Instagram Scraper — Profiles, Posts & Comments

Scrape public Instagram profiles, posts, and comments using Instagram's stable mobile API — no doc_id rotation, no maintenance windows, no login required for profiles and posts. Returns 15+ fields per record including followers, captions, like counts, media URLs, timestamps, and parse_confidence in every record.

Most Instagram scrapers use GraphQL endpoints with doc_id parameters that rotate every 2–4 weeks, causing silent failures. This actor calls Instagram's mobile API endpoints (/api/v1/users/web_profile_info/, /api/v1/feed/user/{id}/) that have been stable for years — the same endpoints used by the official iOS app.

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What you get

Profile mode (mode: "profile")

Field	Description
username	Instagram handle
user_id	Numeric user ID
full_name	Display name
followers	Follower count
following	Following count
posts_count	Total post count
is_verified	Blue checkmark
is_private	Private account flag
bio	Profile biography text
external_url	Link in bio
profile_pic_url	Profile picture URL
parse_confidence	Data quality score (0.0–1.0)
warnings	Machine-readable quality codes
scraped_at	ISO-8601 timestamp

Posts mode (mode: "posts" / "post_details")

Field	Description
shortcode	Post code (e.g. DYhkH24lf3j)
media_pk	Numeric media ID
username	Author handle
user_id	Author numeric ID
caption	Post caption text
media_type	photo / video / carousel
media_type_code	Raw code: 1=photo, 2=video, 8=carousel
like_count	Like count
comment_count	Comment count
play_count	Video view count (None for photos)
taken_at	Post timestamp (ISO-8601 UTC)
display_url	Best image URL
video_url	Video file URL (videos only)
location_name	Location tag name
location_city	Location city
parse_confidence	Data quality score (0.0–1.0)
warnings	Machine-readable quality codes
scraped_at	ISO-8601 timestamp

Comments mode (mode: "comments")

Requires sessionId — Instagram blocks anonymous comment requests. Provide your own IG sessionid cookie. See input options below.

Field	Description
comment_pk	Numeric comment ID
media_pk	Parent post ID
text	Comment text
author	Commenter handle
author_id	Commenter numeric ID
like_count	Comment like count
created_at	Comment timestamp (ISO-8601 UTC)
parse_confidence	Data quality score (0.0–1.0)
warnings	Machine-readable quality codes
scraped_at	ISO-8601 timestamp

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Input

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
mode	profile/posts/post_details/comments	posts	What to scrape
usernames	string[]	—	Handles to scrape (profile/posts modes)
postUrls	string[]	—	Post URLs for comments mode
shortcodes	string[]	—	Post shortcodes for comments mode
maxItems	integer	50	Max records per username/post
sessionId	string	—	Your IG sessionid cookie (comments only)
proxyConfiguration	object	RESIDENTIAL	Apify proxy config

Example input — profiles

{
  "mode": "profile",
  "usernames": ["natgeo", "nasa", "instagram"],
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example input — posts

{
  "mode": "posts",
  "usernames": ["natgeo"],
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example input — comments

{
  "mode": "comments",
  "postUrls": ["https://www.instagram.com/p/DYhkH24lf3j/"],
  "maxItems": 100,
  "sessionId": "YOUR_SESSIONID_COOKIE"
}

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How to get your sessionId cookie (for comments mode)

1. Log in to Instagram in your browser (Chrome/Firefox)
2. Open DevTools → Application → Cookies → https://www.instagram.com
3. Find the cookie named sessionid — copy its Value
4. Paste it into the sessionId input field

Important: Use your own account. Sessions last ~90 days before expiring. This actor never stores or shares your cookie — it is only used for the current run.

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Why RESIDENTIAL proxy is required

Instagram blocks datacenter IP ranges immediately. When running on Apify cloud (datacenter IPs), RESIDENTIAL proxy is mandatory. The default proxy config (useApifyProxy: true, apifyProxyGroups: ["RESIDENTIAL"]) handles this automatically — the proxy cost is billed to your Apify account at standard rates.

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Why this scraper beats the alternatives

	This scraper	@data-slayer/instagram-post-details ($2,648/mo)	@krazee_kaushik (profile+comments)
Price	~$1.50–2.00/1k	higher	higher
No doc_id rotation maintenance	✓	✗	✗
parse_confidence in every record	✓	✗	✗
Graceful degradation without sessionId	✓	✗	partial
Both feed + profile node shapes parsed	✓	partial	partial
play_count (video views)	✓	partial	✗

Key advantage: Most competitors use GraphQL endpoints with doc_id parameters that rotate every 2–4 weeks, causing silent failures until manually patched. This actor uses Instagram's stable mobile API endpoints — no doc_id rotation, no maintenance window.

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Technical notes

• Uses lightweight HTTP requests with proper browser headers (requests/httpx are blocked by Instagram)
• Profile + posts: anonymous access via /api/v1/users/web_profile_info/ and /api/v1/feed/user/{id}/
• Comments: requires sessionid cookie via /api/v1/media/{pk}/comments/
• Proxy: Apify RESIDENTIAL (required for cloud runs; buyer-paid)
• parse_confidence (0.0–1.0) in every record — schema drift is visible in the dataset
• Rate-limit aware: exponential backoff on 429, retries on transient errors
• Shortcode ↔ media_pk conversion via base64url (A-Za-z0-9 + -_)

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Pricing

~$1.50–2.00 per 1,000 records (PPE — pay per result, no per-run fees).

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Use with AI agents (MCP)

This scraper is callable as a tool by AI agents (Claude, Cursor, n8n, CrewAI) via Apify's MCP server. Minimal agent call:

{
  "mode": "posts",
  "usernames": ["natgeo"],
  "maxItems": 10
}

parse_confidence (0.0–1.0) in every record lets agents filter low-quality rows without manual inspection.

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Not affiliated with Instagram or Meta. For personal use and research.

Integrations

Built for social-listening and influencer-marketing teams pulling profile stats, post engagement, and comment data at scale — the JSON/dataset output drops into the tools you already run, no glue code:

• n8n / Make / Zapier — trigger a run or pipe every new dataset item into 500+ apps (Google Sheets, Airtable, Slack, HubSpot, your database) with no code: n8n, Make, Zapier.
• Webhooks — fire your own endpoint the moment a run finishes, to push results straight into your pipeline (docs).
• MCP server — expose this actor as a tool to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client so an AI agent can pull this data mid-conversation (guide).
• API & SDKs — fetch the dataset as JSON, CSV, or Excel through the Apify REST API or the Python / JS SDKs.

See all Apify integrations.