# Instagram Trending Scraper - Trending Topics and Hashtags (`s-r/instagram-trending-scraper`) Actor

Pull Instagram's current trending topics and hashtags with reel counts, thumbnails and the creators behind them. Reads Instagram's public trending surface, so no login or API key is needed.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/s-r/instagram-trending-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [SR](https://apify.com/s-r) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, Marketing
- **Stats:** 1 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$2.00 / 1,000 trending topic returneds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

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

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Instagram Trending Scraper - Trending Topics and Hashtags

Pull what is trending on Instagram right now, with rank, reel counts and the creators driving each topic. No login, no cookies and no API key: the actor reads Instagram's public surface directly.

This is a single-purpose instagram trending scraper. It does one thing, takes a handful of inputs and returns one clean row per trending topic.

### What you get

- `topic` and `trending_rank` - the trending term and its position in Instagram's own ordering
- `trending_reel_count` - how many reels Instagram attaches to the topic
- `trending_creators` - the accounts appearing in the topic's top reels
- `trending_thumbnails` - thumbnail URLs so you can eyeball the visual direction
- `related_topics` - adjacent topics, optionally expanded one level
- `keyword_slug` and `url` - the slug and public URL for each topic

### Why scrape this from Instagram

Trending on Instagram is ephemeral and unarchived. By the time a trend is written up it has usually peaked, and Instagram publishes no historical record, so there is no way to look back at what was trending last Tuesday. The only way to build a time series is to sample it yourself on a schedule.

This actor reads Instagram's public trending surface and returns it as rows. Scheduled daily it becomes the archive Instagram does not keep, which is what makes trend data useful: not knowing what is hot today, but seeing which topics sustain and which spike and vanish.

### Input

| Field | Type | Required | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| `maxKeywords` | integer | no | `50` | Stop after this many trending topics. |
| `expandRelatedTopics` | boolean | no | `False` | Also look up the topics related to each trending topic. |

### Output

One row per trending topic.

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| `topic` | Trending topic or hashtag |
| `trending_rank` | Position in Instagram's trending list |
| `trending_reel_count` | Reels attached to the trending topic |
| `trending_creators` | Creators driving the topic |
| `trending_thumbnails` | Thumbnail URLs for the topic |
| `related_topics` | Broader topics Instagram associates with the keyword |
| `keyword_slug` | URL slug Instagram uses for the keyword |
| `url` | Public Instagram URL for this record |
| `record_type` | Which kind of row this is |

### Use cases

**Social teams running a daily trend check.** Schedule the actor each morning and diff against yesterday. New topics entering the top of the list are the ones worth reacting to inside the same day. Because each row carries `trending_reel_count`, you can tell a genuine surge from a topic that has been sitting at moderate volume for a week.

**Brand monitoring for adjacency.** Watch for your category's vocabulary appearing in the trending set. Catching a trend on the day it enters the list is the difference between participating and arriving late, and the creator list tells you immediately who is already shaping it.

**Building a trend archive nobody else has.** Instagram keeps no history. Running this on a schedule and appending to a dataset produces something genuinely scarce: a longitudinal record of Instagram trending topics. That archive answers questions like whether a seasonal theme is arriving earlier each year.

**Creator scouting.** `trending_creators` surfaces the accounts appearing repeatedly across trending topics. Recurring across multiple unrelated topics is a stronger signal of reach than follower count, and it is not something a follower-count tool will tell you.

### How it compares

There is no Apify-official Instagram trending actor, and the category is close to empty: the largest third-party listing sits under 2,000 lifetime runs. That is a small field, which is exactly why the scheduled-archive use case is open. No competitor here is charging a premium for history because none of them are keeping it.

### Pricing

$0.0020 per trending topic returned, which is $2.00 per 1,000 rows. All pricing is pay-per-event - you only pay for results you receive. No actor-start fee, no per-compute-unit charges.

### Limits and gotchas

- Trending reflects a global public surface. It is not personalised and it is not per-country.
- The list is a snapshot at run time. Two runs an hour apart can legitimately differ.
- No historical backfill exists. Your archive starts the first time you run it.
- Free Apify plans are capped at 10 rows per run. Paid plans have no cap.
- This actor takes no required input, so it runs cleanly on a schedule with an empty configuration.
- Instagram reshapes the trending surface periodically. Failures surface in the run's `errors` record rather than as silent empty output.

### FAQ

**Is there an Instagram trending API?**

No. Instagram publishes no trending endpoint and keeps no public archive of past trends. This actor reads the public trending surface, which is the only published source.

**How often should I run it?**

Daily is the usual cadence. Trending turns over on a scale of days, so hourly runs mostly return the same rows and cost more.

**Can I see what was trending last week?**

Not retroactively. Nobody can, including Instagram's own surface. Schedule the actor and you build that history from the day you start.

**Do I need an Instagram login?**

No. Everything comes from the logged-out public surface.

**What does expand related topics do?**

It looks up the topics adjacent to each trending topic, which widens the picture from the headline terms to the cluster around them. It roughly doubles the request count.

### Related Actors

- [Instagram Keyword Scraper](https://apify.com/s-r/instagram-keyword-scraper)
- [Instagram Post Scraper](https://apify.com/s-r/instagram-post-scraper)
- [Instagram Profile Scraper](https://apify.com/s-r/instagram-profile-scraper)

# Actor input Schema

## `maxKeywords` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many trending topics.

## `expandRelatedTopics` (type: `boolean`):

Also look up the topics related to each trending topic.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "maxKeywords": 50,
  "expandRelatedTopics": false
}
```

# 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 = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("s-r/instagram-trending-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 = {}

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

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

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

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call s-r/instagram-trending-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=s-r/instagram-trending-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/e6StS6GBcb7t52DgB/builds/jVDLERovxbJgrX5Fz/openapi.json