How to Make a Public Profile on Snapchat and Show Your Subscriber Count

On Snapchat, followers only exist once you have a Public Profile. A regular account has friends, which is a two-way relationship. The Public Profile is what adds a one-way audience.

Updated September 2026

How to create a public profile on Snapchat, step by step

The steps in the current app, on iPhone and Android:

• Open Snapchat and tap your Bitmoji or profile icon in the top left corner.
• Tap My Public Profile. If it's your first time, Snapchat walks you through creating it.
• Add a profile photo and a cover photo, so people who find you recognize the account.
• Write a short bio and, if you want, add a location or category.
• Post a public Story or save Snaps to your Public Profile, so visitors have something to see.
• Share your profile link or Snapcode wherever your audience already is.

Why don't I have a public profile on Snapchat?

The usual reasons are age, account standing and app version. Snapchat's help center says accounts under 16 and accounts with Community Guidelines violations won't have access. If neither applies, update the app. Older guides list requirements such as account age and having at least one mutual friend; those were earlier rules, and Snapchat's current help page describes the Public Profile as available by default from 16.

What are the age rules for a Snapchat Public Profile?

Snapchat publishes them in its help center and safety pages:

• Under 16: no Public Profile. Snapchat keeps 13 to 15-year-olds in a friends-only experience.
• 16 and 17: a Public Profile with extra safeguards. Snapchat says public Stories from this age group are only recommended to their friends, subscribers and people with mutual friends, and replies to public Stories can't turn into direct chats.
• 18 and over: the full Public Profile, with wider distribution of public content.
• Professional accounts, such as business profiles, are limited to people 18 and over.

How do subscribers work on a Snapchat Public Profile?

A subscriber is someone who follows your Public Profile without being your friend. They see your public Stories, can find your Spotlight posts, and get your profile in their subscriptions. You don't have to accept them, and you don't see their private content. It's the same one-way relationship that followers have on other networks.

Your friends list doesn't change. Friends still see your private Stories and receive your Snaps, and becoming a subscriber doesn't make someone a friend.

What stays private after you go public?

Using a Public Profile doesn't turn your whole account public. Snaps you send to friends, your chats, and Stories you post to My Story for friends only stay where they were. What becomes public is what you deliberately put there: public Stories, Snaps you save to the Public Profile, Spotlight posts under your name, and the photo, bio and details you add to the profile itself.

That separation is worth using. Many people keep one account and treat the two sides differently, posting everyday Snaps to friends and a curated selection publicly. Before posting a public Story, check the audience selector each time, since it's the one step where a friends-only Snap can become public by mistake.

How to show your subscriber count on Snapchat

Snapchat added the option to display subscriber counts on Public Profiles in 2022. It's a toggle, not a default you're stuck with:

• Open your Public Profile.
• Tap Edit, or the three-dot menu to open Public Profile Settings.
• Find the option to show your subscriber or follower count and switch it on. Switch it off the same way if you'd rather hide it.
• Check your profile from another account to confirm what visitors see.

Should you show the count?

It depends on the number. A visible subscriber count is a shortcut for strangers: a profile with an audience looks worth checking, and a profile at a handful looks untested. What is social proof explains why people read counts that way. Many creators hide the count while it's small and turn it on once it reflects the work.

How to delete public profile on Snapchat

Snapchat calls this clearing your Public Profile. According to its help center:

• Go to your Public Profile.
• Tap the three-dot menu in the top right to open Public Profile Settings.
• Scroll to the bottom and tap Clear Public Profile.
• Confirm that you want to clear it.

What clearing removes, and what it doesn't

Clearing permanently removes everything you added to the Public Profile, including your bio, profile photo, public Stories and Stories saved to it, and Snapchat says that content can't be restored. It doesn't delete your username or your Snapchat account. Your Spotlight posts and Snap Map Snaps also stay, so delete those separately if you want them gone. If you had a creator or business profile, clearing returns you to a standard profile and removes the features that came with it.

How to get followers on Snapchat once your profile is public

A Public Profile only grows if people can find it. The routes Snapchat gives you:

• Post public Stories regularly, so subscribers have a reason to come back.
• Post to Spotlight, Snapchat's feed of short public videos, where people who don't know you can discover your work.
• Share your profile link and Snapcode on the platforms where your audience already follows you.
• Save your best Snaps to the Public Profile, so a first-time visitor sees more than an empty page.

Where the subscriber count fits

The Snap Score is the other number on a Snapchat profile, and it's easy to confuse with audience. It isn't: how does Snap Score work explains that it counts activity between friends. The subscriber count is the audience number. When a new Public Profile starts from zero, some creators buy Snapchat followers so the count visitors see isn't empty, and add Snapchat views to public Stories or Spotlight posts. That changes what people see on the profile, not what you post, and a fake follower checker explains what outsiders can and can't read from a follower list. Everything for Snapchat is on the Snapchat page.

Questions people ask about Snapchat Public Profiles