🌟 Instagram Reel Scraper — Fetch Reel Data Instantly

📊 Scrape Instagram Reels metadata quickly and safely — no login, no hassle, plug-and-play.

---

📖 Overview

This Actor allows you to fetch detailed Instagram Reel data, including captions, hashtags, mentions, likes, views, upload dates, and media formats — instantly, securely, and ready for automation.

---

💡 Use Cases

• Collect Instagram Reel metadata for analytics dashboards.
• Track engagement metrics (likes, comments, views) without logging in.
• Aggregate Reels by hashtags, mentions, or owners.
• Feed datasets for marketing or research automation.

---

⚡ Quick Start — Console

1. Paste your Instagram Reel URLs into the startUrls input.
2. Optionally configure hide_media_links, maxConcurrency, or proxies.
3. Click Run Actor — results appear in seconds.

---

⚙️ Quick Start — CLI + API

CLI

$apify run --input input.example.json

Python (apify-client)

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<APIFY_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("your-username/instagram-reel-scraper").call(
    run_input={
        "startUrls": ["https://www.instagram.com/reel/shortcode/"],
        "hide_media_links": True
    }
)
print(run["output"])

---

📝 Inputs

🔑 Name	📝 Type	❓ Required	⚙️ Default	📌 Example	🧠 Notes
startUrls	array	✅ Yes	None	["https://www.instagram.com/reel/ABC123"]	List of Reel URLs to scrape
hide_media_links	boolean	⚙️ Optional	True	False	Remove direct media URLs from output if True
maxConcurrency	integer	⚙️ Optional	3	5	Number of concurrent scrape tasks
diagnostic	boolean	⚙️ Optional	False	True	Include full error details in output
proxyConfiguration	object	⚙️ Optional	{}	{"useApifyProxy": true}	Advanced proxy settings (optional)

---

⚙️ Configuration

Paste your input JSON in the Console or CLI as shown below:

{
  "startUrls": ["https://www.instagram.com/reel/ABC123"],
  "hide_media_links": true,
  "maxConcurrency": 3
}

---

📄 Outputs

The Actor outputs an array of Reel metadata records:

[
  {
    "original_url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/ABC123",
    "id": "ABC123",
    "ownerUsername": "creator_name",
    "ownerFullName": "Creator Full Name",
    "description": "Awesome Reel content here",
    "likesCount": 1500,
    "likesDisplay": "1.5k",
    "commentsCount": 120,
    "commentsDisplay": "120",
    "videoViewCount": 3000,
    "viewsDisplay": "3k",
    "upload_date": "25th October 2025",
    "upload_date_iso": "2025-10-25T14:30:00Z",
    "upload_time_ago": "4 Days Ago",
    "duration": 12.34,
    "resolution_detail": "Full HD (1080p)",
    "hashtags": ["fun", "trending"],
    "mentions": ["friend1"],
    "formats": [
      {"type": "image", "url": "<image_url>", "width": 1080, "height": 1920},
      {"type": "video", "url": "<video_url>", "duration": 12.34}
    ],
    "randomExtraInfo": {
      "scrapeBatch": "Reel-Set-42",
      "regionCode": "US",
      "verifiedStatus": "Verified",
      "contentCategory": "Entertainment"
    }
  }
]

---

🔑 Environment Variables

• APIFY_TOKEN — your Apify API token (required for CLI / API).
• HTTP_PROXY / HTTPS_PROXY — optional custom proxy URLs if not using Apify Proxy.

---

▶️ How to Run

Console: Click Run Actor after filling inputs. CLI: apify run --input input.example.json Python API: See snippet above.

---

⏰ Scheduling & Webhooks

• Schedule recurring runs in the Apify Console.
• Add webhook URLs to receive results automatically when the Actor finishes.

---

🕾 Logs & Troubleshooting

• Detailed logs are available in the Apify Console.
• Enable diagnostic: true for full error reporting.
• Common issues: invalid URL or rate-limited by Instagram (retry handled automatically).

---

🔒 Permissions & Storage Notes

• Output is written to the default Key-Value Store under key OUTPUT.
• Actor is privacy-safe; does not log credentials or scrape private content.
• Media URLs can be hidden using hide_media_links.

---

🔟 Changelog / Versioning

• v1.0 — Initial release, basic Reel metadata scraping
• v1.1 — Added HTML fallback, error suppression, and proxy support
• TODO: Track new Instagram features or Reels formats

---

🖌 Notes / TODOs

• Consider exposing maxConcurrency to match large batch runs.
• Review hide_media_links default based on user preference.

---

🌍 Proxy Configuration

• Enable Apify Proxy in Console input for seamless scraping.
• Custom proxy example:

{
  "useApifyProxy": false,
  "proxyUrls": ["http://<PROXY_USER:PASS@HOST:PORT>"]
}

• Environment variables:

export HTTP_PROXY="http://<PROXY_USER:PASS@HOST:PORT>"
export HTTPS_PROXY="http://<PROXY_USER:PASS@HOST:PORT>"

• TODO: Consider proxy rotation for large-scale scraping.

---

📚 References

1. Apify Actor README guidelines
2. Input/Output schema docs
3. CLI / API usage docs

---

🤔 What I inferred from main.py

• Supports concurrent requests with maxConcurrency.
• Provides HTML fallback when Instaloader fails.
• Automatically transforms metadata for readability (likes, views, upload dates).
• Supports optional proxy usage with session management.
• Safe defaults: hides media URLs and suppresses errors unless diagnostic is True.