How to Do Reverse Image Search on Instagram: 7 Methods

There are two general cases when you can use Instagram reverse image search. First of all, in case you are looking for a long-lost pal, you can use their picture to get instant results from their profile.

Second, you can use it to locate plagiarism, the reverse image search helps you find your fake profile or an account that is using your images as theirs. It is beneficial for locating accounts that are stealing your photography, art images, and other original content.

However, it is not always easy to perform the reverse image search on Instagram as it doesn’t provide this feature directly. Hence, we have listed some of the best and simplest ways to perform reverse image searches on Instagram.

Method 1: Reverse Image Search on Instagram using Social Catfish

Social Catfish is an online investigation platform that helps in verifying people’s identities. It is capable of analyzing image size, resolution, location, email address, phone number, and other parameters for accurate results.

Let us now look at how you can use it for Instagram reverse image search:

Step 1) Start by simply going to the official website of Social Catfish

Step 2) Select the Image option and upload the Instagram image.

Step 3) Now, browse and upload the image in the provided area.

Step 4) Wait till the scanning completes and then check if the results match who or what you are looking for.

Method 2: Using Best Instagram Reverse Image Search Tools

Here are some of the reliable tools you can use to perform Instagram reverse image searches.

Pixsy

Pixsy is an image-searching tool that not only finds plagiarized pictures but also helps you fight image theft. It is highly beneficial for serious artists and photographers. It comes with an advanced image scanner, AI finds, and a team of copyright experts.

Here is how you can use Pixsy to search Instagram photos:

Step 1) Sign up for free with Pixsy and import the image into its dashboard.

Step 2) Click on Import Image Option and choose Instagram from the app menu.

Step 3) Log into your Instagram account

Step 4) Connect your social media account with Pixsy, where you usually upload your images manually.

Step 5) Get a total overview of how many matches your image has.

Step 6) You can then choose to take it down, submit a legal case, or ignore it.

TinEye

TinEye is a reverse image search engine. It has one of the highest reverse image search success rates. Using its drag-and-drop feature you can bring the image straight to the search bar or upload it from your mobile. You can also reverse-search an image using the image’s URL. Here is how you can use it to perform a reverse image search:

Step 1) You must first visit its main page. Here you will find two options, first is to upload an image you want to search.

Step 2) Now, click on Upload, the second option will ask you to paste an URL.

Both methods shall display the same results.

SauceNAO

SauceNAO is a reverse image search tool, the name SauceNao comes from a common sentence used across similar sites ‘Need to know the source of this Now!”.

To begin the hunt, you must visit its official site, where will find options to either upload a photo or paste an URL and then click on the “Search” button to search the image.

Here are the steps on how to search Instagram photo with SauceNAO:

Step 1) Go to SauceNAO’s website

Step 2) Click on Select Image and upload the picture from your system, then click on Search.

Step 3) This will display a page with similar-looking results to the image.

You can also paste an URL, click on Search and get the same results.

Berify

Berify is a search engine that helps you reverse-search images and videos. Along with using its own exclusive search solution, it also uses Google, Yandex, Bing, and more to locate images and videos. This extensive search offers you vast results and provides accuracy.

Following are the steps on how to perform a reverse image search with Berify:

Step 1) Visit Berify.com to understand how it works and sign up for free.

Step 2) Now upload the image you want to reverse search, this will take you to a signup page. You must sign up for the free version to perform the search.

Step 3) Once you have signed up, you can upload the image on the top search bar. Now, click on the Search button and wait for it to complete scanning.

Step 4) Once it completes the search, you will see results if the original image has been posted on other sites.

Method 3: Google Image Search

Google Image search for reverse image search is a widely used feature and is a powerful tool for finding source images. Using it for Instagram reverse image search discovers several accurate and similar results within seconds. It is easy to use as all it takes is to upload images onto the search engine.

Furthermore, you will receive additional information related to the profile if you use its URL.

Here are the simple steps on how to perform a reverse image search on Google.

Step 1) Go to Google Images’ main page and open the camera icon.

Step 2) You will then get two search options, the first one is the Paste image URL.

The second option says Upload an image.

Both the option will provide you with the same results.

Google Image search with Chrome Brower

If you use Chrome Browser, you won’t have to locate the source image on the internet. This method is generally used for images that have already been uploaded online and found while browsing.

For this case, you must right click on the image and choose “Search Google for Image” from the menu. This will bring up the same search result as the previous method mentioned above.

Reverse Instagram image search on Android, iPhone, and iPad

Follow the steps below to perform a reverse image search on these mobile devices:

Step 1) First, go to the Google Images page, select the image you want to reverse search and click on the Search button.

Step 2) Now, tap on the selected image and open it.

Step 3) Next, tap on the Scanner camera button to view the result.

Step 4) This will display similar images to the selected image.

Google reverse image search with Chrome on Android

You can perform the following steps to reverse image search with Chrome on Android.
Step 1) Open your Chrome browser, go to the three dots that appear on the top right corner of your screen, and click on it.

Step 2) It will display the following menu, choose “Desktop Site” from the menu.

Step 3) Finally, repeat the same steps provided in the previous method.

Method 4: Bing Image Search

Bing is one of the search engines that work similarly to Google. Hence, it comes with an almost identical feature for searching Instagram profiles or information with the help of an image.

It follows a similar process to Google, however, we have provided the steps on how to perform reverse image search with Bing.

Step 1) First, go to the official page of Bing Images and click on the Scanner Camera icon.

Step 2) It will display a popup with two options, Drag and Drop or Browse the Image from your computer.

The second option is to paste an image or an URL.

Both these options will display the same results.

In case you want to reverse image search with Bing on your smartphone or other mobile devices, you can follow two options:

You can use Bing Website
Use iOS and Android Bing app and follow the same steps mentioned above.

Method 5: Yandex Reverse Image Search

Yandex is a search engine with its own Instagram reverse image searching capabilities. It is an expert tool for finding matching and similar faces on social media. This is a Russian tool and a powerful alternative to Google. However, it is used worldwide for searching images with the help of a picture because of its accuracy.

Following the steps below, you can use to perform a reverse image search using Yandex.

Step 1) Open the main page of Yandex.

Step 2) Next, click on the “Images” option on the screen.

Step 3) After you click on the Images option, it will lead you to a new page. On this page, click on the camera icon.

You shall be provided with two options, the first option is to select a file or drag it here for uploading.

In the second option, you can enter the image URL.

Both options will display the same results as given in the image below.

For using Yandex on iOS, you can download its browser application, as for Android users, it has a mobile. In order to perform a reverse image search on your smartphone and other mobile device, you can follow the same steps provided above.

Method 6: Use Hashtags to Perform Instagram Reverse Search

Using hashtags is one of the simplest ways to perform reverse image search on social media. Let’s say you want to find a post about gardening, car parts, travel, or anything you have in mind, and you can simply add a hashtag to the term and find several results in a click.

Here are the simple steps on how to perform a simple reverse image search on Instagram

Step 1) Go to your Instagram home page and click on the search icon below.

Step 2) Now type #carparts in the search bar, and it will display results with the term you are looking for and anything associated with it.

Step 3) Click on the #carparts result, now, all the images and videos related to this hashtag will appear on your screen.

Method 7: Search with Instagram likes

You can perform a search with Instagram likes, if you double-tapped a post and want to look for it, you can trace it back from your liked posts.

Here are a few simple steps for performing social media reverse image search using likes:

Step 1) Go to your Instagram profile and click on the three lines in the top right-hand side corner.

Step 2) This action will bring up a menu, in this popup, click on the “Your activity” option.

Step 3) Now, it will take you to a new page with the following menu.

Step 4) Click on the Likes option to go to the page with all your recently liked images and other posts. Here you can find them easily using the filters like “Newest to Oldest”, “Dates, Last Year, Last Week,” and more.

FAQ

At present, there is no official way to perform a reverse image search on Instagram. Instagram is a social media application and is constantly adding new features, thus, we can hope in the future that it may add this functionality. However, you can perform reverse image searches of Instagram images in other tools like Google Images, TinEye, Pixsy, and more.

Instagram images are plagiarized using screenshots of your pictures, photography, or artwork, as this app doesn’t allow you to download them directly. However, an individual can also use third-party apps such as FastSave to download images and videos from Instagram in just a few clicks.

Instagram provides its own copyright policies. If you catch the culprit directly or by using the reverse image search methods, you can ask them to remove the images immediately.

In case they refuse to do so, you can report this to Instagram. This social media platform has a very simple way to report copyright issues through a report form. You can also reach out to Instagram’s designated agents for this law break.

Conclusion

Even if there is no truly verifiable way to find out where the Instagram image appeared, you can still make your search parameters close to specific by using digital imprinting and metadata.

The Instagram reverse image search cannot be directly performed using the official app, but you can always try other search apps.