garlic bread smash burgers 🧄🍔✨ - cheesy smash burgers served w/ homemade burger sauce and caramelized onions then sandwiched between toasted garlic…
22.9M
19.4%
Food & drinks engagement rates 2026: TikTok, Instagram and YouTube
Among UK and US food and drink creators with 1,000+ followers, the median post not flagged as advertising from July to September 2026 had an engagement rate by views of 6.3% on TikTok, 2.7% on Instagram and 3.7% on YouTube. The three platforms count engagement differently, so these are three separate benchmarks, not a comparison between platforms.
Below: TikTok, Instagram and YouTube for July to September 2026, then 12 months of TikTok figures refreshed monthly. How we measure each is in the methodology at the foot of the page.
Median engagement rate by views on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube
Posts uploaded July to September 2026 by UK and US food and drink creators with at least 1,000 followers on that platform (subscribers on YouTube), not flagged as advertising. The three platforms count engagement differently, so these are three separate benchmarks, not a comparison between platforms.
TikTok
6.3%
Median engagement rate by views- Middle half
- 3.9% to 9.5%
- In the median
- 383,322 posts
- From
- 23,194 creators
(likes + comments + shares + saves) ÷ views
2.7%
Median engagement rate by views- Middle half
- 1.5% to 4.5%
- In the median
- 159,053 videos and Reels
- From
- 7,609 creators
(likes + comments) ÷ plays
YouTube
3.7%
Median engagement rate by views- Middle half
- 2.3% to 5.6%
- In the median
- 8,254 Shorts and long-form videos
- From
- 330 channels
(likes + comments) ÷ views
Kyra collects YouTube videos for far fewer channels than it tracks on TikTok and Instagram, so the YouTube figures describe the channels Kyra collects, not the whole category on YouTube. On YouTube, only disclosure hashtags flag a video as advertising, because YouTube's own paid-promotion label isn't in our data.
TikTok, rolling 12 months to September 2026
These figures update every month from a longer window than the July to September 2026 figures above, so they differ from it: 2,268,016 TikTok posts uploaded October 2025 to September 2026 by 31,220 UK and US food and drink creators, with no minimum follower count. Engagement rate by views is (likes + comments + shares + saves) ÷ views. Posts flagged as advertising, TikTok Shop posts, posts with fewer than 100 views or more engagements than views, and posts captured less than 7 days after upload are left out.
Median TikTok Engagement Rate
What's a good engagement rate on TikTok for posts by food and drink creators? Use these benchmarks to compare your campaign performance against organic posts by UK and US creators.
5.8%
(Likes + comments + shares + saves) / views
2.3M
From 31,220 UK and US creators
3.5% - 9.0%
25th - 75th percentile
Check a creator against this benchmark: the free TikTok engagement rate calculator ranks a post or creator against food & drinks creators of the same size.
Key Insights
AI-generated analysis of Food & Drinks performance on TikTok, powered by data from 2,268,016 posts.
1
Posts by food and drink creators see 19% lower engagement than the median industry (the middle value of the 19 industry medians).
2
Engagement rates are relatively consistent across posts by food and drink creators, with the middle half falling between 3.5% and 9.0%.
3
These benchmarks are based on 2,268,016 analyzed posts, providing a reliable baseline for campaigns with food and drink creators.
2.6%
6.9%
9.8%
11.0%
11.1%
19.3%
19.3%
20.0%
Engagement Distribution
See how engagement rates are distributed across all posts by food and drink creators in the sample. This helps you understand what "good" engagement looks like and set realistic goals for your campaigns.
Minority
39.2%
Top-engagement posts
Examples of top-engagement posts by food and drink creators with 100k+ followers, uploaded July to September 2026. They were chosen automatically: posts in the top 10% for engagement rate in that period (at or above 13.3%) whose video and caption both match the category, that passed brand-safety checks, one per creator, ranked by views.
s’mores cookie bars 🐻🍫🤎 #smores #smorescookies #cookiebars #baking #dessert
11.4M
16.7%
You guys asked, so here’s the recipe for my roasted garlic mashed potatoes 🫶🏼 They’re creamy, buttery, garlicky and the perfect side for just about…
11.3M
18.7%
Crab and onion boil!❤️
10.0M
15.9%
Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies 🧡🍂🎃 The chewiest pumpkin spice cookies filled with creamy cheesecake and rolled in spiced sugar. The best cookies to bake…
9.4M
13.9%
My favorite Mac N Cheese Recipe to date: Honey BBQ Chicken Recipe: 24 oz pasta (large elbow macaroni) Cheese sauce: 4 oz unsalted butter 1 tsp chili…
9.4M
17.4%
Industry Comparison
See how Food & Drinks stacks up against other verticals on TikTok. Understanding relative performance helps you set realistic expectations.
#16
of 19 industries
-19%
7.2%: the middle value of the 19 industry medians
All Industries by Median Engagement
Motivation10.2%
Fashion8.9%
Animals8.8%
Lifestyle8.1%
Art8.0%
Comedy7.9%
Beauty7.7%
Entertainment7.5%
Automotive7.4%
Fitness & Health7.2%
Travel7.0%
Society6.7%
Family6.7%
Sports6.6%
TV/Film6.1%
Food & Drinks ←5.8%
Education5.7%
Drama4.3%
Technology4.1%
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about TikTok, Instagram and YouTube engagement rates, what's a good engagement rate for Food & Drinks, and how to benchmark your campaigns.
Our Methodology
TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, July to September 2026. How we measure the July to September 2026 figures: posts by UK and US creators whose primary category in Kyra's AI creator analysis is food and drink, with at least 1,000 followers on the platform measured (subscribers on YouTube), uploaded 1 July to 30 September 2026. Engagement rate by views is (likes + comments + shares + saves) ÷ views on TikTok, (likes + comments) ÷ plays on Instagram (videos and Reels only), and (likes + comments) ÷ views on YouTube (Shorts and long-form). Each post is counted at its latest capture, and only if that was at least 7 days after upload; posts with fewer than 100 views and the few with more engagements than views are removed. Posts flagged as advertising are left out: on TikTok, TikTok Shop posts and posts with TikTok's branded-content label or a hashtag such as #ad, #sponsored, one containing "partner" or one TikTok marks as commercial; on Instagram, the paid-partnership label or #ad, #sponsored or a hashtag ending in "partner" in the caption; on YouTube, the same hashtags in the title or description (YouTube's own paid-promotion label isn't in our data). Not flagged isn't the same as unpaid. Every figure is a median, and the middle half runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile. We don't show a figure based on fewer than 200 posts, and we flag any based on fewer than 20 creators. Kyra collects YouTube videos for far fewer channels than it tracks on TikTok and Instagram, so the YouTube figures describe the channels Kyra collects, not the whole category on YouTube.
TikTok, rolling 12 months. These figures are based on 2,268,016 TikTok posts, out of the 2.3 billion TikTok posts in Kyra's dataset (as of October 2026). How we measure the 12-month TikTok figures: engagement rate is (likes + comments + shares + saves) divided by views for each post, and every figure is a median or percentile across posts. The sample is 2,268,016 TikTok posts uploaded October 2025 to September 2026 by 31,220 UK and US creators whose primary category in Kyra's AI creator analysis is food and drink, with no minimum follower count. These are posts by food and drink creators, not only posts about food & drinks. Organic posts only: we excluded TikTok Shop posts and posts flagged as advertising (TikTok's branded-content label or a disclosure hashtag such as #ad), as well as posts with fewer than 100 views and the few with more engagements than views. Each post is counted at its latest capture, and only if that was at least 7 days after upload. Categories with fewer than 10,000 posts or 1,000 creators are not published.
2,268,016
TikTok posts analysed (12 months)31,220
UK and US creators1.3 billion
TikTok accounts tracked (as of October 2026)Related Industries
Explore benchmarks for industries related to Food & Drinks. Understanding cross-vertical performance can help inform your content strategy.
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