# Instagram Audience Scraper (`blackfalcondata/instagram-audience-scraper`) Actor

Audit any public instagram.com account's audience without a login. Samples the accounts that actually engage with its posts and returns one scored row per engager: bot score, engagement rate and the reason tags behind every verdict.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/blackfalcondata/instagram-audience-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Black Falcon Data](https://apify.com/blackfalcondata) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, Lead generation, Automation
- **Stats:** 1 total users, 1 monthly users, 33.3% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

### What does Instagram Audience Scraper do?

Instagram Audience Scraper audits the audience of any public account on [instagram.com](https://instagram.com) without a login. It samples the accounts that actually engage with an account's posts — commenters and likers on its recent media — and returns one scored row per engager: bot score, risk level, engagement rate, follower ratio, avg likes and avg comments, plus the reason tags that produced the score. Every verdict ships with the evidence behind it, so a score can be checked rather than trusted. Follower lists are not readable without a session, so the sample is the public engagement audience, not the whole follower base.

**New to Apify?** [Sign up free](https://console.apify.com/sign-up?fpr=1h3gvi) and use the included $5 monthly platform credit to test this actor.

### Key features

- **🔔 Notifications:** Telegram, Slack, Discord, WhatsApp Cloud API, and generic webhook out of the box. Pair with incremental for daily new-listing alerts without pipeline glue.
- **🔗 Paste-mode:** paste any instagram-audience URL straight from your browser — single-listing pages, search-results URLs, or category SEO URLs. Mix freely with keyword and IDs in the same run; results dedupe by ID.
- **📋 Detail enrichment:** toggle two-stage scraping: first collect listings, then enrich each with full description + detail-page-only fields. Off by default to keep runs fast; flip on when you need the deep payload.
- **🎯 Batch searches:** pass `["term1", "term2"]` for query, location, or city to batch multiple searches in one run — shared dedup state, single dataset, one Actor-Start charge instead of N.
- **📧 Email + phone extraction:** best-effort regex extraction of contact emails and phone numbers from descriptions — emitted as `extractedEmails[]` and `extractedPhones[]` on every record.
- **🔗 URL + social-profile extraction:** every record carries `extractedUrls[]` plus a structured `socialProfiles { linkedin, twitter, instagram, facebook, youtube, tiktok, github, xing }` parsed from the description.
- **📦 Compact mode:** AI-agent and MCP-friendly payloads with core fields only.
- **✂️ Description truncation:** cap description length with `descriptionMaxLength` to control LLM prompt cost and dataset size — set 0 for full descriptions, or any char-limit to trim.
- **📌 Change classification:** each record carries a `changeType` of NEW / UPDATED / UNCHANGED / REAPPEARED / EXPIRED. Default emits NEW + UPDATED + REAPPEARED; opt into the others with `emitUnchanged` / `emitExpired`.
- **🔌 MCP connectors:** export your results into Notion via Apify's MCP connectors — a clean run-summary page, no glue code. Opt-in via the App connector field; deterministic field-mapping, no AI. Built on Apify's connector framework, so more destinations open up as their catalog grows.
- **📝 Description format selection:** pick a single description representation — `text`, `html`, or `markdown` — and the unused variants are dropped from each record. Halves payload size when your pipeline only consumes one format.

### What data can you extract from instagram.com?

Each result includes Core listing fields (`listingId`, `username`, `profileUrl`, `portalUrl`, `status`, `displayName`, `bio`, and `followers`, and more) and detail fields when enrichment is enabled (`detailFetched`). In standard mode, all fields are always present — unavailable data points are returned as `null`, never omitted. In compact mode, only core fields are returned.

Enable detail enrichment in the input to fetch each record's detail page — extra fields the search results omit.

### Input

The main inputs are a search keyword and a result limit. Additional filters and options are available in the input schema.

Key parameters:

- **`query`** — Instagram account(s) to audit, without the @. Paste a JSON array to audit several in one run (e.g. \["natgeo","cristiano"]). Private accounts return a single row explaining why they cannot be sampled.
- **`startUrls`** — Instagram profile URLs to audit, one per line (https://www.instagram.com/nasa/). Post and reel URLs are not accepted — this audits accounts, not posts. When provided, these replace the username field; results are deduped by account across all inputs. (default: `[]`)
- **`maxResults`** — How many accounts to score in total, split evenly across the accounts you audit — 200 with two handles samples 100 each. There is no unlimited setting: an audience is sampled from recent activity, so asking for more than that activity holds cannot produce more. (default: `200`)
- **`includeDetails`** — Look up each sampled account's own profile — posts, follower/following ratio, bio and avatar. That is where the bot signal actually lives. Off returns only what the sample itself carries, which systematically under-reports. (default: `true`)
- **`descriptionMaxLength`** — Truncate each account's bio to N characters. 0 = keep the full bio. (default: `0`)
- **`compact`** — Core fields only (for AI-agent/MCP workflows). (default: `false`)
- **`incrementalMode`** — Compare against the previous run and label each account NEW, UPDATED or UNCHANGED. stateKey is optional — runs with different inputs never share state. (default: `false`)
- **`stateKey`** — Optional. Stable identifier for the tracked search universe. Leave empty to auto-generate from search inputs.
- **`telegramToken`** — Telegram bot token (from @BotFather). Required for Telegram notifications.
- **`telegramChatId`** — Telegram chat or channel ID (e.g. "-100123456789"). Required when telegramToken is set.
- **`discordWebhookUrl`** — Discord incoming webhook URL. Server Settings → Integrations → Webhooks → New Webhook.
- **`slackWebhookUrl`** — Slack incoming webhook URL. api.slack.com/messaging/webhooks.
- ...and 12 more parameters

### Input examples

**Basic search** — Keyword-driven search with a result cap.

→ Full payload per result — all standard fields populated where the source provides them.

```json
{
  "query": "natgeo",
  "maxResults": 50
}
```

**Incremental tracking** — Only emit listings that changed since the previous run with this `stateKey`.

→ First run builds the baseline state. Subsequent runs emit only records that are new or whose tracked content changed. Set `emitUnchanged: true` to include unchanged records as well.

```json
{
  "query": "natgeo",
  "maxResults": 200,
  "incrementalMode": true,
  "stateKey": "natgeo-tracker"
}
```

**Compact output for AI agents** — Return only core fields for AI-agent and MCP workflows.

→ Small payload with the most important fields — ideal for piping into LLMs without token overhead.

```json
{
  "query": "natgeo",
  "maxResults": 50,
  "compact": true
}
```

### Output

Each run produces a dataset of structured listing records. Results can be downloaded as JSON, CSV, or Excel from the Dataset tab in Apify Console.

### Example listing record

```json
{
  "listingId": "b18ac5c89291ca1a6928f38252d1e67eabe95d762b87c48e10e3c07ee298fdf8",
  "username": "zuck",
  "profileUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/zuck/",
  "portalUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/zuck/",
  "status": "ok",
  "displayName": "Mark Zuckerberg",
  "bio": "I build stuff",
  "followers": 17017285,
  "following": 622,
  "postsCount": 439,
  "isPrivate": false,
  "isVerified": true,
  "hasDefaultAvatar": false,
  "profilePicUrl": "https://scontent-dfw6-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.82787-19/550234512_18532404670058217_8758519395071163708_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_s150x150_tt6&efg=eyJ2ZW5jb2RlX3RhZyI6InByb2ZpbGVfcGljLmRqYW5nby4xMDgwLmMyIn0&_...",
  "recentPostsSampled": 12,
  "avgLikes": 370370,
  "avgComments": 11289,
  "engagementRate": 2.242772,
  "followerFollowingRatio": 27358.9791,
  "botScore": 0,
  "riskLevel": "low",
  "confidence": 1,
  "reasonTags": [
    "verified"
  ],
  "sampledAt": "2026-09-03T06:58:32.303Z",
  "searchQuery": "zuck",
  "contentQuality": "full",
  "detailFetched": true,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-09-03T06:58:32.303Z",
  "source": "instagram.com",
  "contentHash": "8a57fb0f3d8248c8722dd1e296d799d66079a8144201133144e4a5c158838f09"
}
```

### Incremental fields

When incremental mode is on, each record also carries:

- `changeType` — one of `NEW`, `UPDATED`, `UNCHANGED`, `REAPPEARED`. Default output covers `NEW` / `UPDATED` / `REAPPEARED`; set `emitUnchanged: true` to opt into the others.

### How to scrape instagram.com

1. Go to [Instagram Audience Scraper](https://apify.com/blackfalcondata/instagram-audience-scraper?fpr=1h3gvi) in Apify Console.
2. Enter a search keyword.
3. Set `maxResults` to control how many results you need.
4. Enable `includeDetails` if you need the extra detail-page fields.
5. Click **Start** and wait for the run to finish.
6. Export the dataset as JSON, CSV, or Excel.

### Use cases

- Extract listing data from instagram.com for market research and competitive analysis.
- Monitor new and changed listings on scheduled runs without processing the full dataset every time.
- Feed structured data into AI agents, MCP tools, and automated pipelines using compact mode.
- Export clean, structured data to dashboards, spreadsheets, or data warehouses.

### How much does it cost to scrape instagram.com?

Instagram Audience Scraper uses [pay-per-event](https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/paid-actors/pay-per-event) pricing. You pay a small fee when the run starts and then for each result that is actually produced.

- **Run start:** $0.00005 per run
- **Per result:** $0.002 per listing record

Example costs:

- 10 results: **$0.02**
- 25 results: **$0.05**
- 100 results: **$0.2**
- 200 results: **$0.4**
- 500 results: **$1**

#### Example: recurring monitoring savings

These examples compare full re-scrapes with incremental runs at different churn rates. Churn is the share of listings that are new or whose tracked content changed since the previous run. Actual churn depends on your query breadth, source activity, and polling frequency — the scenarios below are examples, not predictions.

Example setup: 250 listings per run, daily polling (30 runs/month). Costs scale linearly with the number of listings.

| Churn rate | Full re-scrape run cost | Incremental run cost | Savings vs full re-scrape | Monthly cost after baseline |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| 5% — stable niche query | $0.50 | $0.03 | $0.47 (95%) | $0.75 |
| 15% — moderate broad query | $0.50 | $0.08 | $0.42 (85%) | $2.25 |
| 30% — high-volume aggregator | $0.50 | $0.15 | $0.35 (70%) | $4.50 |

Full re-scrape monthly cost at the same cadence: $15.00. First month with incremental costs $1.23 / $2.68 / $4.85 for the 5% / 15% / 30% scenarios because the first run builds baseline state at full cost before incremental savings apply.

Platform usage is included in the per-result fee shown above.

### FAQ

#### How many results can I get from instagram.com?

The number of results depends on the search query and available listings on instagram.com. Use the `maxResults` parameter to control how many results are returned per run.

#### Does Instagram Audience Scraper support recurring monitoring?

Yes. Enable incremental mode to only receive new or changed listings on subsequent runs. This is ideal for scheduled monitoring where you want to track changes over time without re-processing the full dataset.

#### Can I integrate Instagram Audience Scraper with other apps?

Yes. Instagram Audience Scraper works with Apify's [integrations](https://apify.com/integrations?fpr=1h3gvi) to connect with tools like Zapier, Make, Google Sheets, Slack, and more. You can also use webhooks to trigger actions when a run completes.

#### Can I use Instagram Audience Scraper with the Apify API?

Yes. You can start runs, manage inputs, and retrieve results programmatically through the [Apify API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2). Client libraries are available for JavaScript, Python, and other languages.

#### Can I use Instagram Audience Scraper through an MCP Server?

Yes. Apify provides an [MCP Server](https://apify.com/apify/actors-mcp-server?fpr=1h3gvi) that lets AI assistants and agents call this actor directly. Use compact mode, `descriptionMaxLength`, a single `descriptionFormat`, and `excludeEmptyFields` to keep payloads manageable for LLM context windows.

#### Is it legal to scrape instagram.com?

This actor extracts publicly available data from instagram.com. Web scraping of public information is generally considered legal, but you should always review the target site's terms of service and ensure your use case complies with applicable laws and regulations, including GDPR where relevant.

#### Your feedback

If you have questions, need a feature, or found a bug, please [open an issue](https://apify.com/blackfalcondata/instagram-audience-scraper/issues?fpr=1h3gvi) on the actor's page in Apify Console. Your feedback helps us improve.

### You might also like

- [Douyin \[Just 💰$0.5\] — Hot Search, Trending & Viral](https://apify.com/blackfalcondata/douyin-scraper?fpr=1h3gvi) — 💰 $0.50 per 1,000 results. Scrape douyin.com real-time trending boards — hot search, seeding &.
- [Facebook Ads Library Scraper \[💰$0.05/1k\]](https://apify.com/blackfalcondata/facebook-ads-library-scraper?fpr=1h3gvi) — Scrape facebook.com/ads/library by keyword or advertiser: ad copy, image and video URLs, landing.
- [Meta Ads Library Scraper \[💰$0.05/1k\]](https://apify.com/blackfalcondata/meta-ads-library-scraper?fpr=1h3gvi) — Scrape Meta's Ad Library across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Threads, Messenger and Audience.
- [Zhihu Scraper — Hot List, Q\&A & Profiles](https://apify.com/blackfalcondata/zhihu-scraper?fpr=1h3gvi) — Scrape zhihu.com — trending hot-list questions (热榜), full Q\&A answers with text and engagement.

### Getting started with Apify

New to Apify? [Create a free account with $5 credit](https://console.apify.com/sign-up?fpr=1h3gvi) — no credit card required.

1. Sign up — $5 platform credit included
2. Open this actor and configure your input
3. Click **Start** — export results as JSON, CSV, or Excel

Need more later? [See Apify pricing](https://apify.com/pricing?fpr=1h3gvi).

### Disclaimer

This actor accesses only publicly available data on instagram.com. You are responsible for how you use the extracted data — in particular any personal information such as names, phone numbers, or email addresses — and for complying with Instagram Audience's terms of use, applicable data-protection law (including the GDPR where it applies), and the anti-spam rules of your jurisdiction.

This actor is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Instagram Audience.

### Search keywords

instagram scraper, instagram api, apify instagram, instagram data extraction, instagram audience scraper, instagram audience api, apify instagram audience, instagram audience data extraction, instagram.com scraper, instagram.com data, instagram.com api.

# Actor input Schema

## `query` (type: `string`):

Instagram account(s) to audit, without the @. Paste a JSON array to audit several in one run (e.g. \["natgeo","cristiano"]). Private accounts return a single row explaining why they cannot be sampled.

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

Instagram profile URLs to audit, one per line (https://www.instagram.com/nasa/). Post and reel URLs are not accepted — this audits accounts, not posts. When provided, these replace the username field; results are deduped by account across all inputs.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

How many accounts to score in total, split evenly across the accounts you audit — 200 with two handles samples 100 each. There is no unlimited setting: an audience is sampled from recent activity, so asking for more than that activity holds cannot produce more.

## `includeDetails` (type: `boolean`):

Look up each sampled account's own profile — posts, follower/following ratio, bio and avatar. That is where the bot signal actually lives. Off returns only what the sample itself carries, which systematically under-reports.

## `descriptionMaxLength` (type: `integer`):

Truncate each account's bio to N characters. 0 = keep the full bio.

## `compact` (type: `boolean`):

Core fields only (for AI-agent/MCP workflows).

## `incrementalMode` (type: `boolean`):

Compare against the previous run and label each account NEW, UPDATED or UNCHANGED. stateKey is optional — runs with different inputs never share state.

## `stateKey` (type: `string`):

Optional. Stable identifier for the tracked search universe. Leave empty to auto-generate from search inputs.

## `telegramToken` (type: `string`):

Telegram bot token (from @BotFather). Required for Telegram notifications.

## `telegramChatId` (type: `string`):

Telegram chat or channel ID (e.g. "-100123456789"). Required when telegramToken is set.

## `discordWebhookUrl` (type: `string`):

Discord incoming webhook URL. Server Settings → Integrations → Webhooks → New Webhook.

## `slackWebhookUrl` (type: `string`):

Slack incoming webhook URL. api.slack.com/messaging/webhooks.

## `notificationLimit` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of listings included in each notification message (1–20).

## `notifyOnlyChanges` (type: `boolean`):

When Incremental Mode is on, only send notifications for NEW and UPDATED listings. Has no effect outside incremental mode.

## `whatsappAccessToken` (type: `string`):

WhatsApp Cloud API permanent access token (System User token from Meta Business). Recipient must have messaged the business number within the last 24h (service-conversation window — free since Nov 2024).

## `whatsappPhoneNumberId` (type: `string`):

Your WhatsApp Business phone-number ID (numeric, from Meta dashboard). Required when whatsappAccessToken is set.

## `whatsappTo` (type: `string`):

Recipient phone in E.164 format without + (e.g. "436641234567"). Recipient must have messaged your business number within last 24h.

## `webhookUrl` (type: `string`):

Receives a JSON POST with {metadata, items} after each run. Universal escape hatch for n8n / Make / Zapier / custom backends.

## `webhookHeaders` (type: `object`):

Optional JSON object of custom headers (e.g. {"Authorization":"Bearer ..."}).

## `appConnector` (type: `string`):

Optional. Pick a connected app under Settings → API & Integrations to receive your results (including any contact details). Best-effort across MCP connectors as Apify expands its catalog.

## `mcpIssueTeam` (type: `string`):

Only when the connected app is an issue tracker: the team (name or ID) the summary issue is created under, if that app requires one.

## `descriptionFormat` (type: `string`):

Pick a single description representation. `all` keeps every variant; `text` / `html` / `markdown` drop the others.

## `excludeEmptyFields` (type: `boolean`):

Drop null, empty-string, and empty-array fields from each record before push. Smaller payloads for AI agents and dashboards.

## `emitUnchanged` (type: `boolean`):

When incremental mode is on, also emit listings whose content has not changed since the last run.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "query": "natgeo",
  "startUrls": [],
  "maxResults": 200,
  "includeDetails": true,
  "descriptionMaxLength": 0,
  "compact": false,
  "incrementalMode": false,
  "notificationLimit": 5,
  "notifyOnlyChanges": false,
  "descriptionFormat": "all",
  "excludeEmptyFields": false,
  "emitUnchanged": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "query": "natgeo",
    "maxResults": 200,
    "descriptionFormat": "all",
    "excludeEmptyFields": false
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("blackfalcondata/instagram-audience-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "query": "natgeo",
    "maxResults": 200,
    "descriptionFormat": "all",
    "excludeEmptyFields": False,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("blackfalcondata/instagram-audience-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "query": "natgeo",
  "maxResults": 200,
  "descriptionFormat": "all",
  "excludeEmptyFields": false
}' |
apify call blackfalcondata/instagram-audience-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,blackfalcondata/instagram-audience-scraper"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/oxK6yCyzuHn0NcKpt/builds/sI783ar8862Vjv5kI/openapi.json