🌐 Instagram & Threads Search Scraper — Public Posts by Keyword & Hashtag

Search public Instagram and Threads posts by keyword or hashtag, and get back clean, deduplicated rows — authors, captions, engagement, images, and direct links. Type a query, hit start. No login, no browser.

Most people arrive with the same handful of questions, so this page is written as answers. Skim to the one you need.

{
  "mode": "META_SEARCH",
  "queries": ["marketing", "ai startup"],
  "maxResults": 100,
  "maxResultsPerQuery": 10
}

queries:  "marketing"  ·  "#travel"  ·  "ai startup"
                     │
                     ▼   mode picks the platforms:
                     │      • META_SEARCH       → 🟪 Instagram + 🧵 Threads (both)
                     │      • INSTAGRAM_SEARCH  → 🟪 Instagram only
                     │      • THREADS_SEARCH    → 🧵 Threads only
                     ▼
        🔎 search public indexed posts  —  per query, per platform
                     │
                     ▼
        🧹 dedupe URLs  —  every matching query kept in searchQueries
                     │
                     ▼
        🗂️ enrich each hit from its public page  (author · likes · image)
                     │
                     ▼
   ✅ flat rows ▸ Results / Query results        ⚠️ blocked / empty ▸ Issues
        (paid rows capped by maxResults)

---

❓ What does this actually do?

You give it search queries — keywords or hashtags. For each query it searches public indexed posts on Instagram and Threads, removes duplicate URLs, enriches each hit from its public page, and writes flat rows you can drop straight into a spreadsheet. Think social listening, not account exports.

❓ Is this a profile scraper?

No — it's a search scraper. The whole point is discovery by topic: "who is publicly posting about X right now," across two platforms at once. You don't need to know the accounts in advance; you describe the subject and it finds the posts. (There are legacy profile modes still bundled in — see the question near the bottom — but the search modes are the main event.)

❓ What can I search for?

Anything you'd type into a search box: a brand, a product, a campaign name, a topic, or a hashtag like #travel. Add one query per row. A good starting set:

{ "queries": ["marketing", "#travel", "ai startup"] }

❓ What's the difference between the three search modes?

mode	What it searches
META_SEARCH (default)	Public Instagram posts and Threads posts for every query, in one run
INSTAGRAM_SEARCH	Instagram only — queries run as public hashtag / post search
THREADS_SEARCH	Threads only — queries search public indexed Threads posts

Instagram queries are searched as public hashtag/post content; Threads queries search public indexed Threads posts. META_SEARCH simply does both and merges the results.

❓ What do I get back for each post?

A compact row in the main Results dataset:

{
  "recordType": "search_result",
  "platform": "instagram",
  "resultTitle": "Instagram | janedoe",
  "resultText": "Behind the scenes of our new marketing campaign...",
  "resultMetrics": "1,240 likes | 58 comments | query: marketing",
  "resultImageUrl": "https://instagram.f...cdn.net/....jpg",
  "resultUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/p/CxAbc123/",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-08-07T18:30:02+00:00"
}

Need every field? The Query results dataset carries the full structured record for the same post:

Field	Meaning
platform	instagram or threads
searchQuery · searchQueries	The query that found it, plus every query it matched
searchEngine · searchRank	Discovery source and rank within that query
contentType	post · reel · video · thread
title · text	Public page title and caption / text
authorName · authorUsername	Parsed author display name and handle
likeCount · commentCount	Engagement where the public page exposes it
publishedAt	Publish date where available
hashtags · mentions	Extracted from the caption
imageUrl	Preview image
url · sourceUrl	Canonical post URL and the URL it was found at
detailStatus	page_metadata (enriched) or search_result_only (link-level)
scrapedAt	When the row was collected

❓ Do I need an Instagram or Threads login?

No — no account, no browser, no cookies. It's fully request-only and reads only public posts.

❓ Why do some rows have no likes or comments?

Engagement is saved only when the post's public page exposes it (most reliable on Instagram). Rows without it still include the author, caption, image, and direct link. The detailStatus field tells you whether that page was enriched (page_metadata) or kept at link level (search_result_only).

❓ Are duplicate posts removed?

Yes. When several queries surface the same post URL, it's merged into a single row — and every query that matched it is kept in searchQueries, so you don't lose the attribution.

❓ How do I control how many results (and the cost)?

Two dials:

• maxResultsPerQuery (default 10, max 50) caps how many public posts are collected per query, per platform, before duplicate URLs are removed.
• maxResults (default 100) caps the total paid rows written to the main Results dataset for the run.

So maxResultsPerQuery controls breadth; maxResults is your run-cost ceiling.

❓ What are those "legacy" profile modes I see in the dropdown?

PROFILE_COMPARISON, INSTAGRAM_POSTS, THREADS_POSTS, and ALL_CONTENT are older profile-based modes kept for existing API integrations (they use maxPostsPerProfile, and enableDeltaMonitoring / monitorKey for change tracking). For the normal keyword/hashtag workflow, stay on one of the three search modes above.

❓ Which proxy should I use?

Direct requests are used by default (proxyConfiguration → useApifyProxy: false). Leave it unless you have a specific reason to route through Apify Proxy.

❓ How do I keep my exports clean?

Leave rawOutput off for the leanest tables. Use the Main results view for a quick scan and Query results when you need every field. Everything exports as CSV, Excel, JSON, or via the Apify API.

❓ Where does failed or empty stuff go?

Anything that failed — blocked or empty pages — is written to a separate Issues dataset with a reason and source URL, so it never clutters your results.

---

🗂️ All the datasets a run writes

Tab / dataset	What you see
Main results	Compact row per post — platform, title, text, engagement, preview, link
Query results	Full structured search records (all fields above)
Platform comparison	Legacy: Instagram vs Threads profile stats side by side
Profiles · Posts & media	Legacy profile-mode outputs
Changes	Legacy: new / updated posts vs the previous monitored run
Issues	Anything that failed, with reason and source URL
Run summary	Counters: queries, results, per-platform posts, errors, runtime

---

📥 Input reference

Field	Default	What it does
mode	META_SEARCH	META_SEARCH · INSTAGRAM_SEARCH · THREADS_SEARCH, plus legacy profile modes
queries	["marketing", "ai startup"]	Keywords or hashtags to search, one per row (max 50)
maxResults	100	Max paid rows written to the main Results dataset
maxResultsPerQuery	10	Max posts collected per query per platform before de-duplication (max 50)
maxPostsPerProfile	10	Legacy profile-mode: posts per profile
enableDeltaMonitoring · monitorKey	false · —	Legacy profile-mode change monitoring
maxConcurrency	40	Parallel HTTP requests (1–50)
maxRetries	1	Retry budget for temporary errors (1–10)
timeoutSecs	8	Max time per HTTP request (5–120)
rawOutput	false	Keep raw source payloads for debugging
proxyConfiguration	direct	Connection settings (direct requests by default)

Add at least one queries entry for the search modes.

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One last answer — if this saved you a scrape, a quick ⭐ review on the Apify Store helps others find it and tells me which question to answer next.

🏷️ Tags: instagram · threads · instagram scraper · threads scraper · social media scraper · hashtag search · social listening · post scraper · lead generation