Instagram Comments Scraper

Export Instagram comments to JSON, CSV or Excel. Give it a post or reel URL, get back every comment with its author handle, likes, reply count and date — no login, no cookies, no Instagram Graph API app review.

Instagram's official API only reaches comments on accounts you own or manage, after Meta app review. This actor reads any public post.

What it does

Reads the comment thread of one public Instagram post or reel and writes one dataset row per comment. It pages until it reaches your maxItems limit or the comments run out.

Works on feed posts (/p/…) and reels (/reel/…).

Input

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
url	string	yes	—	Instagram post or reel URL
maxItems	integer	no	100	Stop after this many comments

{ "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWoej6aDOaE", "maxItems": 300 }

maxItems is your cost ceiling — you are charged per comment delivered.

Output

One row per comment.

{
  "id": "17912345678901234",
  "text": "where is this filmed?",
  "author": { "name": "janedoe", "id": "janedoe", "avatarUrl": "https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/…", "verified": false },
  "likeCount": 42,
  "replyCount": 3,
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-14T00:00:00.000Z",
  "publishedAtConfidence": "exact"
}

Field	Type	Notes
id	string	Platform comment id
text	string	Comment body
author.name	string	@handle
author.id	string	Handle, used as the stable id
author.avatarUrl	string	Profile image URL
author.verified	boolean	Verified badge
likeCount	integer	Likes
replyCount	integer	Replies — may be absent, see below
publishedAt	string	ISO 8601
publishedAtConfidence	string	exact | parsed | unknown

Fields that can be absent

replyCount is not reported by every upstream source. When it is missing it is omitted, not set to 0 — reporting zero would falsely assert a thread has no replies. Same rule for author.verified and author.avatarUrl.

An absent field means "not known", never "not present on Instagram".

What it does not do

• Replies are not expanded. Top-level comments only, with replyCount where available.
• Public posts only. Private accounts return NOT_FOUND. No cookie or session workaround is offered.
• No comment likes breakdown, no reply threads, no comment search.
• One post per run.

Pricing

Charged per comment delivered. A run returning 300 comments bills 300. Failed runs charge nothing.

Errors

Code	Meaning
BAD_REQUEST	Input missing, malformed, or not a URL this actor serves
NOT_FOUND	The target is private, removed, or does not exist
UNSUPPORTED_OPERATION	The URL resolved to a platform this actor does not serve
UPSTREAM_FAILED	Every upstream source failed — retry shortly
RATE_LIMITED	Too many requests; back off and retry
TIMEOUT	The source took longer than the actor's budget
UNAUTHORIZED	The actor's API credentials are invalid — contact the author
INSUFFICIENT_CREDITS	The account behind this actor is out of credits — contact the author
INTERNAL_ERROR	Unexpected failure

UNAUTHORIZED and INSUFFICIENT_CREDITS are on us, not you. If you see either, the actor is misconfigured on our side.

How it works

Two independent upstream sources serve this operation. If the first returns nothing usable, the second is tried automatically inside the same run — no double charge, no retry on your side.

An empty comment thread is a genuine answer, not a failure — a post with comments turned off completes successfully with zero rows.

Comments are always fetched live, never cached.

FAQ

Do I need an Instagram account or cookies? No.

Does this need Meta app review? No — it does not use the Graph API.

Can I scrape a private account? No. Those return NOT_FOUND.

Why is replyCount missing on some rows? The source that served that page does not report it. Absent means unknown, not zero.

Can I get replies? Not from this actor.