Instagram Reels Scraper for Public Profiles

Unofficial community Actor. This Actor is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Instagram or Meta.

Collect Instagram Reels from one or many public profiles without providing an Instagram account, cookies, or login credentials. Enter usernames, @handles, or complete profile URLs and receive one clean dataset row per unique Reel.

Use this Instagram Reels scraper to export captions, hashtags, mentions, publication dates, likes, comments, views, plays, video duration, audio details, owner information, thumbnails, and temporary video URLs. Results can be downloaded as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or another Apify dataset format.

What can this Instagram Reels scraper do?

• Scrape the Reels tab of known public Instagram profiles.
• Process a single creator or a list of up to 10,000 profile inputs.
• Collect up to 10,000 Reels per profile and 100,000 Reels per run.
• Return unique Reels only, even when a profile is submitted more than once.
• Include pinned Reels or exclude them from the results.
• Limit the total number of results to control the maximum possible Actor charge.
• Run manually, on a schedule, through the API, or from an Apify integration.

This Actor is designed specifically for Reels belonging to known public profiles. It does not search by hashtag or keyword, accept individual Reel URLs, scrape comments or their authors, download files into storage, or transcribe audio.

Common use cases

• Monitor the Reel activity of creators, brands, or competitors.
• Build social media performance and engagement reports.
• Research captions, hashtags, mentions, sounds, and publishing patterns.
• Create datasets for content discovery or market research.
• Track new public Reels with scheduled recurring runs.
• Send Reel data to Google Sheets, a database, a webhook, or an automation workflow.

How to scrape Reels from an Instagram profile

1. Open the Actor's Input tab.
2. Add one or more public Instagram usernames, @handles, or profile URLs.
3. Set Maximum total Reels and Maximum Reels per profile.
4. Leave Profile concurrency at 0 unless you need a specific value.
5. Click Start.
6. Open the Dataset tab to preview or export the Reels.

For a quick test, use this input:

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

Pricing

The Actor uses pay-per-event pricing and costs $1 per 1,000 unique Reels delivered, which is $0.001 per Reel.

Unique Reels delivered	Actor charge
1	$0.001
20	$0.020
50	$0.050
1,000	$1.000

You are charged for the results actually delivered, not for the number requested:

• If you request 50 Reels and the public profile exposes 50, the Actor delivers 50 and charges $0.050.
• If you request 50 Reels but the public profile exposes only 20, the Actor delivers 20 and charges $0.020.
• If a profile is private, unavailable, or has no accessible Reels, it produces no Reel charge.

The billable event is reel-result. Each event represents one unique Reel successfully written to the default dataset. Invalid inputs, duplicate profile inputs, duplicate Reels, filtered pinned Reels, unavailable profiles, and failed requests are not charged.

resultsLimit is the simplest way to control the maximum possible Actor charge. For example, a limit of 200 means the Actor can deliver at most 200 billable Reels, for a maximum Actor charge of $0.200.

Input

Input fields

Field	Type	Default	Allowed values	Description
profiles	array	required	1–10,000 items	Instagram usernames, @handles, or complete public profile URLs.
resultsLimit	integer	1000	1–100,000	Maximum number of unique Reels returned across the entire run.
maxReelsPerProfile	integer	100	1–10,000	Maximum number of unique Reels returned from each profile.
skipPinnedReels	boolean	false	true or false	When enabled, Reels pinned in the profile's Reels tab are excluded and not charged.
concurrency	integer	0	0–5	Number of profiles processed at the same time. 0 selects a suitable value automatically.
maxRetries	integer	3	1–5	Number of attempts allowed when Instagram temporarily rejects or interrupts a request.

Accepted profile formats

These values all identify public Instagram profiles:

{
  "profiles": [
    "nasa",
    "@natgeo",
    "https://www.instagram.com/instagram/"
  ]
}

Example: request up to 50 Reels from one profile

{
  "profiles": ["nasa"],
  "resultsLimit": 50,
  "maxReelsPerProfile": 50,
  "skipPinnedReels": false,
  "concurrency": 0,
  "maxRetries": 3
}

This input can return and charge for at most 50 Reels. If only 20 are publicly available, the output contains 20 rows and the Actor charge is $0.020.

Example: collect all publicly exposed Reels from one profile

{
  "profiles": ["nasa"],
  "resultsLimit": 10000,
  "maxReelsPerProfile": 10000,
  "skipPinnedReels": false
}

The Actor continues until Instagram exposes no more Reels or one of the limits is reached. “All” therefore means all Reels that Instagram makes publicly accessible to the Actor at run time, up to the supported limit of 10,000 Reels per profile.

Example: scrape several profiles with a global limit

{
  "profiles": [
    "nasa",
    "natgeo",
    "https://www.instagram.com/instagram/"
  ],
  "resultsLimit": 120,
  "maxReelsPerProfile": 50,
  "skipPinnedReels": true,
  "concurrency": 0
}

The Actor can return up to 50 Reels from any one profile, but never more than 120 Reels in total. The run stops when the global limit is reached or all submitted profiles have been processed.

How the two result limits work together

• maxReelsPerProfile limits each profile separately.
• resultsLimit limits the combined output from all profiles.
• The first limit reached determines when collection stops.
• Limits are maximums, not guaranteed result counts. A profile may expose fewer Reels.

Output

Each default dataset row represents one unique Instagram Reel.

Available data

Data group	Fields
Reel identity	id, shortCode, url, type, productType
Content	caption, hashtags, mentions, accessibilityCaption
Publishing and source	timestamp, sourceUsername, sourceProfileId, sourceProfileUrl, scrapedAt
Engagement	likesCount, commentsCount, videoViewsCount, videoPlaysCount
Media	displayUrl, videoUrl, width, height, videoDurationSeconds, hasAudio
Context	isPinned, isPaidPartnership, location, coauthors, taggedUsers
Owner and audio	owner, audio

Example dataset item

{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "id": "3889868956217334394",
  "shortCode": "DX7lzTOJ1p6",
  "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DX7lzTOJ1p6/",
  "type": "reel",
  "productType": "clips",
  "caption": "A public Reel caption #space @nasa",
  "hashtags": ["space"],
  "mentions": ["nasa"],
  "timestamp": "2026-04-19T04:10:21+00:00",
  "displayUrl": "https://scontent.example/image.jpg",
  "videoUrl": "https://scontent.example/video.mp4",
  "width": 1080,
  "height": 1920,
  "likesCount": 1200,
  "commentsCount": 34,
  "videoViewsCount": 25000,
  "videoPlaysCount": 27000,
  "videoDurationSeconds": 18.4,
  "hasAudio": true,
  "isPaidPartnership": false,
  "isPinned": false,
  "accessibilityCaption": null,
  "owner": {
    "id": "528817151",
    "username": "nasa",
    "fullName": "NASA",
    "isVerified": true,
    "isPrivate": false,
    "profilePicUrl": "https://scontent.example/profile.jpg"
  },
  "location": null,
  "coauthors": [],
  "taggedUsers": [],
  "audio": {
    "id": "123",
    "title": "Original audio",
    "artist": "nasa",
    "isOriginalAudio": true
  },
  "sourceUsername": "nasa",
  "sourceProfileId": "528817151",
  "sourceProfileUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/nasa/",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-07-22T18:00:00+00:00"
}

Some fields can be null when Instagram does not expose them for a particular Reel. Counts represent the public values available at the time of the run and may change later.

Additional run records

The run output also links to two records in the default key-value store:

• SUMMARY contains result totals, charge information, applied limits, status totals, and completion time.
• PROFILE_REPORT contains one status row for every submitted input, including invalid, duplicate, private, unavailable, and completed profiles. These status rows are not Reel results and are not charged.

Exporting results

Open the run's Dataset tab to preview the results. You can then:

• Download JSON, JSONL, CSV, Excel, XML, or another available dataset format.
• Select only the fields required by your workflow.
• Access the dataset through its API endpoint.
• Connect the output to another Apify Actor or an external automation.

The displayUrl, videoUrl, and profile image URLs are temporary Instagram CDN links. Download media promptly if you need to preserve it; the Actor returns the URLs but does not archive the files.

API examples

Use the Actor ID datascraperes/instagram-public-reels-scraper with your Apify API token.

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")

run = client.actor("datascraperes/instagram-public-reels-scraper").call(
    run_input={
        "profiles": ["nasa", "natgeo"],
        "resultsLimit": 20,
        "maxReelsPerProfile": 10,
        "skipPinnedReels": False,
    }
)

for reel in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(reel["url"], reel.get("videoViewsCount"))

JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN' });

const run = await client.actor('datascraperes/instagram-public-reels-scraper').call({
    profiles: ['nasa', 'natgeo'],
    resultsLimit: 20,
    maxReelsPerProfile: 10,
    skipPinnedReels: false,
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
for (const reel of items) {
    console.log(reel.url, reel.videoViewsCount);
}

Never place your Apify API token in public code or shared input.

Automating recurring Reel collection

Apify lets you reuse a saved input as a task, run it on a schedule, and react to run events with webhooks. Typical workflows include:

• Schedule the Actor daily or weekly to collect recent public Reels.
• Send completed dataset information to a webhook.
• Connect runs to Make, Zapier, n8n, Google Sheets, Slack, or other supported integrations.
• Start runs from your own application with the Apify API client.

Each scheduled run creates a new dataset. Use the Reel id or shortCode in your destination system if you need to identify items already collected by an earlier run.

Limits and important notes

• Only publicly accessible Instagram profiles and Reels are supported.
• A run accepts up to 10,000 profile inputs.
• The maximum total output is 100,000 unique Reels per run.
• The maximum output from one profile is 10,000 unique Reels.
• Duplicate inputs and duplicate Reels do not create duplicate dataset rows or charges.
• Instagram may expose fewer Reels than are visible to a logged-in user.
• Public fields and engagement metrics depend on what Instagram exposes at run time.
• Temporary media URLs can expire after the run.
• The Actor does not bypass private profiles or access-controlled content.

Frequently asked questions

Can I scrape all Reels from a profile?

Set both resultsLimit and maxReelsPerProfile to 10000 for one profile. The Actor collects until Instagram exposes no more Reels or the 10,000-per-profile limit is reached. It cannot guarantee access to content Instagram does not expose publicly.

What happens if I request 50 Reels but the profile only has 20?

You receive 20 dataset rows and are charged for 20 Reels: $0.020. The remaining 30 requested results are not charged.

Does it require an Instagram login, cookies, or password?

No. You only provide public profile usernames or URLs.

Can it scrape private profiles?

No. Private profiles and access-controlled content are skipped. They do not generate Reel charges.

Can I submit the same profile more than once?

Yes, but duplicate profile inputs are processed only once. The duplicate is listed in PROFILE_REPORT and is not charged.

Can it scrape a list of profiles?

Yes. Submit up to 10,000 inputs and use the global and per-profile limits to control how the available result capacity is distributed.

Can it scrape an individual Reel URL?

No. This Actor accepts profile usernames and profile URLs, then collects Reels belonging to those profiles.

Does it scrape Reel comments?

No. commentsCount is the public count shown for the Reel; individual comments and comment authors are not included.

Why is a field missing or null?

Instagram does not expose every field for every Reel. For example, view counts, location, audio metadata, accessibility text, or direct media URLs may be unavailable.

Does it download the videos?

No. The dataset can include a temporary direct videoUrl when Instagram exposes one. Save the file promptly if you need a permanent copy and make sure your use is legally permitted.

How do I avoid collecting pinned Reels?

Set skipPinnedReels to true. Excluded pinned Reels are not written to the dataset and are not charged.

Why did a run return no results?

Check PROFILE_REPORT for each input's status. Common causes are an invalid username, a private or unavailable profile, a profile with no publicly exposed Reels, or a temporary restriction from Instagram. You can retry temporary failures without being charged for failed requests.

Responsible use

Only collect data you are legally permitted to use. Follow applicable privacy, copyright, data protection, and platform rules. Do not use the Actor to access private content, impersonate people, harass users, or create unlawful datasets.

Support

If a valid public profile consistently produces an unexpected result, open the Actor's Issues tab and include:

• The Apify run ID.
• A small example of the profile input and limits used.
• The expected and actual result counts.
• Any status or error shown in PROFILE_REPORT.

Do not include API tokens, passwords, cookies, or other credentials in a support request.