Instagram Followers & Following Scraper

Scrape Instagram followers and following lists from any public profile. Enter one or more usernames (or full profile URLs), choose whether you want followers, following, or both, and get structured records with username, display name, verification status, privacy flag, and profile picture. Enable full-profile enrichment to additionally pull follower counts, bio, post count, business category, and external link. Supports unlimited pagination — every user in the list is captured until complete.

What this actor does

• Three scrape modes: followers, following, or both lists in a single run
• Multiple profiles: process any number of Instagram accounts in one run, each capped independently
• Reliable pagination: captures every user in the list without duplicates or missed pages
• Flexible username input: accepts plain usernames (natgeo), @natgeo format, or full profile URLs (https://www.instagram.com/natgeo/)
• Non-existent profiles handled gracefully — a record is still output with a status field set to "This profile doesn't exist" so no input is silently dropped

Authentication

This actor requires Instagram session cookies to access follower and following lists (Instagram does not expose these to logged-out users). You can either:

1. Paste your own cookies — export from a logged-in browser session using a tool such as Cookie-Editor and paste the JSON into the cookies field.
2. Leave the cookies field blank — the actor will automatically use a managed pool of shared Instagram sessions. This is the recommended option for most users.

If your cookies expire mid-run, re-export them from your browser and restart the actor.

Output per follower / following record

Standard fields (always present)

• username — Instagram handle
• user_id — numeric Instagram user ID
• full_name — display name on the profile
• is_verified — true if the account has a blue verification badge
• is_private — true if the account is private
• profile_pic_url — CDN URL of the profile picture
• profile_pic_id — internal media ID for the profile picture ("" when not available)
• profile_url — URL of the source profile being scraped
• profile_username — username of the source profile being scraped
• scrape_type — "followers" or "following"
• scraped_at — ISO 8601 timestamp of when the record was collected
• status — "success" for valid records; "This profile doesn't exist" when the username was not found on Instagram

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
usernames	array	["instagram"]	Usernames, @username handles, or full Instagram profile URLs
scrapeType	string	followers	followers — followers only; following — following only; both — both lists
maxFollowersPerProfile	integer	100	Maximum users to return per profile per list. 0 = unlimited
cookies	string	–	Instagram cookies in JSON format. Leave blank to use the managed session pool
sessionName	string	–	Key-value store key for a previously saved session (advanced use)

Example: scrape followers of a single account

{
  "usernames": ["natgeo"],
  "scrapeType": "followers",
  "maxFollowersPerProfile": 200
}

Example: multiple profiles, following only

{
  "usernames": ["natgeo", "nasa", "instagram"],
  "scrapeType": "following",
  "maxFollowersPerProfile": 100
}

Example: full crawl with your own cookies

{
  "usernames": ["natgeo"],
  "scrapeType": "followers",
  "maxFollowersPerProfile": 0,
  "cookies": "[{\"name\":\"sessionid\",\"value\":\"YOUR_SESSION_ID\",...}]"
}

Use cases

• Competitor analysis — see who follows your competitors and identify potential customers or brand advocates
• Influencer research — audit an influencer's audience before a collaboration: privacy ratio, verification density, account categories
• Lead generation — extract follower lists from niche community accounts to build outreach lists
• Community mapping — understand the overlap between two brands' audiences by scraping both following lists
• Market research — identify business accounts following a target profile using the is_business and category fields
• Account monitoring — track follower growth or churn by comparing periodic scrapes of the same profile

FAQ

Do I need an Instagram account to use this actor? The actor accesses Instagram as a logged-in user because Instagram hides follower/following lists from logged-out visitors. You can either provide your own cookies or leave the field blank and use the built-in managed session pool.

Will this work on private accounts? The logged-in session used must follow the private account in order to see its followers or following list. If the session does not follow the account, the actor will return zero results for that profile.

How many followers can I scrape per run? There is no hard limit — set maxFollowersPerProfile to 0 for an unlimited crawl. Very large accounts (100K+ followers) will take longer to complete.

Why does the scraped follower count differ from the number shown on the profile? Instagram's displayed follower count includes deactivated, suspended, and deleted accounts that do not appear in the actual followers list. It is normal for the scraped count to be somewhat lower than the displayed figure.

What happens if a username doesn't exist? The actor still outputs a record for that username with all string fields set to "", boolean fields to false, and status set to "This profile doesn't exist". No input is silently dropped.

How fresh is the data? Data is scraped live at the time of the run. Instagram follower lists reflect the current state of the account at the moment of scraping.

Is this actor affiliated with Instagram or Meta? No. This is an independent third-party tool that automates interaction with the public Instagram website. It is not endorsed by or affiliated with Meta Platforms, Inc.

Other Instagram Scrapers

Want to get other data from Instagram? Check out our complete suite of Instagram scrapers:

Actor	Description
Instagram Comment Scraper	Scrape comments from any Instagram post
Instagram Profile Scraper	Extract profile data, bio, follower counts, and more
Instagram Followers & Following Scraper	Scrape followers and following lists from any profile
Instagram Tagged Posts Scraper	Collect posts where a user has been tagged
Instagram Hashtag Scraper	Scrape posts and profiles by hashtag
Instagram Story Downloader	Download stories from Instagram profiles
Instagram Downloader API	Download photos, videos, and reels from Instagram
Instagram Keyword Scraper	Search and scrape posts by keyword
Instagram Keyword Search Scraper	Search Instagram accounts and posts by keyword
Instagram Transcript Scraper	Extract transcripts from Instagram video content