Instagram Similar Accounts Scraper · No Login

Start with public Instagram profiles and export the direct related accounts Instagram suggests, with stable profile IDs, seed attribution, and source order.

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What this Actor does

This Actor turns each seed username or profile URL into an ordered list of Instagram-suggested related profiles. Every row tells you which seed produced the suggestion, its original suggestion rank, and the related account's stable Instagram ID.

The scope is intentionally narrow: direct suggestions only. It does not recursively crawl the suggestion graph, calculate semantic similarity, measure audience overlap, or infer demographics.

Quickstart

1. Enter one or more public Instagram usernames or profile URLs in Seed profiles.
2. Choose how many direct suggestions to keep per seed.
3. Start the run, then export the dataset as JSON, CSV, or Excel.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
seedProfiles	string[]	—	One to 20 unique Instagram usernames or profile URLs. At least one is required.
maxResultsPerSeed	integer	20	Keep the first 1–80 unique suggestions per seed.

{
  "seedProfiles": ["natgeo", "https://www.instagram.com/nasa/"],
  "maxResultsPerSeed": 20
}

Legacy API integrations can continue sending usernames or username and maxResults. New runs should use the two fields above.

Output

The default dataset contains one row per unique suggestion within each seed. If two seeds both suggest the same account, both relationships remain in the dataset with their own attribution. Duplicates inside one seed are removed by stable Instagram ID while Instagram's original ordering is preserved.

{
  "seed_input": "natgeo",
  "seed_username": "natgeo",
  "source_username": "natgeo",
  "seed_input_index": 0,
  "suggestion_rank": 1,
  "relationship_type": "instagram_suggested",
  "related_id": "25025320",
  "related_username": "instagram",
  "related_profile_url": "https://www.instagram.com/instagram/",
  "id": "25025320",
  "username": "instagram",
  "full_name": "Instagram",
  "is_private": false,
  "is_verified": true,
  "profile_pic_url": "https://scontent.example/profile.jpg"
}

RUN_SUMMARY in the default key-value store records each seed's success, no_results, not_found, or lookup_failed status, received and emitted counts, duplicate counts, and whether the customer's budget limit stopped the run. Failure details use fixed functional codes and messages. Empty and error states are never disguised as successful dataset results.

Pricing and billable unit

The current Actor price remains one synthetic apify-default-dataset-item event for each suggestion row actually written to the default dataset, plus the existing small Actor-start event. The platform enforces customer run budgets before accepting another billable row.

Apify plan	Price per result	Price per 1,000 results
Free	$0.00250	$2.50
Bronze	$0.00217	$2.17
Silver	$0.00183	$1.83
Gold	$0.00150	$1.50
Platinum	$0.00150	$1.50
Diamond	$0.00150	$1.50

In other words, the Free-plan rate is $2.50 per 1,000 delivered suggestion rows.

Common use cases

• Discover creators and brands adjacent to accounts you already know.
• Build seed-attributed prospect lists for research or outreach preparation.
• Map direct account suggestions without turning the run into a recursive crawl.

API and automation

Run the Actor from Apify Console, API, schedules, webhooks, or integrations. Results are available from the default dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel, and other Apify-supported exports. Use related_id as the stable account identity and the pair (seed_username, related_id) as the stable relationship key.

The same input object shown above can be sent through the Apify API:

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/data-slayer~instagram-related-profiles-scraper/runs?token=<APIFY_TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"seedProfiles":["natgeo","nasa"],"maxResultsPerSeed":20}'

Limits and behavior

• Public profiles only; unavailable or restricted seeds can return not_found.
• Up to 20 unique seeds, 80 kept suggestions per seed, and 500 delivered rows per run.
• The Actor requests one bounded direct suggestion set per unique seed. A logical lookup can use up to three HTTP attempts on transient rate-limit, server, or network failures; it never follows suggestion pages or recurses.
• Profile picture and external URLs can expire or redirect.

FAQ

Are these direct suggestions or a recursive network?

Direct suggestions only. The Actor processes one bounded suggestion set for each seed and does not use suggested accounts as new seeds.

Does this measure audience overlap or semantic similarity?

No. It reports related-account suggestions and preserves their source seed and order. It does not calculate overlap, similarity scores, demographics, or sensitive traits.

Why can a seed return no rows?

The profile may be unavailable, restricted, have no suggestions returned, or the lookup may fail temporarily. Check its status in RUN_SUMMARY; failed and empty lookups do not become dataset rows.

Which fields are stable?

Use related_id for account identity and (seed_username, related_id) for a seed-to-account relationship. Usernames, profile text, counts, images, and external links can change.

Related Instagram tools

• Instagram User Search discovers profiles from keywords instead of seed accounts.
• Instagram Profile Scraper enriches a known username list.
• Instagram User Posts Scraper collects posts from known profiles.

Responsible use

Use public data lawfully and in line with Instagram's terms and applicable privacy rules. Do not use this Actor to infer sensitive traits or to make unsupported claims about a person's audience or demographics.

This independent Actor is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or an official product of Instagram.

Support

For reproducible support requests, include the Actor run ID, sanitized input, seed status from RUN_SUMMARY, and the affected output field. Never include credentials or private customer data.