Instagram Scraper

Extract public Instagram profile data in bulk. No API key, no login. Supply a list of usernames or profile URLs and get structured profile records back: bio, follower and following counts, verification status, business category, external website, and up to 12 recent posts per profile with captions and engagement metrics.

HTTP-only, ~128 MB RAM, pay-per-result.

What It Does

For every public Instagram handle in the input, the actor returns one dataset row with:

• Identity: username, user_id, full_name, profile_url, profile_pic_url
• Bio: biography, external website
• Stats: follower_count, following_count, post_count
• Signals: is_verified, is_private, is_business_account, category_name
• Recent posts: up to 12 per profile, each with shortcode, caption, like_count, comment_count, media_type (image, video, carousel), media_url, posted_at, post_url

Private accounts return the profile row without post details. Not-found handles are logged and skipped. If Instagram serves an auth wall, the actor stops and logs an escalation message.

Input

Accepts bare handles, @handle, or full profile URLs. Mix and match freely.

{
  "usernames": [
    "example_handle",
    "@another_example",
    "https://www.instagram.com/third_example/"
  ],
  "maxPostsPerProfile": 12,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}

Input Fields

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
usernames	string[]	Yes	-	Instagram handles or profile URLs to scrape
maxPostsPerProfile	integer	No	12	Recent posts per profile (0 to 12). Set to 0 to skip posts and run faster
proxyConfiguration	object	No	Auto	Apify proxy settings. Datacenter is fine for most runs

Output

One row per input handle, pushed to the default dataset.

{
  "username": "example_handle",
  "user_id": "1234567890",
  "full_name": "Example Company",
  "biography": "Example bio for a public Instagram profile.",
  "website": "https://example.com",
  "follower_count": 125000,
  "following_count": 420,
  "post_count": 1830,
  "is_verified": true,
  "is_private": false,
  "is_business_account": true,
  "category_name": "Retail Company",
  "profile_pic_url": "https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/example.jpg",
  "posts": [
    {
      "shortcode": "CxAmpleAbc",
      "caption": "Example post caption.",
      "like_count": 1200,
      "comment_count": 34,
      "media_type": "image",
      "media_url": "https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/example_media.jpg",
      "posted_at": "2026-07-01T12:00:00Z",
      "post_url": "https://www.instagram.com/p/CxAmpleAbc/"
    }
  ],
  "profile_url": "https://www.instagram.com/example_handle/",
  "scraped_at": "2026-07-18T09:00:00Z"
}

profile_url echoes the input identifier and is safe to use as a merge key when joining back to your CRM or another actor's output.

Pricing

Pay-per-result via Apify Pay-Per-Event billing:

Event	Price	Description
Actor start	$0.001	Charged once per run
Profile scraped	$0.005	Charged per profile row returned

Scraping 1,000 profiles costs about $5. No monthly fees, no minimum spend.

Use with AI Agents (MCP)

Connect this actor to any MCP-compatible AI client: Claude Desktop, Claude.ai, Cursor, VS Code, LangChain, LlamaIndex, or custom agents.

Apify MCP server URL:

https://mcp.apify.com?tools=santamaria-automations/instagram-scraper

Example prompt once connected:

"Use instagram-scraper to fetch the profile and last 12 posts for two example handles. Return a table with username, follower count, verification status, and each post's like count and caption."

Clients that support dynamic tool discovery (Claude.ai, VS Code) receive the full input schema automatically via add-actor.

Tips

• Bare handles run fastest. If you pass full URLs the actor strips them down to the handle for you.
• Set maxPostsPerProfile to 0 when you only need profile stats. Cuts response size and speeds up big runs.
• Every handle is scraped once per run even if it appears multiple times in the input list.
• Datacenter proxy is fine for most cases. Switch to residential only if you see rate limits at higher volumes.

FAQ

What does "public profile" mean? Instagram profiles set to public are visible without logging in. This actor can only scrape public accounts. Private accounts return profile stats but no post details.

What happens if a handle does not exist? The actor logs a warning for that handle and continues. Not-found handles are not written to the dataset.

What if Instagram requires login? If Instagram's authentication wall is encountered the actor stops immediately and logs an escalation. This can happen when Instagram temporarily enforces login for unauthenticated requests.

Are results deduplicated? Each handle is scraped once per run regardless of how many times it appears in the input.

Related Actors

Discovery:

• Google Maps Scraper - collect places and companies in bulk
• Website Email Scraper - pull emails, phones and social handles from company sites

Enrichment:

• LinkedIn Company Scraper - enrich companies with LinkedIn data
• AI Icebreaker Generator - one personalized cold-outreach line per business
• GBP Completeness Audit - score Google Business Profiles for lead prioritization

Issues & Feature Requests

If a field is missing or looks off for a given profile, open an issue on the actor's Issues tab and we will take a look.