Growbot review: we used it for 30 days

What is Growbot?

Growbot, sold as Growbot Automator for Instagram, is a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox. It automates follows, unfollows, likes, story views and reel watching from your own logged-in account.

Unlike managed services, nobody works on your account and no network sends you followers. You build the queues, set the limits and leave a tab open. It's the do-it-yourself end of the Instagram automation tools we compare.

How Growbot works

Growbot doesn't send you followers from a network. It turns your own account into a bot: the extension clicks follow, like and unfollow for you, over and over, while an Instagram tab stays open in your browser.

Step 1: Install the extension

Add the Growbot extension to Chrome or Firefox and open Instagram in a browser tab while logged in.

Step 2: Load a queue

Pull accounts into a queue from followers, likers, commenters, hashtags or locations, then trim it with filters.

Step 3: Schedule the actions

Choose follow, like, story-view or unfollow actions, set daily limits and random delays, and schedule them.

Step 4: Leave the tab open

Growbot works through the queue from your account. The tab must stay open, or it stops.

Step 5: Auto-unfollow later

It can unfollow people automatically after a set number of days, which keeps the follow-for-follow cycle going.

Who is Growbot best for?

Growbot is for people who knowingly want to run an Instagram bot on their own account. Its low price is real, but so are the downsides: you do all the setup, your account carries the risk, and in our test the followers it pulled in behaved like bots themselves.

A good fit if you

• Want a cheap bot and accept the risks that come with it
• Are comfortable tuning queues, filters and rate limits
• Can leave a browser tab open for hours every day
• Run spare accounts you don't mind getting blocked

Skip it if you

• Want followers who actually engage with your posts
• Care about protecting your main Instagram account
• Want a hands-off service with a person to talk to
• Prefer not to create extra accounts to dodge limits

Why use Growbot at all?

Price is the obvious draw. For less than the cost of a lunch each month you get a tool that can follow and like thousands of accounts on autopilot.

But following thousands of strangers in the hope that some follow back mostly attracts other follow-back and bot accounts. The steps in our guide to building audiences organically work better, because they bring people who care about your topic.

Growbot wasn't the only automation tool with this outcome. Our Somiibo review covers a desktop bot that left us with similar numbers.

Exchange sites take a different route to the same place. Like4Like trades likes and follows between members, and we saw the same thin engagement there.

How we tested it

We installed Growbot and let it run on a test account through September and October 2026, 30 days in total. The profile started with 3,273 followers, and the content we posted stayed the same as usual.

We took follower, engagement and reach readings from Insights every day. After switching the extension off we left the account alone for two weeks, then tallied the losses.

What we liked

Very low price

At $8.99 a month it's one of the cheapest automation tools around, and you can try it before paying.

No password sharing

Because it runs in your own browser on your own connection, you don't hand your password to anyone.

What we didn't like

Bot followers, not fans

The count shot from 3,273 to 17,350 in a month, but engagement slid from 2.9% to 0.6% and reach went backwards. Within two weeks of switching it off, 385 followers had disappeared. That's bot-follower behavior: lots of accounts, no attention, and a steady leak.

It's a bot on your account

Growbot is browser automation that follows, unfollows, likes, watches reels and views stories in bulk from your own login. That's exactly the kind of activity Instagram limits, and Growbot's own guide admits accounts get temporarily blocked.

It recommends dodging limits

Growbot's FAQ suggests creating several "child" accounts that can be "more heavily automated", so that when one gets blocked you move to the next. That's a tactic for avoiding detection, not for building a real audience.

Awkward cancellation

There's no cancel button: you email a Gmail address from your signup email, and for faster service include the last four digits and expiry date of your card.

Growbot pricing

There's one plan with every feature. Paying yearly costs $89.99, about two months free compared with monthly billing.

To cancel, you email Growbot from the address you signed up with; there's no self-service cancel button on the site.

Prices checked October 15, 2026.

Is Growbot safe?

Growbot's own documentation explains that automation now gets accounts temporarily blocked from following or unfollowing, which is why it suggests spreading activity across extra accounts. That tells you how Instagram treats this kind of tool.

If you run any automation, it's your account on the line. Review Instagram's community terms first, because bulk follow-and-unfollow activity is the kind of behavior that gets flagged.

Growbot review: our verdict

Growbot is honest about being a bot, and that's the problem. It turned our account into an automation machine and the followers it attracted acted like bots as well: a huge jump in the count, a collapse in engagement and a quick leak once we stopped. Low price aside, there's no good reason to put your account through it. Look at the our top picks instead.

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