Instagram Reel Metrics Scraper

Instagram Reel Metrics Scraper extracts rich metrics and metadata from public Instagram Reels — likes, comments, views, captions, hashtags, audio, the creator's profile stats, and direct media URLs. It works by intercepting the JSON/GraphQL responses that Instagram already sends to your browser, so it keeps working even when Instagram changes its HTML.

Give it a list of Reel URLs and get back clean, structured JSON you can download as JSON, CSV, Excel, or HTML — or pull straight from the Apify API. Running on the Apify platform adds scheduling, proxy rotation, monitoring, and integrations on top.

Why use Instagram Reel Metrics Scraper?

• Resilient to HTML changes — reads structured JSON/GraphQL payloads instead of fragile DOM selectors.
• Complete metrics — likes, comments, views/plays, follower/following counts, verification status, and more.
• Bulk friendly — crawls hundreds of Reels using a Crawlee RequestQueue with configurable concurrency.
• Resilient to failures — automatic retries per Reel; a single failing Reel never crashes the run.
• Clean, typed codebase — modular TypeScript (ES modules) split into main, routes, and utils.

How to use Instagram Reel Metrics Scraper

1. Open the Actor and go to the Input tab.
2. Paste one or more public Instagram Reel URLs into Reel URLs (e.g. https://www.instagram.com/reel/xxxxx/).
3. (Recommended) Keep Apify Proxy enabled to avoid rate limiting.
4. Optionally adjust Max Concurrency (default 3) and Max Retries.
5. Click Start and watch the results appear in the Output tab.

Input

The Actor accepts the following input (see the Input tab for the form):

{
    "startUrls": [{ "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/xxxxx/" }],
    "maxConcurrency": 3,
    "maxRequestRetries": 3,
    "maxRequestsPerCrawl": 0,
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true }
}

Field	Type	Description
startUrls	array (required)	Public Instagram Reel URLs to scrape.
maxConcurrency	integer	Number of Reels processed in parallel (default 3).
maxRequestRetries	integer	Retries per Reel before it is skipped (default 3).
maxRequestsPerCrawl	integer	Max Reels per run, 0 = unlimited.
proxyConfiguration	object	Proxy settings; Apify Proxy strongly recommended.

Output

Each Reel produces one dataset item. You can download the dataset in various formats such as JSON, HTML, CSV, or Excel.

{
    "reelUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/xxxxx/",
    "reelId": "xxxxx",
    "username": "creator",
    "fullName": "The Creator",
    "caption": "Great trip! #travel with @friend",
    "hashtags": ["travel"],
    "mentions": ["friend"],
    "likes": 15000,
    "comments": 320,
    "views": 985000,
    "uploadDate": "2024-05-01T12:00:00.000Z",
    "audio": "Original audio",
    "thumbnail": "https://.../thumb.jpg",
    "video": "https://.../video.mp4",
    "verified": true,
    "followers": 1000000,
    "following": 250
}

Data table

Field	Description
reelUrl	Canonical Reel URL.
reelId	Reel shortcode.
username	Creator's handle.
fullName	Creator's display name (if available).
caption	Reel caption text.
hashtags	Hashtags parsed from the caption.
mentions	@mentions parsed from the caption.
likes	Like count.
comments	Comment count.
views	View / play count.
uploadDate	Upload date (ISO-8601).
audio	Audio / music track name.
thumbnail	Thumbnail image URL.
video	Direct video URL (when publicly accessible).
verified	Whether the creator is verified.
followers	Creator's follower count (when available, else null).
following	Creator's following count (when available, else null).

How does it work?

The Actor is cookie-free — it never logs in and never stores cookies. For each Reel it makes a plain HTTP request to Instagram's public embed endpoint (/reel/<id>/embed/captioned/), which returns the Reel's data without any session:

1. Structured JSON — gql_data.shortcode_media embedded in the page (primary, most reliable source for username, caption, likes, comments, views, video/thumbnail URLs, verification).
2. Open Graph meta — og:description / og:image are used as a fallback to fill in like/comment/view counts the JSON may omit.

A recursive parser locates the media object inside the payload and normalizes Instagram's many possible shapes into one stable output. Because it relies on the public embed JSON rather than the logged-in DOM, it keeps working when Instagram changes its HTML and avoids the login wall entirely.

Note: follower/following counts and audio name are only exposed to logged-in clients, so in cookie-free mode they may be null/empty for some Reels.

Pricing / cost estimation

The Actor runs on the Apify platform and consumes compute units based on run time. Because it relies on a real browser, each Reel takes a few seconds. Using Apify Proxy is recommended and may incur additional usage depending on your plan. Start with a small batch to estimate cost before scaling to hundreds of Reels.

Tips

• Keep concurrency moderate (3) to reduce the chance of Instagram rate limiting.
• Provide canonical Reel URLs; the Actor normalizes and deduplicates them automatically.
• Some fields (followers, following, fullName, video) are only present in certain payloads and may be null/empty for some Reels.

FAQ, disclaimers, and support

• Does it work for private Reels? No. Only public Reels are supported.
• Is scraping legal? This Actor only collects publicly available data. You are responsible for complying with Instagram's Terms of Service and applicable laws, and for not collecting personal/sensitive data without a lawful basis.
• A Reel returned no data — why? It may be private, removed, region-locked, or require login. The Actor logs the reason, retries, then continues.
• Found a bug or need a custom solution? Open an issue on the Actor's Issues tab.

Development

npm install        # install dependencies
npm run build      # compile TypeScript
npm test           # run unit tests
apify run          # run locally (requires the Apify CLI)
apify push         # deploy to the Apify platform

Project structure:

src/
  main.ts            # entry point: input, proxy, BasicCrawler (cookie-free HTTP)
  routes.ts          # reel handler: fetches the public embed page, no cookies
  utils/parser.ts    # embed/JSON -> ReelData normalization
  utils/helpers.ts   # pure helper functions