Instagram Follower Scraper + Auto Follow

Apify Actor that:

1. Takes a target Instagram account (username or profile URL)
2. Scrapes a list of usernames that follow that account
3. Optionally follows those users from your own Instagram session

Built to deploy on Apify and monetize via the Apify Store (pay-per-event).

Important: Automating follows can violate Instagram’s Terms of Use and may get accounts checkpointed or action-blocked. Use low daily limits, residential proxies, and dryRun while testing. You are responsible for how you use this Actor.

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Features

• Cookie-based auth (sessionid) — no password stored in the Actor
• Follower list pagination with a configurable cap
• Optional auto-follow with human-like delays and random jitter
• Skip private / already-following accounts
• Dry run mode (default) — scrape + preview without sending follows
• Apify Proxy support (RESIDENTIAL recommended)
• Dataset output + SUMMARY key-value record
• Pay-per-event hooks: follower-scraped, user-followed

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How to get your Instagram session cookie

1. Log into Instagram in Chrome / Firefox
2. Open DevTools → Application (Chrome) or Storage (Firefox) → Cookies → https://www.instagram.com
3. Copy the value of sessionid
4. Paste it into the Actor input field sessionCookie

Optional: export all cookies with a Cookie-Editor extension and paste the JSON / header into sessionCookie or cookieHeader.

Treat sessionid like a password. Anyone with it can use the account.

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Input

Field	Required	Default	Description
targetUsername	✅	—	Username or profile URL to scrape followers from
sessionCookie	✅	—	sessionid value, full Cookie header, or Cookie-Editor JSON
csrfToken	❌	auto	Optional csrftoken
cookieHeader	❌	—	Optional full cookie string
maxFollowers	❌	100	Max followers to collect
maxFollowsPerRun	❌	20	Max follow actions (0 = scrape only)
delayBetweenFollowsSeconds	❌	25	Base delay between follows
randomDelayVariationSeconds	❌	8	± jitter on delays
dryRun	❌	true	Scrape without following
scrapeOnly	❌	false	Force scrape-only
skipPrivateAccounts	❌	true	Skip private profiles when following
skipAlreadyFollowing	❌	true	Skip users you already follow/requested
proxyConfiguration	❌	RESIDENTIAL	Apify Proxy settings

Example input

{
  "targetUsername": "nike",
  "sessionCookie": "YOUR_SESSIONID_HERE",
  "maxFollowers": 100,
  "maxFollowsPerRun": 15,
  "delayBetweenFollowsSeconds": 30,
  "dryRun": false,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}

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Output

Each scraped follower is pushed to the dataset:

{
  "targetUsername": "nike",
  "userId": "123456789",
  "username": "example_user",
  "fullName": "Example User",
  "isPrivate": false,
  "isVerified": false,
  "profileUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/example_user/",
  "followStatus": "followed",
  "followDetail": "Now following",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-07-27T18:00:00.000Z"
}

followStatus values: scraped | followed | requested | skipped | failed | dry_run

A SUMMARY object is saved to the default key-value store with totals for the run.

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Local development

npm install
# edit storage/key_value_stores/default/INPUT.json
npm start          # runs with tsx
npm test
npm run build

Deploy to Apify:

npx apify login
npx apify push

Or connect the GitHub repo in Apify Console → Actors → Create new → Link Git repository.

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Monetize on the Apify Store

1. Push / build the Actor on Apify
2. Open Publication → publish to the Store
3. Open Monetization → choose Pay per event
4. Create events (suggested starter prices — tune to your costs):

Event name	When charged	Suggested price
follower-scraped	Each follower saved to the dataset	~$0.002–0.01
user-followed	Each successful follow / request	~$0.01–0.05
apify-actor-start	Synthetic start event (optional)	~$0.005

The Actor already calls:

await Actor.charge({ eventName: 'follower-scraped' });
await Actor.charge({ eventName: 'user-followed' });

5. Write a Store listing from this README (what it does, inputs, limits, ToS warning)
6. Set a free test allowance so buyers can try dry-run scrapes

Pricing tips

• Charge more for follows than for scrapes (follows burn session risk + compute time on delays)
• Recommend RESIDENTIAL proxy and keep default maxFollowsPerRun low
• Market as growth tooling for public accounts the buyer already has permission to engage with

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Troubleshooting HTTP 429

Instagram often returns 429 on the first request when:

• The Actor uses plain Node HTTP (TLS fingerprint) — fixed by running inside Playwright
• Proxy IP rotates every request while using a login cookie — fixed with sticky proxy sessions
• Datacenter proxies are used — switch to RESIDENTIAL
• The sessionid is old / from a different IP/country than usual

What to do after rebuilding this version:

1. Rebuild the Actor on Apify (Playwright image)
2. Use Apify Proxy → RESIDENTIAL, ideally a country close to the account
3. Paste a fresh sessionid from the browser you normally use
4. First run: dryRun = true, maxFollowers = 20, maxFollowsPerRun = 0
5. Avoid maxFollowsPerRun = 200 — Instagram commonly action-blocks that

Re-runs don't follow the same people

Turn Remember followed users across runs ON (default). The Actor stores successful follows in a named Key-Value Store (instagram-follow-memory) and skips them next time, continuing further down the follower list.

Use Reset follow memory if you want to start over.

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Safety limits (recommended)

Account age	Max follows / day
New (< 1 month)	10–20
Mature	20–40

Space runs across the day. If Instagram returns 403/429 or “action blocked”, stop and cool down for 24–48h.

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How it works (technical)

Uses Instagram’s web API with your browser session:

1. GET /api/v1/users/web_profile_info/?username=… → resolve target user id
2. GET /api/v1/friendships/{id}/followers/ → paginate followers
3. POST /api/v1/friendships/create/{id}/ → follow (when not dry-run)

Private target accounts only work if your session already follows them.

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License

ISC