Instagram Creator & Influencer Marketing Intel

TL;DR for brands, DTC, and influencer-marketing agencies: Pull a creator's public Instagram profile and recent posts and get the influencer-analytics layer that Modash / HypeAuditor ($299+/mo) and Upfluence ($478+/mo) charge for - engagement rate, avg likes/comments, posting cadence, top content, category, and an audience-quality / fake-follower estimate - with no Meta App Review. Optionally cross-reference the same creator on TikTok and YouTube for a multi-platform reach view. The official path (Instagram Graph API) is a 4-6 week App-Review + Business-Verification gauntlet most never clear, and only works on accounts you manage; this needs no application. Logged-out public profiles only, no login, no account creation, PII minimized to the public creator/business identity.

Run it in 30 seconds

# Via the Apify Python SDK
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("seibs.co/instagram-creator-intel").call(run_input={
    "mode": "audience_quality",
    "creators": ["@natgeo", "nasa"],
    "platforms": ["instagram"]
})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

Or via curl:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/seibs.co~instagram-creator-intel/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"mode": "creator_profile", "creators": ["natgeo"], "platforms": ["instagram"]}'

Or click "Try for free" on this page if you prefer the no-code UI.

What you get

Each run produces:

• A clean dataset, filterable in the Apify console and downloadable as CSV or JSON
• An access_notes record up top documenting each surface's access method, anti-bot tier, escalation telemetry, and the legal posture
• A sample-output preview at ./.actor/sample-output.json

What does Creator Intel do?

It looks up each creator's public profile and recent posts, then normalizes everything into one schema: platform, username, canonical_handle (the cross-platform join key), full_name, biography, category, is_verified, account_type, followers, following, posts_count, follower_tier (nano / micro / mid / macro / mega), and a recent_posts stream with per-post like/comment counts. Then it runs the value layer - the part influencer platforms gate behind a subscription:

• Engagement analysis - engagement rate, avg/median likes & comments, like:comment ratio, posting cadence per week, format mix (image/video/carousel), top content, a follower-tier benchmark comparison (above / in-band / below the typical engagement for that follower size), and inferred category.
• Audience quality - a fake-follower / audience-credibility estimate computed from public signals only: engagement rate vs the follower-tier band, like:comment ratio, following ratio, and engagement uniformity, scored into a 0-100 credibility band with explained flags. This is the premium authenticity signal Modash/HypeAuditor sell. It is clearly labeled a heuristic estimate - a prioritization aid for manual vetting, never a definitive verdict.
• Cross-platform + roster - group a creator across Instagram/TikTok/YouTube into a multi-platform reach rollup, and rank a set of creators in a roster-comparison table (best engagement, best credibility, category mix).

Modes

Mode	What it returns
creator_profile (default)	Each creator's public profile + recent posts + the engagement-analysis layer.
audience_quality	creator_profile plus the fake-follower / audience-credibility estimate (the premium signal).
roster_compare	creator_profile for a set of creators plus a cross-creator ranking table for influencer-roster selection.

Platform coverage + access notes

Instagram is the primary surface; TikTok and YouTube are optional cross-reference footprints. Coverage is honestly described per surface:

Platform	Surface	Access	Notes
instagram	Public profile (web_profile_info)	http-first, browser fallback	The logged-out JSON endpoint returns the profile + the ~12 most-recent posts with like/comment counts, gated by an X-IG-App-ID header + a datr cookie a real page load mints. curl_cffi clears the TLS fingerprint; the browser tier loads the public profile page and captures the page's own web_profile_info XHR (no forged token, no login).
tiktok	Public profile (__UNIVERSAL_DATA_FOR_REHYDRATION__)	http-first, browser fallback	The profile page embeds follower / heart / video counts; used as a cross-platform reach reference (per-post engagement is approximated from total likes ÷ video count).
youtube	Public channel (ytInitialData)	http-first, browser fallback	The channel page embeds subscriber + video counts; cross-platform reach reference.

Where a logged-out request is blocked, the account is private, or the shape can't be parsed, the platform fails soft with a documented platform_pending / fetch_error note (the run still finishes SUCCEEDED) rather than fabricating data.

Anti-bot escalation (residential + browser)

Each profile request runs an automatic escalation ladder:

1. httpx over the DATACENTER proxy - cheapest, used first.
2. curl_cffi with real Chrome TLS impersonation over the RESIDENTIAL proxy - defeats JA3/TLS-fingerprint WAFs (Instagram's edge).
3. Playwright (patchright stealth) over RESIDENTIAL - loads the public profile page and captures/replays its own web_profile_info XHR (carrying the live cookies). This is what makes Instagram's token-locked endpoint return data.
4. Fail-soft - documented note, run stays SUCCEEDED.

Set use_browser_fallback=false to use plain httpx only (Instagram then returns a platform_pending note). For the most reliable Instagram clearance, point the browser tier at a warm anti-detect browser via browser_cdp_url (or the BROWSER_CDP_URL env var); otherwise run on the apify/actor-python-playwright image so a headless Chromium is available.

Monitor mode (roster tracking)

Run this actor on an Apify Schedule and it switches to monitor mode: it diffs this run's creators against the last scheduled run and emits a monitor_digest of follower / engagement-rate movement and newly-added creators, optionally posting the digest to a Slack-compatible monitor_webhook_url. Charges one scheduled_delta_run per scheduled run. This is the "track my influencer roster over time" use case.

Responsible use / data scope

Logged-out public profiles only, no account creation, no login, no paid API token, no private/credentialed data. We minimize PII: the identity we keep is the public creator/business profile (handle, display name, bio, public counts, public post engagement) - we never resolve a private individual's contact details. Meta v. Bright Data (2024) held that logged-off scraping of public Meta data is not barred by its terms. Use creator data responsibly, respect each platform's terms and your local regulations, and treat the audience-quality estimate as a vetting aid, not a verdict.

AI / RAG / Agent

The overview dataset view is a narrow, token-efficient slice for LLM tool responses. A paired MCP server (mcp-instagram-creator-intel) exposes these as agent tools (get_creator_profile, analyze_engagement, check_audience_quality, compare_creators, cross_platform_lookup) and is x402 (USDC on Base) + Skyfire ready for token-less agentic payments.

Features

• The Modash / HypeAuditor analytics layer (engagement rate, fake-follower estimate) without Meta App Review
• Engagement rate, avg/median likes & comments, posting cadence, format mix, top content
• Audience-quality / fake-follower heuristic estimate with explained flags (no LLM key required)
• Follower-tier benchmark comparison + category inference
• Multi-platform reach rollups (Instagram + TikTok + YouTube) and roster-comparison ranking
• Roster-tracking monitor mode with Slack webhook
• Anti-bot escalation (curl_cffi + browser XHR capture) with fail-soft notes
• Pay-per-event pricing that undercuts the $299+/mo influencer-platform stack

Use cases

• Influencer vetting - is this creator's engagement real, or are the followers bought? Check before you pay for a campaign.
• Roster selection - rank a shortlist of creators by engagement rate and audience credibility.
• Creator discovery QA - validate a list of handles' follower size, niche, and engagement in bulk.
• Multi-platform reach - one creator's combined Instagram + TikTok + YouTube footprint.
• Roster monitoring - track follower / engagement movement across your influencer roster over time.

Pricing (Pay Per Event)

Event	Price	When
creator_record	$0.006	Per normalized public creator profile
engagement_analysis	$0.010	Per creator's engagement layer (rate, cadence, top content, benchmark)
audience_quality_flag	$0.015	Per fake-follower / credibility estimate
scheduled_delta_run	$0.050	Per scheduled monitor-mode delta digest

A run that returns nothing costs nothing. The free Apify plan covers exploration runs on your $5 platform credit.

Related actors

Part of the Seibs.co intelligence portfolio. Distinct from ad-library-intel (paid ads across Meta/Google/TikTok) and tiktok-shop-creator-intel (TikTok shop/commerce creators) - this is organic influencer-marketing analytics. Pairs well with ad-library-intel (a creator's organic reach + a brand's paid ads) and the MCP twin mcp-instagram-creator-intel.