Instagram Post Scraper

Scrape public Instagram posts, reels, IGTV and carousel posts from direct URLs — no login, no cookies, no browser required. Supply a list of Instagram links (/p/, /reel/, /reels/, /tv/, or the canonical username/p/shortcode format) and receive a structured dataset with author details, caption, media URLs, engagement counts, publish date, music, location, and more. Handles batches of 10,000 URLs per run with per-IP proxy rotation that keeps pace fast even under rate limiting.

What this actor does

• Scrape posts by URL — accepts any mix of /p/, /reel/, /reels/, /tv/, and canonical username/p/shortcode links in a single run
• Full media extraction — returns direct CDN URLs for every photo, video, reel and carousel item, including per-item resolution and duration
• Rich author data — username, display name, verified status, and profile picture URL
• Engagement metrics — like count, comment count, per-item video duration, and whether likes are publicly hidden
• Captions, hashtags, and mentions — caption text parsed with hashtags and @mentions extracted as separate arrays
• Location and music — tagged location (name, coordinates) and reel music (artist, title, audio ID) when present
• Status tracking — every input URL produces a record; inaccessible, deleted, age-restricted, and invalid URLs each carry a clear status value so no URL is silently lost
• Scale without blocks — per-IP cooldown with exponential back-off, automatic slot recycling, and UUID-prefixed sessions that guarantee fresh IPs on every run

Output per post record

Always present

• status — scrape outcome: success, not_found, age_restricted, invalid_url, error, or blocked (see Status values section below)
• post_url — full Instagram post URL (https://www.instagram.com/p/{shortcode}/)

Records with any status other than success contain only these two fields — no other keys are present.

Present on successfully scraped posts (status: success)

• shortcode — the post's unique shortcode identifier
• scraped_at — ISO 8601 timestamp of when the record was scraped, UTC (no +00:00 suffix)
• post_id — Instagram's internal numeric post ID
• username — author's Instagram username (also included in author_meta below)
• author_meta — object with the author's id, username, full_name, is_verified, profile_pic_url, profile_url, followers, and post_count
• pub_date — ISO 8601 publish timestamp, UTC (no +00:00 suffix)
• media_type — one of Photo, Video, Reel, IGTV, or Carousel
• media_count — number of media items (always 1 except for carousels)
• thumbnail_url — CDN URL of the post thumbnail image
• like_count — number of likes (null when likes_hidden is true)
• comment_count — number of comments
• likes_hidden — true if the author has hidden like counts, false otherwise
• comments_disabled — true if comments are turned off on the post, false otherwise
• caption — full caption text (empty string "" when there is no caption)
• hashtags — array of hashtags found in the caption (empty array [] when none)
• mentions — array of @mentioned usernames in the caption (empty array when none)
• tagged_users — array of usernames tagged in the post media (empty array when none)
• collaborators — array of co-author usernames (empty array when none)
• media_items — array of per-item objects, each with index, type, url, width, height. Single-item array for photos, videos, reels, and IGTV; multi-item array for carousels. Video items also include duration (seconds), has_audio, and play_count

Present only when location is tagged

• location — object with name, id, slug, lat, lng

Present only for reels with music attribution

• music — object with artist, title, audio_id, is_trending

Present only for posts with accessibility captions

• accessibility_caption — auto-generated accessibility description of the image

Status values

Every input URL — whether valid or not — produces exactly one output record with a status field:

Status	Meaning
success	Post scraped successfully; all fields populated
age_restricted	Post is gated behind Instagram's age/login wall
not_found	Post is deleted or otherwise nonexistent
invalid_url	The URL is not a recognisable Instagram post link
error	Unexpected failure after all retry attempts
blocked	All proxy IPs were exhausted before the post could be fetched

Age-restricted content

Instagram age-gates some posts, either at the post level (alcohol brands, adult content) or at the account level (accounts with a minimum-age setting, e.g. "People under 18 can't see this content"). Both cases render an identical, generic error page on the logged-out post HTML — indistinguishable from a deleted post — but Instagram's public oEmbed API exposes the real reason (400 geoblock_required for a gated post vs 404 for a deleted one), so the scraper checks that endpoint as a last resort and reports status: "age_restricted" for either kind of gate. This cannot be bypassed without an authenticated session, so no further post data is returned for these posts.

Input

Field	Type	Required	Description
post_urls	array	yes	Instagram post, reel, or IGTV URLs. Accepts /p/, /reel/, /reels/, /tv/, and username/p/shortcode formats. Duplicates are silently de-duplicated. Up to 10,000 URLs per run

Example: scrape a single post

{
  "post_urls": [
    "https://www.instagram.com/p/DUtk38cj2TA/"
  ]
}

Example: mixed batch of posts, reels, and canonical URLs

{
  "post_urls": [
    "https://www.instagram.com/p/DUtk38cj2TA/",
    "https://www.instagram.com/reel/C9uzjsSpHJC/",
    "https://www.instagram.com/leomessi/p/DZifppZj_cB/",
    "https://www.instagram.com/tv/CQa7HaGlRPD/"
  ]
}

Example: large batch

{
  "post_urls": [
    "https://www.instagram.com/p/DUtk38cj2TA/",
    "... (up to 10,000 URLs)"
  ]
}

Example output

{
  "status": "success",
  "post_url": "https://www.instagram.com/p/DUtk38cj2TA/",
  "shortcode": "DUtk38cj2TA",
  "post_id": "3672810928374650123",
  "username": "natgeo",
  "author_meta": {
    "id": "787132",
    "username": "natgeo",
    "full_name": "National Geographic",
    "is_verified": true,
    "profile_pic_url": "https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/v/...",
    "profile_url": "https://www.instagram.com/natgeo/",
    "followers": 284000000,
    "post_count": 32400
  },
  "caption": "The ancient forest at dawn. #nature #wildlife #photography",
  "hashtags": ["nature", "wildlife", "photography"],
  "mentions": [],
  "pub_date": "2025-11-12T08:30:00",
  "media_type": "Photo",
  "media_count": 1,
  "media_items": [
    { "index": 1, "type": "Photo", "url": "https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/v/...jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1350 }
  ],
  "thumbnail_url": "https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/v/...jpg",
  "like_count": 482910,
  "comment_count": 3204,
  "likes_hidden": false,
  "comments_disabled": false,
  "tagged_users": [],
  "collaborators": [],
  "scraped_at": "2025-11-12T09:14:33.421000"
}

Records for inaccessible or invalid URLs carry only status and post_url — no other keys are present:

{ "status": "not_found",      "post_url": "https://www.instagram.com/p/DELETED123/" }
{ "status": "age_restricted", "post_url": "https://www.instagram.com/p/DLAIK1ayfg3/" }
{ "status": "invalid_url",    "post_url": "https://www.google.com/" }

Age-restricted and private content

Instagram does not expose age-gated content through its anonymous API. Any gated post — whether gated at the post level (alcohol brands, adult content) or at the account level (accounts restricted to viewers of a minimum age) — returns status: "age_restricted" instead of a data record. Private account posts and deleted posts both return status: "not_found". This is a server-side restriction enforced by Instagram and cannot be bypassed without authenticated session cookies.

Content type	status	Data returned
Public post	success	All fields
Deleted post	not_found	status, post_url only
Private post	not_found	status, post_url only
Age-restricted post (post-level or account-level)	age_restricted	status, post_url only
Invalid URL format	invalid_url	status, post_url only

Use cases

• Competitor content analysis — track post frequency, engagement rates, media types and captions across competitor accounts to benchmark your own content strategy
• Influencer vetting — verify follower counts, engagement ratios and posting history before signing a partnership deal
• Brand monitoring — collect all posts tagged with your brand name or product from any source URL and feed them into a monitoring dashboard
• Social media archiving — create a permanent structured archive of a campaign's posts before content is deleted or made private
• Research and journalism — gather public post metadata at scale for academic studies on misinformation, trends, or audience behaviour
• Content repurposing — extract caption text and media URLs from your own posts to migrate or republish content across platforms
• Hashtag performance tracking — scrape posts sharing a known hashtag to measure reach and identify top-performing formats
• E-commerce product research — collect posts from brand accounts to analyse product launches, promotions and customer response

FAQ

Do I need an Instagram account or cookies to use this actor? No. This actor scrapes public posts anonymously without any login, cookies, or account credentials. No authentication is required for publicly accessible content.

Why do some posts return status: "not_found"? A not_found status means Instagram's API returned no data for that URL. This happens when a post has been deleted or made private. These are server-side restrictions that cannot be bypassed without an authenticated session.

Why do some posts return status: "age_restricted"? An age_restricted status means Instagram gated the post behind an age/login wall, either at the post level (e.g. alcohol brands, adult content) or at the account level (accounts with a minimum-age setting). Both are detectable from Instagram's server response even without a login session, but cannot be bypassed without one.

Why is like_count null on some posts? When an author hides their like counts, Instagram does not return the figure in the API response. The record will have likes_hidden: true and like_count: null.

How many URLs can I submit in one run? Up to 10,000 URLs per run. The actor automatically uses residential proxies with per-IP session rotation to handle large batches reliably — no proxy configuration is required on your end.

How fresh is the data? Data is scraped live at the time of the run. Post metadata reflects the current state of Instagram at the moment of scraping — including the latest like and comment counts.

What URL formats are supported? The actor accepts /p/, /reel/, /reels/, and /tv/ links, as well as canonical username/p/shortcode URLs (e.g. https://www.instagram.com/natgeo/p/DUtk38cj2TA/). Duplicate URLs pointing to the same post are automatically de-duplicated.

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 or reel
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