you. The only place that list exists in full is inside the archive Meta builds when you request your data. That is why a page like this one has to start with an export rather than a login.
Finding it in your archive
The pending requests live under connections/followers_and_following, in their own file — pending_follow_requests.json, or pending_follow_requests.html if you chose that format — separate from the accounts you actually follow. Older archives put that folder at the top level, without the connections/ prefix.
Choose All time rather than a date range when Instagram offers you the choice — a date-limited archive drops older requests, which are exactly the ones you have forgotten about.
An empty list is a normal result
If you rarely request private accounts, you will have none, and nothing has gone wrong.
If you do have them and want them gone, cancelling is done in the Instagram app. This tool never connects to Instagram, so it can show you the list and nothing more — for free, at any size, with the code open source (MIT) so you can read what it does.