🎬 Instagram Reels Scraper - Plays, Likes & Video Links

Export the reels of any public Instagram account, newest first: play count, likes, comment count, caption, date, audio title and artist, tagged users, collaborators and the video file link. No login, no cookies, no API key. Export to JSON/CSV/Excel, run on a schedule, call via API, or connect to Make, Zapier or n8n.

🔎 What is the Instagram Reels Scraper?

It is an Apify Actor that asks Instagram for the same data its own website loads for a visitor who is not logged in. It reads the account's reels tab twelve at a time, which is where the play counts are, and then looks up every reel for its caption, date, audio and video link.

In our test 100 reels of Nike took 52 seconds.

What data does it extract?

• Reel: id, code, url, caption, posted_at, is_edited
• Performance: plays, likes, comments, likes_hidden
• Author: username, full_name, author_id, is_verified, from_profile (the account whose reels tab the reel is on)
• Audio: music_title, music_artist (licensed track or the account's original audio)
• People and places: mentions[], tagged_users[], coauthors[], location_name
• Content: hashtags[], video_url, image_url (cover), alt_text

⬇️ Input

Field	Type	What it does
usernames	array	Usernames, @handles or profile links
maxResults	integer	Reels per account, newest first. 20 by default, up to 100,000
postedAfter	string	Only reels from this UTC date on (YYYY-MM-DD). Reading stops at older reels
postedBefore	string	Only reels up to this UTC date

Example input

{
  "usernames": ["nike", "natgeo"],
  "maxResults": 100
}

⬆️ Output

A real row (media links shortened):

{
  "record_type": "reel",
  "id": "3919055228681437041",
  "code": "DZjR_dosb9x",
  "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZjR_dosb9x/",
  "username": "nike",
  "full_name": "Nike",
  "author_id": "13460080",
  "is_verified": true,
  "caption": "Sleep well, NY.",
  "posted_at": "2026-06-14T03:31:05+00:00",
  "likes": 757683,
  "comments": 8529,
  "plays": 18141139,
  "media_type": "video",
  "image_url": "https://scontent-iad6-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.82787-15/722447717_1863...",
  "video_url": "https://scontent-iad6-1.cdninstagram.com/o1/v/t2/f2/m86/AQPQ-EE3j7vjXy...",
  "slide_urls": [],
  "hashtags": [],
  "mentions": [],
  "tagged_users": [
    "nikebasketball",
    "nikenyc"
  ],
  "coauthors": [
    "nikenyc",
    "nikebasketball"
  ],
  "location_name": null,
  "location_id": null,
  "music_title": "New York State of Mind",
  "music_artist": "Billy Joel",
  "alt_text": "Video by Nike on June 13, 2026.",
  "is_edited": false,
  "likes_hidden": false,
  "scraped_at": "2026-10-02T21:33:50.751683+00:00"
}

Video links are signed by Instagram and stop working after some hours. Download the files soon after the run if you need them.

💰 How much does it cost?

You pay per saved reel, plus a tiny start fee per run.

Apify plan	Price per 1,000 reels
Free	$2.00
Starter	$1.90
Scale	$1.80
Business and above	$1.70

The default run (20 reels) costs 4 cents. Set Maximum cost per run in the run options and the Actor stops saving at that amount.

💡 Use cases

• 📈 Reel performance tracking: plays, likes and comments per reel for your account and your competitors, on a schedule.
• 🎵 Audio and trend research: see which tracks an account uses and how those reels perform.
• 🤝 Creator vetting: median plays per reel says more than follower count.
• 🗂️ Content archives: captions, dates and video links for repurposing or transcription.

❓ FAQ

Do I need an Instagram account or cookies? No. The Actor never logs in.

Where do the play counts come from? From the account's reels tab, the same numbers a visitor sees on the grid.

How fast is it? About two reels per second: 100 reels in 52 seconds in our test. Instagram needs one to six seconds to answer for each reel, so the Actor asks for eight at a time.

Does maxResults count per account or per run? Per account. To cap the whole run, set Maximum cost per run.

Does it download the videos? It returns the direct file link. Fetch it with any HTTP client within a few hours.

Does it include reels that also appear in the main grid? Yes. Everything on the reels tab is returned.

What happens with private or missing accounts? They are skipped and listed in the status message and the SUMMARY record; the run still succeeds. Instagram also hides a few public accounts from visitors who are not logged in; those are reported the same way.

Can I get transcripts? Not from this Actor. It gives you the video link, which a speech-to-text tool can read.

Is it legal to scrape Instagram reels? The Actor reads only what Instagram shows publicly to any visitor and does not log in. Reels contain personal data and copyrighted material, so GDPR, CCPA, copyright law and Meta's terms apply to what you do with them. If in doubt, ask a lawyer.

Something is missing or broken? Open an issue on the Actor's Issues tab with the run ID. Issues are answered within one business day.

🔗 You might also like

• Instagram Posts Scraper
• Instagram Comments Scraper
• Instagram Profile Scraper
• Instagram Post Scraper by URL
• YouTube Transcript Scraper

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