Instagram Related Profiles Scraper

👥 What is Instagram Related Profiles Scraper?

Instagram Related Profiles Scraper helps you find influencers on Instagram, map competitors and build lookalike lists, starting from accounts you already know. It is made for brand teams, creators, researchers and influencer marketing agencies: enter one or more public usernames and get the Instagram similar accounts that Instagram suggests for them, each with followers, bio, links, posting activity, language, account tier and a 0-100 similarity score.

Just enter a username such as nasa and click Start; the Apify Free plan's $5 monthly credit lets you try it before you pay anything. No coding, no Instagram login and no cookies are needed. Instead of clicking through the app, this Instagram suggested accounts scraper lets you find similar Instagram accounts for many profiles in one run.

• Lookalike influencers: start from a creator who already works for you and get similar creators, ranked by how close they are to your accounts. This is Instagram influencer discovery without scrolling the app.
• Micro and nano creator shortlists: set a follower range to find micro influencers on Instagram (10,000 to 99,999 followers) or smaller nano accounts, then sort by similarity.
• Competitor mapping: find competitors on Instagram by entering one brand and reading the accounts Instagram groups with it, with their size, posting pace and top hashtags.
• Niche maps: enter several accounts from one niche and see which related profiles they share. Profiles suggested for more of your accounts get a higher score.
• Instagram influencer outreach lists: get each account's profile link, website and bio links in one table, ready for a CRM or a sheet.
• Vetting: skip dormant accounts with the activity and days_since_last_post fields before you contact anyone.

What can Instagram Related Profiles Scraper do?

• 📋 Expand many accounts in one run. Add usernames, @usernames or profile links, one per line. Duplicates are removed.
• 🎯 Rank the lookalikes. Use it as an Instagram similar accounts finder: every related profile gets a similarity_score, the list of your accounts it matches and its best rank in the suggestions.
• 🕸️ Go one level deeper. Search depth 2 also reads the suggestions of the suggestions for a wider list.
• 📊 Filter by size. Keep only accounts between a minimum and a maximum follower count.
• ⏱️ See results live. Rows appear in the Output tab while the run is still going.
• 🗂️ Get tidy tables. Besides the main table, you get Profiles, Audience, Activity, Links, Similarity and a Status and problems table, plus a run summary.
• 🔌 Automate it. Run it through the API, on a schedule, or with Make, Zapier, Google Sheets, Slack and MCP-based AI agents.

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🗃️ Instagram Related Profiles Scraper data: what can you extract?

Each row in the main table is one of the Instagram similar profiles found for your accounts. The field names below are the exact names in the dataset. In field names such as matched_seeds, a seed is simply an account you entered.

Key columns to start with: username, profile_url, followers, account_tier, activity and similarity_score. The other fields add detail when you need it.

Field	What it is
👤 username, full_name, user_id, profile_url	Handle, display name, numeric account ID and profile link
🏅 is_verified	true when the account has the verified badge
📸 profile_pic_url	Link to the profile picture
📝 biography	Bio text
📊 followers, following, follower_following_ratio, posts_count, posts_count_is_exact	Audience size and post count
🏷️ account_tier	Size group: nano (under 10,000 followers), micro (10,000 to 99,999), mid (100,000 to 499,999), macro (500,000 to 999,999), mega (1,000,000 or more)
🌍 language	Two-letter language code (ISO 639-1) guessed from the bio and recent captions
🌐 website, link_in_bio_hub	First website link in the bio, and the link-in-bio page (such as Linktree or Beacons) if there is one
🔗 bio_links	Every link in the bio, each with title and url
📅 last_post_date, days_since_last_post	Date of the newest recent post and how many days ago it was
📈 posts_per_month, activity	Posting pace and a label: very_active (12+ posts a month), active (4+), occasional, inactive (last post over 30 days ago), dormant (over 90 days ago)
🎬 reels_share_pct	Share of recent posts that are reels, in percent
🔖 top_hashtags, top_mentions	Up to 5 most used hashtags and most mentioned accounts in recent captions
🧩 matched_seeds, seed_overlap, suggested_by	Which of your accounts this profile is related to, how many, and which accounts suggested it
🕸️ found_at_depth, suggestion_rank	1 = suggested for your account, 2 = suggested for a suggestion; best position in a suggestion list (1 = first)
🎯 similarity_score	0 to 100. Higher when more of your accounts share the profile, when it ranks higher in the suggestions, and when its follower count is close to your accounts. Depth-2 profiles score lower
🕒 scraped_at, status	Collection time in UTC, and ok for a collected profile

Note: A field is null when Instagram doesn't show it. posts_count is rounded (for example 11,000 for "11K") when posts_count_is_exact is false. The activity fields use only the recent posts shown on the profile, so they are null when there are no dated posts. language is null when there is too little text.

What data can't Instagram Related Profiles Scraper extract?

• Emails and phone numbers. For contacts, run the related usernames through Instagram Email Scraper.
• Likes, comments and engagement rate. Instagram Profile Scraper returns engagement rate and the latest posts with likes and comments.
• Private accounts, follower lists and audience demographics. Private related accounts are skipped, and the Audience table holds counts only.

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▶️ How to scrape Instagram suggested accounts

Instagram Related Profiles Scraper is made for an easy start, even if you've never collected data from the web before. You can collect the Instagram related profiles of your first accounts in five steps:

1. Create a free Apify account with your email.
2. Open Instagram Related Profiles Scraper and click Try for free.
3. In Instagram accounts, enter the usernames you want Instagram suggested accounts for, one per line (the prefill has nasa and natgeo).
4. Keep Max profiles per account at 10 for a first test and click Start.
5. Watch rows appear in the Output tab while the run works. When the run's status shows Succeeded, export Instagram data from Storage → Datasets → Export as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or HTML.

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💲 Instagram Related Profiles Scraper pricing: how much does it cost?

Instagram Related Profiles Scraper uses pay-per-event pricing. In plain words, you pay a fixed price for each related profile it saves, not a monthly rent. Your bill for a run has three parts:

1. Results: you pay for each related profile saved to the main table. The price depends on your Apify plan (table below). Rows in the extra tables and in the Status and problems table are not charged.
2. Start fee: $0.00005 per run at the default 1 GB of memory. It is charged once per GB of run memory, so it only grows if you raise the memory yourself.
3. Platform usage: the server time and resources the run uses, billed at your Apify plan's own rates.

Apify plan	Price per related profile	Price per 1,000 related profiles
🆓 Free	$0.005	$5.00
🚀 Starter	$0.0045	$4.50
📦 Scale	$0.004	$4.00
💼 Business and higher	$0.0035	$3.50

The plan discount applies to the result price only. The start fee is the same on every plan, and platform usage is billed at your Apify plan's own rates.

Example: 1,000 related profiles cost $5.00 in result charges on the Free plan, $4.50 on Starter, $4.00 on Scale and $3.50 on Business, plus the $0.00005 start fee and platform usage. The prefilled input (2 accounts, 10 profiles each) saves up to 20 profiles: up to $0.10 in result charges on the Free plan, plus the start fee and platform usage.

To see the full cost for your own accounts, do a small test run and read the cost on the run's page in Apify Console. See the pricing tab for the current prices.

Is it free to find related Instagram profiles?

You can start without paying. The Apify Free plan gives you $5 in credit every month, which pays for result charges and platform usage. Free-plan runs work the same as paid runs: there is no extra result limit on any plan.

How do I keep the cost under control?

• Max profiles per account is a limit for each account you enter, not for the whole run. With 5 accounts and a limit of 10, you can get up to 50 paid profiles.
• Each run charges for the profiles it saves, even if an earlier run saved the same profiles. Keep the account list of a scheduled task focused.
• Set a maximum charge limit in the run options when you start a run. It caps what the Actor charges for results; platform usage is billed on top. When the limit is reached, the run stops cleanly and keeps every profile it already saved.

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⬇️ Input

You only need one or more public Instagram accounts. Everything else has a sensible default. Set the input in Apify Console or send it as JSON through the API.

Settings most people change

Setting (Console title)	What it does	Default
👤 Instagram accounts (urls)	The accounts you want related profiles for: a username, @username or profile link, one per line. Required	None (Console prefill: nasa, natgeo)
🔢 Max profiles per account (maxItems)	Stop after this many related profiles for each account you enter. 0 to 10,000; 0 = no limit. See Max profiles per account	10
🕸️ Search depth (searchDepth)	"1" = mainly the accounts Instagram suggests for yours (see the note on reaching your limit below). "2" = also the suggestions of those suggestions	"1"
📊 Min followers (minFollowers)	Skip related accounts with fewer followers. 0 = no minimum	0
📊 Max followers (maxFollowers)	Skip related accounts with more followers. 0 = no maximum	0
🛡️ Proxy (proxyConfiguration)	Optional. You can leave it off: if Instagram refuses requests, the Actor switches to Apify Proxy on its own.	No proxy

Here's an example that gets up to 10 related profiles each for NASA and National Geographic:

{
  "urls": ["nasa", "natgeo"],
  "searchDepth": "1",
  "maxItems": 10,
  "minFollowers": 0,
  "maxFollowers": 0,
  "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": false }
}

See the input tab for a full description of all fields.

Instagram accounts

Enter the accounts whose lookalikes you want. To get Instagram accounts similar to National Geographic, enter natgeo.

• ✅ Good: nasa, @natgeo, https://www.instagram.com/natgeo/
• ❌ Bad: https://www.instagram.com/p/ABC123/ (a post link is not an account)

⚠️ Private accounts have no public suggestions. They appear in the Status and problems table and are not charged.

Max profiles per account

The limit counts per input account. Each related profile is saved once, even if several of your accounts share it; matched_seeds lists all of them.

How the limit works together with Search depth:

• Depth 1 with a limit above 0: the Actor starts with the accounts Instagram suggests for yours. If there are too few to reach your limit, it also reads the suggestions of those suggestions to get closer to the limit. Those extra rows have found_at_depth: 2, and they cost the same as any other saved profile.

• Depth 1 with 0 (no limit): you get every direct suggestion, and nothing more.

• Depth 2: the suggestions of the suggestions are always included. With 0 you get every profile found.

• In every case the extra search stays within a fixed size, and the Actor stops working on an account after it has checked a large number of related profiles. So 0 or a very high limit won't give an endless list, and big limits may not be reached. The 10,000 maximum is only the highest number the field accepts.

• ✅ Good: 10 with 2 accounts = up to 20 profiles

• ❌ Bad: expecting 10 profiles in total when you enter 5 accounts (you can get up to 50)

Min followers and Max followers: filter Instagram accounts by followers

Use these to filter Instagram accounts by followers before you pay for them. Profiles outside the range are skipped and not charged. If Min is higher than Max, the two values are swapped.

• ✅ Good: minFollowers: 10000, maxFollowers: 100000 for micro creators
• ❌ Bad: minFollowers: 5000000 for a small niche, where few or no profiles pass

⚠️ With a range set, profiles whose follower count can't be read are skipped. If many related profiles checked for an account are all outside your range, the Actor stops working on that account and says so in the log. Try a wider range.

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⬆️ Output

Results appear live in the Output tab and are stored in datasets. You can view them as a table or JSON, pick the fields you need, and download them from Storage → Datasets → Export as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or HTML. The main table is your Instagram influencer list; the extra tables and the run totals are in the Output tab next to it:

Table	What's in it
👥 Related profiles (main table)	Every field for each related profile. These are the paid results
👤 Profiles	Name, bio, picture, verified badge, tier and language
📊 Audience	Followers, following, post count and ratio
📈 Activity	Last post, posting pace, reels share, hashtags and mentions
🔗 Links	Website, link-in-bio page and all bio links
🎯 Similarity	Similarity score, matched accounts, depth and rank
🚦 Status and problems	Accounts that could not be expanded, and why. Never charged
🧾 Run summary	Counts and timing of the run: profiles saved, results charged, profiles skipped, problems, duration

JSON example

One of the Instagram related accounts for the input example above:

{
  "username": "natgeoyourshot",
  "profile_url": "https://www.instagram.com/natgeoyourshot/",
  "status": "ok",
  "full_name": "National Geographic Your Shot",
  "user_id": "1389225126",
  "is_verified": true,
  "profile_pic_url": "https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/v/pic.jpg",
  "biography": "Capture the wonder of the world around you and share it with National Geographic's visual storytelling community.",
  "followers": 6288385,
  "following": 101,
  "follower_following_ratio": 62261.24,
  "posts_count": 11000,
  "posts_count_is_exact": false,
  "account_tier": "mega",
  "language": "en",
  "website": "http://visitstore.bio/yourshot",
  "link_in_bio_hub": null,
  "bio_links": [{ "title": null, "url": "http://visitstore.bio/yourshot" }],
  "last_post_date": "2026-10-21",
  "days_since_last_post": 4,
  "posts_per_month": 3.1,
  "activity": "occasional",
  "reels_share_pct": 71.4,
  "top_hashtags": ["pompeiioutoftime"],
  "top_mentions": ["timlaman", "macstonephoto"],
  "matched_seeds": ["nasa", "natgeo"],
  "seed_overlap": 2,
  "suggested_by": ["nasa", "natgeo"],
  "found_at_depth": 1,
  "suggestion_rank": 3,
  "similarity_score": 84.1,
  "scraped_at": "2026-10-25T17:51:50+00:00"
}

Status and problems table

Each row has username, profile_url, status and error (the reason). The status values mean:

Status	Meaning
seed_unavailable	Your account could not be loaded or doesn't exist
seed_private	Your account is private, so it has no public suggestions
no_suggestions	Instagram showed no suggested accounts for it
suggestions_failed	The suggestions could not be loaded this time
ip_blocked	Instagram refused the requests. Try again later
network_unreachable	The requests didn't reach Instagram. Try again later
no_results	The run saved no related profile and had no other problem: every related profile was outside your follower range, private, not found or could not be loaded

What happens when a run has problems?

• Some accounts fail: the run keeps going with the other accounts and normally ends as Succeeded. The failed accounts are listed in the Status and problems table, and those rows are never charged. You pay only for the related profiles that were saved.
• The input can't be used (for example no valid account, or a setting that isn't a whole number): the run ends as Failed right away. The status message names the settings to check ("Search depth", "Max profiles per account", "Min followers" and "Max followers" must be whole numbers of 0 or more) or asks you to add at least one account. No results are saved, so there are no result charges.
• Instagram refuses too many requests: the run stops early, keeps every profile it already saved, and the final status message tells you how many were saved.

To retry: copy the usernames from the Status and problems table into Instagram accounts and run again later. If many accounts end as ip_blocked, wait a while before you run those accounts again.

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💡 Tips and advanced usage

How many results can you scrape with Instagram Related Profiles Scraper?

You can ask for up to 10,000 related profiles per account. The real number depends on how many accounts Instagram suggests, how strict your follower range is, and how many related accounts are private or gone. The search around each account has a fixed size, so the Actor stops working on an account after it has checked a large number of related profiles. The best way to know for your accounts is a quick test run.

Use Search depth 2 for niche research

For Instagram niche research, enter 3 to 5 well-known accounts from the niche and set Search depth to "2". You get more similar Instagram accounts, and seed_overlap shows which ones sit in the middle of the niche. Depth-2 profiles get a lower similarity_score, so sort by score to keep the closest ones on top.

How to get cheaper results

• Start with Max profiles per account at 10 and raise it once you like the results.
• Set Min followers and Max followers: skipped profiles are not charged.
• Use one run with many accounts instead of many small runs. Each run has its own start fee.

Run it on a schedule

A weekly run is a simple way to do Instagram competitor research:

1. Enter your competitors' accounts and your follower range, then save the input as a task in Apify Console (a task is a saved input you can run again with one click).
2. Add an Apify schedule to the task, for example every Monday morning.
3. Export each run to the same Google Sheet and compare runs by username: new usernames are accounts Instagram started grouping with your competitors, and followers and activity show who is growing or going quiet.

The Actor doesn't remove profiles you saw in earlier runs, so do the comparison in your sheet or in your own code.

Known issues

• If Instagram refuses too many requests in a row, the run stops early and keeps everything it already saved. Try again later.
• Activity fields use only the recent posts shown on the profile. They are null when the profile shows no dated posts.
• When a follower range is set, a profile whose follower count can't be read is skipped, even if it would fit.

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🔌 Instagram Related Profiles Scraper API and integrations

Can I use the Instagram related profiles API from my code?

Yes. The Apify API lets you start runs, schedule them and fetch results, so you can use this Actor as an Instagram similar accounts API without building a scraper. Use the apify-client NPM package for Node.js or the apify-client PyPI package for Python. The API tab has ready-to-use code.

How to scrape Instagram similar accounts with Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("insights_data/instagram-related-profiles-scraper").call(run_input={
    "urls": ["nasa", "natgeo"],
    "searchDepth": "1",
    "maxItems": 10,
    "minFollowers": 0,
    "maxFollowers": 0,
    "proxyConfiguration": {"useApifyProxy": False},
})

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item["username"], item["followers"], item["similarity_score"])

Can I integrate Instagram Related Profiles Scraper with other apps?

Yes. Connect it with almost any cloud service through Apify integrations: Make, Zapier, Slack, Google Sheets, Google Drive, Airbyte, GitHub, LangChain and more. Two workflows that fit this Actor:

• Influencer prospecting sheet: run the Actor from a saved task, and send each finished run to Google Sheets. Your team filters by account_tier and activity, then sends the chosen usernames to Instagram Email Scraper for contacts.
• Slack alert for new lookalikes: add a webhook (a message Apify sends to another app when a run finishes) or a Make or Zapier scenario that fires when a run succeeds and posts the top profiles by similarity_score to a Slack channel.

Can I use Instagram Related Profiles Scraper with AI agents (MCP)?

Yes. Connect it to Claude and other AI assistants through the Apify MCP server, then ask, for example, for accounts similar to a brand with 10,000 to 100,000 followers. Open the MCP tab for setup steps.

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🧭 Other Instagram and social scrapers

These Actors from the same developer pick up where related profiles stop:

Actor	What it adds
🤝 Instagram Email Scraper	Public emails, phones, WhatsApp and website of Instagram accounts, with a lead score
🔬 Instagram Profile Scraper	Full profiles with emails and phones from the bio, engagement rate and latest posts
🔍 Instagram Search Scraper	Search Instagram by keyword for profiles, places, posts, reels and hashtags
📰 Fast Instagram Post Scraper	Latest posts of any profile with captions, likes, comments and reel views
🎵 TikTok Profile Scraper	TikTok profile videos with views, likes, comments, shares and author stats

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❓ FAQ

Is scraping Instagram legal?

Scraping publicly available data is generally legal, but you must respect personal data and intellectual property rules. Instagram profiles can contain personal data, which is protected under laws such as the GDPR, so only collect it with a legitimate reason and take Instagram's Terms of Use into account. This is not legal advice; ask a lawyer if you are unsure.

How does Instagram Related Profiles Scraper work?

It works like a visitor browsing public Instagram profiles, only faster. For each account you enter, it opens the public profile, reads the Instagram suggested profiles shown for it, opens each suggested profile, skips private ones and those outside your follower range, and saves one row per related profile. Nothing is posted, followed or liked, and no Instagram account is used.

How to find similar accounts on Instagram?

In the app, you can open a profile and look at the suggested accounts one profile at a time. To get them for many accounts at once, with follower counts and a score, enter the usernames in Instagram Related Profiles Scraper and export the table.

How to find suggested accounts on Instagram for many profiles at once?

Enter all the profiles in Instagram accounts, one per line, and start one run. Each related profile is saved once, and matched_seeds and seed_overlap show which of your profiles it was suggested for.

How is this different from the Instagram similar accounts feature in the app?

	Instagram app	Instagram Related Profiles Scraper
Accounts at a time	One profile	Many, in one run
Follower filter	❌	✅ Min and max followers
Similarity score and overlap	❌	✅
Activity, tier, language, links	Open each profile yourself	✅ In every row
Export to a spreadsheet	❌	✅ JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, HTML

Is this an Instagram influencer search tool?

Not in the keyword sense. It is an influencer lookalike tool: it discovers creators from accounts you already know, not from keywords. If you want to start from a keyword or hashtag, use Instagram Search Scraper first and then enter the accounts you like here.

Can I find similar influencers of a certain size?

Yes. To find similar influencers in a size band, set Min followers and Max followers, or filter the export by account_tier. For example, to find nano influencers, set Max followers to 9,999.

Is it an Instagram related users scraper or a profile scraper?

Both. It finds the related users Instagram suggests and then reads each public profile, so every row already has followers, bio, links and activity. For engagement rate and post-level data, use Instagram Profile Scraper.

Does this Instagram similar accounts scraper need a login?

No. It reads public data that any visitor can see, so you don't need an Instagram account, cookies or a password. Private accounts are skipped.

Why am I getting fewer results than expected?

• Instagram may suggest only a few accounts for your profile. Set Search depth to "2" for a wider list.
• Your follower range may be too narrow. Widen Min followers and Max followers or set them to 0.
• Private and deleted related accounts are skipped. The run summary shows how many profiles were skipped.
• Check the Status and problems table for accounts that could not be expanded, and try those again later.

Can I use it as an Instagram lookalike finder for ads?

It gives you a list of real lookalike accounts, not an ads audience. Many teams use these Instagram lookalike lists to pick creators and partner accounts, or to check which brands Instagram groups with theirs. It also works as an Instagram related accounts finder for research.

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📧 Support and feedback

Found a bug or want another field? Please create an issue on the Issues tab.

Need a custom solution or more data? Contact us at hello.insights.data@gmail.com.

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