How to Use Metricool: A Beginner's Walkthrough From Setup to Reports

What Metricool is for, and how an account is built

Metricool is a social media management app that puts planning, analytics, reporting, an inbox and a link-in-bio page in one place. Its top menu has six main areas: Analytics, Reporting, Inbox, Planning, SmartLinks and Ads. For a beginner it comes down to two jobs: scheduling posts across several networks from one calendar, and seeing which of those posts worked. Everything else grows out of those two habits, so this walkthrough follows the order in which a new user actually meets each part of the product.

Before you click anything, learn the structure, because every limit hangs on it. You are the user, a brand is a container for one business or client, and each brand holds one profile per network, plus one website or blog. One brand cannot hold two Instagram accounts. Two businesses mean two brands, and every Google Business Profile location needs its own brand as well. Plans are sized by brand count, not by posts or people, so the first planning question is simple. How many businesses will you run from here?

Day one: sign-up, your first brand, time zone and security

Signing up for the Free plan needs no credit card. You can log in with Google or an email address, and Facebook login works only on Free accounts. There is no standard free trial of the paid plans. Trials exist only through codes, and the terms differ by code: affiliate trial codes give first-time users with no previous paid plan 30 days, and the DSC15 Looker Studio coupon gives a 15-day trial of Advanced. Every code trial needs a card or PayPal, and it moves to the paid plan when it ends unless you cancel first, so the Free plan is the real way to try the product. Our guide to what the Free plan covers goes through its limits in detail. The short version: one brand, 20 published posts a month, 30 days of analytics, and every network except LinkedIn and X.

That single Free brand cannot be deleted or replaced, and connecting a different social account to an existing brand mixes the history of both accounts. So set it up for the business you care about most. If you later pay, Starter costs $25 a month billed monthly or $20 a month billed annually for up to 5 brands, and Advanced costs $67 a month billed monthly or $53 a month billed annually for up to 15 brands ^[1]. There is no archive option for brands. Deleting is the only way to switch one off, and support can restore a deleted brand within 45 days if you have a free brand slot.

Two settings to fix before you schedule anything

Set the time zone first. The account time zone is the default, and each brand can override it in the planner. That matters for anyone managing a client in another region. Duplicated posts keep their original date and time when copied across brands with different time zones, with no adjustment. Check the clock on every brand once, and you avoid posts going out at three in the morning.

Then switch on two-factor authentication. It is off by default and works with an authenticator app such as Google Authenticator or Authy, never by SMS. Metricool provides no backup or recovery codes, so a lost phone means asking support to disable it after verifying ownership. Without it, a new device or location gets a 6-digit email code instead, and that device is then trusted for 30 days. Do it now. It takes minutes.

Connecting your networks without losing features

Instagram: the login choice that decides your metrics

Instagram needs a business or creator account. Metricool offers two ways in: Instagram login with your username and password, or a connection through a Facebook Page. The Facebook route unlocks every Instagram feature, while Instagram login covers scheduling, publishing and basic metrics only, with no competitor analysis, no Collabs analytics and limited Flows. Linking Instagram to a Facebook Page is a Meta requirement for the full API, even if you never post on that Page ^[2]. Choose carefully on day one. Each connection method keeps its own history, so switching later leaves gaps in follower and Stories data.

LinkedIn, X, YouTube and the rest

Facebook connects Pages only, not personal profiles, and you need admin permission on the Page. LinkedIn is not available on Free, and one brand cannot hold both a personal profile and a company page. On plans bought on the web, X is not included: it needs a paid plan plus the X add-on at $10 a month per connected X account (the app-store Starter Mobile 5 plan includes X in its price). A Starter brand billed monthly with one X account therefore comes to $25 + $10 = $35 a month, by our arithmetic. YouTube channels under a Brand Account can be connected only by a Primary owner or Owner, since Managers can no longer connect through the YouTube API. Plan for that.

Why connections drop, and why that is normal

Every network hands Metricool a token, and tokens expire. Approximate lifetimes are 60 days for Meta networks, LinkedIn and Pinterest, 365 days for TikTok, and no defined expiration for X, which can still revoke one for security reasons ^[3]. When a token lapses, some functions stop working until you refresh the connection. Whoever connects a Page must stay its administrator, or the account may disconnect. Put a reminder in your calendar every couple of months to check the connections screen. It takes a minute.

Your first week in the Planner

The Planner is where most of your time goes. You write one post, pick the networks, and Metricool creates one calendar publication per selected network, each of which you can adapt. The built-in editor crops, filters and resizes images and trims, splits and resizes videos. Canva and Google Drive plug in on paid plans. The Preview feed tool shows how the grid will look before anything goes live. We cover the full calendar, autolists and recurring posts in our Metricool Planner guide.

Best Times, and when to trust them

The calendar marks your Best Times to post. Give it time: they can take up to 7 days to appear after you connect a new account. Personalized times need Instagram connected through Facebook with at least 100 followers, or a TikTok business account with at least 100 followers. LinkedIn and YouTube use general behavior studies, because those networks give no account data, and Facebook accounts connected after September 24, 2024 also get general times. X Best Times need Advanced or Custom and at least 300 active followers who posted in the last 7 days. Treat the shading as a starting point, then compare it with your own results after a month.

What publishes itself and what needs your phone

Most posts publish automatically. Some do not. Instagram Stories with links, mentions or stickers, Reels with interactive stickers or audio outside Metricool's library, and carousels with videos over 60 seconds go by notification: you get an alert and post them by hand. TikTok videos with music outside the Top 100 work the same way. A post marked Sent in the calendar is waiting for you, and it cannot be switched to auto-publishing afterward. Phone alerts need the Metricool app installed. Notifications cover manual-publishing posts and errors only, never success, so silence is good news.

Two rules save beginners trouble. Published posts cannot be edited through Metricool; edits happen on the network itself. And deleting a post while it is processing does not guarantee it stays unpublished, because the request may already be sent. On Free, remember the counter: only posts actually published count toward the 20, a post sent to three networks counts three times, and the counter resets on the 1st of each month.

Reading Analytics, competitors and your first report

What the numbers show on Free and on a paid plan

On first connection, Metricool pulls the previous 30 days of data. Free keeps exactly that window, with a watermark on analytics and no export. Paid plans can ask support through chat for a manual sync of extra history, which takes about 30 to 45 minutes. Connect your accounts early, even before you plan to post. Follower counts for X, TikTok, Instagram, Threads, Bluesky and personal LinkedIn, plus YouTube subscribers and Instagram Stories, cannot be recovered later and are recorded only while connected. Website tracking works the same way: data starts the day you install it.

Competitors

Free gets a fixed demo of up to 5 competitor accounts per network that you cannot edit or delete. Paid plans allow up to 100 competitors per network, and up to 10 on YouTube. The data is organic only, from public API information, and engagement is calculated with followers because reach is not public. That makes your own numbers look different from a rival's. Metricool's fix is sensible: add your own account as a competitor, and you compare like with like.

The first report

Reports start on Starter and download as PDF or PPT. Anyone with a report link can open it without signing in, the link does not expire, and deleting the report does not disable links already copied, so share with care. Reports can be scheduled, and your own report templates need Advanced or Custom. For a client or a manager, schedule the monthly report and stop building it by hand.

The inbox and SmartLinks

The Inbox gathers Facebook and Instagram comments and messages, TikTok comments on business accounts, X private messages, LinkedIn comments and mentions, Google Business Profile reviews and YouTube comments. It works per brand, with no unified view across brands, no assignment and no auto-replies. It sends no push or email alerts for new messages, so you have to open it. Build the habit of checking it daily. Message replies close after 7 days on Facebook and on Instagram connected through Facebook, and after 24 hours on Instagram connected directly. You cannot delete or hide comments from Metricool. Saved answers, which can be shared across all brands, speed up the routine replies.

SmartLinks is the link-in-bio page, and it needs a paid plan. Paid accounts get unlimited SmartLinks, each with up to 100 buttons, built and edited on a desktop browser only. With Instagram connected, your latest posts sync into the page, and scheduled posts can be added to a SmartLink automatically. Links live on a Metricool domain; a custom domain is not possible outside white-label integrators.

Does Metricool have an app?

Yes. There are Metricool apps for Android and iOS, and a new account can even be registered from the app. The app lets you publish, plan, review basic stats, reply in the inbox, and use AI text and, on the plans that include them, Canva, Google Drive and the post library (paid plans) and content approval (Advanced and Custom). Its main job for most people is the push alert for manual publishing on Instagram and TikTok. Install it on day one if you post Stories with stickers or links.

The app is a companion, not a replacement. It cannot edit posts per network, schedule threads, use Adobe Express or Social Calendars, build SmartLinks, run ad campaigns, or manage users and subscriptions ^[4]; Studio and Campaign Dashboards are also missing. Best Times show only a basic view, and the editor handles images only. Files can be up to 500 MB. Plans bought inside the app are a separate product: Starter Mobile 5, billed monthly through Apple or Google with the X add-on included and no promo codes.

Adding the AI assistant and the MCP

The AI assistant writes post drafts inside the Planner and can generate threads for X and Threads of five posts. It runs on credits: 5 a month on Free, 20 per brand a month on Starter and 35 per brand on Advanced. One credit covers roughly 600 words of prompt and answer. Credits cannot be bought and do not roll over. On Advanced and Custom, spend a few minutes on prompt customization first (Metricool's plan pages list it as an Advanced feature): Metricool can generate network instructions from your past writing if you have at least 15 text posts from the last two years, and that step uses no credits. Google Business Profile is not covered.

The MCP connects your account to an outside AI assistant such as Claude or ChatGPT. It works on every plan, including Free, though plan limits still apply, so Free still stops at 20 posts. In Claude, Metricool is listed in the connectors directory, needs no API key, and one connection covers the desktop, web and mobile apps; Claude Code needs a Claude Pro or Max plan. In ChatGPT, your account needs access to Apps, and OpenAI decides which ChatGPT plans include them. Through the MCP an assistant can read analytics, suggest best times and create or schedule posts. It cannot touch the inbox, comments, SmartLinks, autolists or ad campaigns, and sending posts for review this way needs Advanced. Authorizing it grants full access, much like signing in yourself.

Bringing in a team

Free and Starter have one user. Inviting colleagues, roles, post approval, shared brands and the client connection link are Advanced or Custom only. On Advanced you get unlimited users with predefined roles (Analyst, Editor, Manager, Content Creator and Client) plus custom roles, and permissions are set per brand, so one person can be an admin on one brand and an editor on another. Invited users cannot see billing or the owner's other brands. For agencies, the connection link lets a client connect their own networks to an empty brand without a Metricool account; it expires after 71 hours.

A routine for your first 30 days

• Week one: set the time zone and 2FA, connect every network (Instagram through Facebook), install the mobile app, and add your own account plus a few rivals as competitors.
• Week two: schedule a week of posts in the Planner, check the preview feed, and note which posts arrive as notifications.
• Week three: compare your results with the Best Times shading, set up AI prompt customization if you are on Advanced, and connect the MCP if you use an AI assistant.
• Week four: read the month in Analytics, download or schedule a report if you are on a paid plan, and check the connections screen for expiring tokens.
• Every day: open the Inbox, because nothing will tell you a message arrived.

By the end of the month you will know whether Free is enough. Most people find out fast. If you hit the 20-post ceiling, need LinkedIn, or want reports, Starter is the next step. If you need a second person in the account, it is Advanced. If you want X, add the add-on to either paid plan. Upgrades are immediate and prorated. Downgrades wait for the end of the cycle and keep your oldest brands by default, so delete the brands you do not want from the Connections panel before the downgrade completes; after that the choice is locked. Only the first purchase has a 15-day withdrawal right; renewals and plan changes are not refunded.

The bottom line

Metricool is easy to start and easy to grow into, as long as you respect its structure. Get the brand right, connect Instagram through Facebook, set the time zone and 2FA, and connect everything early so history starts recording. Then live in the Planner, check the Inbox by hand every day, and let the mobile app handle the posts Instagram and TikTok will not accept automatically. Free covers one brand and 20 published posts a month; Starter adds LinkedIn, reports and SmartLinks; Advanced adds the team. On web plans, X costs extra.