Instagram Bot Detector

Instagram Bot Detector is an Apify Actor that analyzes Instagram profiles to detect bot accounts using multiple signals like follower ratios, username patterns, engagement metrics, and profile completeness.

🎯 Why detect Instagram bots?

Use cases:

• Influencer Verification - Verify that influencer accounts have real, engaged followers before partnerships
• Community Moderation - Identify and filter out bot accounts from your Instagram followers
• Competitor Analysis - Check if competitors are using bots to inflate their follower counts
• Account Auditing - Audit your own followers to understand the quality of your audience
• Research - Study bot patterns and behavior on social media platforms

✨ What can Instagram Bot Detector do?

This Actor allows you to:

• Analyze multiple profiles - Process multiple Instagram usernames or URLs in a single run
• Calculate bot scores - Get a 0-1 score indicating how likely an account is to be a bot
• Detect fake influencers - Identify accounts with bought followers through engagement analysis
• Analyze posting patterns - Detect automated posting through timing analysis
• Handle private accounts - Gracefully handle private accounts with adjusted scoring

🚀 How to detect Instagram bots?

1. Make a free Apify account here: https://console.apify.com/sign-up
2. Click on "Try for free"
3. Enter Instagram usernames (e.g., instagram, therock) or profile URLs (e.g., https://instagram.com/therock)
4. Click "Start" and wait for the Actor to complete
5. Download your data in JSON, CSV or Excel format

💡 What data will you receive?

Instagram Bot Detector extracts detailed information about each profile:

Field	Description
userId	Instagram user ID
username	Instagram username
fullName	Display name
biography	Profile bio text
followers	Number of followers
following	Number of accounts following
posts	Number of posts
isVerified	Whether the account is verified
isPrivate	Whether the account is private
botScore	Bot likelihood score (0-1, higher = more likely bot)
humanScore	Human likelihood score (0-1, higher = more likely human)
confidence	Confidence in the bot detection (0-1)
isLikelyBot	Boolean indicating if botScore > 0.5

🧮 How the scoring algorithm works

The bot detection algorithm analyzes multiple signals from an Instagram profile and combines them into a single botScore (0-1). Higher scores indicate a higher likelihood the account is a bot.

Scoring methodology

1. Individual signal scores - Each profile characteristic is evaluated and scored from 0 (not suspicious) to 1 (highly suspicious)
2. Weighted combination - Scores are combined using weighted averages, with stronger bot indicators having higher weights
3. Fatal flags - Certain conditions (like verified accounts) immediately classify an account as human
4. Private account handling - Content-based scores are set to null for private accounts since the data isn't accessible

Signal weights

Signal	Weight	Description
ratioScore	2.0	Follower/following ratio is the strongest indicator
fakeInfluencerScore	1.5	Bought followers detection
postsScore	1.5	No posts is very suspicious
profilePicScore	1.5	Default avatar is a strong signal
spamScore	1.3	Spammy bio/URL content
biographyScore	1.2	Empty biography
usernameScore	1.0	Random/suspicious username patterns
engagementScore	1.0	Low engagement relative to followers
postTimingScore	1.0	Burst posting patterns
followersScore	0.7	Low follower counts
followingScore	0.7	High following counts
fullNameScore	0.6	Random/gibberish display names
highlightsScore	0.5	No story highlights
accountAgeScore	0.5	Recently joined accounts
accountTypeScore	0.3	Personal vs business accounts
verifiedScore	0 (fatal)	Verified = definitely human

---

📊 Output field reference

Profile information

Field	Type	Description
userId	string	Instagram's internal user ID
username	string	The account's handle (without @)
fullName	string	Display name shown on profile
profilePicUrl	string	URL to the profile picture
biography	string	Bio text (may be empty)
externalUrl	string | null	Website link in profile
followers	number	Total follower count
following	number	Number of accounts being followed
posts	number	Total number of posts
isVerified	boolean	Blue checkmark verification status
isBusinessAccount	boolean	Business account type
isProfessionalAccount	boolean	Creator/professional account type
isPrivate	boolean	Whether the account is private
highlightReelCount	number	Number of story highlights
hasClips	boolean	Whether account has Reels
defaultProfilePic	boolean	true if using Instagram's default avatar

Computed metrics

Field	Type	Description
followerFollowingRatio	number	followers / following - Influencers typically have high ratios, mass-follow bots have very low ratios
usernameEntropy	number	Shannon entropy of username (0-1) - Higher values indicate more random/generated usernames
averageEngagementRate	number | null	(avg likes + comments) / followers * 100 - Percentage engagement per post. null if no posts
postTimingVariance	number | null	Variance in hours between posts - Low variance with short gaps suggests automation

Individual scores (0-1, higher = more suspicious)

Field	Description	How it's calculated
profilePicScore	Default profile picture	1 if using default Instagram avatar, 0 otherwise
biographyScore	Empty biography	1 if bio is empty/whitespace, 0 otherwise
postsScore	No posts	max(0, 1 - posts × 0.1) - Reduced by 70% for recently joined accounts. null for private accounts
highlightsScore	No story highlights	1 if no highlights, 0 otherwise. null for private accounts
followersScore	Low follower count	max(0, 1 - log₁₀(followers + 1) / 3) - Logarithmic scale where 1000+ followers → 0
followingScore	High following count	min(1, log₁₀(following + 1) / 3) - Logarithmic scale where 1000+ following → 1
ratioScore	Suspicious follower/following ratio	Mass-follow bots have ratio < 0.1 → score 1.0. Private accounts get 70% reduction
usernameScore	Suspicious username	Combines digit ratio, long number sequences, consecutive special characters (__, ..), leading/trailing digits
accountAgeScore	Recently joined	1 if is_joined_recently flag is true, 0 otherwise
accountTypeScore	Personal account	0 for business/professional accounts, 0.3 for personal accounts
verifiedScore	Not verified	0 if verified (triggers "definitely human"), 1 otherwise
postTimingScore	Burst posting pattern	Based on gaps between posts - Many posts within 30 minutes indicates automation. null if < 2 posts
engagementScore	Low engagement	1 - log₁₀(engagement_rate × 10 + 1) / 3 with bonuses for high absolute engagement. null if no posts
spamScore	Spammy content	Detects spam keywords (crypto, dm for, follow4follow) and high-risk URLs (Telegram, URL shorteners)
fullNameScore	Random/gibberish name	High entropy + no normal structure = suspicious. International names (CJK, Cyrillic, etc.) get benefit of the doubt
fakeInfluencerScore	Bought followers	High follower ratio + ultra-low engagement (< 0.1%) → likely bought followers

Final bot detection

Field	Type	Description
botScore	number	Final weighted bot likelihood score (0-1). Higher = more likely a bot
humanScore	number	1 - botScore. Convenience field for human likelihood
confidence	number	Confidence in the detection (0-1). Based on: (1) how many signals were available, (2) how extreme the score is
isLikelyBot	boolean	true if botScore > 0.5

---

Output example

{
	"userId": "77183297419",
	"username": "minajjjray",
	"fullName": "minajjjray",
	"profilePicUrl": "https://instagram.fbkk12-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t51.2885-19/573323465_1219825463302212_7278921664109726296_n.png?stp=dst-jpg_e0_s150x150_tt6&cb=8438d1d6-849f285f&efg=eyJ2ZW5jb2RlX3RhZyI6InByb2ZpbGVfcGljLmRqYW5nby4xNTAuYzIifQ&_nc_ht=instagram.fbkk12-2.fna.fbcdn.net&_nc_cat=1&_nc_oc=Q6cZ2QEZpDwos_dxCnk-1sN_wEAAfF2BLdpd1rVj8A32fUX-lyV9qKE9jfh1hy_G9_6qzYE74I3fFVvDvTi-zW2J-6TR&_nc_ohc=k4JGjKyu-qYQ7kNvwEHdC5N&_nc_gid=vjf5WU0qwnJiIGlrWluAkg&edm=AJ1X7eQBAAAA&ccb=7-5&ig_cache_key=YW5vbnltb3VzX3Byb2ZpbGVfcGlj.3-ccb7-5-cb8438d1d6-849f285f&oh=00_AfkLbbGdNCxxeSmBSf5GUlrzxqKgKlbhRRnVWkKVHs5AgA&oe=694380AA&_nc_sid=1cea78",
	"biography": "",
	"externalUrl": null,
	"followers": 8,
	"following": 29,
	"posts": 0,
	"isVerified": false,
	"isBusinessAccount": true,
	"isProfessionalAccount": true,
	"isPrivate": false,
	"highlightReelCount": 0,
	"hasClips": false,
	"defaultProfilePic": true,
	"followerFollowingRatio": 0.27586206896551724,
	"usernameEntropy": 0.7966576244513051,
	"averageEngagementRate": null,
	"postTimingVariance": null,
	"profilePicScore": 1,
	"biographyScore": 1,
	"postsScore": 1,
	"highlightsScore": 1,
	"followersScore": 0.6819191635202251,
	"followingScore": 0.4923737515732208,
	"ratioScore": 0.8,
	"usernameScore": 0,
	"accountAgeScore": 0,
	"accountTypeScore": 0,
	"verifiedScore": 1,
	"postTimingScore": null,
	"engagementScore": null,
	"spamScore": 0,
	"fullNameScore": 0.3,
	"fakeInfluencerScore": 0,
	"botScore": 0.5490229353808581,
	"humanScore": 0.4509770646191419,
	"confidence": 0.5592183483046865,
	"isLikelyBot": true
}

📥 Input

The Actor accepts these input parameters:

• usernames (array, required): List of Instagram usernames (e.g., instagram, @therock) or profile URLs (e.g., https://instagram.com/therock) to analyze for bot detection.

Input example

{
  "usernames": [
    "instagram",
    "therock",
    "https://instagram.com/cristiano"
  ]
}

💰 How much does it cost to detect Instagram bots?

This actor is extremely cost-effective. Check the "Pricing" tab for more details.

With Apify's free tier, you get $5 of platform credits monthly for free, which you can use to test this actor for free.

Do you need to analyze more profiles? Upgrade to a paid plan which includes more platform credits and discounted pricing.

Tips:

• Provide multiple usernames in your input, that way you only pay the actor start cost once.
• If you are doing a large run, consider increasing the RAM used per run to analyze faster. When doing a small run decrease the RAM used to reduce the actor start costs.
• Upgrade to a higher plan to get discounted pricing. Link: https://apify.com/pricing

🔗 Integrate with your workflows

This Actor integrates seamlessly with:

• Automation platforms - Build no code workflows with Make.com, n8n, and Zapier
• Webhooks - Trigger actions when analysis completes through webhooks
• Schedulers - Run regularly to monitor follower quality with Apify's Scheduler
• API - Start runs and access data programmatically with the Apify API
• Google Sheets - Export directly to spreadsheets

👥 Who made this Actor?

Gordian is a specialised Apify web scraping agency founded by Louis Deconinck.

Louis is a top 1% Apify developer, Oxford University IT graduate, and creator of 70+ scrapers used by 1,000+ data professionals every month. He has scraped 10,000,000+ pages bypassing the most advanced anti-scraping protections.

• Apify AI Agent Hackathon Winner
• 300+ contributions in Apify Discord
• Former senior data engineer in EU banking

Looking for a custom data solution? Get in touch.

🤖 More excellent Apify Actors by us

• Instagram Profile Scraper - Scrape Instagram profile data
• Instagram Story Scraper - Download Instagram stories with captions
• Skool Scraper - Scrape Skool community data

❓ FAQ

Is it legal to scrape Instagram?

Yes, web scraping publicly available data is legal. This scraper only extracts information that is publicly visible.

For more information on web scraping legality, read this blog post: Is web scraping legal?

How accurate is the bot detection?

The bot detection uses multiple signals and provides a confidence score. Accounts with higher confidence scores and extreme bot scores (close to 0 or 1) are more reliable. Verified accounts are automatically marked as human.

Can I export data to CSV or Excel?

Yes, Apify supports exporting dataset results in multiple formats: JSON, CSV, Excel (XLSX), HTML, XML and RSS.

What happens if Instagram changes their API?

We monitor the API structure and update the Actor when changes occur. If you encounter issues, please report them in the Issues tab.

How does the scoring work?

The Actor calculates individual scores (0-1) for various signals like profile picture, username patterns, follower ratios, and engagement. These are combined using weighted averages to produce a final bot score. Private accounts receive special handling since some data isn't accessible.

How do I get started?

Make a free Apify account to claim your free $5 usage and start detecting bots today by clicking "Try for free".