Instagram Followers and Following Scraper

Export paginated Instagram followers and following profile rows from public accounts. Use the results for creator audience research, spreadsheet analysis, CRM enrichment, and scheduled comparison workflows.

The Actor accepts usernames or profile URLs, resolves each public account, and returns normalized audience profiles in the default Apify dataset. Users do not need to provide Instagram cookies or log in.

What this Instagram audience scraper does

• Exports followers of public Instagram profiles.
• Exports profiles followed by public Instagram accounts.
• Supports followers, following, or both lists in one run.
• Accepts usernames, @usernames, and full profile URLs.
• Follows Instagram pagination cursors automatically.
• Deduplicates profiles within each requested list.
• Stops at a clear per-profile, per-list limit.
• Returns integration-ready JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or RSS through Apify.

Who is it for

Creator research teams compare the visible audiences around creators and publishers.

Social media analysts export account lists for segmentation and further analysis.

Agencies collect consistent follower or following fields across client research projects.

Data engineers schedule audience exports and send dataset rows to a warehouse or automation pipeline.

Growth teams inspect public account relationships before outreach or partnership research.

Why use this Actor

Instagram's normal profile page does not provide a convenient downloadable audience table. This Actor turns paginated relationship lists into typed dataset records.

The backend manages the source session itself, so each user does not need to find or paste a private browser cookie. Inputs remain focused on the research job: targets, relationship direction, and result limits.

Each row identifies both the requested target and the returned audience profile. That makes multi-target exports easier to filter after a run.

Getting started

1. Open the Actor in Apify Console.
2. Add one or more Instagram usernames or profile URLs.
3. Choose Followers, Following, or Followers and following.
4. Set the maximum profiles saved for each selected list.
5. Click Start.
6. Open the Dataset tab when the run finishes.
7. Download JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or another supported format.

A small first run is best when testing a new workflow. Increase maxItemsPerList after checking that the selected public account exposes the expected list.

Input parameters

Field	Type	Default	Description
usernames	string array	['natgeo']	Instagram usernames, with or without @.
profileUrls	string array	[]	Full public Instagram profile URLs.
relationshipType	string	both	followers, following, or both.
maxItemsPerList	integer	100	Maximum rows per target and selected list, from 1 to 10,000.

You can combine usernames and profileUrls. Duplicate targets are processed once. A run accepts up to 20 unique public profiles.

Example: export followers

{
  "usernames": ["natgeo"],
  "relationshipType": "followers",
  "maxItemsPerList": 100
}

Example: export following by URL

{
  "profileUrls": ["https://www.instagram.com/nasa/"],
  "relationshipType": "following",
  "maxItemsPerList": 250
}

Example: compare both relationship lists

{
  "usernames": ["natgeo", "nasa"],
  "relationshipType": "both",
  "maxItemsPerList": 500
}

With two targets and both, the maximum possible output is 2 × 2 × 500 = 2,000 rows. The actual count can be lower when Instagram ends a list or limits what the managed session can view.

Output fields

Field	Meaning
targetUsername	Requested Instagram account.
targetUserId	Numeric Instagram ID of the requested account.
relationship	follower or following.
userId	Numeric Instagram ID of the returned profile.
username	Username of the returned profile.
fullName	Published display name.
isPrivate	Whether the returned profile is private.
isVerified	Whether Instagram marks the profile as verified.
profilePicUrl	Profile image URL when returned by Instagram.
followsViewer	Viewer-relative flag when available; otherwise null.
followedByViewer	Viewer-relative flag when available; otherwise null.
sourceUrl	Canonical profile link for the returned account.
scrapedAt	ISO timestamp for collection.

Example dataset item

{
  "targetUsername": "samplepublisher",
  "targetUserId": "12345678901",
  "relationship": "follower",
  "userId": "10987654321",
  "username": "exampleuser",
  "fullName": "Example User",
  "isPrivate": false,
  "isVerified": false,
  "profilePicUrl": null,
  "followsViewer": null,
  "followedByViewer": null,
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/exampleuser/",
  "scrapedAt": "2025-01-15T12:00:00.000Z"
}

The example is anonymized. Real runs return current public source values.

Pagination and result limits

maxItemsPerList applies independently to every target and relationship list. For example, both with a limit of 100 can save up to 100 followers and 100 following profiles for one target.

The Actor requests additional pages while Instagram supplies a cursor. It stops when the limit is reached, the list ends, or no new profiles are returned. Stable Instagram user IDs are used for deduplication within a list.

Instagram can return a page larger than the remaining requested amount. Only the requested number of normalized rows is saved and charged.

How much does it cost to export Instagram audience profiles?

The Actor uses pay-per-event pricing. Each run has one start event, and each successfully saved follower or following row has one profile event. Rejected, duplicate, or unsaved source entries are not charged as profile results.

Current prices are shown in Apify Console before you start a run. At the BRONZE tier, the run start costs $0.001 and each saved profile costs $0.00104. That is about $0.00204 for 1 profile, $0.0114 for 10 profiles, or $0.105 for 100 profiles. Other subscription tiers use the displayed tier price. Your exact total depends mainly on the number of rows saved; a list that ends early produces and charges fewer rows.

Use a small limit to estimate a recurring job before increasing it. The run log and Apify usage details show the charged event counts.

Recurring creator audience research

Apify schedules can run the same input daily, weekly, or monthly. Save each dataset to your warehouse or spreadsheet, then compare stable userId values between runs.

A typical change workflow is:

1. Schedule a bounded followers export.
2. Store the dataset with its run timestamp.
3. Join new rows to the previous dataset by targetUserId, relationship, and userId.
4. Label IDs present only in the new run as additions.
5. Label IDs present only in the previous run as removals.

The Actor returns snapshots. It does not claim that a single run is a historical monitoring database or an alerting service.

Spreadsheet and data-pipeline exports

Open a completed dataset and choose CSV or Excel for manual analysis. For automation, request dataset items from the Apify API in JSON.

Useful downstream operations include:

• grouping rows by target and relationship;
• filtering verified or public profiles;
• matching stable IDs across scheduled exports;
• loading profile links into an approved outreach review process;
• joining audience rows with other lawful first-party research data.

Profile image URLs are source-controlled and can expire. Store the profile identity fields rather than treating image URLs as permanent assets.

Run with the Apify API

Replace YOUR_TOKEN with an Apify API token. The Actor input is sent as JSON.

cURL

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~instagram-followers-following-scraper/runs?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"usernames":["natgeo"],"relationshipType":"followers","maxItemsPerList":100}'

JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const actor = client.actor('automation-lab/instagram-followers-following-scraper');
const run = await actor.call({
  usernames: ['natgeo'],
  relationshipType: 'followers',
  maxItemsPerList: 100,
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items.length);

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("automation-lab/instagram-followers-following-scraper").call(
    run_input={
        "profileUrls": ["https://www.instagram.com/nasa/"],
        "relationshipType": "following",
        "maxItemsPerList": 100,
    }
)
items = client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).list_items().items
print(len(items))

Use with Apify MCP

Claude Desktop, Cursor, and VS Code setup

Add the Actor as an Apify MCP tool in Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http apify \
  "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/instagram-followers-following-scraper"

Desktop and editor clients can use:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/instagram-followers-following-scraper"
    }
  }
}

Example prompts:

• "Export up to 100 followers of natgeo and return the dataset link."
• "Get the first 200 accounts followed by nasa on Instagram."
• "Run both audience lists for these public profiles and summarize counts by relationship."

Reliability and retry behavior

The Actor retries temporary Instagram rate limits and server errors with bounded delays. Permanent authentication rejection, invalid input, missing profiles, and unexpected response shapes fail the run instead of returning a misleading empty success.

If Instagram temporarily rejects the managed backend session, retry later. The session is maintained by the Actor operator; users should not paste private Instagram credentials into the input.

Private target profiles can limit relationship visibility. A returned audience row may itself describe a private profile because list membership is visible through the managed source session.

Limitations

• Instagram is an undocumented and frequently changing source.
• A public account's displayed count does not guarantee every row is retrievable.
• Private, restricted, deleted, renamed, or age-limited targets may not resolve.
• Instagram may truncate or temporarily limit large relationship lists.
• Viewer-relative booleans can be null when omitted upstream.
• The Actor exports current snapshots, not historical changes by itself.
• Results do not include email addresses, phone numbers, or inferred private details.
• High limits take longer and increase the chance of an upstream interruption.

Use schedules and your own stable-ID comparison logic for monitoring workflows. Do not interpret an empty or partial list as proof that an account has no relationships without checking the source state.

Legality and responsible use

Use this Actor only for lawful purposes and data you are authorized to process. Follow Instagram's terms, Apify's terms, applicable privacy law, and your organization's policies.

Do not use results for harassment, discriminatory profiling, unsolicited bulk messaging, or attempts to bypass account privacy controls. Minimize stored personal data, define retention periods, and protect exported datasets.

A public username can still be personal data in some jurisdictions. Consult qualified counsel for your specific use case.

Troubleshooting

The run says the profile was not found

Check the spelling and open the exact profile URL in Instagram. The account may be renamed, deleted, private, restricted, or temporarily unavailable.

The run fails because the managed session was rejected

Retry later. The Actor deliberately fails rather than silently returning zero rows when its backend authentication needs rotation.

I received fewer rows than the requested limit

maxItemsPerList is a ceiling, not a guarantee. Instagram may end or truncate the visible list before the requested count.

My run returned both relationship types

Set relationshipType to followers or following instead of both. Each output row also carries the exact relationship value for filtering.

Why are some viewer-relative fields null?

Instagram does not include every optional relationship flag on every response. Null preserves that distinction instead of inventing false.

Related Automation Lab Actors

• Instagram Scraper extracts profile and post data rather than audience relationship lists.
• Instagram Stories Scraper focuses on current stories, highlights, and profile context.
• Instagram Bot Detector analyzes account signals for a different downstream workflow.

Choose this Actor when follower and following profile rows are the primary dataset. Choose a related Actor when posts, stories, or account-level analysis is the actual job.

FAQ

Do I need an Instagram login or cookie?

No. The Actor uses managed backend infrastructure and does not expose a cookie input.

Can I scrape followers and following in one run?

Yes. Select both; the per-list limit is applied separately to each relationship direction.

Can I provide several target profiles?

Yes. A run supports up to 20 unique usernames or profile URLs. Every row contains targetUsername and targetUserId so results remain attributable.

Does it download profile images?

No. It returns the source profile image URL when Instagram supplies one, avoiding unnecessary media transfer.

Are results guaranteed to match Instagram's displayed counts?

No. Displayed counts and retrievable list rows can differ because of privacy, source limits, account state, and session visibility.

How do I find additions and removals?

Schedule repeated exports and compare stable userId values between dated datasets. The Actor supplies snapshots; your workflow defines the change window and alert rules.

Can I export CSV or Excel?

Yes. Open the default dataset after a run and choose the desired Apify export format.

What happens if Instagram changes its private API?

The run fails with a diagnostic message when the response is not trustworthy. Check the Actor's latest changelog and retry after maintenance rather than treating failed extraction as an empty audience.