$0.05/1K - Instagram Reels Scrapy

$0.05 per 1,000 results. Around 50x cheaper than the usual Instagram scraper, for the same job.

Extract public Reels and posts from Instagram profiles — with view, like and comment counts — and get clean, structured rows you can drop straight into a spreadsheet, a dashboard or your own database.

Give it a list of profiles, say how many items you want from each, and run it. No login, no cookies, no browser automation on your side.

What you get

For every item, the standard output includes the thumbnail, the caption's first line, the profile handle, the post URL, the publish date, view count, like count, comment count and duration. Twenty-five more fields are available on demand — hashtags, mentions, tagged users, co-authors, carousel items, full caption, every video and thumbnail rendition, audio track details and more.

You choose the columns. Ask for nine fields and you get nine clean columns instead of a wall of JSON you have to clean up later.

How to use it

1. Put one or more usernames in Instagram profiles, without the @ sign.
2. Pick the Content type — Reels only, posts only, or everything.
3. Set Items per profile.
4. Run it, then download the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML.

Input

Field	Type	Default	What it does
usernames	array	["nasa"]	Profiles to scrape, without @
content_type	string	reels	reels, posts or all
quantity_per_user	integer	100	Maximum items per profile
selected_fields	array	9 standard fields	Which columns to return

Example input

{
  "usernames": ["nasa", "natgeo"],
  "content_type": "reels",
  "quantity_per_user": 50,
  "selected_fields": ["link_post", "titulo", "visualizacoes", "curtidas", "comentarios"]
}

Output

{
  "thumb": "https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.../image.jpg",
  "titulo": "Coming out of my shell",
  "usuario": "@nasa",
  "link_post": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcEMvAdOryS/",
  "data_criacao_iso": "2026-08-10T20:06:13",
  "visualizacoes": 1512492,
  "curtidas": 34514,
  "comentarios": 291,
  "duracao": 79.5
}

Photos and carousels have no view count — Instagram only reports plays for video — so visualizacoes is omitted for those items rather than sent as zero.

You can download the dataset in JSON, CSV, Excel, HTML, XML or RSS.

API

Every run is available over the Apify API. Replace <TOKEN> with your API token from Settings → Integrations.

Run and wait for the results

Returns the dataset items directly, in one call:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/<ACTOR_ID>/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
        "usernames": ["nasa"],
        "content_type": "reels",
        "quantity_per_user": 50
      }'

Best for small and medium jobs. The connection stays open until the run ends, so keep a generous client timeout.

Start a run and collect later

For large jobs, start the run and poll for it:

# 1. start
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/<ACTOR_ID>/runs?token=<TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"usernames": ["nasa"], "quantity_per_user": 5000}'

# 2. check status — look for "status": "SUCCEEDED"
curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/actor-runs/<RUN_ID>?token=<TOKEN>"

# 3. fetch the items
curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/<DATASET_ID>/items?token=<TOKEN>&format=csv"

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<TOKEN>")

run = client.actor("<ACTOR_ID>").call(run_input={
    "usernames": ["nasa"],
    "content_type": "all",
    "quantity_per_user": 100,
})

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item["link_post"], item.get("curtidas"))

JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '<TOKEN>' });

const run = await client.actor('<ACTOR_ID>').call({
    usernames: ['nasa'],
    contentType: 'reels',
    quantity_per_user: 100,
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items.length);

Run summary

Besides the dataset, each run writes an OUTPUT record to the key-value store with a per-profile summary:

{
  "ok": true,
  "total_items": 150,
  "users": [
    { "user": "nasa", "count": 100 },
    { "user": "natgeo", "count": 50 }
  ]
}

When a profile cannot be completed, its entry carries an erro field and the items already collected stay in the dataset. A partial result is never silently reported as a full one.

Notes and limits

• Only public profiles are supported. Private accounts return no items.
• A profile that is unavailable is skipped with a warning; the other profiles in the same run continue normally.
• Requesting more items than a profile has simply returns everything available.

Support

Found a bug or need a field that is not on the list? Open an issue on the Actor's Issues tab with the input you used and the run ID.

Disclaimer

This is an unofficial tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Instagram or Meta Platforms, Inc. It collects only publicly available content. You are responsible for how you use the data, including compliance with applicable laws and the target site's terms.