Suara Restaurant Index · October 2026

How Kuala Lumpur restaurants use Instagram

Name: Suara Restaurant Index: Kuala Lumpur, October 2026
Creator: Suara
Published: 2026-10-14
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Data from 105 public restaurant and cafe accounts in Kuala Lumpur, collected October 2026.

By Suara data team
Published 14 Oct 2026
Last updated 14 Oct 2026
Next update Jan 2027

Short answer

In our sample of 105 Kuala Lumpur restaurant accounts, the median account posts 5.4 times a month and gets 2.5 likes per post for every 1,000 followers. Likes per 1,000 followers are lower than the median across all 10 cities (5.2, 1,187 accounts), and posting frequency is about the same as the median (5.3 a month).

105

Accounts in sample

All 10 cities: 1,187

Posts used: 1,127

5.4

Median posts per month

All 10 cities: 5.3

n = 105 accounts

2.5

Median likes per post per 1,000 followers

All 10 cities: 5.2

n = 105 accounts

47%

Share of posts that are video

All 10 cities: 40%

n = 1,127 posts

21%

Share of posts that are carousels

All 10 cities: 27%

n = 1,127 posts

Median hashtags per post

All 10 cities: 1

n = 1,127 posts

Key findings

The median Kuala Lumpur account in our sample gets 2.5 likes per post per 1,000 followers (90% interval 2.3 to 3.9), lower than the 10-city median of 5.2.
The median account posts 5.4 times a month (90% interval 4.1 to 6.1), about the same as the 10-city median of 5.3.
Video makes up 47% of the 1,127 Kuala Lumpur posts we looked at (90% interval 42% to 51%), higher than the share across all 10 cities (40%). Carousels are 21% and single photos 33%.
In our sample, smaller accounts get more likes per 1,000 followers: 5.3 for under 5k followers (34 accounts) against 1.9 for 20k to 100k (20 accounts).
Across the full Index sample of 1,355 accounts, accounts that posted more got fewer likes per post per 1,000 followers: a median of 8.0 for under 4 posts a month (550 accounts) against 2.7 for 13 or more (269 accounts). This is a correlation, not proof that posting less causes more likes.

The data

1How many likes do Kuala Lumpur posts get?

Likes per post per 1,000 followers, one dot per account, 105 accounts

Kuala Lumpur account / medianMedian, all 10 cities

Source: Suara Restaurant Index, 105 Kuala Lumpur accounts and 1,187 accounts across 10 cities, posts collected October 2026.

Note: each account figure is the median of its posts that show a like count and are at least 7 days old. Log scale. 1 account with a median of 0 likes is drawn at the left edge.

Show as table

Measure	Kuala Lumpur	All 10 cities
Median likes per 1,000 followers	2.5	5.2
90% interval	2.3 to 3.9	4.8 to 5.7
Lowest account	0.00
Highest account	86.6
Accounts	105	1,187

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2Where does Kuala Lumpur sit among the 10 cities?

Median likes per post per 1,000 followers, and median posts per month, with 90% intervals. Accounts per city in brackets.

Kuala LumpurOther cities10-city median

Likes per post per 1,000 followers

Posts per month

Likes per post per 1,000 followers

Posts per month

Source: Suara Restaurant Index, 105 Kuala Lumpur accounts and 1,187 accounts across 10 cities, posts collected October 2026.

Note: bars are 90% bootstrap intervals. Where an interval crosses the dashed line, we treat the city as about the same as the 10-city median.

Show as table

City	Accounts	Likes per 1k	90% interval	Posts per month	90% interval
Vancouver	122	10.6	7.8 to 12.9	4.1	3.3 to 5.0
Toronto	121	6.3	5.1 to 7.8	4.8	4.2 to 6.5
London	188	6.2	5.1 to 7.5	4.9	4.3 to 5.7
Sydney	148	6.1	5.2 to 7.5	5.3	3.3 to 6.5
Jakarta	92	5.9	4.7 to 8.8	7.4	6.4 to 10.3
Melbourne	112	5.5	4.1 to 7.4	5.5	3.8 to 7.1
Singapore	120	4.8	3.5 to 6.4	4.6	3.7 to 5.4
Bangkok	84	4.5	3.1 to 6.3	6.0	4.9 to 7.8
Kuala Lumpur	105	2.5	2.3 to 3.9	5.4	4.1 to 6.1
Dubai	95	1.6	1.2 to 2.0	8.0	5.1 to 9.9
All 10 cities	1,187	5.2	4.8 to 5.7	5.3	4.9 to 5.7

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3What do Kuala Lumpur restaurants post?

Share of posts by format, 1,127 Kuala Lumpur posts and 12,882 posts across 10 cities

Source: Suara Restaurant Index, 105 Kuala Lumpur accounts and 1,187 accounts across 10 cities, posts collected October 2026.

Note: up to 12 recent non-pinned posts per account. Reels count as video.

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Format	Kuala Lumpur	All 10 cities
Photo	33%	33%
Video	47%	40%
Carousel	21%	27%

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4How often do they post?

Share of accounts by posts per month, 105 Kuala Lumpur accounts

Kuala LumpurAll 10 cities

Source: Suara Restaurant Index, 105 Kuala Lumpur accounts and 1,187 accounts across 10 cities, posts collected October 2026.

Note: posts per month = (posts minus 1) divided by days between first and last post, times 30.

Show as table

Posts per month	Kuala Lumpur accounts	Kuala Lumpur share	All 10 cities share
Under 2	25	24%	24%
2 to 4	17	16%	17%
4 to 8	29	28%	23%
8 to 12	10	10%	13%
12 or more	24	23%	23%

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5When do they post?

Share of posts by hour posted, local time, 1,127 Kuala Lumpur posts

Kuala LumpurAll 10 cities, each in its own local time

Source: Suara Restaurant Index, 105 Kuala Lumpur accounts and 1,187 accounts across 10 cities, posts collected October 2026.

Note: when accounts post, not when posts perform best.

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Hour	Kuala Lumpur	All 10 cities
12am to 1am	1%	1%
1am to 2am	0%	0%
2am to 3am	0%	0%
3am to 4am	0%	0%
4am to 5am	0%	0%
5am to 6am	0%	0%
6am to 7am	0%	1%
7am to 8am	1%	2%
8am to 9am	2%	3%
9am to 10am	4%	5%
10am to 11am	9%	8%
11am to 12pm	8%	8%
12pm to 1pm	9%	9%
1pm to 2pm	5%	7%
2pm to 3pm	7%	6%
3pm to 4pm	7%	7%
4pm to 5pm	7%	8%
5pm to 6pm	9%	10%
6pm to 7pm	7%	9%
7pm to 8pm	7%	6%
8pm to 9pm	8%	5%
9pm to 10pm	4%	3%
10pm to 11pm	3%	2%
11pm to 12am	1%	1%

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6Does account size change likes per follower?

Median likes per post per 1,000 followers by follower band. n = Kuala Lumpur accounts / all 10 cities accounts.

Kuala LumpurAll 10 cities

Source: Suara Restaurant Index, 105 Kuala Lumpur accounts and 1,187 accounts across 10 cities, posts collected October 2026.

Note: bands with fewer than 20 accounts are not shown.

Show as table

Followers	Kuala Lumpur accounts	Kuala Lumpur median	All 10 cities accounts	All 10 cities median
Under 5k	34	5.3	484	10.5
5k to 20k	49	1.9	449	3.9
20k to 100k	20	1.9	224	2.2
100k+	2	not shown	30	1.1

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7How long are their captions?

Median caption length and hashtags per post, pooled across posts

Measure	Kuala Lumpur	All 10 cities
Median caption length (characters)	325	252
Median hashtags per post	4	1
Posts	1,127	12,882

Source: Suara Restaurant Index, 105 Kuala Lumpur accounts and 1,187 accounts across 10 cities, posts collected October 2026.

Note: caption length counts characters, including emoji and hashtags.

Download CSV

What this means for a Kuala Lumpur restaurant

Use 2.5 likes per post per 1,000 followers as a reference point, not a target. To compare, take the median likes on your posts that are at least a week old, divide by your followers and multiply by 1,000. See finding
Posting more often is not a guaranteed way to more likes per post. Across the full sample, accounts that posted more got fewer likes per 1,000 followers. If you post often, it may be worth watching likes per post as well as volume. See finding
Video was 47% of posts in our Kuala Lumpur sample. If your feed is mostly one format, trying a mix and comparing your own numbers over a few weeks is a cheap test. See finding

Want your own numbers? See how your account compares Free, and the data on this page stays open.

Methodology

In short: 105 public Kuala Lumpur restaurant, cafe, bar and bakery accounts, up to 12 recent posts each, collected October 2026. All figures are medians across accounts, with 90% bootstrap intervals, checked by an independent second recount.

Full method

Sample: 105 public Instagram accounts of restaurants, cafes, bars and bakeries in Kuala Lumpur, found from OpenStreetMap listings, the venues' own websites and web search in October 2026. Accounts were included if they had 200 or more followers, 4 or more recent posts and at least one post in the 60 days before 14 October 2026. Excluded: hotels, directories, reviewers, creators, personal accounts, venues in the wrong city and closed venues. For each account we used its most recent posts that are not pinned and carry a timestamp, up to 12. Reference time: 14 October 2026, 06:00 UTC. Posts per month = (posts minus 1) divided by the days between the first and last post, times 30. Likes per 1,000 followers = the median likes of the account's posts that show a like count and are at least 7 days old, divided by its followers, times 1,000. The city figure is the median across accounts. Post format and caption figures are pooled across all posts used. Post hours are converted to Kuala Lumpur local time (Asia/Kuala_Lumpur). Uncertainty: 90% bootstrap intervals (4,000 resamples of accounts). We call Kuala Lumpur higher or lower than the 10-city figure only when its interval does not include that figure. Groups under 20 accounts are not shown. All figures were checked by an independent second recount. The 10-city comparison pools 1,187 accounts in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok, Sydney, Melbourne, Vancouver, Toronto, London and Dubai.

Method for all cities

Limitations

This is a snapshot of 105 accounts in one month, not a census of Kuala Lumpur restaurants. Accounts were found by search, so well-known venues are likely over-represented. We measure likes only: no comments, saves, shares, reach or sales. Likes are public counts and can include paid or bought engagement. Differences between cities smaller than the uncertainty bars may be chance. Nothing here shows that one format or posting time causes more likes.

How to cite

Suara (2026). Restaurant Index: Kuala Lumpur, October 2026. trysuara.com/index/kuala-lumpur. Data licensed CC BY 4.0.

Download all Kuala Lumpur data (CSV) · README. One row per account, no usernames. Media enquiries: rez@trysuara.com.

Questions

What is a good engagement rate for a Kuala Lumpur restaurant on Instagram?

We measure likes per post per 1,000 followers rather than engagement rate. In our sample of 105 Kuala Lumpur restaurant accounts, the median was 2.5 (90% interval 2.3 to 3.9), against 5.2 across all 10 cities. Smaller accounts usually score higher on this measure, so compare with accounts of a similar size.

How often do Kuala Lumpur restaurants post on Instagram?

In our sample of 105 accounts, the median account posted 5.4 times a month, against 5.3 across all 10 cities. 24% posted under 2 times a month and 23% posted 12 or more times.

What do Kuala Lumpur restaurants post most on Instagram?

Of the 1,127 posts we looked at, 47% were video, 21% carousels and 33% single photos. The median caption was 325 characters with 4 hashtags.

How was this measured?

We collected public Instagram data for 105 Kuala Lumpur restaurant, cafe, bar and bakery accounts in October 2026, using up to 12 recent non-pinned posts per account. Likes per 1,000 followers is the median likes on posts at least 7 days old divided by followers, times 1,000. City figures are medians across accounts with 90% bootstrap intervals.

How do I compare my account?

Take your last 12 posts that are at least a week old, find the median likes, divide by your follower count and multiply by 1,000. Compare that with 2.5 for Kuala Lumpur, and with the figure for your follower band in the chart above.

Other cities

Median likes per post per 1,000 followers in each city sample.

All cities in the Restaurant Index

Run a restaurant in Kuala Lumpur? See how your account compares