📸 Instagram Scraper: Fast Bulk Posts, Reels, Profiles & Google Discovery

The most powerful, affordable, and complete Instagram Scraper on Apify. Scrape public Instagram posts, reels, carousels/sidecars, profiles, hashtags, and location places — with Zero Login and No Cookies Required. Features innovative Dual-Engine Discovery (Direct URLs + Google SERP keyword search) with automated login-wall bypass and residential proxy rotation. Structured output in JSON, CSV, and Excel.

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📌 Table of Contents

• What Is This Actor?
• Why Choose This Instagram Scraper?
• Key Features
• Dual Discovery Engine
• Use Cases
• Input Parameters
• Output Fields & Data Schema
• Example Input & Output
• Pricing & Pay-Per-Event (PPE)
• Performance & Scale
• FAQ
• Changelog
• Legal & Terms of Use

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🔍 What Is This Actor?

Instagram Scraper: Fast Bulk Posts, Reels, Profiles & Google Discovery is a cloud data extraction tool designed for marketers, e-commerce brands, data scientists, and agencies.

Unlike conventional scrapers that require your personal Instagram account or throw frequent checkpoint errors, this actor operates 100% session-free. It handles:

• Profiles: Bio, follower counts, following counts, post counts, verification badges, and high-res avatars.
• Posts & Reels: Captions, exact likes, comments count, direct video URLs, view counts, and timestamps.
• Multi-Image Carousels (Sidecars): Extracts all child slides with full dimensions, image URLs, and accessibility text.
• Hashtags & Locations: Scrapes top posts from tag feeds and geo-locations.
• Automated Google SERP Discovery: Find target profiles by keywords (e.g. fitness coach miami) automatically without manually hunting for usernames!

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🚀 Why Choose This Instagram Scraper?

Feature	This Actor	Other Store Actors	Manual Copy-Paste	Official Instagram API
Price per 1,000 Posts	$2.00 ($0.05 Start)	$5.00 – $15.00	Free (Weeks of work)	Enterprise Tier Only
Pay-Per-Event (PPE)	✅ Pay only for scraped items	❌ Pay for run time/failures	❌	❌ Monthly commitments
No Login / No Account Risk	✅ 100% Session-Free	⚠️ Needs cookies (banned)	✅	❌ Complex OAuth & vetting
Google SERP Discovery	✅ Built-in Auto-Search	❌ Direct URLs only	❌	❌ Not available
Full Carousel/Sidecar Slides	✅ Extracts all child images	⚠️ Usually only 1st slide	❌	⚠️ Restricted
Anti-Login-Wall Bypass	✅ Automated Session Rotation	⚠️ Often halts on login wall	❌ Captcha blocks	❌ Strict rate limits
Data Enrichment	✅ Embeds parent creator stats	❌ Post-only	❌	⚠️ Fragmented
Export Formats	✅ JSON, CSV, Excel, XML	⚠️ Basic JSON	❌ Manual typing	⚠️ Developer-only

The Cost Advantage: Other scrapers bill you for compute minutes while getting stuck on login walls. With our Pay-Per-Event model, you only pay $0.002 per successfully extracted item, backed by intelligent cloud anti-bot mitigation and Apify residential proxies.

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✨ Key Features

• Dual Ingestion Architecture: Provide direct URLs, use Google SERP keyword discovery, or combine both simultaneously.
• Complete Sidecar/Carousel Extraction: Captures all slide items inside multi-photo posts with dimensions and image links.
• Granular Engagement Metrics: Scrapes likesCount, commentsCount, videoViewCount, videoPlayCount, and timestamps.
• Smart Mention & Hashtag Parsing: Automatically extracts @mentions and #hashtags into clean arrays.
• Creator Profile Scraping: Retrieve follower counts, following, bio, external links, and verification status.
• Automated Session Resilience: Detects Instagram login checkpoints and automatically rotates sessions in the background.
• Parent Profile Enrichment: Attach author channel information directly to each post record via addParentData.

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🌐 Dual Discovery Engine

Choose how you want to discover and scrape content:

1. Direct URLs Mode (direct_urls):
   Input exact profile URLs (https://www.instagram.com/username/), post links (/p/CODE/), reels (/reel/CODE/), hashtag pages (#travel), or location tags.
2. Google SERP Discovery Mode (google_serp):
   Enter any search query (e.g. "real estate agent Austin" or "vegan bakery London"). The actor queries Google SERP in real-time, extracts verified Instagram creator profiles matching your niche, and scrapes their data immediately!
3. Combined Mode (both):
   Scrape your defined list of competitors while discovering new creator profiles via keywords in the exact same run.

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🎯 Use Cases

🏢 Influencer Discovery & Talent Sourcing

• Use Google SERP mode to discover local influencers in any city or industry niche.
• Audit historical post engagement, follower ratios, and sponsorship history (paidPartnership).
• Extract contact bios, category badges, and external links for outreach.

📊 Competitive Intelligence & Trend Tracking

• Monitor competitor content strategies, posting cadence, and breakout viral posts.
• Track trending hashtags and identify top-performing audio hooks across your industry.
• Benchmark engagement metrics across multiple competing brands.

🤖 AI, Machine Learning & Computer Vision Datasets

• Scrape thousands of high-resolution images and carousel albums with accessibility captions (alt) for vision models.
• Gather captions and user comment discussions for NLP sentiment analysis and viral hook generation.
• Build training datasets for social media trend prediction algorithms.

🛍️ E-Commerce & UGC Campaign Monitoring

• Aggregate User-Generated Content (UGC) from campaign hashtags.
• Monitor customer product reviews and influencer mentions in real time.
• Identify trending aesthetic styles and creative formats for ad creative inspiration.

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⚙️ Input Parameters

Configure your run via the Apify Console or API:

{
  "mode": "both",
  "directUrls": [
    "https://www.instagram.com/humansofny/",
    "#photography"
  ],
  "keyword": "new york street photographers",
  "resultsType": "posts",
  "resultsLimit": 100,
  "postsPerProfile": 12,
  "addParentData": true,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	direct_urls	Ingestion mode: direct_urls, google_serp, or both.
directUrls	array / text	[]	List of Instagram URLs, handles (@user), hashtags (#tag), or location paths.
keyword	string	""	Search keyword for Google SERP profile discovery (e.g. dental clinic miami).
resultsType	string	posts	Type of data: posts (scrapes feed posts/reels) or details (scrapes profile bios/followers).
resultsLimit	integer	100	Maximum total records to scrape across the run.
postsPerProfile	integer	12	Maximum posts to scrape per creator profile or hashtag.
addParentData	boolean	false	When true, embeds author profile details inside each post item.
proxyConfiguration	object	Residential	Apify proxy configuration (Residential proxy recommended).

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📋 Output Fields & Data Schema

Post & Reel Output Schema

Field Name	Type	Description	Example
id	string	Unique Instagram media ID	"3742534382104984578"
type	string	Content type (Image, Video, or Sidecar)	"Sidecar"
shortCode	string	Unique Instagram post shortcode	"DPwJzEVDbwC"
caption	string	Full post caption text	"A few years ago I received a DM..."
hashtags	array	Extracted hashtags from caption	["newyork", "community"]
mentions	array	Extracted @mentions	["zohrankmamdani"]
url	string	Direct web URL to the post	"https://www.instagram.com/p/DPwJzEVDbwC/"
likesCount	integer	Total likes on the post	257484
commentsCount	integer	Total comments count	3982
timestamp	string	ISO 8601 creation timestamp	"2025-10-13T14:14:46+00:00"
displayUrl	string	High-resolution cover/display image URL	"https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/..."
images	array	All image URLs in the post/carousel	["https://...", "https://..."]
childPosts	array	Detailed list of carousel slide objects	Array of individual slide objects
alt	string	Accessibility description	"Photo by Humans of New York..."
ownerUsername	string	Author username	"humansofny"
ownerFullName	string	Author display name	"Humans of New York"
ownerId	string	Author unique ID	"17841401154973790"
paidPartnership	boolean	Whether the post is sponsored	false
productType	string	Instagram product category	"carousel_container" or "feed"

Child Slide Schema (Inside childPosts for Carousels)

{
  "id": "3742534367894668392",
  "type": "Image",
  "shortCode": "DPwJy3GDYRo",
  "url": "https://www.instagram.com/p/DPwJy3GDYRo/",
  "dimensionsWidth": 1440,
  "dimensionsHeight": 960,
  "displayUrl": "https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/...",
  "alt": "Photo by Humans of New York on October 13, 2025.",
  "ownerUsername": "humansofny"
}

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📦 Example Input & Output

Example Input

{
  "directUrls": ["humansofny"],
  "resultsLimit": 1,
  "resultsType": "posts"
}

Example Output

[
  {
    "id": "3741054891297971261",
    "type": "Image",
    "shortCode": "DPq5ZpJDZw9",
    "caption": "Dear New York closes on October 19th. It’s been the honor and joy of my life to see this take flight...",
    "hashtags": [],
    "mentions": [],
    "url": "https://www.instagram.com/p/DPq5ZpJDZw9/",
    "commentsCount": 970,
    "dimensionsHeight": 1920,
    "dimensionsWidth": 1080,
    "displayUrl": "https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.71878-15/562558918_1458293865288733_n.jpg",
    "images": [
      "https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.71878-15/562558918_1458293865288733_n.jpg"
    ],
    "alt": "Photo by Humans of New York.",
    "likesCount": 107750,
    "timestamp": "2025-10-11T13:27:07+00:00",
    "childPosts": [],
    "ownerFullName": "Humans of New York",
    "ownerUsername": "humansofny",
    "ownerId": "17841401154973790",
    "paidPartnership": false,
    "isCommentsDisabled": false,
    "inputUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/humansofny/",
    "productType": "feed",
    "ppe_charged": true,
    "ppe_event_name": "scraped-result"
  }
]

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💰 Pricing & Pay-Per-Event (PPE)

This actor uses transparent Pay-Per-Event (PPE) pricing to protect your budget:

Fee Component	Price	Description
Actor Start Fee	$0.05	Flat initiation charge per run
Per Scraped Result	$0.002 ($2.00 / 1,000 items)	Charged ONLY for valid items pushed to dataset

PPE Safety Guarantees:

• 🛡️ Pay for Success Only: If a profile is private or not found, you are not charged result fees.
• 🛑 Automatic Spending Limit: Set ACTOR_MAX_TOTAL_CHARGE_USD in your Apify run options. The actor stops scraping immediately when your budget threshold is reached.
• 📉 Unbeatable Economics: Traditional actors charge $10+ per 1k items or bill for idle proxy time. At $2.00 per 1,000 items, this actor is one of the most affordable on the store.

🎁 Try Before You Buy: Click Try for free at the top right to run a test crawl with Apify's free credit tier.

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⚡ Performance & Scale

Task	Target Volume	Estimated Time
Single Profile Quick Scan	12 posts	~10–15 seconds
Medium Creator Audit	50 posts	~45–60 seconds
Bulk Catalog Run	1,000 posts	~10–15 minutes
Mass Discovery Run	10,000+ items	Scheduled multi-batch runs

• Real-Time Data Delivery: Records stream into your Apify Dataset as they are scraped.
• Fail-Safe Processing: One broken URL or private profile will never interrupt the remainder of your batch.
• Residential IP Rotation: Intelligent session refreshing prevents temporary IP rate limits.

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❓ FAQ

Q: Do I need to provide an Instagram username or password?
A: No. The actor is 100% session-free and requires no account logins or cookies.

Q: Does it scrape private Instagram profiles?
A: No. In compliance with data privacy standards, only publicly accessible Instagram content can be scraped.

Q: How does the Google SERP Discovery mode work?
A: When you enter a keyword like "coffee shops Austin", the actor queries Google with Instagram-targeted search operators, extracts relevant public Instagram profile links, and scrapes their data automatically.

Q: Can I scrape multi-image carousels completely?
A: Yes! Unlike basic scrapers that only grab the first photo, this actor unpacks every slide into the images array and childPosts list with individual dimensions and URLs.

Q: How do I export my data to Excel or Google Sheets?
A: In your Apify run console, go to the Storage tab and click Export. You can download your data in Excel, CSV, JSON, or XML format with a single click.

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📜 Changelog

v1.0.0

• ✅ Public posts, reels, and carousel slide extraction
• ✅ Google SERP discovery integration for automated keyword prospecting
• ✅ Full carousel/sidecar slide unpacking with individual dimensions
• ✅ Pay-Per-Event (PPE) integration ($0.05 start + $2.00 per 1,000 items)
• ✅ Automated login-wall detection and residential proxy session rotation
• ✅ Optional parent profile data enrichment (addParentData)

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⚖️ Legal & Terms of Use

This actor extracts only publicly accessible data from Instagram in compliance with fair-use and web search indexing standards.

• Use this tool responsibly for market research, academic analysis, archiving, and competitive benchmarking.
• Respect intellectual property rights before reusing or republishing extracted images or videos.
• Do not use this tool to scrape personal private data or facilitate unauthorized contact.
• The author bears no liability for how users utilize the extracted public data.

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🤝 Support & Feedback

• 🐞 Report a bug? Submit an issue via the Issues tab on Apify.
• 💡 Feature request? Start a discussion on the Apify Actor page.
• ⭐ Finding this helpful? Please leave a 5-star review! It helps us maintain and improve this actor.

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Built with ❤️ for High-Performance Social Media Data Extraction
Fast · Session-Free · Pay-Per-Result · Google SERP Discovery Ready

💰 $0.05 Start · $2.00 per 1,000 Scraped Posts