diff --git a/NAMESPACE b/NAMESPACE
index 03f1263c..25864189 100644
--- a/NAMESPACE
+++ b/NAMESPACE
@@ -26,6 +26,9 @@ S3method(gen_tibble,matrix)
 S3method(group_by,gen_tbl)
 S3method(indiv_het_obs,tbl_df)
 S3method(indiv_het_obs,vctrs_bigSNP)
+S3method(indiv_inbreeding,grouped_df)
+S3method(indiv_inbreeding,tbl_df)
+S3method(indiv_inbreeding,vctrs_bigSNP)
 S3method(indiv_missingness,tbl_df)
 S3method(indiv_missingness,vctrs_bigSNP)
 S3method(indiv_ploidy,tbl_df)
@@ -110,6 +113,7 @@ export(gt_save)
 export(gt_set_imputed)
 export(gt_uses_imputed)
 export(indiv_het_obs)
+export(indiv_inbreeding)
 export(indiv_missingness)
 export(indiv_ploidy)
 export(loci_alt_freq)
diff --git a/R/indiv_inbreeding.R b/R/indiv_inbreeding.R
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..86430e85
--- /dev/null
+++ b/R/indiv_inbreeding.R
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+#' Individual inbreeding coefficient
+#'
+#' This function calculates the inbreeding coefficient for each individual
+#' based on the beat estimate of Weir and Goudet (2017).
+#'
+#' @param .x a vector of class `vctrs_bigSNP` (usually the `genotype` column of
+#' a [`gen_tibble`] object),
+#' or a [`gen_tibble`].
+#' @param method currently only "WG17" (for Weir and Goudet 2017).
+#' @param allele_sharing_mat optional and only relevant for "WG17", the matrix of Allele Sharing returned by
+#' [pairwise_allele_sharing()] with `as_matrix=TRUE`. As a number of statistics can be
+#' derived from the Allele Sharing matrix,
+#' it it sometimes more efficient to pre-compute this matrix. It is not possible to use this with
+#' grouped tibbles.
+#' @param ... currently unused.
+#' @return a numeric vector of inbreeding coefficients.
+#' @export
+
+indiv_inbreeding <- function(.x, method = c("WG17"), allele_sharing_mat = NULL, ...) {
+  UseMethod("indiv_inbreeding", .x)
+}
+
+#' @export
+#' @rdname indiv_inbreeding
+indiv_inbreeding.tbl_df <- function(.x, method = c("WG17"), allele_sharing_mat = NULL, ...){
+  stopifnot_gen_tibble(.x)
+  # extract the column and hand it over to its method
+  if (is.null(allele_sharing_mat)){
+    allele_sharing_mat <- pairwise_allele_sharing(.x, as_matrix = TRUE)
+  }
+  indiv_inbreeding(.x$genotypes, method= method, allele_sharing_mat = allele_sharing_mat, ...)
+}
+
+#' @export
+#' @rdname indiv_inbreeding
+indiv_inbreeding.vctrs_bigSNP <- function(.x, method = c("WG17"), allele_sharing_mat = NULL, ...){
+  rlang::check_dots_empty()
+  stopifnot_diploid(.x)
+  if (is.null(allele_sharing_mat)){
+    # deal with the fact that allele sharing can only be computed for the gen_tibble
+    # TODO modify allele sharing code to be able to create a matrix just from the genotype column
+    stop("this method has to be applied to a gen_tibble, not just the genotype column")
+  }
+
+  # taken from beta.dosage in hierfstat
+  Mii <- diag(allele_sharing_mat) # diagonal of the matrix
+  diag(allele_sharing_mat) <- NA
+  MB <- mean(allele_sharing_mat, na.rm = T)
+  indiv_inb <- ((Mii * 2 - 1) - MB)/(1 - MB)
+  return(indiv_inb)
+}
+
+#' @export
+#' @rdname loci_alt_freq
+indiv_inbreeding.grouped_df <- function(.x, method = c("WG17"), allele_sharing_mat = NULL, ...){
+  rlang::check_dots_empty()
+  stopifnot_diploid(.x)
+  if (!is.null(allele_sharing_mat)){
+    stop("allele_sharing_mat can not be provided for grouped_df objects")
+  }
+
+  group_map(.x, .f=~indiv_inbreeding.(.x, method = method, allele_sharing_mat=NULL, ...))
+}
diff --git a/R/pairwise_allele_sharing.R b/R/pairwise_allele_sharing.R
index 84211853..f9819791 100644
--- a/R/pairwise_allele_sharing.R
+++ b/R/pairwise_allele_sharing.R
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 #' @export
 pairwise_allele_sharing <- function(x, as_matrix=FALSE,
                       block_size = bigstatsr::block_size(count_loci(x))) {
+
   X <- attr(x$genotypes,"bigsnp") # convenient pointer
   x_ind_col <- .gt_bigsnp_cols(x)
   x_ind_row <- .gt_bigsnp_rows(x)
diff --git a/man/indiv_inbreeding.Rd b/man/indiv_inbreeding.Rd
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ed3d24c1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/man/indiv_inbreeding.Rd
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+% Generated by roxygen2: do not edit by hand
+% Please edit documentation in R/indiv_inbreeding.R
+\name{indiv_inbreeding}
+\alias{indiv_inbreeding}
+\alias{indiv_inbreeding.tbl_df}
+\alias{indiv_inbreeding.vctrs_bigSNP}
+\title{Individual inbreeding coefficient}
+\usage{
+indiv_inbreeding(.x, method = c("WG17"), allele_sharing_mat = NULL, ...)
+
+\method{indiv_inbreeding}{tbl_df}(.x, method = c("WG17"), allele_sharing_mat = NULL, ...)
+
+\method{indiv_inbreeding}{vctrs_bigSNP}(.x, method = c("WG17"), allele_sharing_mat = NULL, ...)
+}
+\arguments{
+\item{.x}{a vector of class \code{vctrs_bigSNP} (usually the \code{genotype} column of
+a \code{\link{gen_tibble}} object),
+or a \code{\link{gen_tibble}}.}
+
+\item{method}{currently only "WG17" (for Weir and Goudet 2017).}
+
+\item{allele_sharing_mat}{optional and only relevant for "WG17", the matrix of Allele Sharing returned by
+\code{\link[=pairwise_allele_sharing]{pairwise_allele_sharing()}} with \code{as_matrix=TRUE}. As a number of statistics can be
+derived from the Allele Sharing matrix,
+it it sometimes more efficient to pre-compute this matrix. It is not possible to use this with
+grouped tibbles.}
+
+\item{...}{currently unused.}
+}
+\value{
+a numeric vector of inbreeding coefficients.
+}
+\description{
+This function calculates the inbreeding coefficient for each individual
+based on the beat estimate of Weir and Goudet (2017).
+}
diff --git a/man/loci_alt_freq.Rd b/man/loci_alt_freq.Rd
index a69c5fe3..68d934ae 100644
--- a/man/loci_alt_freq.Rd
+++ b/man/loci_alt_freq.Rd
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 % Generated by roxygen2: do not edit by hand
-% Please edit documentation in R/loci_alt_freq.R
-\name{loci_alt_freq}
+% Please edit documentation in R/indiv_inbreeding.R, R/loci_alt_freq.R
+\name{indiv_inbreeding.grouped_df}
+\alias{indiv_inbreeding.grouped_df}
 \alias{loci_alt_freq}
 \alias{loci_alt_freq.tbl_df}
 \alias{loci_alt_freq.vctrs_bigSNP}
@@ -11,6 +12,8 @@
 \alias{loci_maf.grouped_df}
 \title{Estimate allele frequencies at each each locus}
 \usage{
+\method{indiv_inbreeding}{grouped_df}(.x, method = c("WG17"), allele_sharing_mat = NULL, ...)
+
 loci_alt_freq(.x, ...)
 
 \method{loci_alt_freq}{tbl_df}(.x, ...)
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test_indiv_inbreeding.R b/tests/testthat/test_indiv_inbreeding.R
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..7e3a3925
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/testthat/test_indiv_inbreeding.R
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+test_genotypes <- rbind(c(1,1,0,1,1,0),
+                        c(2,1,0,NA,0,0),
+                        c(2,NA,0,0,1,1),
+                        c(1,0,0,1,0,0),
+                        c(1,2,0,1,2,1),
+                        c(0,0,0,0,NA,1),
+                        c(0,1,1,0,1,NA))
+test_indiv_meta <- data.frame (id=c("a","b","c","d","e","f","g"),
+                               population = c("pop1","pop1","pop2","pop2","pop1","pop3","pop3"))
+test_loci <- data.frame(name=paste0("rs",1:6),
+                        chromosome=paste0("chr",c(1,1,1,1,2,2)),
+                        position=as.integer(c(3,5,65,343,23,456)),
+                        genetic_dist = as.double(rep(0,6)),
+                        allele_ref = c("A","T","C","G","C","T"),
+                        allele_alt = c("T","C", NA,"C","G","A"))
+
+test_gt <- gen_tibble(x = test_genotypes, loci = test_loci, indiv_meta = test_indiv_meta, quiet = TRUE)
+
+
+test_that("indiv_inbreeding compute correctly",{
+  # expect error if the tibble is not grouped
+  inbreed_hier <- diag(hierfstat::beta.dosage(test_genotypes))
+  inbreed_gt <- test_gt %>% indiv_inbreeding(method = "WG17")
+  expect_true(all.equal(inbreed_hier, inbreed_gt, check.attributes = FALSE))
+
+  # group the tibble
+  test_gt <- test_gt %>% dplyr::group_by(population)
+  # is this right???
+  inbreed_group_gt <- test_gt %>% indiv_inbreeding(method = "WG17")
+
+})