Instagram Highlight Scraper by ID

Scrape every story inside specific Instagram highlights by ID or URL. Get direct image and video URLs, timestamps, cover images, link stickers and mentions for just the highlights you need, without re-scraping the whole profile. No Instagram account or login required.

What it does

Paste highlight IDs or highlight URLs and the actor fetches every story in each highlight. Each highlight comes back as one record with its title, owner, cover image and full media list. The output is identical to the Instagram Highlights Scraper, so both actors plug into the same pipeline.

Use cases

• Refresh a single highlight - re-check one or two highlights instead of paying to re-scrape every highlight on a profile
• Instagram highlight downloader - save the videos and photos from a highlight link someone shared with you
• Monitor key highlights - track a brand's "Shop", "Reviews" or "Events" highlight for new stories on a schedule
• Content archiving - back up specific highlight media before it gets edited or removed
• Data pipelines - feed known highlight IDs from your own database straight into a scheduled run

Input

Field	Type	Required	Description
highlightIds	string[]	✅	Up to 200 highlight IDs or highlight URLs per run

Accepted formats:

• 17952910013961201
• https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17952910013961201/
• highlight:17952910013961201

You can find highlight IDs in the highlightId field of the Instagram Highlights Scraper output, or in the URL when you open a highlight on instagram.com.

Example input

{
  "highlightIds": [
    "17952910013961201",
    "https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/18036562457442549/"
  ]
}

Free tier vs. paid

Free runs are capped at 20 highlights per run to help cover data costs. Upgrade to any paid plan on the actor's pricing page to remove the cap.

Output

One dataset record per highlight reel. Each record contains the highlight metadata and a stories array with every media item inside it:

{
  "username": "natgeo",
  "highlightId": "17854360229135492",
  "title": "Expeditions",
  "coverUrl": "https://cdninstagram.com/...",
  "mediaCount": 12,
  "stories": [
    {
      "id": "3863446781711360305",
      "mediaType": "image",
      "imageUrl": "https://cdninstagram.com/...",
      "timestamp": 1774778766,
      "links": ["https://example.com/promo"],
      "mentions": ["someuser"]
    },
    {
      "id": "3863626320286590396",
      "mediaType": "video",
      "imageUrl": "https://cdninstagram.com/...thumb.jpg",
      "videoUrl": "https://cdninstagram.com/....mp4",
      "timestamp": 1774800158
    }
  ]
}

Highlight fields

Field	Type	Description
username	string	Instagram username
highlightId	string	Instagram highlight reel ID
title	string	Title of the highlight reel
coverUrl	string	Direct URL to the highlight cover image
mediaCount	number	Number of stories returned for the highlight
stories	object[]	All media items in this highlight (see below)

Story item fields

Field	Type	Description
id	string	Instagram media ID
mediaType	"image" | "video"	Media type
imageUrl	string	Direct URL to the thumbnail or full image
videoUrl	string	Direct URL to the video file (video only)
timestamp	number	Unix timestamp (seconds) when the item was posted
links	string[]	URLs from link stickers (omitted if none)
mentions	string[]	Usernames tagged in the item (omitted if none)

Notes

• Only highlights on public profiles are supported
• Highlight IDs that don't exist (deleted, private or mistyped) are skipped and not charged
• Instagram hides some stories from some viewers (for example, stories with music that isn't licensed in every region). The actor re-checks highlights with licensed music to recover them, and mediaCount is always the number of stories actually returned
• Maximum 200 highlights per run

Related Instagram actors

Part of a complete Instagram scraping toolkit - explore the rest of the suite:

• Instagram Profile Scraper - Profile metadata for any public account
• Instagram Posts & Reels Scraper - All posts and Reels from a profile
• Instagram Post Details Scraper - Full details for any post or Reel by URL
• Instagram Comments Scraper - All comments on a post or Reel
• Instagram Post Likers Scraper - Users who liked a post or Reel
• Instagram Followers Scraper - Followers and following lists
• Instagram Hashtag Scraper - Top posts and Reels for any hashtag
• Instagram Location Posts Scraper - Posts tagged at any location
• Instagram Tagged Posts Scraper - Posts a profile is tagged in
• Instagram Reels Search Scraper - Find Reels by keyword
• Instagram User Search Scraper - Discover accounts by keyword
• Instagram Related Profiles Scraper - Find similar/suggested profiles
• Instagram Highlights Scraper - All highlights and their stories for any profile
• Instagram Story Scraper - Active stories for any profile
• Instagram Email & Phone Scraper - Emails and phone numbers from profiles
• Instagram Influencer Analytics Scraper - Engagement rate and creator analytics
• Instagram MCP Server - All Instagram tools for AI agents via MCP