Instagram vs YouTube
Instagram, Inc.
App Store
$12.27M/mo
~$147.24M/yr · 1.6B installs
VS
YouTube
Google
App Store
$368.24M/mo
~$4.42B/yr · 5.0B installs
Revenue winner
YouTube wins
+2901% vs other
Installs winner
YouTube wins
+211% vs other
MAU winner
YouTube wins
+10412% vs other
Rating winner
Instagram wins
+0% vs other
Why YouTube is winning
Top 4 reasons - backed by the public App Store / Play Store numbers.
- YouTube earns roughly 30× more per month than Instagram - $368.24M vs $12.27M.
- Premium pricing. YouTube charges $19.99/mo vs Instagram's $14.99/mo - higher ARPU per converted user.
- Bigger install base. YouTube has ~5.0B lifetime installs vs Instagram's ~1.6B - 3.1× the funnel top.
- More monetization surfaces. YouTube runs 5 IAP tiers vs 2 - more chances to convert users at the right price.
→ Find more apps with this revenue gap · Full YouTube report
Side-by-side metrics
Bars scale to whichever app is bigger on that row. Green = winner.
Instagram
vs
YouTube
Monthly revenue (est.)?
$12.27M
▶
$368.24M
Annual revenue (est.)
$147.24M
▶
$4.42B
Lifetime installs (est.)
1.6B
▶
5.0B
Monthly active users (est.)?
25.7M
▶
2.7B
App Store rating
4.69★
◀
4.67★
Total ratings
29.2M
▶
47.8M
US grossing rank
-
▶
#2
Cheapest monthly sub
$14.99
▶
$19.99
IAP tiers detected
2 tiers
▶
5 tiers
- Category
- Photo & Video
- Price
- Free
- Released
- Oct 6, 2010
- Last updated
- Jun 22, 2026
- File size
- 562.9 MB
- Content rating
- 12+
- Version
- 435.0.0
- Languages
- Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish +25 more
- Category
- Photo & Video
- Price
- Free
- Released
- Sep 11, 2012
- Last updated
- Jun 21, 2026
- File size
- 352.2 MB
- Content rating
- 12+
- Version
- 21.25.5
- Languages
- AF, SQ, AM, Arabic, HY, AZ +66 more
Instagram trajectory
YouTube trajectory
FAQ
Which makes more money, Instagram or YouTube? v
YouTube earns about $368.24M per month, while Instagram earns about $12.27M. That is a 30.0× revenue gap (~$355.97M more per month for YouTube). Annual revenue: Instagram ≈ $147.24M/year, YouTube ≈ $4.42B/year. Estimates are derived from public App Store signals - grossing rank, scraped IAP tiers, ratings and category benchmarks.
Which has more downloads, Instagram or YouTube? v
YouTube leads with about 5.0B estimated downloads vs 1.6B for Instagram - a 3.1× gap. Instagram's App Store downloads are estimated from 29.2M ratings × the standard 1:75 ratio. YouTube's App Store downloads are estimated from 47.8M ratings.
Are Instagram and YouTube in the same App Store category and competing for the same money? v
Yes - both apps sit in the Photo & Video category, which means they compete directly for the same paying users and category-level wallet share. Direct competitors, head-to-head.
What in-app purchases and subscription pricing do Instagram and YouTube offer? v
Instagram: IAP range 2 tiers detected. YouTube: IAP range 5 tiers detected. Instagram runs a "Subscription (~$14.99/mo)" monetization model; YouTube runs "Subscription (~$19.99/mo) · calibrated by US grossing rank #2". Scraped tier prices and detected subscription pricing drive the bulk of the per-app revenue estimate above.
Which has better ratings, Instagram or YouTube? v
Instagram edges ahead with ★ 4.7 vs ★ 4.7 (gap of 0.0 stars). Rating volume: Instagram 29.2M ratings, YouTube 47.8M ratings. Higher rating volume = stronger ASO signal even when star averages are close.
How accurate are these Instagram vs YouTube revenue estimates? v
Directional - typically within 2-3× of actual money earned for popular apps. The $12.27M for Instagram and $368.24M for YouTube are derived from App Store grossing rank, scraped IAP tiers, ratings volume and category benchmarks (Photo & Video) - net of the 15-30% Apple/Google store cut. Real revenue depends on country mix, retention, refunds and ad fill rate, none of which Apple or Google publish.
How do I compare Instagram or YouTube to a different App Store app? v
Use the search box at the bottom of this page or paste any two App Store links into the homepage tool. We auto-generate a permanent comparison URL with revenue, downloads, IAP tiers, subscription pricing and grossing rank for both apps.