# Instagram Hashtag Scraper (`instax/instagram-hashtag-scraper`) Actor

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

## Pricing

from $0.40 / 1,000 results

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?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Instagram Hashtag Analytics Scraper

Find out how hard a hashtag is to rank on, how often it's posted to, and which related tags are actually worth using — before you write a single caption.

### Who this is for

- **Content & social media managers** planning a hashtag strategy for a launch or campaign.
- **Marketers** deciding which niche tags to target instead of guessing.
- **Agencies** building content calendars backed by real difficulty and volume data, not intuition.
- **Researchers** studying hashtag ecosystems and how topics cluster together on Instagram.

### What you can do with it

| Use case | How |
|---|---|
| **Hashtag strategy planning** | See a tag's difficulty score and daily posting volume to decide whether it's realistic to rank on, or whether a less competitive related tag is a smarter target. |
| **Content calendar research** | Pull a tiered list (frequent / average / rare) of related tags so every post uses a mix of high-reach and low-competition hashtags instead of the same 5 overused ones. |
| **Competitive niche mapping** | Explore how hashtags in your niche connect to each other, surfacing adjacent communities you hadn't targeted yet. |

### How it works

Give it a starting hashtag and how many levels deep to explore. It looks up real usage data — post count, difficulty, and related tags — then follows those related tags outward to build a connected map of your niche. Automatically filters out low-quality/bot-suggested tags that have no real usage data, so every row in your results is actually usable.

### Example output

| name | posts | postsCount | difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| jewelry | 137.66 M | 137,660,000 | 92 |
| handmadejewelry | 45.05 M | 45,050,000 | 85 |
| jewelrydesigner | 19.86 M | 19,860,000 | 82 |
| jewelryaddict | 17.66 M | 17,660,000 | 82 |

Every row also includes `postsPerDay`, and the categorized related-hashtag lists `frequent`, `average`, and `rare` — a ready-made hashtag mix for your next post.

### Pricing

**Pay per result** — you're charged for what you actually get back:

- **$0.00005** per run start
- **$0.001** per hashtag returned

**Example**: exploring one seed hashtag two levels deep (typically 15-25 hashtags) costs roughly **$0.02**. No subscription, no minimum spend.

### See it in action

*(30-second demo video coming soon — showing a two-level hashtag exploration from input to results.)*

### Frequently asked questions

**What does "depth" actually control?**
Depth 2 (the default) returns your search hashtag plus the hashtags Instagram considers related to it — typically 15-25 results. Each additional level explores further outward and returns proportionally more.

**Why might I see fewer results than expected?**
Instagram's own "related hashtags" suggestions sometimes include bot/spam tags with no real usage history. This Actor automatically filters those out rather than padding your results with unusable rows — every hashtag you get back has real data behind it.

**What does the difficulty score mean?**
A 0-100 estimate of how competitive it is to rank in that hashtag's top posts — higher means more established, high-volume accounts are already dominating it.

# Actor input Schema

## `search` (type: `string`):

Hashtag to search (without #). Example: 'jewelry'

## `depth` (type: `integer`):

How deep to follow related hashtags. 2 = the search term plus its directly related hashtags (typically 15-25 results). Each additional level multiplies the result count and run time, so it's capped at 4.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "search": "jewelry",
  "depth": 2
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# 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 = {
    "search": "jewelry"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("instax/instagram-hashtag-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 = { "search": "jewelry" }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("instax/instagram-hashtag-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 '{
  "search": "jewelry"
}' |
apify call instax/instagram-hashtag-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,instax/instagram-hashtag-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/v0CoMFSuZJjW2CSmS/builds/pyMTiZ7MZEGutphX7/openapi.json