Facebook Reels Scraper

Facebook Reels Scraper

Facebook Reels Scraper is a fast, reliable Apify actor that collects public Reels from the Facebook profiles you choose and streams structured metadata to your Apify dataset in real time. It solves the challenge of discovering and extracting clean, reusable Reel details at scale — captions, timing, play counts, owner info, and playback metadata — without manual copy-paste. Built for marketers, developers, data analysts, and researchers, this Facebook Reels data extractor enables automated Facebook Reels scraping and bulk Facebook Reels scraping with proxy support for stability, acting as a production-ready Facebook Reels API scraper alternative.

What data / output can you get?

Below are the top-level fields this actor saves to the dataset for each Reel. Values are derived directly from the page’s embedded JSON and short_form_video_context.

Data field	Description	Example value
startUrl	The profile URL you provided for this run (added to each row).	https://www.facebook.com/LeonardoDiCaprio/
facebookUrl	Resolved base profile/page URL for the Reel owner.	https://www.facebook.com/LeonardoDiCaprio/
inputUrl	Reel page that was fetched and parsed.	https://www.facebook.com/reel/1234567890123456
topLevelUrl	Post-level permalink if available (derived from post_id).	https://facebook.com/1234567890123456/posts/undefined/
topLevelReelUrl	Canonical Reel URL (with trailing slash).	https://www.facebook.com/reel/1234567890123456/
text	Reel caption/description text.	Protect our oceans 🌊
time	Publication timestamp in ISO format (UTC).	2026-03-01T12:34:56.000Z
playCountRounded	Numeric view/play count parsed from reduced notation.	2500000
play_count_reduced	Human-friendly play count (e.g., “2.5M”, “12K”).	2.5M
shareable_url	Shareable Reel URL discovered on the page.	https://www.facebook.com/reel/1234567890123456
video_owner_type	Owner type string from the page context.	FACEBOOK_USER
is_original_audio_on_facebook	Whether the audio is marked as original.	true
track_title	Track title or synthesized “Original audio” label.	Leonardo DiCaprio · Original audio
music_album_art_uri	Album art or owner image used for the track.	https://...jpg
video_owner	Owner object (e.g., id, name, url, verified flags).	{"id":"1000...","name":"MrBeast","url":"https://www.facebook.com/mrbeast"}
playback_video	Playback/video delivery object (id, length, thumbnail, URLs, etc.).	{"id":"123...","permalink_url":"https://www.facebook.com/reel/123.../"}
video	Video object (e.g., id, __typename, duration, thumbnails).	{"id":"123...","__typename":"Video"}
attachments	Attachments array (media metadata for the Reel).	[{"media":{"__typename":"Video","id":"123..."}}]
tracking	Tracking insight object (e.g., top_level_post_id, page_insights).	{"top_level_post_id":"123..."}
is_passive_content	Passive content flag.	false
fb_shorts_reshare_context	Reshare context object.	{"is_reshare":false}
remix_info	Remix status object.	{"is_remixable":false,"status":"DISABLED"}

Notes:

• Additional nested media and delivery details are included inside playback_video, video, attachments, and tracking where available.
• Export your dataset to JSON, CSV, or Excel directly from Apify once the run finishes.

Key features

• ⚡ Fast, streaming saves to Dataset Saves each Reel as soon as it’s parsed — you don’t need to wait for the whole run to finish. Ideal for automated Facebook Reels scraping workflows.

• 🎯 Profile-to-Reels resolution Paste profiles or bare usernames — the actor resolves them into valid Facebook profile URLs and finds associated public Reels.

• 🔢 Per-profile limit & time filter Control scale with resultsLimit (1–10,000) and skip older Reels using onlyPostsNewerThan (absolute date or relative ranges like “7 days”).

• 🧠 Clean, structured metadata Extracts captions, timestamps, owner info, shareable URLs, and playback metadata (including durations and thumbnails) for analytics pipelines.

• 🔒 Proxy-ready for stability Built-in Apify proxy support with residential groups recommended, reducing blocks and improving reliability for the Facebook Reels crawler.

• 🧩 Developer friendly Works seamlessly with the Apify API and webhooks — a great fit if you want a Facebook Reels scraper Python workflow or a Facebook Reels analytics scraper pipeline.

• 🧲 Bulk Facebook Reels scraping Queue multiple profiles at once for large-scale, automated Facebook Reels scraping and trend tracking.

• 🛠️ Production-grade resilience Robust fetching, pagination discovery, and retries under the hood to keep your Facebook Reels scraping tool running smoothly.

How to use Facebook Reels Scraper - step by step

1. Sign up and open the actor
   Create an Apify account, then open the Facebook Reels Scraper actor.

2. Add Profile URLs
   In “Profile URLs”, paste one per line. You can use full links like https://www.facebook.com/LeonardoDiCaprio/ or just usernames (e.g., LeonardoDiCaprio).

3. Set Max Reels per profile
   Use “Max Reels per profile” (resultsLimit) to cap how many Reels to collect per profile (1–10,000).

4. (Optional) Apply a time filter
   In “Only posts newer than”, choose an absolute date or relative window like “7 days”. Leave empty to keep all accessible Reels within your limit.

5. Configure Proxy (recommended)
   Enable Apify Proxy and select RESIDENTIAL for smoother runs and fewer blocks on Facebook.

6. Start the run
   Click Start. The actor discovers Reel IDs and fetches each Reel page. Rows appear in the Dataset as they’re saved.

7. Download results
   Open the run’s Dataset and export to JSON, CSV, or Excel. Use the Apify API to integrate with dashboards or ETL.

Pro Tip: Schedule runs and connect your Dataset to downstream tools to continuously scrape Facebook Reels data and power your analytics.

Use cases

Use case	Description
Social media analytics	Aggregate captions, timestamps, and play counts to benchmark performance across creators and pages.
Trend tracking for marketing	Monitor public Reels to spot content patterns, music usage, and posting cadence over time.
Research & academia	Collect structured public Reel metadata for studies on engagement signals and content evolution.
Content ops & archiving	Create a searchable archive with shareable URLs, owner info, and playback metadata for reuse.
Automated BI pipelines	Feed clean JSON from the Dataset into your warehouse using the Apify API for dashboards.
Developer integrations	Build a Facebook Reels scraper Python job that pulls Dataset items programmatically for further processing.

Why choose Facebook Reels Scraper?

This actor focuses on precision, resilience, and scale — a production-ready Facebook Reels scraping tool that outperforms click-and-record extensions.

• ✅ Accurate, structured output built from Facebook’s embedded JSON
• 🌍 Works with public profiles globally; no login required
• 📈 Scales to thousands of Reels with per-profile limits and streaming saves
• 🧑‍💻 Developer-first: access results via the Apify API for automation
• 🔒 Proxy support (RESIDENTIAL recommended) to reduce rate limits and blocks
• 💸 Cost-efficient: run on-demand and export in formats your team uses
• 🧷 More reliable than browser plugins and fragile automation scripts

In short: a robust Facebook Reels data extractor you can trust for analytics and automation.

Is it legal / ethical to use Facebook Reels Scraper?

Yes — when used responsibly. This actor fetches public Facebook Reels data and does not access private or authenticated content.

Guidelines for compliant use:

• Only collect publicly available Reels and metadata.
• Avoid personal or sensitive information.
• Respect platform rules and applicable laws (e.g., GDPR, CCPA).
• Use residential proxies responsibly to minimize disruption.
• Consult your legal team for edge cases in your jurisdiction.

Input parameters & output format

Example input

{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.facebook.com/LeonardoDiCaprio/",
    "mrbeast"
  ],
  "resultsLimit": 10,
  "onlyPostsNewerThan": "7 days",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}

Parameters

• startUrls (array of strings)
  Description: One URL per line — e.g., facebook.com/YourPage or a /people/... link. Usernames without https:// work too.
  Default: none
  Required: Yes

• resultsLimit (integer)
  Description: Stop after this many Reels from each profile (newest-first order where available). Min 1, max 10000.
  Default: 10
  Required: No

• onlyPostsNewerThan (string)
  Description: Absolute date (YYYY-MM-DD) or relative window like “7 days”, “2 weeks”. Leave blank for no cutoff.
  Default: "" (no cutoff)
  Required: No

• proxyConfiguration (object)
  Description: Route traffic through Apify Proxy (recommended for fewer blocks).
  Default: {"useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]}
  Required: No

Example output

Successful Reel row (fields may vary based on availability in the page data):

{
  "startUrl": "https://www.facebook.com/LeonardoDiCaprio/",
  "facebookUrl": "https://www.facebook.com/LeonardoDiCaprio/",
  "inputUrl": "https://www.facebook.com/reel/1234567890123456",
  "topLevelUrl": "https://facebook.com/1234567890123456/posts/undefined/",
  "topLevelReelUrl": "https://www.facebook.com/reel/1234567890123456/",
  "text": "Protect our oceans 🌊",
  "time": "2026-03-01T12:34:56.000Z",
  "playCountRounded": 2500000,
  "play_count_reduced": "2.5M",
  "shareable_url": "https://www.facebook.com/reel/1234567890123456",
  "video_owner_type": "FACEBOOK_USER",
  "is_original_audio_on_facebook": true,
  "track_title": "Leonardo DiCaprio · Original audio",
  "music_album_art_uri": "https://example-cdn.fbcdn.net/album-art.jpg",
  "video_owner": {
    "id": "100044548384499",
    "name": "Leonardo DiCaprio",
    "url": "https://www.facebook.com/LeonardoDiCaprio/"
  },
  "playback_video": {
    "id": "1234567890123456",
    "permalink_url": "https://www.facebook.com/reel/1234567890123456/",
    "length_in_second": 30
  },
  "video": {
    "id": "1234567890123456",
    "__typename": "Video",
    "playable_duration_in_ms": 30000
  },
  "attachments": [],
  "tracking": {
    "top_level_post_id": "1234567890123456"
  },
  "is_passive_content": false,
  "fb_shorts_reshare_context": {},
  "remix_info": {}
}

Error rows (may appear if a profile fails or a reel request encounters issues):

{
  "startUrl": "https://www.facebook.com/someprofile/",
  "error": "Network error while fetching profile",
  "type": "profile_error"
}

{
  "startUrl": "https://www.facebook.com/someprofile/",
  "inputUrl": "https://www.facebook.com/reel/0000000000000000",
  "request_error": "RequestException"
}

Notes:

• Optional fields such as track_title or soundtrack_info may be empty or null if not present in the page data.
• http_status and parse_error are included when a page returns a non-200 status or if parsing yielded a warning.

FAQ

Do I need to log in to scrape Facebook Reels?

No. The actor targets public Reels and does not require login or cookies. For stability, use Apify Proxy with RESIDENTIAL IPs.

How many Reels can I collect per profile?

You can set resultsLimit from 1 up to 10,000 per profile. The actor streams each saved Reel to the Dataset as it’s processed.

What data does the actor extract from each Reel?

It captures captions, timestamps, owner info, play counts (rounded and reduced), shareable URLs, and playback/video delivery metadata, plus related context objects (e.g., remix_info). Fields depend on what Facebook exposes for each Reel.

Can I use this with Python or via API?

Yes. Access the run’s Dataset through the Apify API to integrate with your Facebook Reels scraper Python scripts or analytics pipelines.

Is there a free trial?

Apify provides trial minutes (e.g., 120) so you can test the actor before committing. Check your Apify plan for current trial availability.

Which proxies should I use?

Residential proxies are recommended for Facebook. In input, configure proxyConfiguration with Apify Proxy RESIDENTIAL group for smoother, automated Facebook Reels scraping.

Does this download Facebook Reels videos?

The actor extracts playback metadata and links (where present) via playback_video and related fields. You can use these to download Facebook Reels videos in your own downstream workflow.

Can I filter by date?

Yes. Use onlyPostsNewerThan with an absolute date (YYYY-MM-DD) or a relative phrase like “7 days” to skip older Reels.

Final thoughts

Facebook Reels Scraper is built to collect clean, structured Reel metadata at scale — fast, stable, and automation-ready. With proxy support, per-profile limits, real-time dataset streaming, and developer-friendly exports, it’s ideal for marketers, analysts, researchers, and engineers who need a reliable Facebook Reels scraping tool. Connect your runs to the Apify API for programmatic access, build a Facebook Reels crawler into your pipeline, and start extracting smarter insights today.