Instagram Post Scraper

Get the complete data behind any public Instagram post — reel, carousel, IGTV, or photo — from a URL or shortcode. Caption, likes, comments, plays, the author's profile and follower stats, hashtags, tagged users, co-authors, place tags, audio, and every carousel slide. No login, no cookies, no browser.

Why Use This Scraper?

• One request, the whole post — engagement, author identity, follower counts, audio, hashtags, tagged accounts, and media links all on a single row.
• Every post type — reels, multi-slide carousels, IGTV and plain photos. The postType field tells them apart, and carousels return one entry per slide.
• Author stats without the extra bill — each distinct account is looked up once per run, so 50 posts from one profile cost the same enrichment as one.
• Public business contact — business and creator accounts that publish an email or phone return them in authorPublicEmail / authorPublicPhone.
• Tagged, mentioned and co-authored kept separate — accounts tagged in the photo, @-mentions in the caption, joint co-authors and paid sponsors are four different fields, not one blurred list.
• Honest about the gaps — fields Instagram does not serve come back null rather than 0, and known-unreliable data is flagged in this README instead of shipped silently.
• Bulk-friendly — mix URLs and shortcodes freely. Duplicates are dropped before billing. Private, deleted and invalid posts yield a clear error item instead of a failed run.

Overview

This Actor takes a list of Instagram posts and returns one structured row per post. It works with public posts only and requires no Instagram account.

The output is post-shaped: one row per post you supply. A carousel is still one row — its slides arrive as a nested slides array, not as twenty separate rows.

Supported Inputs

Input form	Example
Post URL	https://www.instagram.com/p/DcCUKZoAS8h/
Reel URL	https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcBx_I1iHZW/
IGTV URL	https://www.instagram.com/tv/DcBx_I1iHZW/
Bare shortcode	DcBx_I1iHZW

All forms can be mixed freely in the posts list.

Not supported: profile URLs (instagram.com/nasa/), hashtag pages, story links, and explore URLs. A profile URL returns an error item telling you to paste a post URL instead — see the sibling Actors below for those entry points.

Use Cases

Audience	What they use it for
Influencer marketing	Verify real engagement and follower counts before paying for a placement
Brand & competitor tracking	Snapshot the stats on any set of posts over time
Agencies	Pull tagged accounts, co-authors and paid-partnership flags to audit disclosed collabs
Content research	Analyze which hashtags, audio and formats drive plays in a niche
Lead generation	Collect published business emails from the creators behind posts
AI / data teams	Structured post records for analytics, training or RAG pipelines

How It Works

1. Resolve — every input is normalized to a shortcode, and duplicates collapse so the same post pasted three ways is billed once.
2. Extract — the post's full record is fetched in a single request: caption, engagement, media, audio, location, tagged accounts and co-authors.
3. Enrich — the author's follower, post and business-contact details are added, resolved once per account per run.
4. Deliver — one clean row per post written to the dataset, carousels carrying their slides inline.

Input Configuration

Field	Type	Default	Description
posts	array	— (required)	Instagram post, reel or IGTV URLs, or bare shortcodes.
includeMediaUrls	boolean	true	Include video, thumbnail, audio and per-slide carousel URLs.
includeAuthorStats	boolean	true	Include author follower / following / post counts, bio, category, external link and public business contact.
includeHashtagsMentions	boolean	true	Include hashtag and @-mention arrays parsed from the caption.
includeTaggedUsers	boolean	true	Include accounts tagged in the photo, co-authors and paid-partnership sponsors.

Example input:

{
    "posts": [
        "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcBx_I1iHZW/",
        "https://www.instagram.com/p/DcCUKZoAS8h/",
        "DcGqb9vR8Ki"
    ],
    "includeMediaUrls": true,
    "includeAuthorStats": true,
    "includeHashtagsMentions": true,
    "includeTaggedUsers": true
}

Metadata only, no media links and no author lookup — the cheapest configuration:

{
    "posts": ["https://www.instagram.com/p/DcCUKZoAS8h/"],
    "includeMediaUrls": false,
    "includeAuthorStats": false
}

Output Overview

One row per post. Posts that cannot be delivered (private, deleted, age-restricted, or not a post URL) produce a single error item with a message explaining why — the run itself still succeeds.

Output Samples

Reel row (real row, trimmed):

{
    "postId": "3963668990156895830",
    "shortcode": "DcBx_I1iHZW",
    "postUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcBx_I1iHZW/",
    "postType": "reel",
    "caption": "Check out the eclipse from 50,000 feet in the air! …",
    "createdAt": "2026-08-14T16:50:37.000Z",
    "likeCount": 334866,
    "commentCount": 1560,
    "playCount": 8397564,
    "viewCount": null,
    "durationSeconds": 92.94,
    "countsHidden": false,
    "commentsDisabled": false,
    "slideCount": 0,
    "isPaidPartnership": false,
    "authorId": "528817151",
    "authorUsername": "nasa",
    "authorFullName": "NASA",
    "authorVerified": true,
    "authorBio": "Making the seemingly impossible, possible. ✨",
    "authorFollowerCount": 104396814,
    "authorFollowingCount": 92,
    "authorPostCount": 4884,
    "authorIsBusiness": true,
    "authorExternalUrl": "https://www.nasa.gov",
    "authorPublicEmail": "public-inquiries@hq.nasa.gov",
    "hashtags": ["NASA", "Eclipse2026", "Aircraft"],
    "mentions": [],
    "taggedUsers": [],
    "coauthors": ["gopro"],
    "sponsors": [],
    "locationName": null,
    "musicTitle": "Original audio",
    "musicArtist": "nasa",
    "musicIsOriginalAudio": true,
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://scontent-lax3-1.cdninstagram.com/…",
    "videoUrl": "https://scontent-lax3-2.cdninstagram.com/…",
    "slides": [],
    "scrapedAt": "2026-08-19T12:10:05.663Z"
}

Carousel row — the slides array (trimmed to two of twenty):

{
    "shortcode": "DcCUKZoAS8h",
    "postType": "carousel",
    "slideCount": 20,
    "playCount": null,
    "slides": [
        { "id": "3963804353273629911", "type": "image", "imageUrl": "https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/…", "videoUrl": null },
        { "id": "3963804353281968301", "type": "image", "imageUrl": "https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/…", "videoUrl": null }
    ]
}

Error item (deleted post):

{
    "post": "https://www.instagram.com/p/ZZZZnotreal99/",
    "error": "post_unavailable",
    "message": "Post ZZZZnotreal99 is not available — it is private, deleted, or age-restricted."
}

Key Output Fields

Field	Meaning
postType	reel, carousel, image, video or igtv.
likeCount / commentCount	Engagement, on every post type.
playCount / durationSeconds	Video-only. null on photos and carousels rather than a misleading 0.
countsHidden	true when the author has hidden like and view counts.
slideCount / slides[]	Carousel size, and one entry per slide with its own image / video URL.
authorFollowerCount … authorPostCount	The author's follower, following and post counts.
authorPublicEmail / authorPublicPhone	Contact details the account chose to publish. Null on personal accounts.
hashtags / mentions	Parsed from the caption text.
taggedUsers / coauthors / sponsors	Tagged in the photo / joint owners of the post / paid-partnership sponsors. Three different things.
locationName / locationFacebookPlaceId	The place tag. See the FAQ on coordinates before using locationLat / locationLng.
musicTitle / musicArtist / musicIsOriginalAudio	Licensed track, or the creator's own audio.
thumbnailUrl / videoUrl / musicUrl	Instagram CDN media links. These expire — see the FAQ.

FAQ

Do I need to log in or provide cookies? No. The Actor never touches your Instagram account and only reads public posts.

Does it handle carousels? Yes. A carousel is one row with a slides array — one entry per slide, each with its own image or video URL. slideCount tells you how many.

Why is a media URL not loading later? Instagram's CDN links are signed and expire roughly 24-36 hours after the run, then return 403. Fetch them promptly, or use the Instagram Video Downloader to get permanent re-hosted copies instead.

Why is viewCount always null? Instagram does not populate it on this endpoint — it came back 0 on every video tested, across multiple accounts. Reporting 0 would read as "no views", so the field is nulled and playCount is the metric to use.

Are the location coordinates reliable? The place name and Facebook place id are. The lat/lng frequently is not — Instagram returned London's coordinates for "Kefalonia, Greece" and California's for "Okinawa, Japan". They are passed through unaltered because they are what Instagram serves, but geocode from locationName or locationFacebookPlaceId rather than trusting locationLat / locationLng.

I pasted a profile URL and got an error. That is intended — this Actor takes individual posts. For a whole account's posts see the profile and hashtag Actors below.

What happens with a private or deleted post? It returns an error item explaining why, and the run continues with your other posts.

Do I pay twice if the same post appears twice in my input? No. Inputs are de-duplicated by shortcode before anything is looked up, so /p/CODE/, /reel/CODE/ and a bare CODE all collapse to one billed row.

What does it cost? Pay per result: one charge per post delivered, plus a small per-run start fee. No subscription.

Support

Found a bug or need a field added? Open an issue on the Actor's Issues tab in Apify Console, or email muhamed.didovic@gmail.com.

Additional Services

Need a custom Instagram or social-media scraper, enrichment pipeline, or a private version of this Actor? Custom builds available — reach out at muhamed.didovic@gmail.com.

Explore More Scrapers

• Instagram Video Downloader — permanent re-hosted MP4, cover and carousel slides that never expire
• Instagram Transcript Scraper — reels, posts and IGTV turned into text
• Instagram Comments Scraper — every comment and reply on any post or reel
• Instagram Post Likers Scraper — who liked a post
• Instagram Hashtag Scraper — top posts and reels under any hashtag
• Instagram Followers & Following Scraper — full follower and following lists
• Instagram Tagged Posts Scraper — every post an account is tagged in

Browse the full portfolio: muhamed-didovic.github.io

🤖 For AI Agents & LLM Apps

Purpose: Return the full structured record of public Instagram posts, reels, carousels and IGTV — caption, engagement, author + follower stats, business contact, hashtags, tagged accounts, location, audio and media URLs.

Minimal tested input:

{ "posts": ["https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcBx_I1iHZW/"] }

Output: array of flat objects, one per post. Core fields: postId, shortcode, postUrl, postType, caption, title, createdAt, likeCount, commentCount, playCount, viewCount, durationSeconds, countsHidden, commentsDisabled, slideCount, isPaidPartnership, authorId, authorUsername, authorFullName, authorVerified, authorPrivate, authorProfilePicUrl, inputPost, scrapedAt. With the default toggles on: authorBio, authorFollowerCount, authorFollowingCount, authorPostCount, authorIsBusiness, authorCategory, authorExternalUrl, authorPublicEmail, authorPublicPhone, hashtags[], mentions[], taggedUsers[], coauthors[], sponsors[], locationName, locationId, locationFacebookPlaceId, locationAddress, locationCity, locationLat, locationLng, musicId, musicTitle, musicArtist, musicIsOriginalAudio, thumbnailUrl, videoUrl, musicUrl, slides[].

Behavior & billing: Pay-per-event — one charge per post delivered. Duplicate inputs are dropped before billing. Media URLs expire ~24-36h; viewCount is always null (use playCount); locationLat/locationLng are unreliable (use locationName). Private, deleted and non-post URLs yield one error item each (error, message) instead of failing the run. No login or cookies required.

⚠️ Disclaimer

This Actor accesses publicly available data on Instagram for legitimate research, market-intelligence, and business-analysis purposes. It does not log in, bypass authentication, or access private content. Use of this Actor must comply with Instagram's Terms of Service and all applicable laws, including data-protection regulations (GDPR, CCPA, etc.). The authors are not responsible for any misuse. Users must:

• Respect rate limits and avoid overloading Instagram's infrastructure
• Not use scraped data to violate user privacy or platform terms
• Process any personal data only with a lawful basis and in compliance with their jurisdiction
• Not republish scraped content in violation of copyright

We do not store scraped data; the Actor returns it directly to your Apify dataset for your authorized use. Instagram is a trademark of Meta Platforms, Inc.; this Actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by Instagram or Meta.

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