Instagram Followers & Following Scraper - Export Follower Lists

Export the followers of public Instagram accounts, or the accounts they follow: paste handles, profile links or user ids and get one row per profile with username, name, user id, profile link, verified and private flags and picture, in the order Instagram lists them.

A private account's lists can't be read; you get a free note row for it instead. A long list doesn't have to fit in one run: every row carries a value that picks the list up again from the next profile.

Input	Up to 50 Instagram handles, profile links or user ids
Output	One row per follower or followed account: username, name, user id, profile link, verified, private, picture, place in the list, and a value to carry the list on later
Ceiling	50,000 profiles per account and per run; a longer list carries on in the next run
Account needed	None from you
Price	$0.105 per 1,000 profiles, the same on every plan. The free plan's $5 a month covers about 47,600

Using an AI agent?
Actor	dami_studio/instagram-followers-following-scraper
Set one field	usernames, labelled "Accounts" in the Console
Cap the bill	maxTotalChargeUsd on the run, for example 0.10: it never charges past that
MCP, one link	https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,dami_studio/instagram-followers-following-scraper
How often	Weekly, to compare an account's lists over time

🔍 What Instagram Followers & Following Scraper does

Each account is looked up first. One that is private, or isn't on Instagram, gets a free note row and nothing more. For the rest, the run reads the list you picked a page at a time, in Instagram's order, and position says where each profile sits. With Both lists, the followers come first, then the accounts followed.

A profile that turns up twice in one list arrives once. Every row carries continueFrom: paste the last one into Continue from in a new run and that list picks up from the next profile.

📋 What data you get from each Instagram follower

What you get	Field
Username, name, user id, profile link	username, fullName, userId, profileUrl
Verified and private flags	isVerified, isPrivate
Picture, and whether it is the default one	profilePicUrl, hasAnonymousProfilePicture
Which list, and the place in it	recordType (follower or following), position
The account the list belongs to, with its counts	sourceUsername, sourceUserId, sourceFollowerCount, sourceFollowingCount
Where to carry the list on	continueFrom
When it was read	scrapedAt

▶️ How to scrape Instagram followers

1. Open the actor and go to the Input tab.
2. Put the accounts into Accounts, one per line: natgeo, @natgeo, a profile link or a user id.
3. Pick Followers, Following or Both lists in What to get.
4. Set Results per account, then press Start.
5. Open the Output tab; the Profiles view shows the main columns.

💰 How much does it cost to scrape Instagram followers?

$0.105 per 1,000 profiles on every plan, so 10,000 followers cost $1.05. The free plan's $5 a month covers about 47,600 profiles.

Not charged: note rows (a private or missing account, an empty list, a stop), and a profile that turns up twice in the same list.

📥 What you give it

Field	What it does	Default
usernames	Handles, profile links or numeric user ids, up to 50	none
dataToScrape	followers, following or both	followers
maxResultsPerAccount	How many to get from each account's list, up to 50,000. With both, each list gets this many	100
maxResults	The most profiles one run delivers, across all accounts, up to 50,000	5,000
continueFrom	The continueFrom value of an earlier run's row, to carry that list on	none

With Continue from filled in, leave Accounts empty: the value names its own account and list, so What to get isn't read either. Input that can't work is refused before anything is looked up, with a free note saying what to change.

{
  "usernames": ["nasa", "https://www.instagram.com/spacex/"],
  "dataToScrape": "following",
  "maxResultsPerAccount": 200
}

📤 What you get back

A real row from a run on 7 November 2026, with the picture link cut short:

{
  "recordType": "following",
  "ok": true,
  "charged": true,
  "sourceUsername": "nasa",
  "sourceUserId": "528817151",
  "sourceFollowerCount": 104419676,
  "sourceFollowingCount": 90,
  "position": 5,
  "username": "nasawebb",
  "fullName": "NASA Webb Telescope",
  "userId": "549313808",
  "profileUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/nasawebb/",
  "isVerified": true,
  "isPrivate": false,
  "profilePicUrl": "https://scontent-lax3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-19/432029380_...",
  "hasAnonymousProfilePicture": false,
  "continueFrom": "eyJ2IjoxLCJ1IjoiNTI4ODE3MTUxIiwibCI6ImZvbGxvd2luZyIsInIiOiJnMiIsImMiOm51bGwsInAiOiI1NDkzMTM4MDgiLCJzIjo1LCJrIjo1fQ",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-11-07T17:59:50.939Z"
}

Field	Worth knowing
position	1 is the first profile Instagram lists. A list carried on in a new run keeps counting
sourceFollowerCount, sourceFollowingCount	The account's own counts when the run looked it up
profilePicUrl	A link on Instagram's servers that expires after a few days
continueFrom	Paste it whole. It carries the list on after its own row

🧾 Reading the output

Real rows carry ok: true, charged: true and a recordType of follower or following. Each is billed as one profile.

Note rows carry recordType: "note", ok: false and an errorCode, and are never billed:

Code	Meaning
BAD_INPUT	A field couldn't be used; details says which
NOT_FOUND	No Instagram account by that handle or id
PRIVATE_ACCOUNT	The account is private, so its lists can't be read
NO_RESULTS	The list came back empty
NOT_SERVED	Instagram didn't serve this list in this run; re-run it, or carry on from its last row
MAX_ITEMS, COST_LIMIT, TIME_LIMIT	The run stopped at your total, your spending limit or your time limit
RUN_FULL	The run reached the most one run reads; carry on in a new run
FREE_PLAN_LIMIT	A free-plan run stopped early; a paid plan runs the whole input
SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE	Instagram data wasn't available for this run; nothing more was charged
UNEXPECTED_ERROR	The run stopped on an error on our side; rows before it are kept

To keep only profiles, filter on ok == true.

💡 What people use it for

• A brand choosing creators to work with checks who follows them, and how much of it is real people: hasAnonymousProfilePicture and an empty fullName pick out the profiles nobody set up.
• Agencies comparing two accounts' audiences: run both, then match the rows on userId.
• Researchers mapping who an organisation follows: the following list of a ministry, a team or a newsroom.
• Anyone who wants a dated copy of their own follower list, kept each month.

A recipe with our other actors: get the followers here, keep the rows with isPrivate false, then pass their usernames to Instagram Profile Scraper for their bios, counts and latest posts.

🚧 What it does not do

• No lists of private accounts; those get a free note row.
• No bios, follower counts or posts for the profiles in a list. Those come from Instagram Profile Scraper.
• No likes, comments or messages.
• It is not an official Instagram tool. Dami's Studio is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Instagram or Meta, or by any other company named on this page.

🧭 Which Instagram scraper do you need?

If you want	Use
Followers or following of accounts you name	This one, Instagram Followers & Following Scraper
Bio, counts and latest posts of those accounts	Instagram Profile Scraper
Reels for a keyword or hashtag	Instagram Reels Search Scraper
Posts under a hashtag	Instagram Hashtag Scraper
Posts at a place	Instagram Location Scraper

❓ Questions people ask

Do I need an Instagram account to get someone's followers?

No, you don't need one, and there's no cookie to paste.

How do I get more followers than one run gives?

Copy continueFrom from the last row of that account and paste it into Continue from in a new run. The list picks up from the next profile, and position keeps counting.

Why don't the results match what I see in the app?

Instagram orders these lists for each viewer, so your app can show another order. People follow and leave all the time, so counts move while a list is read.

Can I call it from code or connect it to an AI assistant?

Yes. The API tab on the actor page has ready code. For an assistant, use the MCP link https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,dami_studio/instagram-followers-following-scraper.

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("dami_studio/instagram-followers-following-scraper").call(
    run_input={"usernames": ["nasa"], "dataToScrape": "following", "maxResultsPerAccount": 30},
    max_total_charge_usd=0.10,
)
for row in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    if row.get("ok") is False:
        continue
    print(row["position"], row["username"], row["fullName"])

Is scraping Instagram followers legal?

This reads the lists of public accounts only, never private accounts or messages, and you need no account. A follower list is personal data, which GDPR and similar laws cover, so keep only what you need and don't use it to contact people who never asked. Instagram's own terms still apply to what you do with the data. Apify's write-up on the legality of web scraping is a good starting point, and we are not lawyers.

🆘 If something breaks

Open the Issues tab on the actor page. Include the run ID and the accounts you used.