Instagram Follower Count & Growth Monitor

Track follower, following, and post-count changes for public Instagram accounts with timestamped comparisons that are ready for reports, alerts, dashboards, and scheduled workflows.

Watch the demo

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What you get

Each successful account check produces one structured Dataset row with the current counts and, when available, the previous successful observation for the same monitor:

• follower count and follower delta;
• following count and following delta;
• post count and post delta;
• current and previous observation timestamps;
• follower growth percentage when it can be calculated honestly;
• an explicit first-observation indicator;
• stable account identity fields for downstream joins.

An unchanged account still produces a completed check. A missing count stays null instead of becoming a misleading zero.

Built for recurring monitoring

Give the monitor a stable name and use that same name on later runs. The Actor keeps the most recent successful observation for each account and compares the new check with it automatically.

Use a different monitor name when you need an independent history, such as separate client, campaign, or competitor watchlists. Adding an account creates its first observation. Leaving an account out of a run does not erase its saved history.

Input

Instagram accounts

Add 1–100 usernames, @handles, or Instagram profile URLs. Equivalent duplicate forms are checked once.

Free-plan runs check up to 5 normalized accounts. Paid plans can check up to 100 accounts per run.

Monitor name

Enter a stable name such as competitor-watch. Reuse it to continue the same comparison history. Use a different name for a separate history.

Schedule it with Apify

Run the Actor once to establish a baseline, then create an Apify schedule for the frequency you need. Daily and weekly checks are usually easier to interpret than very frequent snapshots.

The Actor performs one bounded check and exits. It does not keep a container running between observations.

Reliable comparison behavior

• The first successful observation is labeled as a first observation and has no invented delta.
• Only a successful observation can become the next baseline.
• A failed lookup does not erase a prior successful value.
• Overlapping runs using the same monitor name are rejected before profile checks rather than racing and producing unreliable deltas.
• Counts that are unavailable remain null.
• Input order is preserved after equivalent duplicates are removed.

Pricing

This Actor uses two visible events:

• Actor start: $0.002 once per run.
• Completed profile check: $0.0050 Free, $0.0045 Bronze, $0.0040 Silver, and $0.0035 Gold/Platinum/Diamond.

A completed profile check is charged even when the counts did not change. Failed lookups and accounts skipped because of the Free-plan limit do not trigger the completed-check event. Platform usage is included in these event prices.

Output and integrations

Download successful observations as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or HTML from the default Dataset. Use the run's OUTPUT record for completion totals, duplicate counts, skipped accounts, and account-level failure summaries.

Each Dataset row includes the requested account, stable profile ID, canonical username, profile URL, observation time, current and previous counts, count deltas, follower growth percentage, first-observation state, change state, and complete/partial observation status. The row identity is the combination of profileId and observedAt.

The OUTPUT summary reports requested, normalized, checked, completed, changed, unchanged, first, partial, failed, duplicate-skipped, plan-limited, and charge-limited totals. Account errors use stable codes and concise customer-safe explanations.

Connect scheduled results to Google Sheets, Make, Zapier, webhooks, dashboards, databases, or your own API workflow using Apify's integrations and API.

Important limitations

• The Actor reads public profile information that is available at check time. Instagram can remove, restrict, or delay fields.
• It measures aggregate count changes. It does not download follower lists and cannot identify the specific people who followed or unfollowed.
• A delta describes the difference between two successful observations, not every change that happened between them.
• Deleted, renamed, unavailable, or misspelled accounts can fail. The failure is reported without replacing the last successful observation.
• Do not use a monitor name as a password or secret. It is an organizational key for your saved history.

Responsible use

Use the Actor only for lawful purposes and public data you have a legitimate reason to process. You are responsible for complying with applicable platform terms, privacy rules, and local law.