Instagram Following Scraper — Following, Related, Enriched

You paste one username. You get who they follow — or Instagram's own suggested similar accounts — with optional full profile enrichment on every account.

Why this, not another following scraper

The category leader has 242 clients and a 3.56/5 rating, driven by 7.4% failure. This Actor scopes each listed account independently and never bills a failed one — same discipline as the rest of this family.

5 advantages

1. Two honest modes, not a fragile third. following and related both work reliably. We tested a followers mode extensively and cut it — it silently returned nothing on every real account we tried, so we are not shipping something that doesn't work.
2. Related accounts, for free. related mode uses Instagram's own similar-accounts suggestions — no extra scrape.
3. Optional enrichment, same engine as our Profile Scraper. Turn on enrichProfiles and every listed account gets followers, engagement, and bio contact — the exact same fields, same price.
4. Never billed on a failed lookup.
5. Hard cost cap you control. Set maxTotalChargeUsd and the run can never bill above it.

Output

{
  "username": "sciencechannel",
  "profile_url": "https://www.instagram.com/sciencechannel/",
  "full_name": "Science Channel",
  "followers": 2643925,
  "public_contact": null,
  "status": "ok"
}

Pricing

Pay per event, base FREE-tier price: $0.002 per account listed.

Profile enrichment is temporarily unavailable until late October 2026, while its price is updated. Runs return the full account list without profile details; the enrichProfiles switch is ignored until then. Paid Store plans pay less on every event — the largest plans reach $0.00044 on the cheapest event; the Pricing tab on this Actor's Store page is always the authority. No event is ever charged on an item that returns an error — a batch of 200 with one bad input bills 199.

Use it from an AI agent (MCP and x402)

Connect Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code or any MCP client to Apify's MCP server at https://mcp.apify.com and add this Actor, om_kh/instagram-following-scraper, as a tool — the agent passes the same JSON as the run input and gets the dataset back.

AI agents that pay with x402 can run it too, without an Apify account: the Actor charges only per result delivered, so an agent pays exactly for what it gets.

Related Actors

• Instagram Lookalike Scraper - Similar Accounts, Followers, Bio — full profile detail and related-account discovery
• TikTok Creator Search Scraper — cross-platform creator research on TikTok

How to use it in 3 steps

1. Click Try for free and enter an Instagram username or profile URL.
2. Choose mode: following (accounts the profile follows) or related (Instagram's own similar-accounts suggestions). (Profile enrichment returns in late October 2026.)
3. Click Start and export the accounts as JSON, CSV or Excel.

Use cases

• Influencer discovery — the accounts a creator follows are often their peers and collaborators.
• Competitor research — see which brands, suppliers and partners a competitor follows.
• Audience mapping — build a niche list from one seed account.
• Outreach lists — enrich each account with bio contact data.

Use it from code (API)

Every Apify Actor is an API. Start a run and read the results with one call.

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("om_kh/instagram-following-scraper").call(run_input={"username": "natgeo", "mode": "following", "maxResults": 50, "enrichProfiles": False})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>' });
const run = await client.actor('om_kh/instagram-following-scraper').call({
    "username": "natgeo",
    "mode": "following",
    "maxResults": 50,
    "enrichProfiles": false
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

One HTTP call (cURL) — runs the Actor and returns the dataset in the same response:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/om_kh~instagram-following-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"username": "natgeo", "mode": "following", "maxResults": 50, "enrichProfiles": false}'

Integrations: n8n, Make, Zapier, Google Sheets

• n8n — the official Apify node, operation Run Actor and get dataset, Actor om_kh/instagram-following-scraper.
• Make — Apify › Run an Actor, then Apify › Get Dataset Items.
• Zapier — Apify › Run Actor; map the dataset items into your next step.
• Google Sheets, webhooks, Slack — add an integration from the Integrations tab of this Actor.
• Schedules — run it every hour or day from Schedules in Apify Console.

FAQ

Do I need an Instagram account or cookies? No. It uses public profile data only and never logs in.

Does it work on private profiles? No — private profiles do not expose who they follow. They are reported with an error and not charged.

What is the related mode? Instagram's own "suggested for you" similar accounts for a profile — a fast way to find lookalikes.

Is it legal? It collects public profile information only. If you store personal data, you are responsible for GDPR and similar rules.

How many accounts can I get? Set maxResults; you pay per account listed, and the run stops at your maxTotalChargeUsd.

More Actors from the same author

• Instagram Lookalike Scraper - Similar Accounts, Followers, Bio — similar accounts to any profile, with metrics
• YouTube Creator Lead Finder - Views, Niche, Email — creators on YouTube with contact signals
• TikTok Creator Search Scraper — creators on TikTok by keyword

Support

Found a bug or have a feature request? Use the Issues tab on this Actor's Apify Store page, or message the author (om_kh) directly.