Instagram Highlights Scraper API – Stories & Media

Scrape Instagram Highlights, then go deeper into the Stories, photos, videos, links, mentions, music, and metadata saved inside them.

Enter an Instagram username, @username, or profile URL to discover the Highlight collections saved on a public profile. Start with lightweight Highlight summaries, or open the returned Highlights to retrieve their available photos, videos, direct media URLs, and Story-level details—including mentions, hashtags, links, locations, music, and supported stickers.

Every result is already organized as Profile → Highlights → Stories, so you can send it directly to a database, dashboard, AI workflow, monitoring system, or archive without rebuilding the relationships yourself. Process one profile on the Free plan or up to 50 profiles per paid run, and control cost by choosing how many Highlights to return and whether to retrieve their content.

• Summaries or full Story content — Discover Highlight collections first, then open them only when you need the content inside.
• Photos, videos, and direct media URLs — Move available creative assets into authorized research, archiving, and automation workflows.
• Rich Story-level metadata — Retrieve captions, timestamps, mentions, hashtags, links, locations, music, and supported stickers.
• Pay only for the depth you request — Each opened Highlight is charged once, whether it contains 5 Stories or 50; Story items are never billed individually.

Key features

• Instagram Highlight discovery — Go beyond the first few visible collections and return up to your selected limit, with IDs, titles, covers, counts, and useful dates.
• Optional Highlight expansion — Keep research quick and economical with summaries, or open each returned Highlight when photos, videos, and Story details matter.
• Photos, videos, and direct media URLs — Move available media references directly into an authorized archive, review process, or downstream application.
• Rich Story-level metadata — Understand more than the creative asset with captions, timestamps, dimensions, mentions, hashtags, links, locations, music, and supported stickers.
• Clean nested results — Receive one organized record per profile, with every Highlight and Story already connected in a predictable structure.
• Batch processing with cost control — Paid users can process up to 50 profiles per run, while maxHighlightsPerProfile and includeHighlightContent control result volume and depth.

Why Instagram Highlights matter

Active Stories disappear quickly, while Highlights are content a profile has chosen to keep visible and organize over time. That makes them especially useful for researching brand positioning, products and services, campaigns, FAQs, creator partnerships, destinations, portfolios, and evergreen content. Not every profile uses Highlights in the same way, but they can provide a more durable view of what a brand or creator considers important.

Quick start

1. Enter a username, @username, or Instagram profile URL in Input.
2. Keep Get Highlight content off for a quick, lower-cost first run.
3. Click Start and open the Dataset when the run finishes.
4. If you need the photos, videos, and Story metadata inside the returned Highlights, enable Get Highlight content and run again.

Minimal input

{
  "usernames": ["lenasu2567"],
  "includeHighlightContent": false,
  "maxHighlightsPerProfile": 10
}

Start with Highlight summaries, then enable Highlight content only when you need Story-level details. The default returns up to 10 summaries; increase the limit when your workflow needs a broader view of the profile.

Example result

This shortened result shows the summary structure returned by the input above. The highlights array is abbreviated to one item for readability.

{
  "username": "lenasu2567",
  "profileUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/lenasu2567/",
  "status": "success",
  "highlightCount": 10,
  "highlights": [
    {
      "id": "18333455860266830",
      "title": "Here🩵🤍",
      "coverImageUrl": "[temporary Instagram CDN URL]",
      "storiesExpanded": false,
      "storyCount": null
    }
  ]
}

Use cases

• Brand and competitor monitoring — Track the product collections, campaigns, FAQs, events, links, and creative themes that brands keep visible on their profiles.
• Creator and influencer research — Study how creators organize long-term content and identify the media, mentions, destinations, music, and links used inside their Highlights.
• Highlight archiving — Preserve structured records and media references for public content you are authorized to retain before collections change.
• Content audits — Review Highlight structure, collection size, update activity, and Story-level metadata across one or many profiles.
• Social media intelligence — Add Instagram Highlight data to broader creator, campaign, category, or competitive-research datasets.
• AI analysis workflows — Use returned captions, metadata, mentions, hashtags, and links for downstream classification, summarization, or topic analysis.
• API and automation workflows — Send clean nested results to databases, dashboards, scheduled monitoring jobs, and other business systems.

How it works

1. Add one or more Instagram usernames or profile URLs.
2. The Actor normalizes the inputs and removes duplicate profiles.
3. It discovers each profile's available Highlight collections.
4. It returns up to your selected Highlight limit and, if requested, opens each returned Highlight to retrieve all available Story items.
5. It saves one structured Dataset record per unique profile.

Input

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
usernames	string[]	Yes	["lenasu2567"]	Instagram usernames, @usernames, or profile URLs. Duplicate representations of the same profile are processed once.
includeHighlightContent	boolean	No	false	Open every returned Highlight and retrieve all available Stories inside it. Each opened Highlight is charged once; Story items are not charged individually. Enable this only when you need Story-level details because it increases run time and cost.
maxHighlightsPerProfile	integer	No	10	Maximum Highlight collections returned per profile, from 1 to 50. Additional pages are retrieved when needed.

Clearly invalid input, non-Instagram URLs, and Instagram Post, Reel, Story, Explore, or account-management URLs are rejected before profile processing.

Input examples

Return up to 20 Highlights and open their Stories

{
  "usernames": ["lenasu2567"],
  "includeHighlightContent": true,
  "maxHighlightsPerProfile": 20
}

Use the default: 10 Highlight summaries without Stories

{
  "usernames": ["@lenasu2567"],
  "includeHighlightContent": false
}

Return and open the first five Highlights

{
  "usernames": [
    "lenasu2567",
    "https://www.instagram.com/instagram/"
  ],
  "includeHighlightContent": true,
  "maxHighlightsPerProfile": 5
}

Output

Each normalized unique profile creates one Dataset record. Highlights are returned in highlights[], and opened Highlight content is returned in each Highlight's nested stories[].

Profile
└── highlights[]
    └── stories[]

Successful profiles with no Highlights return highlightCount: 0 and highlights: []. Invalid, private, unavailable, and failed profiles also receive a clear result row instead of being silently omitted.

Complete output example

This shortened example uses the real public profile lenasu2567 and its real Here🩵🤍 Highlight. Temporary CDN URLs are represented by descriptive placeholders because signed URLs expire. The run requested one Highlight with content; the nested Story array is shortened for readability.

{
  "schemaVersion": "1.0",
  "input": "lenasu2567",
  "username": "lenasu2567",
  "userId": "9143732116",
  "fullName": "Lena Xuan Su💛",
  "isVerified": true,
  "profileUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/lenasu2567/",
  "status": "success",
  "reason": null,
  "errorMessage": null,
  "isPrivate": false,
  "isAccessible": true,
  "highlightCount": 1,
  "expandedHighlightCount": 1,
  "highlightStoryCount": 15,
  "highlights": [
    {
      "id": "18333455860266830",
      "title": "Here🩵🤍",
      "coverImageUrl": "[temporary Instagram CDN URL]",
      "reportedMediaCount": 15,
      "createdAt": "2026-06-22T00:25:32.000Z",
      "updatedAt": "2026-09-07T02:28:47.000Z",
      "latestStoryAt": "2026-09-07T02:26:53.000Z",
      "storiesExpanded": true,
      "storyCount": 15,
      "stories": [
        {
          "id": "3924760181110502078",
          "mediaType": "image",
          "postedAt": "2026-06-22T00:24:53.000Z",
          "expiresAt": null,
          "mediaUrl": "[temporary Instagram CDN image URL]",
          "imageUrl": "[temporary Instagram CDN image URL]",
          "videoUrl": null,
          "width": 1080,
          "height": 1920,
          "durationSeconds": null,
          "hasAudio": null,
          "caption": null,
          "accessibilityCaption": null,
          "mentions": [],
          "hashtags": [],
          "links": [],
          "locations": [],
          "music": null,
          "stickers": []
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "requestedAt": "2026-09-09T02:57:25.387Z"
}

The top-level counts are calculated from the complete returned result. The example above includes its one returned Highlight but shows only one of the 15 nested Story items.

Field reference

Profile fields

Field	Type	Meaning
schemaVersion	string	Output contract version.
input	string	Original supplied value.
username	string | null	Normalized Instagram username.
userId	string | null	Instagram profile ID when available.
fullName	string | null	Public profile display name when available from Highlight data.
profilePicUrl	string | null	Temporary public profile image URL when available.
isVerified	boolean | null	Public verification state when available.
profileUrl	string | null	Canonical Instagram profile URL.
status	string	success, partial, private, not_found, or failed.
reason	string | null	Stable reason code when the result is not fully successful.
errorMessage	string | null	Human-readable result explanation.
isPrivate	boolean | null	Confirmed privacy state when available.
isAccessible	boolean	Whether public Highlight data was accessible.
highlightCount	integer	Unique Highlight collections returned.
expandedHighlightCount	integer	Highlights successfully opened for content.
highlightStoryCount	integer	Total Story items returned across opened Highlights.
highlights	object[]	Discovered Highlight collections with optional nested Stories.
requestedAt	string	ISO 8601 processing timestamp.

Highlight fields

Field	Type	Meaning
id	string | null	Normalized Highlight ID without the highlight: prefix.
title	string | null	Highlight title.
coverImageUrl	string | null	Best available temporary cover image URL.
reportedMediaCount	number | null	Informational count reported by Highlight metadata.
createdAt	string | null	Highlight creation time in ISO 8601 UTC when available.
updatedAt	string | null	Highlight metadata update time in ISO 8601 UTC when available.
latestStoryAt	string | null	Latest reported Highlight Story time in ISO 8601 UTC when available.
storiesExpanded	boolean	Whether this Highlight was successfully opened during the run.
storyCount	integer | null	Actual Story items returned; null when the Highlight was not opened.
stories	object[]	Available photos, videos, and metadata returned from the Highlight.

Story fields

Field	Type	Meaning
id	string | null	Story media identifier.
mediaType	string	image, video, or unknown.
postedAt	string | null	Original publication time in ISO 8601 UTC.
expiresAt	null	Always null because saved Highlight content is not treated as an active 24-hour Story.
mediaUrl	string | null	Primary direct image or video URL.
imageUrl	string | null	Image or video-cover URL.
videoUrl	string | null	Direct video URL for video items.
width, height	number | null	Selected media dimensions in pixels.
durationSeconds	number | null	Video duration.
hasAudio	boolean | null	Reported audio availability for videos.
caption	string | null	Story caption when available.
accessibilityCaption	string | null	Accessibility description when available.
mentions	object[]	Mentioned accounts.
hashtags	string[]	Hashtags without #.
links	object[]	Supported link stickers.
locations	object[]	Available location metadata.
music	object | null	Available music title, artist, and audio ID.
stickers	object[]	Supported poll, question, quiz, countdown, and slider metadata.

Status and errors

Status and reason reference

Status	Meaning
success	Highlight discovery and every requested content expansion completed successfully. Empty Highlights or empty content can still be successful.
partial	Some useful Highlight data was returned, but pagination, requested expansion, or the spending limit prevented full completion.
private	The profile was identified as private or unavailable for public Highlight access.
not_found	The Instagram profile could not be found.
failed	No usable Highlight result was produced.

Possible reason values are:

invalid_input, profile_not_found, private_account, highlight_fetch_failed, highlight_pagination_failed, highlight_content_partial, highlight_content_failed, rate_limited, budget_limit_reached, and processing_error.

Failure result example

{
  "schemaVersion": "1.0",
  "input": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/ABC123/",
  "username": null,
  "userId": null,
  "fullName": null,
  "profilePicUrl": null,
  "isVerified": null,
  "profileUrl": null,
  "status": "failed",
  "reason": "invalid_input",
  "errorMessage": "The supplied value is not an Instagram username or profile URL.",
  "isPrivate": null,
  "isAccessible": false,
  "highlightCount": 0,
  "expandedHighlightCount": 0,
  "highlightStoryCount": 0,
  "highlights": [],
  "requestedAt": "2026-09-09T00:00:00.000Z"
}

Invalid input is rejected before Profile, Highlight, or Highlight Content processing.

Pricing

Pay only for the depth your workflow needs. Start with summaries when Highlight-level data is enough. Enable Highlight Content only when you need the Stories, photos, videos, direct media URLs, and metadata saved inside each collection.

• Start: $0.002 per run.
• Profile processing: $3.00 per 1,000 successfully processed profiles.
• Highlights: as low as $2.30 per 1,000 returned Highlight collections.
• Highlight Content: as low as $5.00 per 1,000 successfully opened Highlights.

One charge opens the whole Highlight. Story items are not billed individually: a Highlight with 5 Stories and a Highlight with 50 Stories each incur only one Highlight Content charge. That gives you predictable costs even when a collection contains many photos or videos.

The charging rules are simple:

• A successfully processed public profile with no Highlights is charged for the Start and Profile only.
• Summary-only runs do not create Highlight Content charges.
• Private, not-found, failed, and clearly invalid profiles do not create a Profile charge. The Start fee still applies to the run.
• Failed Highlight discovery or content expansion does not create the corresponding Highlight or Highlight Content charge. Partial results are charged only for completed work.

See the Pricing tab for the current prices available with your Apify plan.

Free vs. paid

• Free users: up to 1 unique valid profile per run.
• Paid users: up to 50 unique valid profiles per run.

Limits are applied after username normalization and duplicate removal. Requests above the applicable limit fail before profile processing and are never silently truncated.

API examples

Actor name:

lance_api/instagram-highlights-scraper-api

JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('lance_api/instagram-highlights-scraper-api').call({
    usernames: ['lenasu2567'],
    includeHighlightContent: true,
    maxHighlightsPerProfile: 5,
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items[0].highlights);

Python

import os
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient(os.environ["APIFY_TOKEN"])
run = client.actor("lance_api/instagram-highlights-scraper-api").call(run_input={
    "usernames": ["lenasu2567"],
    "includeHighlightContent": True,
    "maxHighlightsPerProfile": 5,
})

profiles = client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).list_items().items
print(profiles[0]["highlights"])

cURL

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/lance_api~instagram-highlights-scraper-api/run-sync-get-dataset-items" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "usernames": ["lenasu2567"],
    "includeHighlightContent": true,
    "maxHighlightsPerProfile": 5
  }'

FAQ

Can I scrape Instagram Highlights from a username or profile URL?

Yes. Enter a username, @username, or public Instagram profile URL. The Actor normalizes these formats and returns the profile's available Highlight collections.

Can I scrape Instagram Highlight Stories, photos, and videos?

Yes. When includeHighlightContent is enabled, the Actor opens the returned Highlights and retrieves available Story items, including images, videos, direct media URLs, and supported Story metadata. You can process or save media you are authorized to retain; the Actor itself does not download files.

Do I have to retrieve Highlight content?

No. The default returns Highlight summaries only. This is useful when you need collection IDs, titles, covers, counts, and dates without the added time and cost of opening every Highlight.

How many Instagram profiles can I process in one run?

Free users can process 1 unique profile per run. Paid users can process up to 50. Duplicate versions of the same username are processed once.

How is pricing calculated?

Pricing follows the work you request: a small Start fee, each successfully processed Profile, each returned Highlight, and each Highlight opened for content. Use maxHighlightsPerProfile and includeHighlightContent to control result volume and cost.

Am I charged for every Story inside a Highlight?

No. Story items are not billed individually. Opening one Highlight creates one Highlight Content charge whether it returns a few Stories or many.

Why can reportedMediaCount differ from storyCount?

reportedMediaCount comes from the Highlight's reported collection metadata, while storyCount counts the Story items actually available when the Highlight is opened. These values can differ. For example, a Highlight may report 80 items while 28 are currently returned; that difference does not by itself indicate a failed or incomplete run.

Are the image and video URLs permanent?

No. Instagram CDN URLs can expire. Process or save media you are authorized to retain while the links are still active.

Can I scrape private Instagram Highlights?

No. The Actor works with publicly accessible profiles and Highlight data only.

How is this different from an Instagram Stories scraper?

An Instagram Stories scraper retrieves a profile's currently active Stories. This Instagram Highlights scraper focuses on the saved Highlight collections displayed on a profile and can optionally retrieve the Story content available inside them.

Limitations

• Works with publicly accessible Instagram profiles and currently available Highlight data; private content is outside its scope.
• Focuses on Highlights, not active Stories outside Highlights, posts, Reels, comments, followers, following lists, or search results.
• Availability can be affected by Instagram access challenges, rate limits, or temporary restrictions.
• Some optional metadata can be null or empty when it is not publicly available.
• Direct media URLs can expire, and the Actor does not download media, create transcripts, run OCR, translate content, or perform sentiment analysis.

Responsible use

Use public data responsibly and in line with Instagram's terms, privacy and intellectual-property rights, and applicable law. The Actor requires only public profile identifiers—never provide passwords, cookies, sessions, or access tokens.

Support

For support, open an issue on the Actor page or email lanceapi2026@hotmail.com. Include the Apify Run ID, public username, input settings, and expected versus actual result. Never send passwords, cookies, or API tokens.