Instagram Transcript Scraper — Reels, Posts & IGTV to Text

Turn any public Instagram Reel, video post or IGTV into a clean, structured transcript. Paste video URLs, get back one row per video with the full spoken text, subtitle-style timestamped segments, and rich metadata — username, caption, likes, comments and more. Powered by on-device Whisper AI, 30+ languages, no login, JSON or CSV out. Flat $0.05 per video, any length — long Reels and IGTV don't cost extra.

Why use this Instagram Transcript Scraper?

• No Instagram login or cookies required — works on any public reel/post/IGTV URL.
• Real speech-to-text, not just captions — Instagram exposes no caption track to the public, so this actor downloads each video's audio and transcribes it with Whisper AI. You get a transcript even when the creator never added captions.
• Timestamped segments — every transcript comes with a segments array (start, end, text) you can turn into subtitles or jump-to-moment links.
• 30+ languages — set the language or let Whisper auto-detect it per video.
• Rich metadata included — username, display name, caption, like/comment counts, thumbnail and upload date alongside the transcript.
• Pay per transcript — one clear charge per delivered transcript; image-only or private posts are skipped free.

What does it do?

Give it a list of Instagram video URLs. For each one the actor:

1. Resolves the public video and its metadata (cookieless).
2. Downloads the audio.
3. Runs on-device Whisper speech-to-text.
4. Pushes one row: metadata + full transcript + timestamped segments.

Supported input

Input	Example
Reel URL	https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dabg9j1xNHM/
Post URL (video)	https://www.instagram.com/p/ABC123xyz/
IGTV URL	https://www.instagram.com/tv/ABC123xyz/

Image-only posts are detected and skipped (there is no audio to transcribe).

Use cases

• Content research & repurposing — turn a creator's reels into searchable text, blog drafts or scripts.
• Social listening & brand monitoring — analyze what's actually said in videos, not just captions.
• Accessibility — generate subtitles/VTT from the timestamped segments.
• Competitive & influencer analysis — mine talking points, hooks and CTAs across many videos.
• Dataset building — collect speech transcripts for NLP, trend detection or LLM fine-tuning.

How it works

The actor uses yt-dlp to resolve each public Instagram video and pull its audio without any login, then transcribes the audio locally with faster-whisper (a fast CTranslate2 build of OpenAI Whisper). Because transcription runs on-device, your data never goes to a third-party API. Instagram traffic is routed through Apify Residential proxies by default.

Input configuration

Field	Type	Default	Description
startUrls	array	— (required)	Instagram reel/post/IGTV URLs to transcribe.
whisperModel	select	tiny	tiny (fast, reliable), base or small (more accurate, slower).
language	string	auto	ISO code (en, es, ar, …) or auto to detect per video.
includeSegments	boolean	true	Include the segments array of timestamped chunks.
maxItems	integer	25	Maximum videos to transcribe this run.
maxDurationSec	integer	300	Skip videos longer than this (compute guard). 0 disables.
maxConcurrency	integer	2	Videos transcribed in parallel (1–4).
proxy	object	Residential	Proxy configuration.

Example input

{
    "startUrls": [
        { "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dabg9j1xNHM/" }
    ],
    "whisperModel": "tiny",
    "language": "auto",
    "includeSegments": true,
    "maxItems": 25
}

Output

One row per video. Example (abridged):

{
    "id": "Dabg9j1xNHM",
    "shortcode": "Dabg9j1xNHM",
    "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dabg9j1xNHM/",
    "username": "nasaadmin",
    "userId": "79712351002",
    "fullName": "NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman",
    "caption": "For 250 years, America has inspired generations to dream bigger…",
    "durationSec": 58,
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://instagram.f…/735552979_….jpg",
    "timestamp": 1783294802,
    "uploadDate": "20260705",
    "likeCount": 56053,
    "commentCount": 1923,
    "viewCount": null,
    "isVideo": true,
    "transcript": "For 250 years, the United States of America has been the hope, the promise, the light and the glory of all the nations of the world…",
    "language": "en",
    "segments": [
        { "start": 0.46, "end": 5.46, "text": "For 250 years, the United States of America has been the hope" }
    ],
    "transcriptSource": "whisper",
    "whisperModel": "tiny",
    "transcribedAt": "2026-07-15T09:49:00.990Z"
}

Key output fields

Field	Description
transcript	Full spoken text of the video.
segments	Array of {start, end, text} timestamped chunks (subtitle-ready).
language	Detected (or specified) spoken language.
username / fullName	Creator handle and display name.
caption	The post's written caption.
likeCount / commentCount	Engagement metrics when available.
durationSec	Video length in seconds.
transcribedAt	UTC timestamp of transcription.

FAQ

What does it cost? A flat $0.05 per transcribed video plus a $0.005 run start — a 10-minute IGTV costs the same as a 15-second Reel, timestamps and metadata included. Per-second-metered alternatives reach $0.30+ for a 5-minute video, and there are no paid speed or translation upgrades here. Skipped items (no audio) are never charged.

Do I need an Instagram account or cookies? No. The actor works on public videos without any login.

Why not just read Instagram's captions? Instagram does not expose a caption/subtitle track to logged-out clients. This actor transcribes the actual audio, so you get text even for videos the creator never captioned.

What about image posts or carousels with no video? They're detected and skipped (reported as skipped, not charged) — there is no audio to transcribe.

Which languages are supported? 30+ via Whisper. Set language for best speed/accuracy, or use auto.

Why is tiny the default model? It is ~5× faster than larger models and reliable on Apify's CPU. Use base/small for higher accuracy on clear speech; they are slower and can time out on long videos.

Support

• Found a bug or need a new field? Open a ticket on the Issues tab of this actor — it's the fastest way to reach me and I actively maintain this scraper.
• Email: muhamed.didovic@gmail.com
• Website: muhamed-didovic.github.io

Additional Services

Need something beyond the standard output? I build and maintain custom scrapers and data pipelines. Happy to help with:

• Transcripts from other platforms (TikTok, YouTube, Douyin) in the same output shape
• Scheduled, incremental transcript feeds wired into your CMS, data warehouse, or vector store
• Custom fields, summaries, translations, or export formats tailored to your workflow
• Private or dedicated actors for high-volume or compliance-sensitive use

Reach out via the Issues tab or email and describe what you need.

Explore More Scrapers

More of my actors in the same space:

• Social Video Transcript Scraper — transcribe TikTok and Instagram videos in one run, same Whisper pipeline
• Douyin Scraper — Chinese TikTok profiles, videos and search
• YouTube Shorts Scraper — Shorts metadata at scale
• Instagram Profile Scraper — profiles, followers, bio and contact data

Browse the full catalog — job boards, business directories, review sites, social platforms — on my profile: memo23 on Apify.

⚠️ Disclaimer

This actor collects only publicly available data from Instagram and is intended for lawful uses such as research, accessibility and content analysis. You are responsible for how you use the output, including compliance with Instagram's Terms of Service, applicable copyright, and data-protection laws (e.g. GDPR/CCPA) where relevant. Do not use transcripts to infringe copyright or process personal data unlawfully.

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