Instagram Story Scraper

Instagram Story Scraper

Instagram Story Scraper downloads the live stories of public Instagram accounts without logging in: direct image and video links, when each story was posted and when it expires, link stickers and @mentions, plus the account's profile info. One row per account, with all of its current stories inside.

Enter up to 100 accounts and get every story they posted in the last 24 hours, with media URLs ready to download and an optional copy saved to Apify storage. No Instagram account, cookies or login needed.

ParseBird Instagram Suite   •  Profiles, stories, Reels, highlights & lookalikes
Instagram Profile Scraper Profiles, emails, phones, socials	Instagram Reels Search & Trend Discovery Reels by keyword, trending content	Instagram Reels Audio Scraper Reels using any sound or song
Instagram Highlights Scraper Story highlights, photos & videos	Instagram Related Profiles Scraper Similar accounts & lookalikes	Instagram Story Scraper You are here

Copy to your AI assistant

Copy this block into ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, or any LLM to start using this actor.

Use the Apify Actor "parsebird/instagram-story-scraper" (call it via ApifyClient) to get the live Instagram stories (last 24 hours) of public accounts without logging in. Example (JavaScript): const { ApifyClient } = require('apify-client'); const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '<APIFY_TOKEN>' }); const run = await client.actor('parsebird/instagram-story-scraper').call({ usernames: ['natgeo', 'espn'], saveMediaToStorage: false }); const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems(); Inputs: usernames (required array, up to 100: usernames, @handles, profile or story URLs), saveMediaToStorage (boolean, default false; also saves every story file to the run's key-value store). Each row is one account: username, userId, displayName, profilePicUrl, profileUrl, isVerified, isPrivate, followersCount, followingCount, postsCount, biography, storiesCount, stories (array of {storyId, storyUrl, mediaType image/video, mediaUrl, thumbnailUrl, width, height, durationSec, hasAudio, timestamp (unix seconds), takenAt, expiresAt, links (link sticker URLs, omitted if none), mentions (omitted if none), storageKey and storageUrl when saving files}), status (ok/not_found/private/failed/invalid_input), error, scrapedAt. API docs: https://apify.com/parsebird/instagram-story-scraper/api. Get a token at https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations.

What is Instagram Story Scraper?

Instagram Story Scraper is an Apify Actor that collects the stories currently live on public Instagram accounts. Instagram stories disappear after 24 hours and Instagram shows them only to logged-in users, so this Actor is a simple way to view and save Instagram stories anonymously, at scale, without using your own account.

Paste usernames, click Start, and get each account's stories with direct media links, timestamps, link stickers and mentions. Run it on a schedule to monitor accounts and archive every story before it expires.

What can Instagram Story Scraper do?

• 📸 Live stories of any public account: every image and video story from the last 24 hours, oldest first.
• 🔗 Link stickers and mentions: the URLs behind link stickers and the accounts tagged in each story.
• ⏰ Post and expiry time: unix timestamp plus ISO takenAt and expiresAt.
• 💾 Archive before it disappears: turn on Save story files to storage to keep a copy of every image and video after Instagram's links expire.
• 👤 Profile info included: name, picture, verified badge, followers, following, posts and bio.
• 🙈 No login: no Instagram account, cookies or session needed, and the account owners don't see your view.
• ⏱️ Platform features: schedule hourly runs, call it from the Apify API, get webhooks, and send results to Google Drive, Slack, Make, Zapier, n8n and more. Export as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML.

What data can you extract from Instagram stories?

Field	Description
username, displayName, userId, profileUrl, profilePicUrl	The account
isVerified, isPrivate, followersCount, followingCount, postsCount, biography	Profile details
storiesCount	Number of live stories
stories[].storyId, stories[].storyUrl	Story ID and its Instagram link
stories[].mediaType, stories[].mediaUrl, stories[].thumbnailUrl	image or video, the direct file link and the preview image
stories[].width, height, durationSec, hasAudio	Size, and length and sound for videos
stories[].timestamp, takenAt, expiresAt	When it was posted (unix seconds and ISO) and when it disappears
stories[].links	URLs from link stickers (left out when there are none)
stories[].mentions	Accounts tagged in the story (left out when there are none)
stories[].storageUrl	Saved copy of the file, when Save story files to storage is on
status, error	ok, not_found, private, failed or invalid_input, and why

How to scrape Instagram stories

1. Open Instagram Story Scraper in Apify Console and create a free Apify account if you don't have one.
2. Add the accounts: natgeo, @espn, https://www.instagram.com/bbcnews/ or https://www.instagram.com/stories/cnn/ all work.
3. Turn on Save story files to storage if you want to keep the files.
4. Click Start. 20 accounts take well under a minute.
5. Download the results from the Output tab, or schedule the run to check the accounts every few hours.

Input example

{
    "usernames": ["natgeo", "@espn", "https://www.instagram.com/bbcnews/"],
    "saveMediaToStorage": true
}

Output example

A real row for bbcnews (October 18, 2026; 2 of its 7 stories shown, media URLs shortened):

{
    "username": "bbcnews",
    "userId": "16278726",
    "displayName": "BBC News",
    "profilePicUrl": "https://instagram.flca1-4.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t51.2885-19/...",
    "profileUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/bbcnews/",
    "isVerified": true,
    "isPrivate": false,
    "followersCount": 30996213,
    "followingCount": 59,
    "postsCount": 32436,
    "biography": "For the stories that matter to you - \ntap this link 👇",
    "storiesCount": 7,
    "stories": [
        {
            "storyId": "4009796696971981839",
            "storyUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/stories/bbcnews/4009796696971981839/",
            "mediaType": "video",
            "mediaUrl": "https://scontent-gig4-1.cdninstagram.com/o1/v/t2/f2/m78/....mp4?...",
            "thumbnailUrl": "https://scontent-gig4-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.71878-15/....jpg?...",
            "width": 720,
            "height": 1280,
            "durationSec": 6,
            "hasAudio": false,
            "timestamp": 1792225035,
            "takenAt": "2026-10-17T08:17:15Z",
            "expiresAt": "2026-10-18T08:17:15Z",
            "links": ["https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cxr5yvzv7rp0o?fbclid=..."]
        },
        {
            "storyId": "4009796842541904288",
            "storyUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/stories/bbcnews/4009796842541904288/",
            "mediaType": "image",
            "mediaUrl": "https://scontent-gig4-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.82787-15/....jpg?...",
            "...": "..."
        }
    ],
    "status": "ok",
    "error": null,
    "scrapedAt": "2026-10-18T01:23:40Z"
}

Accounts with no live story come back with storiesCount: 0 and an empty stories array.

Use Instagram Story Scraper from Python or JavaScript

Install the Apify client (pip install apify-client or npm install apify-client) and use your API token.

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<APIFY_TOKEN>")

run = client.actor("parsebird/instagram-story-scraper").call(run_input={
    "usernames": ["natgeo", "espn", "bbcnews"],
})

for account in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    for story in account["stories"]:
        print(account["username"], story["takenAt"], story["mediaType"], story["mediaUrl"])

JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '<APIFY_TOKEN>' });

const run = await client.actor('parsebird/instagram-story-scraper').call({
    usernames: ['kyliejenner', 'cnn'],
    saveMediaToStorage: true,
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((a) => a.stories.forEach((s) => console.log(a.username, s.takenAt, s.storageUrl, s.mentions ?? [])));

Use cases

• Brand and competitor monitoring: see the promotions, launches and links competitors post in their stories.
• Influencer marketing: check that sponsored stories went live, with the right link sticker and @mentions.
• Story archiving: keep a copy of a brand's or creator's stories for compliance, research or content planning.
• News and trend tracking: follow what publishers and public figures share in stories during the day.
• Social listening: collect story links and mentions to see which products and accounts are being promoted.

How it works

Instagram shows live stories only to logged-in viewers. To avoid needing an Instagram account, the Actor opens a public anonymous story-viewer service in a headless browser, looks up each account there and reads the story data the page receives. That data comes from Instagram, with the original Instagram media links. If a lookup doesn't answer, the Actor retries in a fresh browser session. On October 18, 2026, a run of 20 well-known accounts matched Instagram's own "latest story" time for every account: 12 had live stories, and the 8 without a story correctly returned none.

Because the Actor depends on an outside viewer service, a change on that service can break it for a while; we watch it and fix issues as they come up.

How much does it cost to scrape Instagram stories?

Instagram Story Scraper uses pay-per-event pricing: you pay for each account checked, whether it has live stories or not. Platform usage (browser, compute and proxies) is included in the price.

Plan	Price per account	Price per 1,000 accounts
Free	$0.01499	$14.99
Bronze	$0.01449	$14.49
Silver	$0.01399	$13.99
Gold	$0.01349	$13.49

Accounts that aren't found, are private, or fail aren't charged. Checking 20 accounts costs about $0.30 on the Free plan; checking them every 6 hours costs about $1.20 a day. All stories of an account are included in its price, and saving the files to storage doesn't cost extra.

Is it legal to scrape Instagram stories?

This Actor only reads stories that public accounts share with everyone. Scraping publicly available data is generally legal, but stories are copyrighted content and can contain personal data, so you are responsible for how you use and store them, including under GDPR and similar laws. Don't republish other people's stories without permission. If you aren't sure, consult a lawyer. Read more on the Apify blog about web scraping legality.

This Actor is unofficial and isn't affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Instagram or Meta.

Other Instagram scrapers from ParseBird

• Instagram Highlights Scraper: story highlights that stay on a profile after the 24 hours.
• Instagram Profile Scraper: profile details, bio links, emails and phones.
• Instagram Related Profiles Scraper: accounts similar to any profile.
• Instagram Reels Search Scraper: Reels for any keyword.

FAQ

Can I view Instagram stories anonymously with this? Yes. The Actor never uses your Instagram account, so your name never appears in the account owner's viewer list.

Does it work for private accounts? No. Private accounts' stories are visible only to approved followers. They come back with status: "private" and aren't charged.

How long do the media links work? Instagram's links are signed and expire after some days, and the story itself disappears from Instagram after 24 hours. Turn on Save story files to storage to keep a permanent copy in Apify storage.

Why did an account return 0 stories? It has no live story right now. Stories expire 24 hours after posting, so schedule the Actor (for example every 6 hours) to catch every story.

Does it include highlights? No, only live stories. For saved highlights use the Instagram Highlights Scraper.

Are music, polls or view counts included? No. View counts and viewer lists are visible only to the account owner, and music, poll and question stickers aren't returned.

Can I use it through the API? Yes. Use the API tab or the Python and JavaScript examples above. You can also run it from Make, Zapier or n8n.

Something is missing or broken? Open an issue on the Issues tab.