Messenger vs Instagram
Messenger
Meta Platforms, Inc.
App Store
$318.69M/mo
~$3.82B/yr · 1.1B installs
VS
Instagram
Google Play
$37.46M/mo
~$449.47M/yr · 7.5B installs
Revenue winner
Messenger wins
+751% vs other
Installs winner
Instagram wins
+573% vs other
MAU winner
Messenger wins
+165% vs other
Rating winner
Messenger wins
+16% vs other
Why Messenger is winning
Top 3 reasons - backed by the public App Store / Play Store numbers.
- Messenger earns roughly 9× more per month than Instagram - $318.69M vs $37.46M.
- Premium pricing. Messenger charges $19.99/mo vs Instagram's $1.38/mo - higher ARPU per converted user.
- Better app store reviews. Messenger sits at 4.66★ vs 4.02★ - store algorithms reward higher-rated apps with more impressions.
→ Find more apps with this revenue gap · Full Messenger report
Side-by-side metrics
Bars scale to whichever app is bigger on that row. Green = winner.
Messenger
vs
Instagram
Monthly revenue (est.)?
$318.69M
◀
$37.46M
Annual revenue (est.)
$3.82B
◀
$449.47M
Lifetime installs (est.)
1.1B
▶
7.5B
Monthly active users (est.)?
493.0M
◀
186.3M
App Store rating
4.66★
◀
4.02★
Total ratings
12.3M
▶
167.6M
US grossing rank
-
=
-
Cheapest monthly sub
$19.99
◀
$1.38
IAP tiers detected
2 tiers
◀
0 tiers
- Category
- Social Networking
- Price
- Free
- Released
- Aug 9, 2011
- Last updated
- May 7, 2026
- File size
- 219.1 MB
- Content rating
- 12+
- Version
- 560.1.0
- Languages
- Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish +23 more
- Category
- Social
- Price
- Free
- Released
- Apr 3, 2012
- Last updated
- May 4, 2026
- File size
- -
- Content rating
- Teen
- Version
- VARY
- Languages
- -
Messenger trajectory
Instagram trajectory
FAQ
Which makes more money, Messenger or Instagram? v
Messenger earns about $318.69M per month, while Instagram earns about $37.46M. That is a 8.5× revenue gap (~$281.23M more per month for Messenger). Annual revenue: Messenger ≈ $3.82B/year, Instagram ≈ $449.47M/year. Estimates are derived from public App Store / Google Play signals - grossing rank, scraped IAP tiers, ratings and category benchmarks.
Which has more downloads, Messenger or Instagram? v
Instagram leads with about 7.5B estimated downloads vs 1.1B for Messenger - a 6.7× gap. Messenger's App Store downloads are estimated from 12.3M ratings × the standard 1:75 ratio. Instagram reports 5,000,000,000+ installs on Google Play.
Are Messenger and Instagram in the same App Store category on each store and competing for the same money? v
No - Messenger is in Social Networking and Instagram is in Social. They share screen-time attention but earn money in different niches: Messenger from social networking monetization patterns, Instagram from social.
What in-app purchases and subscription pricing do Messenger and Instagram offer? v
Messenger: IAP range 2 tiers detected. Instagram: IAP range $0.19 - $10,000.00 per item. Messenger runs a "Subscription (~$19.99/mo)" monetization model; Instagram runs "Subscription (~$1.38/mo)". Scraped tier prices and detected subscription pricing drive the bulk of the per-app revenue estimate above.
Which has better ratings, Messenger or Instagram? v
Messenger edges ahead with ★ 4.7 vs ★ 4.0 (gap of 0.6 stars). Rating volume: Messenger 12.3M ratings, Instagram 4.6M ratings. Higher rating volume = stronger ASO signal even when star averages are close.
How accurate are these Messenger vs Instagram revenue estimates? v
Directional - typically within 2-3× of actual money earned for popular apps. The $318.69M for Messenger and $37.46M for Instagram are derived from App Store grossing rank / Google Play install ranges, scraped IAP tiers, ratings volume and category benchmarks (Social Networking / Social) - 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 Messenger or Instagram to a different App Store app? v
Use the search box at the bottom of this page or paste any two App Store or Google Play 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.