Instagram Post Scraper - Posts, Reels & Comments

Instagram Post Scraper gets public Instagram posts and reels by URL, with their comments, with no Instagram account, login or cookies. For every post or reel you get the caption, hashtags, mentions, likes, comments count, reel plays, video length, date, location, tagged accounts, collaborators, sound, and image and video URLs, plus its newest comments (or every comment Instagram shows), as JSON, CSV or Excel. It costs $0.30 per 1,000 posts and $0.20 per 1,000 comments.

What does Instagram Post Scraper do?

Instagram Post Scraper reads what Instagram shows a visitor who opens a post or reel without logging in. You can:

• 📸 Scrape Instagram posts and reels by URL: /p/, /reel/ and /tv/ links or bare short codes, as many as you like.
• 📈 Get engagement data: likes, comments count and reel plays of every post.
• 💬 Collect comments: the newest comments of each post, or every comment Instagram shows (no upper limit), each with its text, date, likes, reply count and commenter.
• 🎵 See the context: tagged location, tagged accounts, collaborators, paid partnership flag, brand partners and the sound of a reel.
• 🖼️ Download the media: image and video URLs, every carousel slide with its own media, sizes and Instagram's image descriptions.
• 💸 Pay only for results: posts that are deleted, private or age-restricted cost nothing.

Everything the Apify platform gives you comes with it: the Apify API, scheduled runs, webhooks, integrations with Make, Zapier, n8n and Google Sheets, and datasets you can download in any format.

What data can you extract from Instagram posts?

Post fields

Field	Description
inputUrl	The URL or short code as given in the input.
id	Numeric media id.
type	Image, Video (reels included) or Sidecar (a carousel).
productType	feed, clips (a reel), carousel_container or igtv.
shortCode	The code in the post URL.
url	Post URL.
caption	Caption text.
hashtags	Hashtags in the caption, without #.
mentions	Accounts mentioned in the caption, without @.
likesCount	Likes.
commentsCount	Comments.
videoPlayCount	Plays/views of a reel or video (see Limits).
videoDuration	Video length in seconds.
timestamp	When it was posted, ISO 8601 in UTC.
displayUrl	Main image (a video's cover, a carousel's first slide).
images	Image URLs of every carousel slide.
videoUrl	Video file URL.
dimensionsHeight, dimensionsWidth	Size in pixels.
alt	Instagram's automatic image description.
childPosts	The slides of a carousel, each with its own image or video URL, size and tags.
ownerId, ownerUsername, ownerFullName	The account that posted it.
taggedUsers	Accounts tagged in the post.
coauthorProducers	Collaborators shown as co-authors.
isPaidPartnership	true for a paid partnership.
isCommentsDisabled	true when comments are turned off.
locationName, locationId	The tagged location.
sponsors	Brand partners of a paid partnership.
musicInfo	The sound of a reel: artist, song, whether it is original audio, sound id.
latestComments	The newest comments, newest first (every comment Instagram shows, if you ask for it).
scrapedAt	When the post was read, ISO 8601.

Comment fields (in latestComments)

Field	Description
id	Numeric comment id.
text	Comment text.
timestamp	When it was posted, ISO 8601 in UTC.
likesCount	Likes on the comment.
repliesCount	Replies to the comment.
ownerId, ownerUsername	The commenter.
ownerIsVerified	true when the commenter shows the verified badge.
ownerProfilePicUrl	The commenter's profile picture.

Every field is always present. A field is null (or an empty list) when the post leaves it empty or Instagram does not show it. The Comments view of the dataset shows one row per comment.

How to scrape Instagram posts and comments

1. Open Instagram Post Scraper and click Try for free.
2. Add post or reel URLs to Post or reel URLs, one per line. Share links from the app (instagram.com/share/…) work too.
3. Keep Include comments on and set Max comments per post (0 for every comment Instagram shows), or turn comments off.
4. Click Start. Posts appear in the dataset as they are read.
5. Download the results as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, or read them with the Apify API.

How much does it cost to scrape Instagram posts?

You pay per post saved, $0.30 per 1,000 posts, plus $0.20 per 1,000 comments included in latestComments. Platform usage and proxies are included. On Apify's Silver plan prices are 10% lower, and on Gold 20% lower.

• 1,000 posts with their 20 newest comments (the default) → $0.30 + $4.00 = $4.30
• 1,000 posts without comments → $0.30
• 10 posts with every comment (say 2,000 each) → $0.003 + $4.00 = about $4.00

Posts that are deleted, private or age-restricted are free. To cap the cost of a run, set Maximum cost per run in the run options: the scraper saves posts until the next one would go over it, then stops cleanly, trimming the last post's comments to what the budget covers. Apify's free plan includes monthly platform credit, enough to try the scraper on thousands of posts.

Input example

{
  "postUrls": ["https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dfc1mYxFevS/", "https://www.instagram.com/p/DejHmrpjj-E/", "DfahZrMjAqq"],
  "includeComments": true,
  "maxComments": 20
}

Field	Type	Description
postUrls	array of strings	Post, reel or video URLs (https://www.instagram.com/p/..., /reel/..., /tv/..., with or without the username before them, any ?igsh=… parameters) or bare short codes. A link inside other text is read as that link; an entry with no post in it is skipped with a warning. Duplicates are read once.
includeComments	boolean	Add each post's newest comments. Default: true.
maxComments	integer	Comments per post. No upper limit; 0 for every comment Instagram shows. Default: 20.
proxyConfiguration	object	The scraper picks Apify Proxy's tier itself: datacenter first, residential only when Instagram refuses a request. Your own proxy URLs are used as given.

Output example

One dataset item per post, with its comments in latestComments (image and video URLs abbreviated, one comment shown, commenter details shortened):

{
  "inputUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dfc1mYxFevS/",
  "id": "4025327901360909266",
  "type": "Video",
  "productType": "clips",
  "shortCode": "Dfc1mYxFevS",
  "url": "https://www.instagram.com/p/Dfc1mYxFevS/",
  "caption": "Apply to become an astronaut! ... #NASA #Astronaut #JobSearch",
  "hashtags": ["NASA", "Astronaut", "JobSearch"],
  "mentions": [],
  "likesCount": 43919,
  "commentsCount": 550,
  "videoPlayCount": 1695374,
  "videoDuration": 63.467,
  "timestamp": "2026-11-07T18:35:41.000Z",
  "displayUrl": "https://instagram.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t51.82787-15/892262107_...n.jpg",
  "images": [],
  "videoUrl": "https://instagram.fna.fbcdn.net/o1/v/t2/f2/m86/AQOaFZ...mp4",
  "dimensionsHeight": 1920,
  "dimensionsWidth": 1080,
  "alt": "Video by NASA on November 07, 2026. May be an image of poster and text.",
  "childPosts": [],
  "ownerId": "528817151",
  "ownerUsername": "nasa",
  "ownerFullName": "NASA",
  "taggedUsers": [],
  "coauthorProducers": [],
  "isPaidPartnership": false,
  "isCommentsDisabled": false,
  "locationName": null,
  "locationId": null,
  "sponsors": [],
  "musicInfo": {
    "artistName": "nasa",
    "songName": "Original audio",
    "usesOriginalAudio": true,
    "audioId": "29528949596741274"
  },
  "latestComments": [
    {
      "id": "17900000000000001",
      "text": "Count me in! 🚀",
      "timestamp": "2026-11-08T01:54:33.000Z",
      "likesCount": 0,
      "repliesCount": 0,
      "ownerId": "...",
      "ownerUsername": "...",
      "ownerIsVerified": false,
      "ownerProfilePicUrl": "https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/v/..."
    }
  ],
  "scrapedAt": "2026-11-08T02:26:12.481Z"
}

Use cases

• Campaign tracking: measure likes, comments and reel plays of sponsored posts and collaborations.
• Social listening: collect what people say in the comments of a brand's or competitor's posts.
• Content research: analyze captions, hashtags, sounds and formats of posts that perform well.
• Media archiving: save image and video URLs, slide by slide.
• Academic and market research: build datasets of public posts and comments.

Use it via API, Python, JavaScript and integrations

Run Instagram Post Scraper from your own code with the Apify API or the Apify clients:

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("socialscrapers/instagram-post-scraper").call(
    run_input={"postUrls": ["https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dfc1mYxFevS/"], "maxComments": 100}
)
for post in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(post["url"], post["likesCount"], len(post["latestComments"]))

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>' });
const run = await client.actor('socialscrapers/instagram-post-scraper').call({ postUrls: ['DfahZrMjAqq'], maxComments: 100 });
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();

You can also schedule runs, get a webhook when a run finishes, send results to Google Sheets, Slack or a database with Apify integrations, connect it to Make, Zapier or n8n, or let AI agents run it through the Apify MCP server.

Limits

• Public posts only. Instagram Post Scraper never logs in, so it sees what a logged-out visitor sees. Deleted, private and age-restricted posts are skipped and cost nothing.
• Reel plays are shown for each account's recent posts (about its latest 60). For older reels and videos, videoPlayCount is null.
• Comments: no upper limit. Instagram shows logged-out visitors most top-level comments (replies are counted in repliesCount but not listed). A post's comments travel inside its one dataset item, which Apify caps at about 9 MB: about 25,000 comments.
• Shown to logged-in users only, so not included: stories, the list of accounts that liked a post, and comment replies. For hashtag feeds, see Instagram Hashtag Scraper.
• Profile details and a profile's latest posts are covered by Instagram Profile Scraper.
• Share links from the app (https://www.instagram.com/share/…, /share/reel/…, /share/p/…) are followed to the post or reel they open; following a link is never charged.
• A run with 0 results still succeeds when your input was fine. When every post is deleted, private or age-restricted, or a share link leads nowhere, the run ends as Succeeded with a status message naming each entry and why, and nothing is charged. A run fails only when no entry holds a post link, short code or share link at all, or when Instagram refuses every one of 3 or more inputs.

FAQ

Is it legal to scrape Instagram posts and comments? Instagram Post Scraper collects only public data that anyone can see without logging in. You are responsible for how you use it: personal data is protected by laws such as the GDPR, so have a legitimate reason to collect it and follow Instagram's terms and the laws that apply to you.

Do I need an Instagram account or cookies? No. You only need the URLs of public posts or reels. The scraper never logs in, so no account of yours is ever at risk.

How many comments can I get per post? As many as Instagram shows a logged-out visitor: set Max comments per post to 0. A busy reel with 2,800 comments (replies included) gave 1,741 top-level comments in our tests.

Why did I get fewer comments than commentsCount? commentsCount includes replies and comments Instagram hides from logged-out visitors; the scraper lists top-level comments. The run may also have reached its maximum cost.

Which inputs are accepted? Post URLs (/p/...), reel URLs (/reel/... or /reels/...), video URLs (/tv/...), the same with the username before them, share links from the app (/share/..., /share/reel/..., /share/p/...), and bare short codes such as DfahZrMjAqq.

What happens with deleted or private posts? They are skipped, logged and not charged. The SUMMARY record in the run's key-value store lists them under notFound. A run in which every post was deleted or private still ends as Succeeded, with a status message that names each one.

Can I get one row per comment? Yes: open the Comments view of the dataset, or export with the dataset's unwind=latestComments option.

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