Instagram Scraper — Posts, Reels, Comments & Profiles

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What you get

Five Instagram scrapers in one Actor, no login required. Profile posts, profile reels, single post/reel details, comments, and profile cards — captions, hashtags, mentions, like and comment counts, music, video URLs, carousels, tagged users, bios, follower counts, and external links.

Modes

Set mode, or leave it on auto and the Actor reads each input: a post URL returns post details, a handle returns that handle's posts.

Mode	Input	Returns	One dataset item per
profilePosts	@handle or profile URL	The account's timeline — posts, reels and carousels	post
profileReels	@handle or profile URL	The account's timeline filtered to reels	reel
postDetails	/p/… or /reel/… URL	Full record for one post or reel	post
comments	/p/… or /reel/… URL	Comments on that post	comment
profile	@handle or profile URL	Profile card, optionally with recent posts attached	profile
auto (default)	anything	Routes each input by its shape	varies

You can mix input shapes in one run on auto:

{
  "queries": [
    "@natgeo",
    "https://www.instagram.com/p/Dc_g-YvhWhw/",
    "https://www.instagram.com/nasa/"
  ],
  "mode": "auto",
  "maxResults": 50
}

Input parameters

Parameter	Required	Description
queries	Yes	Post/reel URLs, profile URLs, @handles, or #hashtags.
mode	No	auto (default), profilePosts, profileReels, postDetails, comments, profile.
maxResults	No	Max total dataset items across all queries. Default 10.
maxResultsPerQuery	No	Per-query cap. 0 = no per-query cap. Default 0.
maxCommentsPerPost	No	comments mode. Default 15. Instagram serves only the first page to logged-out clients, so higher values do not return more.
maxPostsPerProfile	No	profile mode. Recent posts attached to each profile record. Default 12, max 60.
searchType	No	Legacy. Only consulted when mode is auto. Prefer mode.

A bare word is treated as a hashtag on auto, as a handle under the profile modes, and as a shortcode under postDetails/comments. So {"queries": ["nasa"], "mode": "profilePosts"} scrapes @nasa.

Output fields — posts and reels

Field	Description
type	image, video, carousel, or reel
shortcode / url	Post shortcode and canonical URL
caption	Full caption text
hashtags	Hashtags parsed from the caption
mentions	@handles parsed from the caption
likeCount	Likes (null when the account hides counts)
commentCount	Comments
viewCount	Plays/views — null on public data, see Limitations
timestamp	ISO 8601 publish time
authorUsername / authorFullName / authorId / authorIsVerified	Author
videoUrl	Direct MP4 URL for videos and reels
imageUrl / thumbnailUrl	Highest-resolution still
music	{title, artist, audioAssetId, isOriginalAudio, isExplicit} for reels
carousel_media	Every slide of a carousel with its own image/video URL
tagged_users	Accounts tagged in the media
coauthors	Collab post co-authors
location	Location name, when tagged
dimensions	{width, height}
productType	Instagram's own type (feed, clips, carousel_container)
isSponsored	Paid-partnership flag
commentsDisabled / likeAndViewCountsDisabled	Creator-side visibility settings
accessibility_caption	Instagram's generated alt text

Output fields — comments

Field	Description
text	Comment body
ownerUsername / ownerFullName / ownerId / ownerIsVerified	Commenter
ownerProfilePicUrl	Commenter avatar
likeCount	Likes on the comment (null = Instagram did not disclose it)
timestamp	ISO 8601
isReply / parentCommentId	Threading
replyCount	Replies (null = Instagram did not disclose it)
postShortcode / postUrl / postOwnerUsername / postCaption	Parent post
totalCommentCount	Total comments on the post
moreCommentsAvailable	true when Instagram holds more back behind a login

Output fields — profiles

Field	Description
username / fullName / id	Identity
biography	Bio text
biographyMentions / biographyHashtags	Parsed from the bio
followerCount / followingCount / postCount	Counts
countsAreApproximate	true when a count came from Instagram's rounded meta tag
isVerified / isPrivate	Status
externalUrl / bio_links	Links in the bio
profilePicUrl / profileUrl	Media and canonical URL
pronouns / hasClips	Extras
category, businessEmail, businessPhoneNumber	Business contact fields — see Limitations
recentPosts	Recent posts, when maxPostsPerProfile > 0

Example output

{
  "type": "reel",
  "shortcode": "Dc_g-YvhWhw",
  "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dc_g-YvhWhw/",
  "caption": "Again and again, this young humpback whale burst from the waters off Baja California…",
  "hashtags": [],
  "mentions": ["mywildlive"],
  "likeCount": 8869,
  "commentCount": 73,
  "viewCount": null,
  "authorUsername": "natgeo",
  "timestamp": "2026-09-07T16:16:24+00:00",
  "videoUrl": "https://instagram.fblr22-1.fna.fbcdn.net/o1/v/t2/f2/…",
  "music": {
    "title": "Original audio",
    "artist": "natgeo",
    "audioAssetId": "28139527835659346",
    "isOriginalAudio": true
  },
  "dimensions": { "width": 1080, "height": 1920 },
  "productType": "clips"
}

Use cases

• Influencer vetting — profile for reach, then profilePosts for real engagement per post rather than a follower count alone.
• Reels/short-form research — profileReels to isolate short-form output, with music to see which audio a creator rides.
• Competitor content tracking — profilePosts on a competitor set to measure cadence, format mix, and hashtag strategy.
• Audience and sentiment analysis — comments across a campaign's posts for verbatim customer language.
• Campaign reporting — postDetails on a list of sponsored post URLs for exact like/comment counts at a point in time.
• Creative asset collection — videoUrl and carousel_media for downloading a creator's public media.
• CRM enrichment — attach follower counts, bio links, and verification to creator records.

Limitations

These are properties of Instagram's public web, not of this Actor. Every one of them is reported honestly in the output rather than silently zero-filled.

• View/play counts are not public. Instagram stopped serving play_count to logged-out clients. viewCount is null, never a fabricated 0.
• Comments are capped at roughly the first page (~15). Instagram gates comment pagination behind a login. moreCommentsAvailable: true tells you when more exist.
• Comment replies are rarely exposed. replyCount is null when Instagram does not disclose it.
• category, businessEmail and businessPhoneNumber require a login. They are returned as null/empty, and categoryAvailable: false marks the difference between "no category" and "not public".
• postCount can be approximate. Instagram leaves the exact field null and only publishes a rounded count ("32K Posts") for large accounts. countsAreApproximate: true flags it.
• Private profiles return no posts. The profile record still comes back with isPrivate: true — the account exists, its posts are not public.
• Hashtag pages require a login. Hashtag queries fall back to public-index discovery and then enrich each hit from Instagram. Check dataQuality; indexed rows may omit engagement and media. When that discovery cannot run at all the query is reported as blocked, never as "no results".
• Stories and the "For You" reels feed require authentication and are not supported.

A run that never reaches Instagram fails with a clear status message. A run that did reach Instagram and found nothing succeeds with a status message saying so — a deleted handle, a private account, or a term with no public posts. An empty dataset is never left unexplained.

Compared to alternatives

• vs. single-purpose Instagram Actors: competitors split posts, reels, comments, transcripts, and profiles across separate Actors with separate billing. This one covers five modes on one schema and one price, so a pipeline that needs profile posts and their comments runs against one integration.
• vs. apify/instagram-scraper ($0.0027/result on FREE, from $0.0015 at high volume): Thirdwatch starts at $0.0012/result and drops to $0.0006.
• vs. apidojo/instagram-scraper (from $0.00047/post): Apidojo's lowest advertised high-volume rate is lower. Thirdwatch's FREE rate is transparent at $0.0012 and covers comments and reels in the same Actor.

Pairs well with TikTok Scraper and YouTube Scraper for cross-platform creator research.

Use cases & recipes

Step-by-step guides on thirdwatch.dev/blog:

• Monitor Brand Instagram Engagement (2026 Guide)
• Research Instagram Hashtag Performance (2026 Guide)
• Scrape Instagram Profiles and Posts at Scale (2026)
• Track Influencer Follower Growth on Instagram (2026)

-end

FAQ

Can I scrape one post by URL? Yes — pass the /p/… or /reel/… URL. On auto it returns post details; set mode: "comments" for its comments instead.

How do I get only a creator's reels? mode: "profileReels" with the handle in queries.

Why is viewCount null? Instagram no longer serves play counts to logged-out clients. Reporting null keeps "not available" distinct from "zero views".

Why did I only get 15 comments on a post with thousands? Instagram serves one page of comments without a login. moreCommentsAvailable: true marks it.

Do I need an Instagram account or API key? No. The Actor works entirely against publicly accessible pages.

Will it scrape Stories? No. Stories require a login.

Last verified: 2026-09

More scrapers at thirdwatch.dev.