👥 Instagram Related Users Scraper

An advanced Instagram scraper for Apify focused on extracting related (similar) users that Instagram suggests for a given account.
This actor is optimized for audience analysis, influencer discovery, and marketing research.

---

📑 Table of Contents

• ✨ Features
• ⚙️ Setup
• 📥 Input Parameters
• 📤 Output Format
• 🔍 Scraping Mode
  • Related Users
• 📝 Example Use Cases

---

✨ Features

This Instagram scraper supports the following operations:

• ✅ Scrape Instagram’s recommended related accounts
• ✅ Optional profile enrichment (fetch detailed profile info)
• ✅ Chain discovery mode — follow related users level by level (BFS-style)
• ✅ Profile cleanup filters — strip heavy fields (posts, saved media, internal flags, bio links)
• ✅ Account filters — verified only, skip private, min/max follower thresholds
• ✅ Graph export — push connection edge records for network visualization
• ✅ Handles pagination automatically
• ✅ Automatic free vs. paid plan limits
• ✅ Transparent billing event tracking

---

⚙️ Setup

1. Clone or add this actor to your Apify account.
2. Provide the input JSON in the run configuration.
3. Run the actor — results are stored in the default dataset.

---

📥 Input Parameters

{
  "type": "similar_users",
  "username": ["nasa"],
  "maxItem": 20
}

Field	Type	Required	Description
username	string[]	✅	Seed Instagram usernames
enrichProfile	boolean	❌	Fetch full profile details for each user (slower, costs more). Default false.
maxItem	number	❌	Max total users to return (0 = unlimited, default 100). With enrich, caps at 100 if left at 0.
type	string	✅	Must be "similar_users".

Filter

Controls which enriched profiles are included and what data to strip. Verified, follower, and privacy filters require enrichProfile.

Field	Type	Default	Description
excludePosts	boolean	true	Remove post & video timeline data from enriched profiles.
excludeSavedMedia	boolean	true	Strip saved media and collections data.
excludeInternalFlags	boolean	true	Strip viewer-relationship flags (e.g. blocked_by_viewer).
excludeBioLinkDetails	boolean	true	Clean tracking URLs from bio links, remove biography_with_entities.
verifiedOnly	boolean	false	Only include verified (blue tick) accounts.
skipPrivate	boolean	false	Exclude private accounts.
minFollowers	number	0	Minimum follower count (requires enrich).
maxFollowers	number	0	Maximum follower count (requires enrich).

Chain Discovery

Field	Type	Default	Description
chainDepth	number	0	Levels deep to follow related users. Max 5.
maxItemPerLevel	number	5	Max related users to follow per user per level. Max 20.
exportGraph	boolean	false	Push { from, to, depth } edge records for graph visualization.

📤 Output Format

All results are pushed into the default Apify dataset. Each record represents a related user account.

🔍 Scraping Mode

Related Users

Fetches Instagram’s recommended similar accounts for the given username.

Input Example

{
  "username": ["example_user"],
  "type": "similar_users",
  "maxItem": 20
}

Input Example — Chain Discovery

{
  "username": ["nasa"],
  "type": "similar_users",
  "chainDepth": 2,
  "maxItemPerLevel": 8,
  "maxItem": 100,
  "enrichProfile": true,
  "excludePosts": true,
  "verifiedOnly": false
}

At chainDepth: 2 with maxItemPerLevel: 8 from a single seed, you could discover up to 8 + (8 × 8) = 72 accounts before hitting maxItem.

Output Example without profile enrichment

{
  "pk": "8012033210",
  "pk_id": "8012033210",
  "id": "8012033210",
  "username": "lalalalisa_m",
  "full_name": "LISA",
  "is_private": false,
  "strong_id__": "8012033210",
  "is_verified": true,
  "profile_pic_id": "3418359067964145524_8012033210",
  "profile_pic_url": "https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-19/452728789_7992596010855640_9098153361134866365_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_s320x320_tt6&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=1&_nc_ohc=avvKDxm7gsoQ7kNvgHmfxYI&_nc_gid=284df81e3691434587f988b487771d63&edm=AIzrcHcBAAAA&ccb=7-5&oh=00_AYAMpAR1j9vJT8oHQVoukbAHNa7EcDeagMxHcn5szG4L7w&oe=67633B33&_nc_sid=e9f0d8",
  "chaining_info": null,
  "sources": "",
  "algorithm": null,
  "profile_chaining_secondary_label": "LISA",
  "social_context": "LISA"
}

Output example with profile enrichment

{
  "ai_agent_owner_username": null,
  "ai_agent_type": null,
  "biography": "Example biography text.",
  "bio_links": [
    {
      "title": "",
      "lynx_url": "https://l.instagram.com/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.yogiadityanath.in%2F&e=AT14BZv86k-eKeJFKsrZili1OI6B2k6pAwMgGABiaEPikFYB_Tyl0yKmWatzeyJHlM_id-v2P9L6yIsWHBPgdot27HEjEj5g",
      "url": "http://www.yogiadityanath.in/",
      "link_type": "external"
    }
  ],
  "fb_profile_biolink": null,
  "biography_with_entities": {
    "raw_text": "Example raw biography text.",
    "entities": []
  },
  "blocked_by_viewer": false,
  "restricted_by_viewer": null,
  "country_block": false,
  "eimu_id": "116903859705511",
  "external_url": "https://example.com",
  "external_url_linkshimmed": "https://l.instagram.com/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.yogiadityanath.in%2F&e=AT3q-kwaRNi9zY-Sr81SXE2CmAlYreUr7vcZnKjz3v-n4pz_1I1IJhq_J4to3Xrm1csvR0tk_Guu_txuf7tNnKc6Wp2SoNnb",
  "edge_followed_by": {
    "count": 14226403
  },
  "fbid": "17841400478827633",
  "followed_by_viewer": false,
  "edge_follow": {
    "count": 12
  },
  "follows_viewer": false,
  "full_name": "",
  "group_metadata": null,
  "has_ar_effects": false,
  "has_clips": true,
  "has_guides": false,
  "has_channel": false,
  "has_blocked_viewer": false,
  "highlight_reel_count": 1,
  "has_onboarded_to_text_post_app": false,
  "has_requested_viewer": false,
  "hide_like_and_view_counts": false,
  "id": "1768527960",
  "is_business_account": false,
  "is_professional_account": false,
  "is_supervision_enabled": false,
  "is_guardian_of_viewer": false,
  "is_supervised_by_viewer": false,
  "is_supervised_user": false,
  "is_embeds_disabled": false,
  "is_joined_recently": false,
  "guardian_id": null,
  "business_address_json": null,
  "business_contact_method": "UNKNOWN",
  "business_email": null,
  "business_phone_number": null,
  "business_category_name": null,
  "overall_category_name": null,
  "category_enum": null,
  "category_name": null,
  "is_private": false,
  "is_verified": true,
  "is_verified_by_mv4b": false,
  "is_regulated_c18": false,
  "edge_mutual_followed_by": {
    "count": 0,
    "edges": []
  },
  "pinned_channels_list_count": 0,
  "profile_pic_url": "https://instagram.fdel1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t51.2885-19/459083352_507542668553989_5131065592077524354_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_s150x150_tt6&efg=eyJ2ZW5jb2RlX3RhZyI6InByb2ZpbGVfcGljLmRqYW5nby40MDAuYzIifQ&_nc_ht=instagram.fdel1-1.fna.fbcdn.net&_nc_cat=1&_nc_oc=Q6cZ2QEEHehIOZcXFgFikCJt1Pa5jl97ZI1GnfdAwUcg8sudKbchVO-nCN9dcqTrBdbC4bs&_nc_ohc=vqgyNhttH6kQ7kNvwF9qZUw&_nc_gid=DvE-QPimykuMe_vVlntbfA&edm=AOQ1c0wBAAAA&ccb=7-5&oh=00_AfUsKjvEJsr4L0RfwYGQoqZaARRZRXl0Ztd-2rfOUkEhDw&oe=68AA28F0&_nc_sid=8b3546",
  "profile_pic_url_hd": "https://instagram.fdel1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t51.2885-19/459083352_507542668553989_5131065592077524354_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_s320x320_tt6&efg=eyJ2ZW5jb2RlX3RhZyI6InByb2ZpbGVfcGljLmRqYW5nby40MDAuYzIifQ&_nc_ht=instagram.fdel1-1.fna.fbcdn.net&_nc_cat=1&_nc_oc=Q6cZ2QEEHehIOZcXFgFikCJt1Pa5jl97ZI1GnfdAwUcg8sudKbchVO-nCN9dcqTrBdbC4bs&_nc_ohc=vqgyNhttH6kQ7kNvwF9qZUw&_nc_gid=DvE-QPimykuMe_vVlntbfA&edm=AOQ1c0wBAAAA&ccb=7-5&oh=00_AfWvlwdAxBo3XLhXfqovtgthqVRe6ROTUezZfsmh3Hs9MA&oe=68AA28F0&_nc_sid=8b3546",
  "requested_by_viewer": false,
  "should_show_category": false,
  "should_show_public_contacts": false,
  "show_account_transparency_details": true,
  "show_text_post_app_badge": null,
  "remove_message_entrypoint": false,
  "transparency_label": null,
  "transparency_product": null,
  "username": "myogi_adityanath",
  "pronouns": []
}```

### Chain Discovery Output

When `chainDepth >= 1`, each result includes chain metadata fields:

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| `depth` | Level at which this user was discovered (1 = direct related user of seed) |
| `discovered_from` | The immediate parent username that led to this user |
| `chain_path` | Full ancestry path from seed to the parent of this user |

```json
{
  "id": "1234567890",
  "username": "spacex",
  "full_name": "SpaceX",
  "is_private": false,
  "is_verified": true,
  "depth": 1,
  "discovered_from": "nasa",
  "chain_path": ["nasa"]
}

Deduplication: each username appears only once, even if multiple parents share the same related user.

Graph Edge Output

When exportGraph: true, the dataset also contains edge records for network visualization:

{
  "_type": "graph_edge",
  "from": "nasa",
  "to": "spacex",
  "depth": 1
}

📝 Example Use Cases

• Discover influencers related to a target account
• Build lookalike audience lists for marketing campaigns
• Analyze competitors’ network of similar creators
• Identify potential collaboration opportunities
• Research engagement overlaps between related accounts