📸 Instagram Email Scraper

An Apify Actor that discovers Instagram profiles and extracts email addresses from public profile bios.

Two Discovery Modes

Mode 1: Direct Usernames (✅ Works out of the box)

Provide Instagram usernames directly — no Google search needed:

{
  "usernames": ["natgeo", "nasa", "bbcnews"],
  "maxEmails": 100
}

Scrapes each profile via Instagram's public API and extracts emails from bios + business_email field.

Mode 2: Keyword Discovery via Google (🔄 Requires paid Apify proxy)

Provide keywords to Google-search for Instagram profiles:

{
  "keywords": ["photographer", "founder"],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["GOOGLE_SERP"]
  }
}

Requires an Apify plan with access to the GOOGLE_SERP proxy group (paid). Free-tier Apify proxies are blocked by Google.

How It Works

1. Discovery — Either from direct usernames or via Google SERP (site:instagram.com {keyword})
2. Scraping — Instagram's internal web API (i.instagram.com/api/v1/users/web_profile_info/)
3. Extraction — business_email field first, regex fallback on biography text

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
usernames	string[]	[]	Direct Instagram usernames to scrape
keywords	string[]	[]	Keywords to Google-search for profiles
location	string	""	Optional location filter (keyword mode)
maxEmails	integer	100	Stop after collecting this many unique emails
customDomains	string[]	["@gmail.com"]	Only collect emails matching these domains
engine	string	"cost-effective"	"cost-effective" (httpx) or "legacy" (not implemented)
proxyConfiguration	object	{}	Apify proxy config — see below

Proxy Configuration

Setting	Value	Effect
useApifyProxy: false	—	Direct connection (Instagram 429s, Google blocks)
useApifyProxy: true, "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]	Free tier	Instagram 403s, Google 403s
useApifyProxy: true, "apifyProxyGroups": ["GOOGLE_SERP"]	Paid	✅ Google works, Instagram varies
Custom proxy via env	APIFY_PROXY_PASSWORD	Bypasses Apify proxy entirely

Bottom line: For Instagram scraping, use no proxy or a personal residential proxy. For Google keyword discovery, you need the GOOGLE_SERP proxy group (paid Apify plan) or bring your own.

Output

[
  {
    "email": "contact@company.com",
    "username": "company",
    "full_name": "Company Inc",
    "bio": "Building the future | contact@company.com",
    "bio_link": "https://company.com",
    "followers": 15000,
    "is_verified": true,
    "category": "Business",
    "profile_url": "https://www.instagram.com/company/",
    "keyword": "startup",
    "source": "business_email"
  }
]

Each profile yields one result object. source is "business_email" (from Instagram's API field) or "bio_regex" (extracted from bio text).

Running

# Local
pip install -r requirements.txt
python -m src

# Apify
apify run
apify push

Testing

pytest tests/ -v    # 74 tests, no network required

Rate Limiting

Instagram rate-limits aggressively from datacenter IPs (429). The Actor retries with exponential backoff: 5s → 15s → 30s → 60s → 120s. For production use, configure a residential proxy or use direct usernames with spacing.

Technical Notes

• Uses Instagram's web_profile_info API with x-ig-app-id: 936619743392459
• Mobile Android User-Agent for lower rate-limit footprint
• No login or session required
• Ignores post URLs, reel URLs, and non-profile Instagram paths
• Deduplicates by email address across keywords