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📸 Instagram Profile Scraper – Followers, Bio, Posts, Verified

Get real‑time Instagram profile data – username, full name, bio, followers, following, posts, verified badge, business account flag, profile picture, external URL – using Instagram’s internal API.
No login required. Residential proxy ready. Pay per successful result. Perfect for influencer marketing, competitor analysis, lead generation, and social listening.

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💡 What is the Instagram Profile Scraper?

The Instagram Profile Scraper extracts public profile information from any Instagram account using Instagram’s own web_profile_info API endpoint (the same one used by the official website). It returns clean, structured JSON with:

• Username and full name
• Bio (biography text)
• Follower count, following count, post count
• Verified badge and business account flag
• Profile picture URL (high resolution)
• External link (if provided)
• Scraped timestamp

No Instagram login, no password, no cookies required. The actor respects Instagram’s public data policies and uses residential proxies to avoid IP bans. You are charged only for successful profile retrievals – failed or private accounts incur no cost.

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🚀 Key Features

Feature	Description
Real‑time data	Fetches live profile information directly from Instagram’s API.
Bulk profile scraping	Process hundreds of usernames in one run.
No login required	Works without any Instagram account.
Private usernames	For private accounts, the API returns null – the actor logs a warning and charges nothing.
Residential proxy ready	Avoids Instagram rate limits and IP blocks (strongly recommended).
Pay per success	You are charged only when a profile is successfully retrieved. Failed attempts are free.
Spending limit protection	Automatically stops when the user’s daily/monthly spending limit is reached.
Clean JSON output	Ready for CRM, spreadsheets, or dashboards.
Apify native integration	Seamless integration with Apify storage, proxy, and scheduling.

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📥 Input Parameters

The actor accepts a JSON object with the following fields:

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
usernames	array or string	Yes	–	List of Instagram usernames (with or without @). Can be newline‑separated string or JSON array.
proxyConfiguration	object	No	–	Apify proxy configuration. Residential proxies are strongly recommended.

Example Input (Single)

{
  "usernames": "cristiano"
}

Example Input (Bulk)

{
  "usernames": "cristiano\nleomessi\ninstagram",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}

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📤 Output Fields

Each successful profile returns an object with the following fields:

Field	Type	Description
username	string	Instagram username (lowercase).
full_name	string	Display name.
bio	string	Biography text.
followers	integer	Follower count.
following	integer	Following count.
posts	integer	Number of posts (media count).
is_verified	boolean	Verified badge.
is_business	boolean	Business account flag.
profile_pic	string	High‑resolution profile picture URL.
external_url	string	Website link (if provided).
status	string	"success".
scraped_at	string	ISO 8601 timestamp.

Failed profiles (private, blocked, not found) return an error object:

Field	Type	Description
username	string	The requested username.
status	string	"failed".
error_code	integer or string	HTTP status code or "NetworkError".
error_message	string	Explanation of the failure.
scraped_at	string	ISO 8601 timestamp.

Example Output (Success)

[
  {
    "username": "cristiano",
    "full_name": "Cristiano Ronaldo",
    "bio": "Athlete ⚽️ | @cr7 | @cr7museum",
    "followers": 612000000,
    "following": 500,
    "posts": 3800,
    "is_verified": true,
    "is_business": true,
    "profile_pic": "https://instagram.f...jpg",
    "external_url": "https://www.cristianoronaldo.com",
    "status": "success",
    "scraped_at": "2026-04-26T12:00:00Z"
  }
]

Example Output (Failed)

[
  {
    "username": "private_account",
    "status": "failed",
    "error_code": 404,
    "error_message": "Could not retrieve profile data. Account may be private or blocked.",
    "scraped_at": "2026-04-26T12:00:01Z"
  }
]

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💰 Pricing

Metric	Price
Per successful profile	$0.0008
Per 1,000 successful profiles	$0.80

• You are charged only when a profile is successfully retrieved (HTTP 200 with valid user data).
• Failed requests (private, blocked, not found, network errors) are free.
• Minimum charge per run is $0.0008 (one profile).
• Example: 1,000 successful profiles = $0.80.
• Example: 10,000 successful profiles = $8.00.

Spending limit protection: The actor automatically stops when your Apify spending limit is reached.

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🛠 How to Use on Apify

1. Create a task with this actor.
2. Enter usernames in the usernames field (one per line).
3. Enable residential proxies – go to Proxy Configuration → Selected proxies → Residential.
4. Run – the actor scrapes each profile and pushes results to the Dataset.
5. Export – download as JSON, CSV, or Excel from the Dataset tab.

Running via API

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/your-username~instagram-profile-scraper/runs" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -d '{
    "usernames": ["cristiano", "leomessi"],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
      "useApifyProxy": true,
      "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
    }
  }'

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🎯 Use Cases

Industry / Use Case	How It Helps
Influencer Marketing	Evaluate potential partners by follower count, engagement, and verification status.
Competitor Analysis	Track competitors’ follower growth and content volume.
Lead Generation	Enrich CRM with Instagram stats for known accounts.
Social Listening	Monitor brand ambassadors and industry leaders.
Academic Research	Study social media influence and network dynamics.
Investment Due Diligence	Assess the authenticity and reach of a brand’s social presence.

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❓ Frequently Asked Questions

1. Do I need an Instagram account?
No. The actor uses Instagram’s public API endpoint. No login required.

2. Can I scrape private profiles?
No. For private accounts, the actor returns a failed status and does not charge you.

3. Why do I need residential proxies?
Instagram blocks most datacenter IPs after moderate usage. Residential proxies avoid 429 Too Many Requests errors.

4. How accurate is the follower count?
It is the exact count shown by Instagram, updated in real time. No approximations.

5. What is the rate limit?
Instagram’s unofficial API is not documented. We recommend using residential proxies. The actor does not add artificial delays – you can modify the code to add time.sleep() if needed.

6. Am I charged for failed attempts?
No. Only HTTP 200 responses with valid user data incur a charge. Private, blocked, or non‑existent accounts are free.

7. Does it work with Instagram’s new API restrictions?
The actor uses the same endpoint as the Instagram website (/api/v1/users/web_profile_info/), which remains accessible for public profiles.

8. What happens when my spending limit is reached?
The actor detects charge_result.event_charge_limit_reached and stops processing further usernames, preventing overspending.

9. Can I extract followers or following lists?
No, this actor only retrieves counts, not the actual list of followers/following. For that, you need a different actor.

10. How are you bypassing Instagram’s 401/403 errors?
The actor uses curl_cffi with Chrome 124 impersonation, appropriate headers (including x-ig-app-id), and Apify residential proxies to mimic a real browser session.

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📝 Technical Notes

• Endpoint used: https://www.instagram.com/api/v1/users/web_profile_info/?username={username}
• Headers required: x-ig-app-id: 936619743392459, x-requested-with: XMLHttpRequest, referer, user-agent
• Library: curl_cffi (handles TLS fingerprinting to resemble Chrome 124)
• Proxy: Uses Apify’s proxy configuration – you must select residential proxies for reliability.
• Error handling: If the HTTP status is not 200, the actor logs an error item and continues (no charge).
• Charging: Uses Actor.charge(event_name='result-scrape') – works within Apify’s built‑in monetization system.
• Spending limit: The actor checks charge_result.event_charge_limit_reached and exits early to respect user budget.
• Private accounts: Instagram returns an empty data.user field; the actor treats this as a failure.

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🔍 SEO Keywords

Instagram Profile Scraper, Instagram follower count, Instagram bio extractor, Instagram API without login, Instagram profile data, bulk Instagram lookup, Instagram username checker, social media intelligence, influencer analytics, Apify Instagram actor, Instagram public profile scraper, pay per success scraper

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🔗 Related Actors

• Instagram Reels & Video Downloader – Download videos and metadata.

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Start scraping Instagram profiles today – only $0.80 per 1,000 successful profiles. Residential proxy ready.