Instagram Reels Scraper for Public Profiles

Collect Reels from known public Instagram profiles without providing a login. Submit usernames or profile URLs and receive one Dataset row per unique Reel with caption, engagement, video, thumbnail, audio, owner, coauthor, tagging, and source-profile data.

What this Actor does

The Actor normalizes public profile inputs, reads each public Reels surface, paginates within configured limits, and deduplicates media IDs across the run. It can include or exclude pinned Reels and creates a free processing report for every submitted profile.

While a run is active, the Apify Console shows live progress for the current phase, profiles, pages, and Reels collected. The final message clearly reports completion, a safe limit stop, or an incomplete collection.

Use cases

• Monitor Reel publishing and engagement for creators or brands.
• Analyze captions, mentions, audio, coauthors, and tagged accounts.
• Build Reel datasets for trend, campaign, and competitor research.

How to use

1. Open the Actor in Apify Console.
2. Add one or more public Instagram profiles.
3. Choose total/per-profile limits and whether to skip pinned Reels.
4. Click Start and open the Dataset when the run finishes.

Input

profiles accepts 1–10,000 usernames, @handles, or public profile URLs. resultsLimit defaults to 1,000 and accepts 1–100,000. maxReelsPerProfile defaults to 100 and accepts 1–10,000. skipPinnedReels defaults to false; excluded pinned rows are not charged. Duplicate profiles are skipped.

This exact input produced the complete output below:

{
  "profiles": [
    "nasa"
  ],
  "resultsLimit": 5,
  "maxReelsPerProfile": 5,
  "skipPinnedReels": false
}

Output

Every Dataset row is one unique Reel. It includes media identity, caption, hashtags, mentions, publication time, thumbnail/video URLs, dimensions, engagement, duration, audio and partnership flags, pinned state, owner, location, coauthors, tagged users, audio metadata, source profile, and collection time. SUMMARY contains result, billing, duplicate, traffic, limit, and completion totals; PROFILE_REPORT explains every submitted profile.

This is the complete Dataset item from a real successful run:

{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "id": "3996242083173720380",
  "shortCode": "Dd1gQBsCWE8",
  "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dd1gQBsCWE8/",
  "type": "reel",
  "productType": "clips",
  "caption": "What happens when we detect an asteroid that could pose a threat to Earth?\n\nIn early 2025, NASA joined scientists around the world in tracking asteroid 2024 YR4, which had a small chance of impacting Earth in 2032. As the international community studied it more closely, it was ultimately found to pose no threat to Earth — but the asteroid still provided a real-world test of the systems designed to protect our planets.\n\nWe have the behind-the-scenes story. Tune in and watch Planetary Defenders: This Is Not an Exercise, our newest documentary, now streaming on NASA+. Check our link in bio for details.",
  "hashtags": [],
  "mentions": [],
  "timestamp": null,
  "displayUrl": "https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.82787-15/825320801_18652458124049152_7299739194868789568_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_e35_s640x640_tt6&_nc_cat=108&ccb=7-5&_nc_sid=18de74&efg=eyJlZmdfdGFnIjoiQ0xJUFMuYmVzdF9pbWFnZV91cmxnZW4uQzMifQ%3D%3D&_nc_ohc=zZWCGE35c9gQ7kNvwEL-q4x&_nc_oc=AdoIA7i8Mo8H92i0pZlh3F3Z26-TFjjEVVU1FfOvdwcXeA9HoZe3fnExuO4_qiw9miI&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent.cdninstagram.com&_nc_gid=FF5PWaVgZ0O-xr68cKGUSA&_nc_ss=7ea8c&oh=00_AQNrHzn0iCCbAD58wjgKZeHSC6SdqOZN96CwzG_YQFGzxw&oe=6AC49964",
  "videoUrl": null,
  "width": null,
  "height": null,
  "likesCount": null,
  "commentsCount": null,
  "videoViewsCount": null,
  "videoPlaysCount": null,
  "videoDurationSeconds": null,
  "hasAudio": false,
  "isPaidPartnership": false,
  "isPinned": false,
  "accessibilityCaption": "Video by NASA on September 28, 2026. May be an image of poster and text.",
  "owner": {
    "id": "528817151",
    "username": "nasa",
    "fullName": null,
    "isVerified": false,
    "isPrivate": false,
    "profilePicUrl": null
  },
  "location": null,
  "coauthors": [],
  "taggedUsers": [],
  "audio": null,
  "sourceUsername": "nasa",
  "sourceProfileId": "528817151",
  "sourceProfileUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/nasa/",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-01T19:03:17.922355+00:00"
}

Results can be exported as JSON, JSONL, CSV, Excel, XML, or RSS.

Pricing

One unique Reel written to the default Dataset creates one reel-result event. Apify selects the unit price from your account tier:

Apify tier	Price per Reel	Equivalent per 1,000 Reels
Free	$0.001	$1.00
Bronze	$0.0009	$0.90
Silver	$0.0008	$0.80
Gold	$0.00075	$0.75
Platinum	$0.00075	$0.75
Diamond	$0.00075	$0.75

Duplicate, filtered, or unavailable Reels; invalid, private, duplicate, or failed profile inputs; and free summary/report records are not charged.

Related Actors

Actor	Best for
Instagram Comments Scraper - No Login	Collecting public audience responses for selected Reels.
Instagram Reels Discovery Scraper - No Login	Discovering regional Reels and creators before monitoring specific profiles.
Instagram Posts Scraper for Public Profiles	Collecting images, videos, carousels, and timeline Reels together.

Limits and data quality

A run accepts up to 10,000 profiles, 100,000 total Reels, and 10,000 Reels per profile. Configured counts are maxima. Only public Reels exposed during collection are returned. Engagement and public metadata are point-in-time snapshots. Instagram-hosted video, thumbnail, and profile-image URLs can expire; private, deleted, restricted, or unavailable Reels cannot be collected.

Public visibility in a logged-in browser does not guarantee anonymous access. If source problems interrupt a collection after some Reels have been delivered, the run completes with warnings and a partial collection. SUMMARY.collectionComplete is false, and PROFILE_REPORT identifies the affected profiles. Completion with warnings does not mean every requested Reel was collected. Profiles that require login or access verification are reported as unavailable and skipped so other profiles can continue. The run can finish with warnings even when all profiles are unavailable and no Reels were returned; SUMMARY.collectionComplete remains false. Other exhausted source failures with no results, and unconfirmed output or billing, still fail. Any Reels already delivered remain in the Dataset and retain their normal per-Reel charge. Failed requests and undelivered Reels are not charged. An empty Dataset after an access failure does not mean the profile has no Reels.

The Actor does not accept Instagram account cookies. When possible, it automatically recovers an interrupted collection while preserving delivered Reels and their charges. Recovery is not guaranteed when Instagram continues to restrict or change the available data. A fresh run starts a new collection; resuming an existing run preserves its delivered-result tracking and can continue an interrupted profile. Already delivered Reels are not charged again when continuing the same run. The result and spending limits continue to apply.

Frequently asked questions

Does skipping pinned Reels remove every pinned item?

It excludes Reels identified as pinned in the public profile surface at collection time. Those excluded items are not delivered or charged.

Why can the Reel owner differ from the source profile?

Collaborative Reels can be displayed on more than one participating profile. owner, coauthors, and sourceUsername preserve those distinct roles.

Responsible use

Use only publicly accessible Reels for lawful purposes. Respect Instagram's terms, privacy and data-protection laws, copyright, creator rights, and applicable retention rules. Public media URLs do not grant permission to redistribute the content.

Support

Open an issue in the Actor's Issues tab with the run ID, a reproducible public profile, selected limits, and the relevant PROFILE_REPORT status. Never include credentials or API tokens.

Instagram Reels Scraper guide, API examples and sample Dataset