Instagram Reels Scraper

Extract Reels, videos, engagement statistics, and audio metadata from any public Instagram profile. This tool gathers deep insights including view counts, play counts, likes, comments, audio track information, and media URLs, delivering structured data perfect for analysis, archiving, or monitoring.

---

What is Instagram Reels Scraper?

Instagram Reels Scraper is a robust data extraction tool designed for marketers, researchers, and developers who need detailed information from Instagram profiles. It efficiently extracts Reels and video clips, providing metadata, captions, and engagement statistics.

The scraper intelligently utilizes Instagram's internal GraphQL API to paginate through a profile's media efficiently. It automatically parses video fields, captions, music/audio attribution, and viewer statistics where available. It runs seamlessly on the Apify platform, supporting proxy configurations to maintain reliable access.

What Instagram data is publicly available to scrape?

Data Category	Publicly Available
Reels & Videos (URL, ID, Timestamp)	Yes
Captions, Mentions & Hashtags	Yes
Engagement (Likes, Comments, Plays, Views)	Yes
Music / Audio Info	Yes
Top Comments	Yes
Private / Friends-Only Profiles	No
Full Follower Lists	No
User Contact Information	No

What data can I extract with Instagram Reels Scraper?

Identity & Ownership Fields

Field Name	Description
ownerUsername	The username of the reel owner.
ownerFullName	The real display name of the owner.
ownerId	The unique numeric ID of the Instagram profile.
inputUrl	The original input URL or username requested.
url	The direct permalink URL to the specific reel.
shortCode	The shortcode identifier for the reel (used in URLs).

Engagement & Metric Fields

Field Name	Description
likesCount	Total number of likes on the reel.
commentsCount	Total number of comments on the reel.
sharesCount	Total number of shares.
videoViewCount	Video view count.
videoPlayCount	Video play count.
isPinned	Boolean indicating if the reel is pinned to the top of the profile.

Content, Media & Comments Fields

Field Name	Description
timestamp	ISO 8601 formatted string of the post creation time.
caption	The full text content/caption of the reel.
hashtags	Array of hashtags extracted from the caption.
mentions	Array of mentions extracted from the caption.
videoUrl	The direct video source URL (MP4).
images / displayUrl	Thumbnail images for the video.
musicInfo	Object containing details about the audio track (artist_name, song_name, audio_id).
firstComment	The text of the first extracted comment.
latestComments	Array of recent comments containing author details, text, and like counts.
transcript	Transcript text if available on the reel.
alt	Accessibility caption/alt text.
isCommentsDisabled	Boolean indicating if comments are turned off.

How to configure Instagram Reels Scraper

Configuration Options

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
usernames	Array	[]	List of Instagram usernames or profile URLs to scrape.
resultsLimit	Integer	10	Maximum number of reels to collect per profile. Set to 0 for unlimited.
cookieHeader	String	""	Optional HTTP Cookie header for authenticated scraping (e.g., to access age-restricted content).
requestDelay	Float	1.5	Delay between pagination requests in seconds to avoid rate limiting.
proxyConfiguration	Object	None	Proxy settings (Residential Apify Proxy recommended).

Example Configuration

{
  "usernames": [
    "instagram",
    "https://www.instagram.com/cristiano/"
  ],
  "resultsLimit": 20,
  "requestDelay": 2.0,
  "cookieHeader": "sessionid=YOUR_SESSION_ID;",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}

How to use Instagram Reels Scraper

1. Sign up/Log in to your Apify account.
2. Navigate to this actor's page on the Apify Store and click "Try for free".
3. Set the Target: In the Input configuration, enter the usernames or URLs of the Instagram profiles you want to scrape in the usernames field.
4. Set Limits: Specify the resultsLimit to dictate how many reels you want to extract per profile.
5. Configure Proxies & Cookies: Add your cookieHeader if needed, and ensure you're using high-quality proxies to avoid blocks.
6. Run: Click the "Start" button.
7. Download: Once the run completes, navigate to the "Storage" tab. Your data is available in formats like JSON, CSV, or Excel.

Output Format

The actor outputs data in JSON format, creating one object per scraped reel.

Example Output

{
  "id": "3141592653589793238",
  "type": "Video",
  "shortCode": "Cabcdefghij",
  "caption": "Check out this amazing view! 🏔️ #nature #travel",
  "hashtags": ["nature", "travel"],
  "mentions": [],
  "url": "https://www.instagram.com/p/Cabcdefghij/",
  "commentsCount": 1250,
  "dimensionsHeight": 1920,
  "dimensionsWidth": 1080,
  "images": [
    "https://instagram.fist1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/...jpg"
  ],
  "videoUrl": "https://instagram.fist1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/...mp4",
  "likesCount": 45000,
  "timestamp": "2023-10-15T12:00:00.000Z",
  "ownerFullName": "Nature Explorer",
  "ownerUsername": "nature.explorer",
  "ownerId": "987654321",
  "isPinned": false,
  "productType": "clips",
  "videoDuration": 15.5,
  "inputUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/nature.explorer/",
  "firstComment": "Stunning location!",
  "latestComments": [
    {
      "id": "180123456789",
      "text": "Stunning location!",
      "ownerUsername": "travel_fan",
      "ownerProfilePicUrl": "https://...",
      "timestamp": "2023-10-15T12:05:00.000Z",
      "repliesCount": 0,
      "likesCount": 10,
      "owner": {
        "id": "123456",
        "is_verified": false,
        "username": "travel_fan"
      }
    }
  ],
  "displayUrl": "https://instagram.fist1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/...jpg",
  "audioUrl": "https://instagram.fist1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/...mp4",
  "alt": "Video of a mountain view",
  "videoViewCount": 250000,
  "videoPlayCount": 260000,
  "childPosts": [],
  "musicInfo": {
    "artist_name": "Audio Creator",
    "song_name": "Original Audio",
    "uses_original_audio": true,
    "should_mute_audio": false,
    "should_mute_audio_reason": "",
    "audio_id": "1234567890"
  },
  "isCommentsDisabled": false,
  "transcript": "",
  "downloadedVideo": "",
  "sharesCount": 500
}

Rate Limits & Error Handling

To ensure longevity and reliability, this actor is designed to use Apify Proxies.

• The script automatically continues paginating until it hits the resultsLimit or runs out of reels.
• It includes a requestDelay to throttle requests and mimic human behavior.
• If it encounters network blocks or missing parameters, it will skip to the next profile in your list or exit gracefully.

Legal Considerations

This scraper extracts exclusively publicly available data accessible to any user navigating the web. It is your responsibility to ensure that your use of the extracted data complies with all applicable local laws, regulations, and terms of service. This is not legal advice.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does it require an Instagram account? It can run without cookies for basic public profiles. However, Instagram often restricts access without an active session. For best results, providing a valid cookieHeader is recommended.

How many reels can I scrape? You can set resultsLimit to any number. It will scrape until it reaches that limit or until the profile has no more reels available. Set it to 0 to scrape all available reels.

What happens if a profile is private? The scraper will not be able to extract data from private profiles unless the provided cookieHeader belongs to an account that follows that private profile.

Can I scrape multiple profiles at once? Yes! Just add multiple usernames or URLs to the usernames array in the input configuration.