# Instagram Story Transcript (Speech to Text) (`rainminer/instagram-story-transcript-scraper`) Actor

Transcribe spoken words from public Instagram Story videos with AI. Paste Story or Highlight item URLs—no login. Get full transcripts, timed segments, and language detection. Export JSON, CSV, Excel, or use the API. For on-screen text OCR, use the companion Story Text Extractor.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/rainminer/instagram-story-transcript-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [rainminer](https://apify.com/rainminer) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.37 / 1,000 story processeds

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

The **Instagram Story Transcript** Actor turns spoken words in public Instagram Story **videos** into searchable text. Paste Story or Highlight item URLs—no login—and get full transcripts with timed segments and language detection. Use it for influencer monitoring, competitive research, and content archives when brands talk to camera instead of relying on on-screen captions.

For **on-screen text, promo codes, and link stickers**, use the companion [Instagram Story Text Extractor](https://apify.com/rainminer/instagram-story-text-extractor) (OCR). This Actor listens to **audio only**—image Stories are skipped.

![Instagram](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e7/Instagram_logo_2016.svg/320px-Instagram_logo_2016.svg.png)

***

### Key Features

- **Speech-to-text**: Transcribes voiceover, talking-head, and dialogue in Story videos.
- **Timed segments**: `transcriptSegments` with start/end seconds for each spoken phrase.
- **Language detection**: ISO 639-1 code when speech is present.
- **Highlight and live Story URLs**: Same URL formats as other Instagram Story Actors.
- **No login required**: Public Stories and Highlight items only.
- **Structured JSON**: Export to JSON, CSV, Excel, or pull via Apify API.

***

### What data can you extract?

| Field | Description |
| --- | --- |
| `storyUrl` | Canonical Instagram Story URL |
| `username` | Story owner handle when resolved from metadata |
| `highlightId` | Highlight reel id for Highlight item URLs |
| `mediaId` | Instagram media id for the Story frame |
| `mediaType` | Always `video` in output (image Stories are not saved) |
| `duration` | Length in seconds |
| `language` | Spoken language (ISO 639-1) when detected |
| `hasSpeech` | `true` when intelligible speech was transcribed |
| `transcript` | Full spoken transcript in the original language |
| `transcriptSegments` | Array of `{ startSec, endSec, text }` |
| `scrapedAt` | ISO timestamp when the Story was processed |

***

### Who is it for?

- **Brand and influencer analysts** archiving what creators say in Stories.
- **Compliance and QA** teams checking spoken claims in short-form video.
- **Researchers** building speech corpora from ephemeral Story content.
- **Developers** scheduling Story transcription on Apify with webhooks.

***

### How do I transcribe Instagram Stories?

1. Open the Actor on Apify Console and add **start URLs** — public Story or Highlight item URLs.
2. Set **Max stories** (default 5) and enable **Apify Proxy** (residential recommended) if downloads fail.
3. Run the Actor and open the **Dataset** tab. Rows appear only for **video** Stories where speech was detected.
4. Export or call the Apify API for automation.

***

### Input

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17975319242920589/3713636227774800082/"
    }
  ],
  "maxItems": 5
}
```

| Field | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `startUrls` | request list | — | Public Story or Highlight item URLs |
| `maxItems` | integer | `5` | Maximum stories to process per run |
| `proxyConfiguration` | object | Apify Proxy on | Proxy for Instagram media downloads |

***

### Output example

```json
{
  "storyUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/stories/brand/3456789012345678901/",
  "username": "brand",
  "mediaId": "3456789012345678901",
  "highlightId": null,
  "mediaType": "video",
  "duration": 12.5,
  "language": "en",
  "hasSpeech": true,
  "transcript": "Hey everyone, our sale starts now. Tap the link in our bio.",
  "transcriptSegments": [
    {
      "startSec": 0.5,
      "endSec": 4.2,
      "text": "Hey everyone, our sale starts now."
    },
    {
      "startSec": 4.5,
      "endSec": 7.0,
      "text": "Tap the link in our bio."
    }
  ],
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-18T12:00:00.000Z"
}
```

***

### How it works

1. **Validate URLs** — Story and Highlight item patterns are checked.
2. **Download media** — Guest session download (same stack as the Story Text Extractor).
3. **Transcribe video** — Gemini analyzes the audio track and returns speech only.
4. **Dataset output** — One row per video Story with detected speech; no row for image Stories or silent videos.
5. **Pay-per-event** — `story-processed` for each video sent to transcription; `story-transcript-processed` when a transcript is saved.

***

### Pricing

This Actor uses **pay-per-event** billing on Apify plus **platform usage** (compute, proxy, and AI token usage on your Apify account).

| Event | When charged |
| --- | --- |
| **Story processed** | Video Story downloaded and sent for transcription |
| **Story transcript processed** | Spoken transcript extracted and saved to the dataset |
| **Actor start** | Run start (standard Apify start fee) |

Start with a small `maxItems` (3–5) to estimate cost before scaling.

***

### Notes and limitations

- **Video only** — still image Stories have no spoken track; they are skipped without a dataset row.
- **Public Stories only** — private accounts are not supported.
- **Ephemeral Stories** — standard Stories expire after 24 hours; use Highlight URLs for stable tests.
- **On-screen text excluded** — burned-in captions and stickers are not OCR’d here; use the Text Extractor Actor for that.
- **Music and noise** — background music may reduce transcription quality; only clear speech is intended.

***

### Learn more

- [Instagram Story Text Extractor (OCR)](https://apify.com/rainminer/instagram-story-text-extractor)
- [Apify Instagram Actors](https://apify.com/store?search=instagram)
- [Apify API docs](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2)

### Image Credit

Image credit: [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/)

# Actor input Schema

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

Public Instagram Story URLs to transcribe. Accepts instagram.com/stories/{username}/{id}/ and stories/highlights/{highlightId}/{id}/ formats. Video Stories only—image Stories are skipped.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of stories to process in a single run.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Apify Proxy is used for Instagram Story downloads. Failed downloads are retried with a different proxy automatically.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17975319242920589/3713636227774800082/"
    }
  ],
  "maxItems": 5,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `overview` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "startUrls": [
        {
            "url": "https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17975319242920589/3713636227774800082/"
        }
    ],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true,
        "apifyProxyGroups": [
            "RESIDENTIAL"
        ]
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("rainminer/instagram-story-transcript-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "startUrls": [{ "url": "https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17975319242920589/3713636227774800082/" }],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": True,
        "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"],
    },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("rainminer/instagram-story-transcript-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17975319242920589/3713636227774800082/"
    }
  ],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}' |
apify call rainminer/instagram-story-transcript-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,rainminer/instagram-story-transcript-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/PkgDalJRAzmdVKH3O/builds/Vo2c0mHzcRQyLp9Sm/openapi.json