📸 Instagram API Scraper

⚡ Lightning-fast, no-login Instagram scraper. Profiles · Posts · Reels · Comments · Hashtags · Search.

Extract clean, structured data from any public Instagram URL or username — no headless browser, no logged-in cookies, no fragile session jugglery. The actor calls Instagram's own public endpoints with a battle-tested proxy escalator that quietly switches gears the moment Instagram pushes back.

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✨ Why this actor?

🔓 No login required	Scrapes public data only — no sessions, no risky cookie reuse
🪶 Browser-free	Pure async HTTP — 10× cheaper than headless-Chrome scrapers
🛡️ Auto-escalating proxies	Direct → datacenter → residential, all behind the scenes
💾 Live results	Each item is pushed to the dataset the moment it is parsed
🗂️ Per-section tables	Posts, comments, profiles, reels each get their own view
📅 Date filtering	2 months, 30 days, 2026-01-01 — whichever you prefer
🧷 Source attribution	Optional parentData tags each row with where it came from

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🎯 Key Features

• 📷 Posts — recent posts from any profile, hashtag, or single shortcode
• 💬 Comments — public comments under a post or reel
• 🪪 Details — full profile or post metadata
• 🔖 Mentions — every @mention parsed out of a profile's posts
• 🎬 Reels — reel-feed from a profile
• 🔎 Search — user / hashtag / place top-search

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📥 Input

{
  "directUrls": [
    "https://www.instagram.com/humansofny/",
    "humansofny",
    "https://www.instagram.com/p/DPwJzEVDbwC/"
  ],
  "resultsType": "posts",
  "resultsLimit": 30,
  "onlyPostsNewerThan": "1 year",
  "search": "",
  "searchType": "hashtag",
  "searchLimit": 20,
  "addParentData": false,
  "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": false }
}

Field	Type	Description
directUrls	array	Instagram URLs or bare usernames. Required.
resultsType	enum	posts · comments · details · mentions · reels · stories
resultsLimit	integer	Max items per URL (default 30)
onlyPostsNewerThan	string	2026-01-01, 7 days, 2 months, etc. Empty = no filter
search	string	Optional Instagram search query
searchType	enum	user · hashtag · place
searchLimit	integer	1–250
addParentData	boolean	Attach a parentData field for source tracking
proxyConfiguration	object	Defaults to no proxy. Actor auto-falls back to datacenter, then residential, when needed

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📤 Output

Each item is pushed to the run's default dataset immediately on parse and tagged with a section field (posts, comments, reels, profiles, details, mentions, search). Switch between the 📷 Posts overview, 💬 Comments view, 🪪 Profile details, 🎬 Reels view, 🔖 Mentions view, and 🔎 Search results tabs in the Console to see the right columns for each section.

Post example

{
  "id": "3742534382104984578_242598499",
  "type": "Sidecar",
  "shortCode": "DPwJzEVDbwC",
  "caption": "A few years ago I received a DM from @zohrankmamdani…",
  "hashtags": [],
  "mentions": ["zohrankmamdani"],
  "url": "https://www.instagram.com/p/DPwJzEVDbwC/",
  "commentsCount": 3949,
  "firstComment": "Hello friends ❤️ …",
  "latestComments": [ /* up to ~24 comments with full owner objects */ ],
  "dimensionsHeight": 720,
  "dimensionsWidth": 1080,
  "displayUrl": "https://scontent…cdninstagram.com/…",
  "images": [ "…", "…" ],
  "likesCount": 30381,
  "timestamp": "2026-05-06T15:31:34.000Z",
  "childPosts": [ /* carousel children */ ],
  "ownerFullName": "Humans of New York",
  "ownerUsername": "humansofny",
  "ownerId": "242598499",
  "isCommentsDisabled": false,
  "inputUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/humansofny/"
}

Profile, comment, reel, mention and search records have analogous, clean shapes — see the dataset views in Console.

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🛡️ How the proxy escalator works

🌐 direct  ──► 🏢 datacenter  ──► 🏠 residential  (3 retries, sticky)

1. Default: no proxy. Talk directly to Instagram.
2. First block (HTTP 401/403/407/429/451/503 or transport errors) → switch to a datacenter proxy and retry.
3. Second block → switch to a residential proxy and retry up to 3 times.
4. Once on residential, stay there for the rest of the run.

Every escalation is logged with a clear emoji marker so you can see exactly when Instagram pushed back.

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🚀 How to Use (Apify Console)

1. Log in at https://console.apify.com → Actors.
2. Open Instagram API Scraper.
3. Drop in your URLs / usernames, pick a resultsType, set a resultsLimit.
4. (Optional) tighten the window with onlyPostsNewerThan or run a search.
5. Click Start.
6. Watch the live log — posts/comments/profiles stream into the dataset as they are found.
7. Open Output → switch between Posts overview, Comments view, Profile details tabs.
8. Export to JSON / CSV / XLSX.

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🤖 Use via API

Start a run synchronously and receive the dataset items in the response:

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/<ACTOR_ID>/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "directUrls": ["https://www.instagram.com/humansofny/"],
    "resultsType": "posts",
    "resultsLimit": 30
  }'

Or start asynchronously:

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/<ACTOR_ID>/runs?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"directUrls":["humansofny"],"resultsType":"posts","resultsLimit":30}'

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💡 Best Use Cases

• 🧠 Audience research — pull a creator's recent post + comment data into your warehouse
• 📈 Brand monitoring — track mentions of your brand across hashtags
• 🎯 Competitive analysis — diff a competitor's posting cadence and engagement
• 🧬 Trend mining — sweep hashtags weekly and feed posts into an LLM for theme analysis
• 📨 Outreach prep — enrich profile lists with bio + follower counts before email runs

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💰 Pricing

This actor follows Apify's pay-per-event model. You're billed per actor start and per dataset item produced; full breakdown is shown on the actor's pricing page. The actor exits gracefully if your spend limit is reached — runs never crash because of pricing.

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❓ FAQ

Does it need an Instagram login? No. It only reads public data through Instagram's own public endpoints.

Why am I sometimes getting fewer comments than the post's commentsCount? Without a logged-in session, Instagram only returns the most recent ~24 comments per post. The actor returns all of those.

What happens if Instagram blocks me? The actor auto-escalates: direct → datacenter → residential (3 retries). You'll see the escalation in the log; nothing for you to do.

Can I scrape private accounts? No — and you shouldn't. Only publicly accessible profiles, posts, reels, and hashtags are supported.

Can I scrape stories? Only public, currently-visible stories on profiles that expose them publicly. Most stories are private and skipped silently.

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⚖️ Legal / Responsible Use

• Data is collected only from publicly available Instagram URLs.
• The end user is responsible for compliance with GDPR, CCPA, anti-spam rules, and Instagram's terms.
• Don't use scraped personal data to spam, dox, or harass.

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🆘 Support & Feedback

Open an issue on the actor page or send a message in the Apify Console. Bug reports with the run ID get fixed fastest. 💚