Instagram Followings Scraper — export the Instagram following list of any account

An Instagram followings scraper for instagram.com. It answers the question "who does an Instagram account follow": give it a username or profile URL and it exports that account's Instagram following list, with each followed account's username, display name, user ID, profile picture and verified and private flags. Teams use it to map influencer networks, study which brands a competitor follows, and build lead lists.

Turn on contact extraction and every followed account is enriched from its public profile: bio, website, follower, following and post counts, plus the emails, phone numbers and links found in the bio and bio links. Export the result to JSON, CSV or Excel.

---

🚀 Key Features

• 🔎 Flexible input — a plain username, an @handle or a full profile URL
• 🧾 Following data — username, full name, user ID, profile picture, verified and private flags for every followed account
• 📧 Profile and contact enrichment (optional) — bio, website, follower and post counts, and contacts parsed from the bio and bio links
• 📑 Automatic pagination — pages through the following list until it reaches max_results or the end of the list
• 🛡️ Rate-limit aware — when Instagram throttles the session, the run waits and retries, and keeps the accounts already collected if it has to stop
• 📤 Multiple export formats — JSON, CSV, Excel, XML via the Apify dataset
• 🔁 Schedulable runs — re-run weekly to see which accounts a profile started following

---

👥 Who Is This Actor For?

• Influencer marketers — see which creators and brands an influencer follows and engages with
• Brand and competitor analysts — find out who a competitor follows: suppliers, partners, ambassadors
• Sales and growth teams — turn the following list of a niche account into enriched leads with contact details
• 🤖 AI builders — feed a following list to an agent or enrichment pipeline via the Apify API or MCP server

💡 Common Use Cases

• Find out who an Instagram account follows and export the list to a spreadsheet
• Scrape the Instagram following list of a creator and keep the business accounts with an email
• Map which brands a set of influencers all follow
• Track changes in a competitor's following list month over month

---

📥 Input

Field	Type	Description	Default
username	String	Instagram username (e.g. cristiano) or profile URL (e.g. https://www.instagram.com/cristiano/).	Required
max_results	Integer	Maximum number of followed accounts to fetch for this account (1 to 10,000).	100
cookies	Array	Cookies from a logged-in Instagram session, exported as JSON. Instagram only shows following lists to logged-in accounts.	Required
extract_contacts	Boolean	Also read each followed account's public profile for bio, counts and contacts. Slower: one extra page per account.	true
proxyConfiguration	Object	Proxy for all requests. Residential is recommended, because Instagram throttles datacenter IPs.	Apify residential proxy

The Actor takes one account per run, so max_results is the number of followed accounts for that account.

Example Input

{
    "username": "bigfootvlog",
    "max_results": 100,
    "extract_contacts": true,
    "cookies": [
        { "name": "sessionid", "value": "YOUR_SESSIONID" },
        { "name": "csrftoken", "value": "YOUR_CSRFTOKEN" },
        { "name": "ds_user_id", "value": "YOUR_USERID" }
    ],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true,
        "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
    }
}

How to get your Instagram cookies

1. Log in to Instagram in your browser. A secondary account is a good idea, see the FAQ.
2. Install the Cookie Editor extension.
3. Open instagram.com, click the Cookie Editor icon and export the cookies as JSON.
4. Paste the JSON array into the Instagram Cookies field. There is a video walkthrough.

---

📤 Output

One dataset item per followed account. These fields are always present:

Field	Type	Description
pk	String	Instagram user ID of the followed account
username	String	Username
full_name	String	Display name
is_private	Boolean	Whether the account is private
is_verified	Boolean	Whether the account has a verified badge
profile_pic_url	String	Profile picture URL

With extract_contacts on, each item also carries:

Field	Type	Description
biography	String	Bio text
external_url	String	Website set on the profile
bio_links	Array	Links shown under the bio
followers_count	Integer	Number of followers
following_count	Integer	Number of accounts it follows
posts_count	Integer	Number of posts
user_id	String	Instagram user ID
profile_pic_url_hd	String	Profile picture URL from the profile page
has_clips	Boolean	Whether the account has posted reels
pronouns	Array	Pronouns shown on the profile
emails	Array	Emails found in the bio and bio links
phones	Array	Phone numbers found in the bio
social_links	Array	Links to other social networks found in the bio and bio links
website_links	Array	Other website links found in the bio and bio links

Items also keep the keys is_business_account, business_category_name, business_email, business_phone_number and category_name, among others, for compatibility. They are currently always empty, because Instagram no longer shows them to the public profile page. If a profile cannot be read, that item keeps the always-present fields with empty contact arrays.

Example Output

Trimmed item, with extract_contacts off:

{
    "pk": "58812734417",
    "username": "kiyak_iyu",
    "full_name": "kiyakiyu🌸",
    "is_private": false,
    "is_verified": false,
    "profile_pic_url": "https://instagram.fadd1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t51.2885-19/521744297_17958103781966418_6490265124352276860_n.jpg?..."
}

You can export the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, RSS, or HTML from the Apify Console or via the Apify API.

---

💰 Pricing

This Actor is pay per event (you pay per result): $0.0025 per followed account, so 1,000 accounts cost $2.50 plus Apify platform usage. Profile and contact enrichment does not change the per-account price. A free Apify account is enough to try it.

---

❓ FAQ

What is the Instagram Followings Scraper?

It is an Instagram followings scraper that exports the list of accounts one profile follows. It answers who an Instagram account follows, with optional profile and contact details for each followed account.

Do I need an account, cookies or an API key?

You need cookies from a logged-in Instagram account, because Instagram only shows following lists to logged-in users. No API key is needed.

Will this affect my Instagram account?

It can. The following list is read as the account whose cookies you provide, and large lists can make Instagram rate limit that account for a while. Profile enrichment reads public profile pages without your cookies, so it does not add to that. Use a secondary account rather than one you depend on.

Do I need a proxy?

The default Apify residential proxy is recommended and needs no setup. Instagram throttles datacenter IPs on following lists, so runs without a residential proxy are likely to fail.

How many accounts can I get per run?

Up to max_results, with a maximum of 10,000 per run. With extract_contacts on, the Actor opens one public profile page per account, so large runs take longer.

What happens if Instagram rate limits the run?

The run waits and retries several times. If Instagram keeps refusing, the run stops with a message explaining what to do, and the accounts collected so far stay in the dataset. If profiles cannot be read, those accounts are still saved without the enriched fields, and the log says how many.

Can I see who a private account follows?

Only if the account whose cookies you use already follows that private account. Instagram does not show the following list of a private account to anyone else.

Can I schedule it or integrate it with my app?

Yes — every Apify Actor exposes a REST API, webhooks, and integrations with Zapier, Make, Google Sheets and Slack, and can be called from an AI agent via the Apify MCP server.

Is it legal to scrape Instagram?

This Actor reads the following list that Instagram shows to the logged-in account you provide, and public profile pages. You are responsible for making sure your use complies with Instagram's terms of service and data-protection laws such as GDPR in your jurisdiction.

What if Instagram changes and the Actor breaks?

Open an issue on the Actor's Issues tab with the run link, and we will look into it.

---

🧩 Part of the Instagram Scraper Suite

Profiles, followers, followings and comments from Instagram, from one account. Also try:

• Instagram Profile Scraper — profile details, follower counts and bio contacts for a list of usernames, no login needed
• Instagram Followers Scraper — the accounts that follow a given profile, with contacts from their bios

See every Goldmine Actor at apify.com/logical_scrapers.

---

📷 Image Credit

Image credit: instagram.com

---

📬 Contact & Support

• Issues & feature requests: use the Issues tab on this Actor's page — that is the most direct route to a fix.
• Email: coredev.dan@gmail.com
• If this Actor saved you time, please leave a ⭐ rating on the Apify Store. It helps us keep it maintained.
• Instagram Post Comments Scraper — every comment on a post or reel, with the commenter, timestamp and like count