Instagram Account Validation Actor

An Apify Actor built in TypeScript that validates Instagram usernames in batches, determines whether each account exists, and returns its public profile status and metadata.

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Features

• Batch Username Validation: Accepts one or more plain Instagram usernames ("nasa" or "@nasa"), normalizes (strips leading @, trims whitespace, lowercases), and deduplicates them.
• Strict Input Validation: Rejects URLs, usernames with spaces, usernames over 30 characters, or disallowed characters with an error record in the output dataset without crashing the run.
• Embedded Profile JSON Extraction: Extracts profile data directly from Instagram's embedded SSR JSON (xig_user_by_igid_v2) and profile embed JSON (contextJSON), falling back to a headless Puppeteer browser only if embedded JSON is unavailable.
• Conservative Concurrency & Backoff: Processes usernames with modest concurrency (3–5) and retries failed requests up to 3 times with exponential backoff. Retry-exhausted requests are marked "unknown" with an error message rather than "not_found".

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Input

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
usernames	string[]	Yes	["nasa", "alex123", "nonexistent_user_xyz_987654"]	Plain Instagram usernames to validate (e.g. "nasa" or "@nasa"). URLs are not accepted.
proxyConfiguration	object	No	{ "useApifyProxy": true }	Apify Proxy configuration. Use "RESIDENTIAL" proxy group if plain/datacenter requests are blocked.
maxConcurrency	integer	No	4	Maximum concurrent checks (between 1 and 5).
sessionCookie	string (secret)	No	—	Optional Instagram sessionid cookie to unlock authenticated isBusinessAccount detection if needed. Never logged or stored.

Example Input

{
  "usernames": [
    "nasa",
    "@alex123",
    "nonexistent_user_xyz_987654",
    "invalid username with spaces"
  ],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  },
  "maxConcurrency": 4
}

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Output

Every unique normalized input username produces exactly one item in the default dataset. Results are configured via .actor/dataset_schema.json to render as a table in Apify Console.

Output Fields

{
  "username": "nasa",
  "exists": true,
  "accountStatus": "active",
  "isPrivate": false,
  "isVerified": true,
  "isBusinessAccount": null,
  "fullName": "NASA",
  "followersCount": 104384844,
  "followingCount": 90,
  "postsCount": 4967,
  "profileUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/nasa/",
  "checkedAt": "2026-10-19T05:38:00.000Z",
  "error": null
}

Account Status Meanings (accountStatus)

Status	exists	Meaning
"active"	true	The account exists and is a public profile (isPrivate: false).
"private"	true	The account exists and has the private flag enabled (isPrivate: true).
"not_found"	false	Instagram indicates the account does not exist (httpErrorPage / PolarisErrorRoot / 404).
"suspended"	true	Instagram indicates the account has been suspended, disabled, or restricted.
"unknown"	null	The account could not be classified due to an invalid input format, login wall, or retry-exhausted network error (details in error).

Note on null fields: This Actor never guesses values. If a field cannot be read publicly without authentication (such as isBusinessAccount on unauthenticated public HTML), it returns null.

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Example Output Dataset

[
  {
    "username": "nasa",
    "exists": true,
    "accountStatus": "active",
    "isPrivate": false,
    "isVerified": true,
    "isBusinessAccount": null,
    "fullName": "NASA",
    "followersCount": 104384844,
    "followingCount": 90,
    "postsCount": 4967,
    "profileUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/nasa/",
    "checkedAt": "2026-10-19T05:38:00.000Z",
    "error": null
  },
  {
    "username": "alex123",
    "exists": true,
    "accountStatus": "private",
    "isPrivate": true,
    "isVerified": false,
    "isBusinessAccount": null,
    "fullName": "Alex Pohl",
    "followersCount": 5448,
    "followingCount": 450,
    "postsCount": 292,
    "profileUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/alex123/",
    "checkedAt": "2026-10-19T05:38:01.000Z",
    "error": null
  },
  {
    "username": "nonexistent_user_xyz_987654",
    "exists": false,
    "accountStatus": "not_found",
    "isPrivate": null,
    "isVerified": null,
    "isBusinessAccount": null,
    "fullName": null,
    "followersCount": null,
    "followingCount": null,
    "postsCount": null,
    "profileUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/nonexistent_user_xyz_987654/",
    "checkedAt": "2026-10-19T05:38:01.500Z",
    "error": null
  },
  {
    "username": "invalid username with spaces",
    "exists": null,
    "accountStatus": "unknown",
    "isPrivate": null,
    "isVerified": null,
    "isBusinessAccount": null,
    "fullName": null,
    "followersCount": null,
    "followingCount": null,
    "postsCount": null,
    "profileUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/invalid%20username%20with%20spaces/",
    "checkedAt": "2026-10-19T05:38:00.000Z",
    "error": "Invalid username: spaces are not allowed in Instagram usernames."
  }
]

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Local Development & Deployment

# Install dependencies and build
npm install
npm run build

# Run locally with Apify CLI
apify run

# Authenticate and deploy to Apify Cloud
apify login
apify push