Instagram Reels Scraper & Reel Analytics — Views, Likes, Engagement

Scrape Instagram Reels views, likes, comments and engagement rate from any public profile — no login, no cookies. The view number this Actor returns is the play count Instagram shows in the app, not the lower view_count that many Instagram Reels scrapers return.

Why the view number differs between scrapers

Instagram keeps two different view numbers for the same Reel. Measured on an @instagram Reel on 2026-08-12:

field	value
play_count (what the app displays)	94,757,327
view_count (what many scrapers return)	24,605,096
difference	factor 3.85

If your Reels reporting has ever looked wrong, this is usually why.

What you actually get, stated plainly: the two numbers come from two different Instagram endpoints. This Actor returns playCount (the app number) on every Reel. It returns videoViewCount next to it only when Instagram's feed endpoint carries it — today that endpoint usually omits it, so the field is null. Null means null: never guessed, never quietly filled with the other number.

What you get per post

playCount · videoViewCount · viewCountsDiffer · likes · comments · engagementTotal · engagementRatePctOfPlays · takenAtIso · ageHours · isReel · productType · durationSec · hasAudio · audioTitle · caption · commentsDisabled · shortcode · url · username

Export as JSON, CSV, Excel or via the Apify API.

Built around four things people complain about with other Reels scrapers

• Wrong view numbers → both counts are returned and named, never silently merged.
• No date filter → sinceDate / untilDate, plus ageHours on every record so you see at a glance how fresh the data is.
• Paying for duplicates → posts are deduplicated by shortcode before billing. Filtered-out and duplicate posts are never charged.
• Runaway costs → maxCostUsd stops the run before it would go over your limit.

Typical uses

• Reel analytics for your own account or a client's account (views, engagement rate per Reel)
• Competitor research: which Reels of a creator or brand get the most views right now
• Creator vetting before a collaboration: real play counts instead of the lower view count

Input

{
    "usernames": ["natgeo", "nasa"],
    "maxPostsPerProfile": 12,
    "onlyReels": true,
    "sinceDate": "2026-06-01",
    "maxCostUsd": "1.00"
}

Private or unknown profiles are skipped with an explicit reason in the run's SUMMARY record — never a silent empty result.

Pricing

Pay per event: $1.00 per 1,000 analyzed posts on the free plan, lower on paid Apify plans (down to $0.70 per 1,000), plus a tiny actor-start fee. Filtered-out posts and duplicates are not billed.

Limits, stated up front

• The most recent 12 posts per profile. Deeper history is not available through the public endpoint this Actor uses. If you need a profile's full Reels archive, this is not the right tool.
• Public profiles only. No login, so nothing behind a login is reachable (no comments text, no private accounts).
• shares and saves are not exposed by Instagram publicly and are therefore not returned. No estimate is invented.
• Follower counts are not returned while Instagram's public profile endpoint is broken; engagementRatePctOfPlays does not need them.