Instagram Reels Transcript Scraper: Reels & Accounts to Text

What does Instagram Reels Transcript Scraper do?

Instagram Reels Transcript Scraper turns Instagram Reels and video posts into text: the full transcript of what is said, the author, date, likes and comments, and optional SRT/VTT subtitles and timestamped segments, in 99 languages (or translated to English). Paste Reel links, or just a creator's handle (@zachking) to get their newest Reels, and get one row per Reel.

It runs open-source Whisper on Apify, so there is no Instagram login, no API key and no subscription. You pay $0.009 per Reel (first minute included), and Reels with only music, private Reels and failed downloads are never billed.

It runs on the Apify platform, so you also get an API, scheduling, integrations (Google Sheets, Make, Zapier, n8n) and access for AI agents through the Apify MCP server.

Independent tool, not affiliated with or endorsed by Instagram or Meta. Instagram is a trademark of Meta Platforms, Inc.; it is named only to describe the public data this Actor collects. It only accesses publicly available content.

Why use it?

• 🎣 Hooks and scripts: read what the top Reels in your niche say in their first seconds, at scale.
• 🕵️ Competitor and creator research: a searchable log of what brands and creators say in their Reels.
• ✍️ Repurposing: turn your own Reels into captions, blog posts, newsletters and threads.
• 🎬 Subtitles: SRT/VTT files with readable lines (42 characters, 2 lines) for re-uploading.
• 🤖 AI pipelines: clean text ready for ChatGPT, Claude or a vector database.

How to get the transcript of an Instagram Reel

1. Click Try for free.
2. Paste Instagram Reel links (instagram.com/reel/...) or video post links (instagram.com/p/...), one per line, or type creators in Instagram accounts (@zachking or https://www.instagram.com/zachking/).
3. Optionally choose the spoken language (or auto) and extra outputs (SRT, segments, Markdown).
4. Click Start, then download the results as JSON, CSV or Excel.

Transcribe a creator's newest Reels (by account)

Put one or more creators in Instagram accounts (profiles): @username or the profile link. The Actor opens the account's public Reels tab, takes the newest Reels (up to 12 per account, what Instagram shows without login; choose how many in Reels per account) and transcribes them. Pinned Reels are ordered by their real date, so "newest" means newest.

Watch creators on a schedule: with Only new reels on (the default), Reels already transcribed in earlier runs are skipped and not billed. Schedule the Actor daily or weekly and you get only each creator's new Reels. No login, cookies or other scraper needed.

{ "profiles": ["@zachking", "https://www.instagram.com/nasa/"], "maxVideosPerProfile": 5, "onlyNewVideos": true }

Output

One record per Reel. Real result (October 2026):

{
  "source": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0hQSaMpD97/",
  "status": "ok",
  "language": "en",
  "durationSeconds": 60.02,
  "billedMinutes": 1,
  "text": "Hey Space Nerds, I got a special delivery for you. So picture this. You're on a military range in the middle of the Utah desert. …",
  "video": {
    "platform": "instagram",
    "author": "NASA Goddard",
    "uploadDate": "2023-12-06",
    "likes": 8391,
    "comments": 17
  }
}

When Reels come from an account (profiles), views (plays) are included, taken from the profile page. For pasted links Instagram does not always make the view count public, so views can be empty; likes and comments are always included.

Input

Field	Description	Default
sources	Instagram Reel or video post links (TikTok, X, Facebook and MP4 links also work)	-
profiles	Instagram creators: @username or profile link; their newest Reels are transcribed	-
maxVideosPerProfile	Newest Reels per account (1 to 12)	5
onlyNewVideos	Skip Reels transcribed by earlier runs (for schedules)	true
language	Spoken language code, or auto	auto
task	transcribe or translate (to English)	transcribe
model	base (recommended), small (most accurate) or tiny	base
outputs	text, markdown, segments, srt, vtt, chunks	text
vocabulary	Names and jargon to spell correctly	-

How much does it cost?

Event	Price
Reel (first minute included)	$0.009
Each extra minute (base or tiny model)	$0.006
Each extra minute (small model)	$0.012
Run start (per GB of memory, default 4 GB)	$0.0005
AI insights per Reel (optional; Claude usage billed to your own key)	$0.01

100 Reels cost about $0.90. Most Reels are under a minute, so they cost exactly $0.009. Reels with only music, private Reels and failed downloads are free; each result explains why.

Use it with AI agents (MCP)

Add https://mcp.apify.com?tools=fguiraud/instagram-reels-transcript-scraper to Claude, Cursor or any MCP client and ask: "Transcribe the newest reels of @zachking and list the hooks he uses."

Agent-friendly input: common field names such as url, urls, startUrls, query or keywords are accepted, and an empty input runs a small sample from the input form (with a note in the results) instead of failing.

FAQ and limitations

• How many Reels per account? Up to the 12 newest, which is what Instagram shows on a public profile without a login. To follow a creator over time, schedule the Actor with Only new reels; for older Reels, paste their links in sources. Private accounts cannot be read.
• Private Reels and Reels that need a login cannot be read; they come back with an explanation and are not billed.
• Music-only Reels come back as "no speech" and are not billed.
• Is it legal? The Actor reads public Reels. Respect the rights of the creators when you reuse their content.
• Found a problem or need a feature? Open an issue on the Issues tab. Replies within 48 hours.

Related tools

• TikTok Transcript Scraper: TikTok videos and whole accounts to text.
• Video to Text Transcriber: any video file or social link, priced per minute (better for long videos).
• YouTube Transcript Scraper: YouTube videos, channels and playlists.