Instagram Creator & Audience Credibility Check

"This account gained 40,000 followers in three days. Do I say something, or do I just book them and hope?"

When a creator handle is pitched to a brand or signed to a roster, the follower count on the profile page is only the starting line. Brands and talent agencies spend hours trying to answer the questions that determine whether a deal actually succeeds: Is the audience credibility real or inflated? Are followers active or ghost accounts? How does their engagement rate compare against size-band peers in the same niche?

This tool audits Instagram creator handles without requiring user logins or browser sessions. It extracts creator profile details, calculates engagement metrics, flags potential follower anomalies, and delivers an evidence-backed record ready for campaign decks and audit reviews.

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⬇️ Input

Configure creator handles, proxy settings, and detail depth. All fields carry prefilled defaults so automated tests and manual runs start immediately.

Field	Type	Default	Description
username	string	"nasa"	Single Instagram handle to audit, for example "nasa" or "zendaya". Omit leading @ symbols.
profiles	array	["nasa", "zendaya", "nike"]	Optional list of Instagram handles to audit in a single run. Overrides single handle when provided.
includeRecentPosts	boolean	true	When enabled, parses recent post cards riding along free to compute engagement metrics.
proxyConfiguration	object	{"useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]}	Residential proxy setup with session rotation. Required for Instagram profile routes.
maxItems	integer	100	Maximum number of creator profiles to process per run. Hard cap 1,000.

Example Input JSON

{
  "username": "nasa",
  "includeRecentPosts": true,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  },
  "maxItems": 100
}

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⬆️ Output

The actor writes structured records to the run's default dataset. Each row contains profile attributes, recent post performance arrays, and computed audience analytics.

Output Field Reference

Field	Type	Description
username	string	Target Instagram handle without @ symbol. Stable identifier.
fullName	string	Display name shown on the profile.
followerCount	integer	Total follower count observed on the profile.
followingCount	integer	Total account following count.
mediaCount	integer	Total published post count.
biography	string	Profile bio text.
categoryName	string	Profile category or niche as listed on Instagram.
externalUrl	string	External website URL linked in bio.
isVerified	boolean	True if account holds a verified blue badge.
isBusinessAccount	boolean	True if account is classified as business or creator.
isPrivate	boolean	True if account is private.
profilePicUrl	string	Profile avatar URL.
recentPosts	array	Array of recent post cards (shortcode, likeCount, commentCount, caption, takenAt, isVideo, displayUrl).
engagementRate	number	Computed engagement rate (%) across recent posts relative to follower count.
engagementRateVsPeers	number	Ratio of creator's engagement rate relative to median of size-band peers.
postPerformanceIndex	number	Ratio of top post engagement relative to creator's own average.
ghostFollowerShare	number	Estimated percentage of non-engaging/ghost followers based on size-band benchmarks.
followerGrowth30d	number	30-day follower growth. Null on 1st run; populated when multi-run history exists.
computedMetricsReason	string	Explanation of inputs and windows used for computed fields, or why history fields are null.
scrapedAt	string	ISO timestamp when the record was collected.

Example Output JSON

{
  "username": "nasa",
  "fullName": "NASA",
  "followerCount": 104254823,
  "followingCount": 74,
  "mediaCount": 4102,
  "biography": "Exploring the secrets of the universe.",
  "categoryName": "Science & Tech",
  "externalUrl": "https://www.nasa.gov",
  "isVerified": true,
  "isBusinessAccount": true,
  "isPrivate": false,
  "profilePicUrl": "https://instagram.fcdn.net/...",
  "recentPosts": [
    {
      "shortcode": "C9hX6mRO58u",
      "likeCount": 245100,
      "commentCount": 1820,
      "caption": "A stunning view of the cosmos...",
      "takenAt": "2026-08-04T18:00:00.000Z",
      "isVideo": false,
      "displayUrl": "https://instagram.fcdn.net/..."
    }
  ],
  "engagementRate": 0.237,
  "engagementRateVsPeers": 1.48,
  "postPerformanceIndex": 2.15,
  "ghostFollowerShare": 0.0,
  "followerGrowth30d": null,
  "computedMetricsReason": "Computed from 12 recent posts. followerGrowth30d requires multi-run history (1st run: record starts today).",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-08-05T10:30:00.000Z"
}

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How it works

1. Low-Bandwidth Mobile Route: Requests the Mobile Web profile document using an iPhone Safari User-Agent combined with Accept-Encoding: gzip. This reduces wire data to ~106.8 KB per profile while keeping full profile attributes and recent post cards intact.
2. Automated Session Rotation: Rotates residential proxy sessions on every request (session-<RANDOM>). If Instagram responds with an unparsed shell, the client automatically backs off, rotates the proxy session, and retries until verified fields are extracted.
3. Computed Audience Analytics: Computes engagement rate against size-band peer medians, calculates post performance variance, and estimates ghost follower share based on engagement gaps.
4. Data Integrity: Dataset schema enforces nullability across all fields, avoiding schema validation failures. Charge events fire once per successfully collected profile.

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❓ FAQ

Why does this actor require Residential Proxies?

Instagram's profile endpoints enforce strict IP filtering against datacenter IP ranges. Datacenter requests return HTTP 429 rate limit walls. Residential proxies with rotated sessions provide clean access while keeping bandwidth costs around $0.00085 per profile row.

What happens if followerGrowth30d is null?

Trend metrics requiring historical observation return null alongside an explicit explanation in computedMetricsReason. Asserting a growth trend from a single run would be unverified. On initial runs, the record starts today; historical growth populates as subsequent runs accrue in the dataset store.

How is engagement rate vs peers calculated?

The creator's average engagement rate across recent posts is divided by the median engagement rate of creators in the same follower size band (for example: <10k followers = 3.5% median, 10k-100k = 2.1% median, 100k-1M = 1.6% median, >1M = 1.2% median). A value of 1.50 indicates the creator engages 1.5x higher than their peer size band.

How are paid partnerships and sponsored posts handled?

Captions and post metrics are analyzed to separate organic baseline engagement from paid partnership drops, giving talent managers and agencies clear visibility into actual creator performance.

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💬 Your feedback

Need additional computed analytics, custom export views, or scheduled tracking integration? Reach out to the maintenance team at reapxdev@proton.me or open an issue on the repository.

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Unofficial - not affiliated with Instagram or Meta. Collects data only. reapx. Contact reapxdev@proton.me.