Instagram Lookalike Scraper — Find Similar Accounts to Any Profile

Give one seed profile, get a list of similar accounts back — with followers, engagement and bio contact for each. Built for influencer discovery and competitor audience mapping.

Why this, not another Instagram scraper

The category leader has 508 clients and a 2.54/5 rating, driven by 12.6% failure — a private or deleted profile in your batch used to destroy the whole run. This Actor scopes each profile independently: one failure costs you nothing and nobody else's data.

5 advantages

1. One bad handle never kills your batch. A private/deleted profile returns an error for that item only; every other profile still delivers.
2. Never billed on a failed lookup. Only profiles actually delivered are charged.
3. Lookalikes for free. Set a seed username and get Instagram's own "similar accounts" for it — no second scrape, no extra engine.
4. Contact verification level, always disclosed. published (found on the page) or mx_valid (domain's mail server confirmed). Never guessed.
5. Hard cost cap you control. Set maxTotalChargeUsd and the run can never bill above it.

Output

{
  "username": "examplebrand",
  "profile_url": "https://www.instagram.com/examplebrand/",
  "followers": 104384,
  "is_business": true,
  "category": "Retail",
  "engagement_rate": 0.021,
  "median_recent_likes": 2210,
  "public_contact": {
    "email": "hello@example.com",
    "verification_level": "mx_valid",
    "source": "https://example.com"
  },
  "lookalikes": [{"username": "similarbrand", "full_name": "Similar Brand"}],
  "status": "ok"
}

Pricing

Pay per event, base FREE-tier prices: $0.007 per profile delivered, $0.0008 per recent post. Paid Store plans pay less on every event — the largest plans pay $0.0055 per profile; 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-profile-lookalike-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 Following & Related Profiles Scraper - Full List — who a profile follows, or its related suggested accounts
• YouTube Creator Lead Finder - Views, Niche, Email — cross-platform creator research on YouTube

How to use it in 3 steps

1. Click Try for free and enter one or more Instagram usernames or profile URLs.
2. To find similar accounts, put one username in seedForLookalike; raise lookalikeDepth to expand further. Turn on includeRecentPosts for likes and comments.
3. Click Start and export the profiles as JSON, CSV or Excel.

Use cases

• Find lookalike influencers for a campaign from one creator you already like.
• Competitor audience mapping — the accounts Instagram considers similar to a competitor.
• Creator vetting — followers, engagement rate, median likes and last post date in one row.
• Lead lists — business accounts with category, website and public contact.

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-profile-lookalike-scraper").call(run_input={"usernames": ["nasa"], "seedForLookalike": "natgeo", "lookalikeDepth": 1, "includeRecentPosts": 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-profile-lookalike-scraper').call({
    "usernames": [
        "nasa"
    ],
    "seedForLookalike": "natgeo",
    "lookalikeDepth": 1,
    "includeRecentPosts": 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-profile-lookalike-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"usernames": ["nasa"], "seedForLookalike": "natgeo", "lookalikeDepth": 1, "includeRecentPosts": false}'

Integrations: n8n, Make, Zapier, Google Sheets

• n8n — the official Apify node, operation Run Actor and get dataset, Actor om_kh/instagram-profile-lookalike-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

How are lookalike accounts found? From Instagram's own similar-accounts suggestions for the seed profile, expanded level by level with lookalikeDepth.

Do I need to log in? No. Public data only, no cookies, no account.

What metrics do I get? Followers, following, posts count, engagement rate, median recent likes, last post date, business category, bio, external URL and public contact when shown.

Am I charged for failed profiles? No. A profile that returns an error is never charged.

Is it legal? It reads public profile information only. You are responsible for how you store and use personal data (GDPR, CCPA).

More Actors from the same author

• Instagram Following & Related Profiles Scraper - Full List — who a profile follows, or Instagram's related accounts
• 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.