Instagram Trending Scraper - Topics, Creators and Categories

This Instagram trending scraper shows what is trending on Instagram right now: the current public trending topics with their rank and post count, the trending creator profiles and the browse categories. Use the results to monitor Instagram trends, plan content or build an archive of daily snapshots. An Instagram account, session cookie or Instagram API key is not required.

The actor reads the list published by Instagram. It does not generate its own trend scores or personalise the results for an account. Each run captures the public snapshot available when the request starts. Instagram can change the topics, rankings and number of records between runs.

What the Instagram trending scraper returns

A successful snapshot contains three record types. trending_topic records carry the topic text, its original rank, a public topic URL, an exact media count when Instagram supplies one, a thumbnail and a featured reel shortcode when available. profile records carry ranked creator usernames, account identifiers, display names, verification flags and profile images. category records carry Instagram's browse-category names and their associated keywords and URLs.

In a measured snapshot on 2 October 2026, the dataset contained 96 records: 72 topics, 12 profiles and 12 categories. These are observed counts for that snapshot, rather than a fixed promise about every future run. Topics appear first, then profiles, then categories. The original ordering is preserved within each group.

How to use the Instagram trending scraper

1. Open the actor and click Start. No input is needed.
2. Wait a few seconds for the run to finish. A full snapshot is one page of Instagram's trending list.
3. Open the Output tab, or export the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML.
4. To track Instagram trends over time, add the actor to a schedule (for example once a day) and keep each dataset.

You can also start the actor through the Apify API or one of the Apify clients and read the dataset items when the run has finished. The input is the same JSON object as in the console, so an empty object {} is a valid request.

Input

No input is required. You can run the actor with an empty configuration or retain an existing configuration using the following fields.

Field	Type	Default	Behaviour
maxKeywords	integer from 1 to 500	50	Legacy option accepted for compatibility. It does not limit this trending snapshot.
expandRelatedTopics	boolean	false	Legacy option accepted for compatibility. It does not expand this trending snapshot.

Both settings retain their existing names and defaults. The original trending flow returned the complete public snapshot even when maxKeywords was smaller than the result count. That behaviour is preserved: a setting of 5 can still produce 96 records and the corresponding result charges. The free-plan limit described below applies separately. For searches based on your own terms or individual profiles, use the related keyword and profile actors.

Output fields

All records include record_type, url, source, fetched_at, platform and _type. The timestamp is UTC in ISO 8601 format. The existing source field remains the public trending-page URL. _type provides the same discriminator as record_type for consumers combining different record types.

Topic fields are topic, keyword_slug, rank, media_count, thumbnail_url, featured_reel_shortcode, trending_creators and trending_reel_count. The additional post_count field mirrors media_count. Missing exact counts remain null; they are never replaced with zero or a rounded estimate. Rankings can restart within different sections of Instagram's list, so rank is not a unique dataset identifier.

trending_creators is a sorted, unique list of usernames appearing on the page. trending_reel_count is the number of distinct inline media records on the whole page. Both values are page-wide and repeat on topic records. They do not measure each topic's own creators or volume. Use media_count for the topic's published volume when it is available.

Profile records retain username, full_name, user_id, is_verified, profile_pic_url and trending_rank. Additional common fields are profile_url, profile_id, handle and name when available. Category records contain category, keyword, keyword_slug, rank, media_count and thumbnail_url.

If Instagram supplies only a usable page description, topic records can contain trending_thumbnails instead of structured thumbnail fields. These values are image alt texts, not image URLs. Optional fields such as biographies, contact links, related topics and media locations are not fetched by this trending actor.

The following excerpt comes from the measured snapshot. Other fields remain available in the dataset:

{
  "record_type": "trending_topic",
  "topic": "first of the month",
  "keyword_slug": "first-of-the-month",
  "rank": 1,
  "media_count": 916759,
  "url": "https://www.instagram.com/popular/first-of-the-month/",
  "trending_reel_count": 71
}

A trending creator from the same snapshot (image URL left out):

{
  "record_type": "profile",
  "username": "jjmccarthy",
  "url": "https://www.instagram.com/jjmccarthy/",
  "full_name": "9",
  "user_id": "17841402376576966",
  "is_verified": true,
  "trending_rank": 1,
  "source": "https://www.instagram.com/popular/"
}

And a browse category (image URL left out):

{
  "record_type": "category",
  "category": "Cute animals",
  "keyword": "cute animals",
  "keyword_slug": "cute-animals",
  "rank": 1,
  "media_count": null,
  "url": "https://www.instagram.com/popular/cute-animals/",
  "source": "https://www.instagram.com/popular/"
}

Other topics in that snapshot included "new month", "october vibes", "inktober", "hoco proposals" and "fall nails": a mix of calendar moments, sports, creators and evergreen lifestyle searches.

Pricing

The result price remains $0.002 per returned dataset record, or $2.00 per 1,000 records. The existing price event is named topic, and it counts every delivered record type: topics, profiles and categories. There is no actor-start event in this actor's price model. A snapshot of 96 delivered records therefore has a result-event charge of $0.192.

Empty or blocked snapshots produce no result-event charges. Results are delivered before they are charged. Free Apify plans receive at most ten records per run, and result charges cover only those delivered records. Paid plans receive the full available snapshot, subject to the run's platform settings.

Use cases

Content planning. Review current topics alongside the public category list and creator profiles. Combine this snapshot with your own audience data before choosing what to publish. A topic's presence on the public page is a signal from Instagram, rather than a prediction of engagement for a particular account.

Trend archives. Schedule snapshots and save the datasets with their timestamps. Comparing successive runs shows which terms enter, remain or leave the list. This actor collects current observations; it does not backfill past dates or reconstruct historical rankings.

Creator discovery. Use profile records as starting points for further research. Account identifiers and public URLs can help join snapshots or connect them to the related profile scraper. The page-wide creator list alone does not establish which creator caused a specific trend.

Instagram trending data compared with other options

Option	What you get	Trade-off
Browsing Instagram's trending page yourself	The same public list	Manual, no history, no export
Weekly trend blog posts	Curated commentary on Instagram trends	Edited picks, published days later, not machine-readable
Hashtag scrapers	Posts under a hashtag you already chose	Answers "what is under #x", not "what is trending now"
This Instagram trending scraper	Ranked topics, creators and categories with post counts, as data	One public snapshot per run; no per-account personalisation

Use this actor to discover what is trending, then use a hashtag, keyword or post scraper to collect the content behind a topic you picked.

Limits

Image URLs may expire. Save images separately if your workflow needs a durable visual archive. Public trending topics reflect Instagram's selected surface and do not represent every popular hashtag, country or account. Source changes and temporary restrictions can produce an empty successful run with a reason in the run's error record. Check the run summary when no dataset rows are returned.

FAQ

Do I need an Instagram login?

No. This actor collects the logged-out public trending surface and does not ask for Instagram credentials.

Does maxKeywords stop the actor after that many topics?

No. The existing trending flow ignores that value when returning its snapshot. The option remains accepted with its original default; the ten-record free-plan cap is enforced separately.

Does expandRelatedTopics add related terms?

No. This option has no effect on the trending flow. Use the keyword scraper for input-driven keyword research.

Can I retrieve last week's trends?

This actor returns the current snapshot. Historical analysis requires snapshots you previously saved. Schedule future runs to build that archive.

Why are some counts null?

Instagram does not provide an exact media count for every entry. A null preserves that distinction and avoids reporting an invented volume.

Why is the same reel count repeated across topics?

The existing field counts media embedded on the entire page. It is not a per-topic count. Topic-specific volume is available in media_count when Instagram supplies it.

Are these Instagram trending hashtags?

They are the topics on Instagram's public trending page. Instagram lists them as search terms ("first of the month", "fall nails") rather than as #hashtags. Many of them are also used as hashtags, so they are a good starting list for hashtag research, but the actor does not read hashtag pages or hashtag post counts.

Can I run it from code or on a schedule?

Yes. Start it with the Apify API or client libraries with an empty input, and read the dataset items afterwards. Schedules in Apify Console run it automatically, for example once a day.

Related actors

• Instagram Keyword Scraper
• Instagram Post Scraper
• Instagram Profile Scraper