Instagram Hashtag Tracker — Posts, Engagement, Insights

Fast, lightweight Instagram hashtag tracking. Built with an HTTP-only engine — no browser, no bloat, no overhead. Runs in seconds, not minutes.

Extract posts by hashtag with captions, likes, comments, owner information, location, and video detection. Perfect for social media marketing, influencer analysis, and trend research.

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✨ Features

Feature	Description
Multiple Hashtags	Track any number of hashtags in a single run
Full Captions	Complete post descriptions (up to 2,000 chars)
Engagement Data	Likes, comments, and video view counts
Owner Info	Username of each post's creator
Location Data	Geotag information when available
Video Detection	Auto-detects videos vs. photos
Auto Insights	Automatic breakdown by hashtag, top posters
HTTP-only Engine	No browser overhead — lightweight and fast

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🚀 Quick Start

1. Via Apify Console (Recommended)

1. Go to Opencalw Instagram Hashtag Tracker on Apify Store
2. Click Try for free or Start
3. Enter your hashtags:

{
  "hashtags": ["berlin", "foodie", "travel"],
  "maxPostsPerHashtag": 30,
  "sessionCookies": ""
}

4. Click Run and wait for results (typically 5-15 seconds)

2. Via API

curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/opencalw-instagram-hashtag-tracker/runs?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "hashtags": ["berlin", "foodie"],
    "maxPostsPerHashtag": 30
  }'

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📋 Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
hashtags	array[string]	—	Required. List of hashtags without # (e.g., ["berlin", "foodie"])
maxPostsPerHashtag	integer	30	Max posts per hashtag (max: 100)
sessionCookies	string	""	Instagram session cookies for richer data (see FAQ)
language	enum	"de"	Interface language

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📤 Output Example

Each post returns the following fields:

{
  "postUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/p/ABC123/",
  "caption": "Beautiful day in Berlin! #berlin #travel",
  "likes": 1234,
  "comments": 56,
  "owner": "travel_berlin",
  "location": "Berlin, Germany",
  "isVideo": false,
  "videoViews": null,
  "postedAt": "1701400000",
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://instagram.com/...",
  "hashtag": "#berlin",
  "searchHashtag": "berlin",
  "timestamp": 1701400000.0
}

Insights Output

The actor also generates an insights summary:

Metric	Description
totalPosts	Total posts collected
hashtagBreakdown	Posts, captions, videos per hashtag
topOwners	Top 10 most active posters
avgEngagement	Average likes + comments per post

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💰 Pricing

Volume	Price	Cost per 1,000
1,000 posts	$3.00	$3.00
10,000 posts	$30.00	$3.00
100,000 posts	$300.00	$3.00

Free tier: 10 free posts to test before you buy.

Why so affordable?

Our HTTP-only engine eliminates expensive browser overhead. No Chromium, no Playwright, no 2GB Docker images — just pure HTTP requests with Chrome TLS impersonation:

Metric	Browser-based	Opencalw HTTP-only
Cold start	30-60s (Chrome download)	< 1s
30 posts	30-90s	3-10s
RAM usage	500MB-4GB	~50MB
Docker image	1-2GB	~200MB

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🎯 Use Cases

1. Social Media Marketing

Track campaign hashtags in real-time. Measure engagement, identify top creators, and analyze content performance.

2. Influencer Analysis

Find top posters for any hashtag. Analyze their engagement rates, content style, and posting patterns.

3. Trend Research

Monitor hashtag growth over time. Identify emerging trends before they go mainstream.

4. Competitive Intelligence

Track competitor hashtags. Compare engagement rates and content strategies.

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❓ FAQ

Is this legal?

Yes. This scraper accesses publicly available information on Instagram — the same data visible when visiting instagram.com in your browser. It does not bypass authentication or access private data. Always respect Instagram's Terms of Service and applicable data protection regulations.

Do I need Instagram cookies?

No, you can start without cookies. Without cookies, the actor extracts basic public data (post URLs, thumbnails, some captions). For richer data (likes, comments, owner names), provide Instagram session cookies. See how to get cookies.

How do I get Instagram cookies?

1. Log into instagram.com in your browser
2. Open Developer Tools (F12) → Application/Storage → Cookies
3. Copy the sessionid and csrftoken values
4. Paste them in the format: sessionid=XXX; csrftoken=YYY

What's the difference between cookie and no-cookie mode?

• Without cookies: Basic data (post URLs, thumbnails, some captions) — no login rate limits
• With cookies: Full data (likes, comments, owner, location) — richer results

What languages are supported?

14 languages: German, English, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Turkish, Russian, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

What's the maximum number of posts I can scrape?

Up to 100 posts per hashtag, with unlimited hashtags per run.

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🔧 Technical Details

How It Works

1. HTTP Request — curl_cffi sends requests with Chrome 131 TLS fingerprint
2. Instagram Hashtag Page — Targets /explore/tags/{hashtag}/
3. JSON Extraction — Embedded JSON (__INITIAL_STATE__) parsed for structured post data
4. Insights — Automatic breakdown by hashtag, top posters, engagement analytics
5. Output — JSON objects pushed to Apify dataset

Requirements

• Python 3.11+
• curl-cffi >= 0.7.0
• beautifulsoup4 >= 4.12.2
• lxml >= 5.1.0

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📞 Support

• Issues: GitHub Issues
• Source Code: GitHub Repository

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