# Instagram Reels Transcript Scraper (`inovaflow/instagram-reels-transcript-scraper`) Actor

Turn Instagram reels into text: speech-to-text transcript with timestamps and detected language, plus caption, hashtags, likes, comments, plays and duration. Paste reel URLs or profiles (latest reels). No login, no cookies, pay per transcript.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/inovaflow/instagram-reels-transcript-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [inovaflow](https://apify.com/inovaflow) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, Videos, AI
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.00 / 1,000 reels

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

**Turn Instagram reels into text — the full spoken transcript with timestamps and language, next to each reel's caption and stats.**

If you study what works on Instagram, you've probably tried to take notes from reels: pause, rewind, type out the hook, lose your place, start again. A creator's best reels are scripts — hooks, stories, product pitches — but none of that text is searchable, and the caption rarely says what was actually said.

We wanted those scripts for our own research, so we built this for ourselves first — and now we're sharing it. Paste reel links (or a few profiles), and each reel comes back as text: the transcript, split into timestamped segments, with the detected language — plus the caption, hashtags, likes, comments, plays and duration. It downloads only the reel's audio track and runs it through Whisper speech-to-text. No login, no cookies, no Instagram account at risk.

### Who it's for

- **Content strategists and creators** studying hooks: *"what do the top 20 reels in my niche say in the first 3 seconds?"*
- **Marketing teams** repurposing reels into blog posts, captions, subtitles or quotes.
- **Researchers and brand-safety teams** searching what was *said* in reels, not just captioned.
- **AI agents and RAG pipelines** that need reel content as clean text, one call, dataset only.

### What you get per reel

`url`, `ownerUsername`, **`transcript`**, **`segments`** (`start`, `end` in seconds, `text`), **`language`** / `languageCode`, `wordCount`, `transcriptStatus`, `caption`, `hashtags`, `mentions`, `likes`, `comments`, `plays`, `videoDuration`, `postedAt`, `musicTitle`, `musicArtist`, `usesOriginalAudio` and `thumbnailUrl`.

`transcriptStatus` is `ok` when speech was transcribed, otherwise it says why not: `no-speech` (music only), `too-long`, `not-a-video`, `download-failed`, `stt-failed` or `stt-rate-limited` (our speech-to-text quota was reached — run it again later). Rows that fail on our side are never charged.

Two table views are built in: **Transcripts** and **Reel stats**.

### Options

- **Reel URLs** — `/reel/` or `/p/` links, share links or shortcodes.
- **Profiles (latest reels)** — usernames or profile links; set how many recent reels per profile.
- **Spoken language** — leave empty to detect it per reel, or set a two-letter code (`en`, `es`, `de`…) when you know it.
- **Timestamped segments** (on by default) — for subtitles, quotes and clipping.
- **Add plays and exact post time** (on by default) — reads the owner's recent feed for pasted links.
- **Skip reels longer than** — keeps long videos out of your bill (default 10 minutes).

### How to set it up

1. Paste a few reel links (or a profile).
2. Click **Start**.
3. Open the **Transcripts** view, or download CSV / Excel / JSON.

And that's it.

### Pricing

Pay per result: **$0.001 per reel** delivered with its caption and stats, plus **$0.004 when its speech is transcribed** — $0.005 per transcribed reel ($5 per 1,000). Reels without speech, too long or not transcribable are never charged the transcript.

> **Tip:** set **Skip reels longer than** to your use case (e.g. 90 seconds for hooks) to keep runs short.

### Notes

- Transcripts come from an automatic speech-to-text model (Whisper). They are very accurate on clear speech, less so on heavy music, overlapping voices or strong accents; song lyrics may be transcribed as speech.
- Only public reels are processed. Private accounts return a `status` explaining why.
- Only publicly available data is collected. You are responsible for using transcripts in line with Instagram's terms and copyright law.
- Missing a field or a language? Open an issue in the **Issues** tab — we read them.

# Actor input Schema

## `reelUrls` (type: `array`):

Instagram reel or video post links, one per line — `https://www.instagram.com/reel/<code>/`, `/p/<code>/`, share links or bare shortcodes.

## `usernames` (type: `array`):

Instagram usernames or profile URLs, one per line. Returns each profile's latest reels (set how many below).

## `reelsPerProfile` (type: `integer`):

How many of each profile's latest reels to transcribe.

## `language` (type: `string`):

Two-letter code (`en`, `es`, `de`…) when you know every reel is in that language — slightly more accurate. Empty = detect automatically.

## `includeSegments` (type: `boolean`):

Add the transcript split into segments with start and end time in seconds (for subtitles, quotes and clipping).

## `includeStats` (type: `boolean`):

For pasted reel links: read the owner's recent feed to add plays (views) and the exact publish time. Likes, comments and caption are always included.

## `maxDurationSec` (type: `integer`):

Reels longer than this are delivered without a transcript (and not charged for one).

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Reels processed at the same time.

## `residentialFallback` (type: `boolean`):

Retry on a residential IP when Instagram keeps refusing datacenter IPs.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "reelUrls": [
    "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdRy_nDzZNS/",
    "https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dd1gQBsCWE8/"
  ],
  "usernames": [
    "mkbhd",
    "https://www.instagram.com/nasa/"
  ],
  "reelsPerProfile": 5,
  "includeSegments": true,
  "includeStats": true,
  "maxDurationSec": 600,
  "maxConcurrency": 3,
  "residentialFallback": true
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `transcripts` (type: `string`):

One row per reel: transcript, language, word count, caption and owner.

## `stats` (type: `string`):

Likes, comments, plays, duration, publish time and music for each reel.

## `summary` (type: `string`):

Counts, minutes of audio transcribed and request statistics.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "reelUrls": [
        "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdRy_nDzZNS/",
        "https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dd1gQBsCWE8/"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("inovaflow/instagram-reels-transcript-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "reelUrls": [
        "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdRy_nDzZNS/",
        "https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dd1gQBsCWE8/",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("inovaflow/instagram-reels-transcript-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "reelUrls": [
    "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdRy_nDzZNS/",
    "https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dd1gQBsCWE8/"
  ]
}' |
apify call inovaflow/instagram-reels-transcript-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,inovaflow/instagram-reels-transcript-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/m3wjNSZT4LBhdhgY8/builds/TZCLqo5RfrK460qMD/openapi.json