Instagram Scraper: Profiles, Posts, Reels & Comments

What does Instagram Scraper do?

Instagram Scraper extracts public Instagram profiles, posts, reels and comments without logging in: followers, following and posts counts, bio, bio links, account type and category for profiles, and caption, hashtags, mentions, date, likes, comments count, video views, image and video links, carousel items, location, tagged users, collaborators and music for every post and reel. Add each post's comments with their author, date, likes and reply count when you need them.

Give it usernames or profile links to get each profile's latest posts, page after page, or paste links to single Instagram posts and reels. Use it from the Apify Console, through the Apify API as an Instagram API alternative, or from any AI agent connected to Apify.

Why use this Instagram scraper?

• No login, no cookies, no account at risk. It reads Instagram the way a logged-out visitor's browser does, so there is no account to get banned and nothing to set up.
• Keeps going when Instagram pushes back. If Instagram rate-limits the connection, requests move to Apify Proxy datacenter IPs, and to residential IPs if those are refused too, without failing the run.
• Profiles, posts, reels and comments in one run. One row per profile, one per post or reel (with a type field), and one per comment, all in the same dataset with views to see each kind.
• Every post, not just the first 12. The scraper follows the profile grid page by page: a test run saved 110 posts from each of 5 profiles.
• Video views and music for reels. videoViewCount, videoDuration, the MP4 link, and the sound (licensed track with artist, or original audio).
• All the comments you ask for. Comments are read page by page, not only the handful shown under a post.
• Follow accounts on a schedule. With Only new posts, each run saves only posts earlier runs have not saved, so a daily schedule gives you a feed of new posts at the price of the new ones only.
• Date limit. Keep only posts newer than a date or a relative value such as "7 days"; reading stops at the first older posts.
• Fast and cheap to run. Plain HTTP requests, no browser: 5 profiles with 550 posts took under 3 minutes in our tests.

Typical uses: influencer research and vetting (followers, engagement per post, collaborators), brand and competitor monitoring, content and hashtag analysis, social listening on comments, collecting reels with their view counts, and building datasets of public posts for research.

What data can you extract from Instagram?

Field	Example
username, fullName, id, url	natgeo · National Geographic · 787132 · profile link
followersCount, followingCount, postsCount	268,346,973 · 195 · 32,086
biography, externalUrl, externalUrls	bio text · every bio link with its title
isVerified, isPrivate, isBusiness, accountType	true · false · true · business, creator or personal
category, profilePicUrl, profilePicUrlHD	Coffee shop · picture links
type, shortcode, url, mediaType, productType	reel · DehZj9wggt0 · post link · video · clips
caption, hashtags, mentions, timestamp	caption text · WolvesUpClose · bertiegregory · 2026-10-15
likesCount, commentsCount, videoViewCount	48,465 · 345 · 280,340
displayUrl, videoUrl, width, height, videoDuration	image link · MP4 link · 1080 · 1920 · 30.0 s
childPosts	each carousel item with its image or video link and tags
location, taggedUsers, coauthors	New York with coordinates · tagged accounts · collaborators
musicInfo	Rock Around The Clock · Bill Haley, or original audio
ownerUsername, ownerId, ownerFullName	natgeo · 787132 · National Geographic
Comments: text, ownerUsername, timestamp, likesCount, repliesCount	comment text · commenter · date · likes · replies

Private and missing profiles, and post links Instagram no longer shows, come back as free rows with a status of private, notFound or restricted, so you can see what happened to every input. Each run also saves a free summary per input in the SUMMARY record of its key-value store.

How to scrape Instagram

1. Open the Input tab and enter one or more usernames (natgeo or @natgeo) or profile links. Or paste post and reel links.
2. Set Posts per profile. This caps what you pay; use 0 for profile rows only.
3. Optionally set Only posts newer than, leave out reels, or turn on comments with a limit per post.
4. Click Start. Rows appear in the Output tab as they are saved.
5. Download the results as CSV, Excel, JSON or HTML, or send them to Google Sheets, Zapier, Make or n8n.
6. To follow accounts, turn on Only new posts and add a schedule to the saved task.

How much does it cost to scrape Instagram?

You pay per row saved:

Event	Price
Profile saved	$0.001 ($1.00 per 1,000)
Post or reel saved	$0.001 ($1.00 per 1,000)
Comment saved	$0.0005 ($0.50 per 1,000)
Private, missing or restricted inputs	Free

1,000 posts cost $1.00. The latest 50 posts of 20 accounts, with their profiles, cost 20 x $0.001 + 1,000 x $0.001 = $1.02. Adding 100 comments to each of those 1,000 posts adds 100,000 x $0.0005 = $50, so set the comment limit to what you need. Apify's free plan includes $5 of monthly credit, enough for about 5,000 posts.

Larger Apify plans pay less automatically: profiles and posts cost $0.80 per 1,000 on Starter, $0.60 on Scale and $0.50 on Business, and comments $0.40, $0.30 and $0.25. Each run also has a start fee of $0.0005. Video views, carousel items, music and locations are included in the post price.

Input

See the Input tab for every option. The latest 100 posts of two accounts from the last 30 days, with 20 comments each:

{
    "profiles": ["natgeo", "https://www.instagram.com/nasa/"],
    "maxPostsPerProfile": 100,
    "newerThan": "30 days",
    "includeComments": true,
    "maxCommentsPerPost": 20
}

Single posts and reels:

{
    "postUrls": ["https://www.instagram.com/p/DelZ5g8l8Pr/", "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DehZj9wggt0/"]
}

• Profiles: usernames, with or without @, or any profile link (instagram.com/natgeo, instagram.com/natgeo/reels/).
• Posts per profile counts the posts saved, newest first. Pinned posts come first, as on the profile grid.
• Only posts newer than takes a date (2026-10-01), a date-time in UTC, or a relative value ("7 days", "12 hours"). Pinned older posts are skipped without ending the scan.
• Only new posts remembers post ids in the key-value store instagram-scraper-monitor in your account, under a key made from your inputs or the Monitor name you give.

Output

You can download the dataset in various formats such as JSON, HTML, CSV or Excel. A profile, a reel and a comment from real runs (media links shortened):

[
    {
        "type": "profile",
        "status": "ok",
        "input": "natgeo",
        "username": "natgeo",
        "url": "https://www.instagram.com/natgeo/",
        "id": "787132",
        "fullName": "National Geographic",
        "biography": "Step into wonder and find your inner explorer with National Geographic 🌎",
        "externalUrl": "http://visitstore.bio/natgeo",
        "externalUrls": [
            { "url": "http://visitstore.bio/natgeo", "title": null },
            {
                "url": "https://ngmdomsubs.nationalgeographic.com/servlet/OrdersGateway?cds_mag_code=NGM&cds_page_id=283562&cds_response_key=I5FX10002",
                "title": "Subscribe Here!"
            }
        ],
        "followersCount": 268346973,
        "followingCount": 195,
        "postsCount": 32086,
        "isVerified": true,
        "isPrivate": false,
        "isBusiness": true,
        "accountType": "business",
        "category": null,
        "profilePicUrl": "https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.82787-19/683576066_18653628823019133_9051036240972105113_n.jpg?...",
        "profilePicUrlHD": "https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.82787-19/683576066_18653628823019133_9051036240972105113_n.jpg?...",
        "hasReels": true,
        "pronouns": [],
        "scrapedAt": "2026-10-18T05:50:42.468Z"
    },
    {
        "type": "reel",
        "status": "ok",
        "input": "natgeo",
        "id": "4008597565992995700",
        "shortcode": "DehZj9wggt0",
        "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DehZj9wggt0/",
        "mediaType": "video",
        "productType": "clips",
        "caption": "Keeping up with a pack of hunting wolves is just another day at the office for @bertiegregory and his team.\n\n#WolvesUpClose with Bertie Gregory premieres Friday, November 6 at 8/7c on National Geographic. Streaming on @DisneyPlus and @hulu.",
        "hashtags": ["WolvesUpClose"],
        "mentions": ["bertiegregory", "disneyplus", "hulu"],
        "timestamp": "2026-10-15T19:00:02.000Z",
        "likesCount": 48465,
        "commentsCount": 345,
        "likesHidden": false,
        "videoViewCount": 280340,
        "videoDuration": 30.037,
        "displayUrl": "https://scontent-iad3-2.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.82787-15/849098148_18708313780019133_730867734770692515_n.jpg?...",
        "width": 1080,
        "height": 1920,
        "videoUrl": "https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/o1/v/t2/f2/m86/AQPmzWFyFbdQEUSTj3bdWcEdgJrx_FjybCJC5cI7WvE3uOZ2rh-VGb63KeYgGbUc5ovqd29n4IW7ZzvvAKPIhr9epNJVMFjcrAsy4GI.mp4?...",
        "hasAudio": true,
        "childPosts": [],
        "accessibilityCaption": "Video by National Geographic on October 15, 2026. May be an image of wolf, screen, poster and text.",
        "captionEdited": false,
        "location": null,
        "ownerUsername": "natgeo",
        "ownerId": "787132",
        "ownerFullName": "National Geographic",
        "ownerIsVerified": true,
        "coauthors": [
            { "id": "1284886006", "username": "bertiegregory", "fullName": "Bertie Gregory", "isVerified": true },
            {
                "id": "1029649300",
                "username": "natgeoanimals",
                "fullName": "National Geographic Animals",
                "isVerified": true
            }
        ],
        "taggedUsers": [
            {
                "id": "1029649300",
                "username": "natgeoanimals",
                "fullName": "National Geographic Animals",
                "isVerified": true
            },
            { "id": "1284886006", "username": "bertiegregory", "fullName": "Bertie Gregory", "isVerified": true }
        ],
        "musicInfo": {
            "title": "Original audio",
            "artist": "natgeo",
            "audioId": "28762088093432459",
            "isOriginalAudio": true,
            "isExplicit": false
        },
        "scrapedAt": "2026-10-18T05:50:43.871Z"
    },
    {
        "type": "comment",
        "id": "17989722186099677",
        "postId": "4008597565992995700",
        "postShortcode": "DehZj9wggt0",
        "postUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DehZj9wggt0/",
        "text": "When keeping pace with a hunting wolf pack counts as office work, the commute has officially become wild. 🐺",
        "ownerUsername": "croatia",
        "ownerId": "667579",
        "ownerIsVerified": true,
        "ownerProfilePicUrl": "https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-19/103543281_462207271290153_4482713887177207850_n.jpg?...",
        "timestamp": "2026-10-17T08:24:35.000Z",
        "likesCount": 0,
        "repliesCount": 0,
        "scrapedAt": "2026-10-18T05:57:13.267Z"
    }
]

Tips for better results

• Only posts, no profile rows: turn off Save profile rows. Only profiles: set Posts per profile to 0.
• Engagement rate: divide likesCount plus commentsCount by the profile's followersCount. Collaboration posts appear on every collaborator's grid; ownerUsername is the account that published the post and input is the profile you asked for.
• Download the media soon: image and video links from Instagram are signed and stop working after a few days.
• Monitoring: save the input as a task with Only new posts on and schedule it daily. A run with nothing new reads only the first page of each profile and saves no posts.
• Proxy: the default connects directly, moves to Apify Proxy datacenter IPs on its own if Instagram rate-limits the connection, and to residential IPs only if the datacenter IPs are refused too. Embed pages, which carry view counts and posts counts, never go through residential IPs in this fallback: if Instagram refuses them directly and on datacenter IPs, posts are saved without view counts for a while (the log says so). The price per row is the same whichever connection is used. Picking a proxy group in the input sends every request through it, embed pages included.

Integrations and API

• API: start runs and download results from any language. The API tab has ready code in Python, JavaScript and cURL.
• Python: from apify_client import ApifyClient, then client.actor("stratumics/instagram-scraper").call(run_input={"profiles": ["natgeo"], "maxPostsPerProfile": 50}).
• JavaScript: import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client', then client.actor('stratumics/instagram-scraper').call({ profiles: ['natgeo'], maxPostsPerProfile: 50 }).
• No-code: Zapier, Make, n8n, Google Sheets and Slack from the Integrations tab, for example to post each new reel of a competitor to a Slack channel.
• AI agents: connect any MCP-capable assistant to Apify's MCP server (mcp.apify.com) and it can call this scraper as a tool to look up profiles and posts.

FAQ

Is it legal to scrape Instagram?

This scraper reads only what Instagram shows to every visitor without logging in, and it never logs in. In Meta v. Bright Data (2024), a US court found that Meta's terms did not bar collecting public data while logged out. Results can still contain personal data: names, usernames, bios and profile pictures of accounts, and commenters' usernames and pictures when you turn comments on. Personal data is protected by the GDPR in the European Union and by other laws around the world, so only collect it when you have a legitimate reason, and consult a lawyer if you are unsure.

Do I need an Instagram account or cookies?

No. There is no login, no session cookie and nothing to configure.

Can it scrape hashtags, search results, stories or followers?

No. Instagram shows hashtag pages, search, stories and follower lists only to logged-in users, and this scraper never logs in. Profiles, posts, reels and comments are all available logged out.

Which reels does it return?

The reels on a profile's grid, mixed with its photo and carousel posts in grid order. Reels an account did not share to its grid are not listed; paste their links to get them.

Why can the view count differ from the app?

videoViewCount is the view count Instagram's embed page shows for a video. The Instagram app may show a different figure (its own views or plays metric), which logged-out pages do not show. It is empty when Instagram refused the embed page during the run.

Why do counts differ slightly from the profile page?

Counts change by the minute on busy accounts. In our checks against Instagram in a logged-out browser, followers, posts, likes and comments matched within that drift, while followingCount ran up to about 4% below the number on the profile page, which Instagram updates on its own schedule.

What happens with private profiles?

They come back as a free row with status set to private and the public header (name, followers, following). Their posts are not visible logged out, so none are saved.

Found a problem or need a field?

Open an issue in the Issues tab with the input you used, and we will look at it.

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