Instagram Popular Search Scraper — Hashtag & Keyword

The Actor searches Instagram for a hashtag or keyword and returns the popular public media it surfaces, paginated, with the related terms Instagram associates with each search.

It is the discovery entry point that needs no account: where the other Actors in this set start from a username or a post, this one starts from a subject.

Accepted input

Field	Type	Default	Description
keywords	array of strings	—	Required. Hashtags or keywords.
mediaCount	integer	—	Media items requested per page from Instagram.
maxItem	integer	100	Maximum items saved per keyword. 0 removes the limit.
enrichMedia	boolean	false	Fetches the full media object for every item.

{
  "keywords": ["astrophotography", "spacex"],
  "maxItem": 100,
  "enrichMedia": false
}

maxItem applies to each keyword independently rather than as a shared total. Two keywords with maxItem at 100 can therefore return up to 200 media records.

Response fields

One record per media item.

Field	Contents
pk	Instagram media ID
code	Shortcode, the identifier in a post URL
like_count	Likes
comment_count	Comments
taken_at	Publication timestamp
media_type	Image, video, or carousel
enriched	Whether the full media object was fetched
source_keyword	The keyword that surfaced this item

{
  "pk": "3412987456123456789",
  "code": "C9xY2zAqBcD",
  "like_count": 18422,
  "comment_count": 214,
  "taken_at": 1785312000,
  "source_keyword": "astrophotography",
  "enriched": false
}

The search metadata row

Each keyword also produces a single row carrying _type: "search_meta", with source_keyword, related_keywords, and description. Instagram repeats this information on every page, so it is emitted once per keyword rather than duplicated across every media record.

These rows describe the search rather than any post, and are distinguished by the _type field. related_keywords is the useful part — Instagram's own associated terms, which make a single seed keyword expandable into a set worth searching next.

Behaviour on partial results

Media is collected through a cursor and ends when Instagram reports no further pages, returns an empty page, or maxItem is reached.

Enrichment is applied per item and issues one additional request each. Items that fail to enrich are skipped rather than aborting the run.

Frequently asked questions

Is this every post using the hashtag? No. It returns what Instagram's popular-search surface serves, which is a ranked selection rather than a complete tag archive. A hashtag with millions of posts will not return millions of records, and the selection favours engagement.

What are the search_meta rows? One per keyword, carrying related_keywords and description rather than media fields. They are separated out because Instagram repeats them on every page; emitting them once avoids duplicating the same block onto every media record. Filter on _type to keep or drop them.

How are related_keywords useful? They are Instagram's own associations for the term, so they identify the adjacent tags an audience actually uses rather than the ones that seem logical. Feeding them back as a second run is the straightforward way to widen coverage of a subject.

What is the difference between mediaCount and maxItem? mediaCount asks Instagram for a page size; maxItem caps how many records are saved per keyword. maxItem is the one that bounds the run, and it applies per keyword rather than across all of them.

Should the keyword include a #? It is not required. Terms are searched as supplied, and Instagram's popular search covers both hashtags and plain keywords.

What does enrichMedia add, and what does it cost? The complete media object — full caption, carousel children, tagged users, and location where present. One additional request and one billed event per item, so a 500-item run performs 500 extra requests. Searching first and enriching a chosen subset afterwards is usually cheaper.

Related Actors

Actor	Purpose
Instagram Post Scraper	Full detail or comments for the posts found
Instagram User Info Scraper	Profile details for the accounts behind them
Instagram Profile Content Scraper	Everything one account has published
Instagram Location Scraper	Metadata for locations tagged on posts