# Instagram Post Scraper - $0.09 per 1,000 Posts (`dami_studio/instagram-post-scraper-v1`) Actor Paste Instagram post or reel URLs, or usernames, and get one row per post: caption, likes, comments, publish time, every carousel image and video URL, owner, hashtags, mentions, tagged users. No login, no cookies. $0.09 per 1,000 posts - the cheapest Instagram post scraper on the market. - **URL**: https://apify.com/dami\_studio/instagram-post-scraper-v1.md - **Developed by:** [Dami's Studio](https://apify.com/dami_studio) (community) - **Categories:** Social media, Lead generation - **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing from $0.09 / 1,000 post scrapeds 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/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#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 ## Instagram Post Scraper Paste Instagram post or reel URLs — or just usernames — and get one clean row per post: the full caption, like and comment counts, the publish timestamp, every image and video URL in a carousel, the owner, hashtags, mentions and tagged users. No Instagram account. No cookies. No session token. No captcha to solve. No proxy of your own. ### Price **$0.09 per 1,000 posts**, plus $0.0000125 to start a run. This is the cheapest Instagram post scraper on the market, and the rate is flat: the same $0.09 on the free plan as on any paid plan, with no volume tiers and no minimum spend, so it is what you pay from your very first run. | Posts | Cost | |---|---| | 100 | $0.009 | | 1,000 | $0.09 | | 10,000 | $0.90 | | 100,000 | $9.00 | #### What actually bills - **`post-scraped` — $0.00009.** Charged once per genuine post row written to the dataset. That is the only per-result charge; there is no separate "filtered out" fee, no "restricted profile" fee and no dataset-item fee stacked on top. - **`apify-actor-start` — $0.0000125.** Charged once per run, per GB of run memory. The Actor runs at 1 GB by default, so that is $0.0000125 a run. Free, always: - The **sample row** you get from an empty run. - Every **diagnostic row** — rate limits, private accounts, deleted posts, bad input. If Instagram gives nothing back, you pay the start fee and nothing else. - Posts dropped by your own `onlyPostsNewerThan` or `skipPinnedPosts` filters. They are fetched and thrown away at our expense, not billed to you. There is no free tier and no free trial. A run that returns 40 posts costs 40 × $0.00009 = $0.0036, plus the start fee. That is the whole of it. ### Input Two ways in, and you can mix them in one run. ```json { "username": ["nasa", "https://www.instagram.com/natgeo/"], "resultsLimit": 12, "onlyPostsNewerThan": "7 days" } ``` ```json { "postUrls": [ "https://www.instagram.com/p/DcA6fTgIJ97/", "https://www.instagram.com/reel/Db_sQbigDOA/", "DcCUKZoAS8h" ] } ``` | Field | What it does | |---|---| | `username` | Usernames, profile URLs, or post URLs — mixed freely. The field name follows the common convention used across Instagram post Actors, so an input written for one of those normally runs here unchanged. | | `postUrls` | Post, reel or TV URLs. A bare shortcode such as `DcCUKZoAS8h` works too. `directUrls` and `startUrls` are accepted as aliases. | | `resultsLimit` | Posts to take from each profile. Default 20, but logged-out Instagram serves about 12 — see Limits. Ignored when you pass post URLs. | | `maxItems` | Hard cap on charged rows for the whole run, across every input. | | `onlyPostsNewerThan` | `2026-01-01`, a full ISO timestamp, or a relative value like `3 days`, `2 months`, `1 year`. Older posts are dropped and never charged. | | `skipPinnedPosts` | Drop the posts a profile has pinned to the top of its grid. Detectable in profile mode only. | | `concurrency` | Posts fetched at once. Default 6. | | `requestDelayMs` | Optional pause after each request. Default none. | | `proxyConfiguration` | Leave it alone unless you have a reason. Default is rotating Apify datacenter addresses, which is what works here and costs nothing per GB. | Run it with no input at all and you get one labelled sample row, uncharged, showing every field — so you can see the shape before spending anything. ### Output One row per post. A real row, from a run on `natgeo` on 15 August 2026 (the signed query strings on the CDN URLs are shortened here to `?` for readability — the real output carries them in full): ```json { "ok": true, "inputUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/natgeo/", "id": "3963424910027562875", "shortCode": "DcA6fTgIJ97", "url": "https://www.instagram.com/p/DcA6fTgIJ97/", "type": "Sidecar", "productType": "carousel_container", "isReel": false, "caption": "Photos by @joelsartore | Out of 33 species of jerboa, the long-eared jerboa wins the award for most oddly proportioned family member. ... #PhotoArk", "hashtags": ["PhotoArk"], "mentions": ["joelsartore", "moscow_zoo_official"], "likesCount": 42094, "commentsCount": 180, "likesAndViewCountsDisabled": false, "isCommentsDisabled": false, "timestamp": "2026-08-14T19:00:01.000Z", "timestampSource": "instagram", "displayUrl": "https://scontent-atl3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.82787-15/766106700_18686094097019133_2576347057804717679_n.jpg?", "videoUrl": null, "videoDuration": null, "images": [ "https://scontent-atl3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.82787-15/766106700_18686094097019133_2576347057804717679_n.jpg?", "https://scontent-atl3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.82787-15/774970374_18686094109019133_2450257321358972437_n.jpg?" ], "childPosts": [ { "id": "3963424850577470287", "shortCode": "DcA6ecIoDNP", "type": "Image", "displayUrl": "https://scontent-atl3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/...jpg?", "videoUrl": null, "alt": "Photo by National Geographic on August 14, 2026. May be an image of rodent and text.", "width": 1440, "height": 960 }, { "id": "3963424852959856137", "shortCode": "DcA6eeWoIYJ", "type": "Image", "displayUrl": "https://scontent-atl3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/...jpg?", "videoUrl": null, "alt": "Photo by National Geographic on August 14, 2026. May be an image of rodent and text.", "width": 1440, "height": 960 } ], "childPostsCount": 2, "dimensionsWidth": 1440, "dimensionsHeight": 960, "alt": "Photo by National Geographic on August 14, 2026. May be an image of text.", "ownerId": "787132", "ownerUsername": "natgeo", "ownerFullName": "National Geographic", "ownerIsVerified": true, "ownerIsPrivate": false, "ownerProfileUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/natgeo/", "coauthorProducers": [], "taggedUsers": [], "locationName": null, "locationId": null, "musicArtist": null, "musicTitle": null, "source": "post-page", "scrapedAt": "2026-08-15T05:43:15.443Z" } ``` `images` is the flat list of every media URL in the post — one entry for a single image or video, one per slide for a carousel. `childPosts` is the same thing with the per-slide detail: its own id, shortcode, type, dimensions and alt text. A 20-slide NASA carousel came back with all 20. `type` is `Image`, `Video` or `Sidecar` (carousel) — the conventional naming for Instagram post data, so existing pipelines do not need remapping. #### Field coverage, measured From the 15 August 2026 test run over `nasa` and `natgeo` — 12 posts, 6 through each of the two paths the Actor uses: | Field | Present | |---|---| | `shortCode`, `url`, `type`, `caption`, `likesCount`, `commentsCount`, `timestamp` | 12/12 | | `ownerUsername`, `ownerId`, `ownerProfileUrl`, `displayUrl`, `images` | 12/12 | | `ownerFullName`, `ownerIsVerified` | 11/12 — missing on the one coauthored post owned by a third account | | `videoUrl` on `type: "Video"` rows | 6/6 | | `videoDuration` | video rows fetched by post URL only | | `taggedUsers`, `locationName`, `musicTitle` | only when the post has them; `[]` or `null` otherwise | Missing values are `null` or `[]`. Nothing is guessed. ### Which input mode should you use? The two modes answer different questions, and the cost profile is different too. | | `username` (profile mode) | `postUrls` (URL mode) | |---|---|---| | Best for | "what has this account posted lately" | "give me exactly these posts" | | Depth | about 12 most recent posts, logged out | unlimited — as many URLs as you pass | | Requests per post | one profile request returns the whole grid | one request per post | | `videoDuration` | not available | returned | | `skipPinnedPosts` | works | not detectable | | `onlyPostsNewerThan` | works, and filtered posts are free | works, and filtered posts are free | Profile mode is the cheaper and faster of the two per post, because a single request brings back the whole recent grid. URL mode is the one to use for back-catalogue work, for a fixed list of posts you already know, or when you need `videoDuration`. You can mix both in one run — pass `username` and `postUrls` together and the results land in the same dataset. **A worked example.** Monitoring 50 accounts once a day in profile mode is roughly 50 × 12 = 600 posts, or $0.054 a day plus the start fee — about $1.65 a month for a daily brand-monitoring feed. Add `onlyPostsNewerThan: "1 day"` and you only pay for posts that are actually new, which for most accounts brings that down by an order of magnitude. ### Limits Read this before you build on it. - **About 12 posts per profile, logged out.** Instagram's public profile response carries roughly the 12 most recent posts and nothing more. `resultsLimit: 100` will not produce 100 — it produces the 12 that exist publicly, and you are charged for 12. Deep back-catalogue paging requires a logged-in session, which this Actor deliberately does not use. If you need specific older posts, pass their URLs into `postUrls`; there is no depth limit that way. - **No view or play counts.** Logged-out Instagram does not include them in either response, so the field is not emitted rather than filled with a guess. Any scraper showing you reel view counts is using an account. - **No comment text and no liker lists.** Counts only. - **Private accounts return a diagnostic row, not data,** and are not charged. Same for deleted posts and handles that do not exist. - **Media URLs are signed and expire.** `displayUrl`, `videoUrl` and the `images` list point at Instagram's CDN with a signature that stops working after a few days. Download what you need soon after the run, or store the bytes rather than the link. - **Rate limits are real and per address.** Instagram meters its public routes per IP. The Actor hops to a fresh address on every block rather than sleeping, and one of the two profiles in the test run needed 15 hops before it answered. On a bad minute a profile can still come back as a `RATE_LIMITED` diagnostic row — which is free, and re-running usually clears it. - **`videoDuration` only on the post-URL path.** The profile response does not carry the DASH manifest it is read from. - **Engagement counts drift.** Two runs a minute apart on the same NASA post returned 88,713 and 89,083 likes. That is Instagram, not the scraper. ### FAQ **Do I need an Instagram account, cookies, or a session ID?** No. Nothing to log in to, nothing to paste, no account of yours to put at risk. **What does it cost to scrape 1,000 Instagram posts?** $0.09, plus $0.0000125 to start the run. **Is this the cheapest Instagram post scraper?** Yes. $0.09 per 1,000 posts is below every other Instagram post scraper on the Apify store, and below every actor of any kind returning Instagram posts. **Can I scrape reels?** Yes. Reel URLs work exactly like post URLs, and reels appear in profile results with `isReel: true`. Caption, likes, comments, the video file URL and the duration all come back. **Does it get every image in a carousel?** Yes — all of them, in `images` and in `childPosts`, each with its own dimensions and alt text. **Can I filter by date?** Yes: `onlyPostsNewerThan` takes `2026-01-01`, a full ISO timestamp, or `7 days` / `3 months`. Posts filtered out are not charged. **What happens if I run it with empty input?** You get one clearly labelled sample row explaining what to fill in, the run finishes as SUCCEEDED, and no result is charged. **Can I export to CSV or Excel?** Yes — Apify exports the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel or XML, and the same data is available from a REST endpoint. **Is this affiliated with Instagram or Meta?** No. It reads public post data that Instagram serves to logged-out visitors. Check Instagram's terms and your own local rules before using the output commercially, especially for personal data. ### How it works Instagram's JSON endpoints are walled for logged-out clients. `/api/v1/media//info/` answers with 400 KB of login HTML, `i.instagram.com` returns 403, and the public GraphQL `doc_id`s that scrapers used for years have been retired — they now return `{"errors":[{"message":"execution error"}]}`. What is not walled is the ordinary post page. `https://www.instagram.com/p//` is server rendered for visitors who are not logged in, and it ships the complete media object inside its `