Instagram & Threads Scraper — Search, Profiles & Posts

Search Instagram and Threads by keyword, and pull posts and profiles from either platform — in one Actor, with one consistent output shape.

Paste your own Instagram / Threads cookies and you search the way you do when signed in: real accounts, real hashtags with post counts, real Threads posts with engagement. Without cookies the Actor still runs and returns public results.

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What you get

Every row carries platform (instagram / threads) and type, so mixed results stay easy to filter.

Accounts

{
  "platform": "instagram",
  "type": "account",
  "userId": "23947096",
  "username": "natgeotravel",
  "fullName": "National Geographic Travel",
  "url": "https://www.instagram.com/natgeotravel/",
  "isVerified": true,
  "isPrivate": false,
  "profilePicUrl": "https://…",
  "socialContext": "12.5M followers",
  "hasThreadsProfile": true,
  "query": "travel"
}

hasThreadsProfile tells you the account also exists on Threads — handy for building a cross-platform list in one pass.

Hashtags

{
  "platform": "instagram",
  "type": "hashtag",
  "name": "traveladdicted",
  "url": "https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/traveladdicted/",
  "mediaCount": 1818846,
  "subtitle": "1.8M posts",
  "hashtagId": "17843781376031915",
  "query": "travel"
}

Threads posts

{
  "platform": "threads",
  "type": "post",
  "postId": "3874657360090869333",
  "code": "DXFjFcWka5V",
  "url": "https://www.threads.com/@nasa/post/DXFjFcWka5V",
  "text": "Hiiiiiii, Thriends! New Artemis II images just dropped…",
  "postedAtTimestamp": 1776115172,
  "likeCount": 26183,
  "replyCount": 410,
  "repostCount": 1485,
  "quoteCount": 102,
  "isEdited": false,
  "authorUsername": "nasa",
  "authorFullName": "NASA",
  "authorIsVerified": true,
  "authorUrl": "https://www.threads.com/@nasa",
  "query": "nasa"
}

A Threads search returns both the matching posts and one row per distinct author, so a single query covers content research and account discovery at once.

Profile posts

Profile modes return posts with likeCount, commentCount, quoteCount, publishedAt, hashtags, imageUrls, mediaUrls, postType, isRepost, isReply, isPaidPartnership, plus the author's displayName and followerCount.

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Cookies — what they change

	without cookies	with cookies
Instagram search	public results only	accounts + hashtags with post counts, ~4× more rows
Threads search	public results only	posts with like / reply / repost / quote counts, plus authors
Profile & post modes	works	works (cookies not needed)

Cookies also make searching far cheaper per row, because the results come back in one clean response instead of being assembled from public pages.

How to add them. Sign in to Instagram (or Threads) in your browser, export the cookies for that site with any cookie-export extension, and paste the result into instagramCookies / threadsCookies. Both fields accept either format:

• sessionid=…; csrftoken=…; ds_user_id=…
• the JSON array an extension gives you

The fields are stored as secrets. Instagram and Threads use separate cookie jars — export each from its own site. Sessions expire; if search suddenly returns nothing, re-export.

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Modes

mode	what it does	needs cookies
INSTAGRAM_SEARCH	Instagram accounts + hashtags for each query	recommended
THREADS_SEARCH	Threads posts + their authors	recommended
META_SEARCH	both platforms in one run	recommended
INSTAGRAM_POSTS	recent posts from given Instagram usernames	no
THREADS_POSTS	recent posts from given Threads usernames	no
PROFILE_COMPARISON	one row per creator comparing their Instagram and Threads presence	no
ALL_CONTENT	profiles, posts and the comparison together	no

Input

field	what it does
mode	which of the workflows above to run
queries	search phrases, one per entry — marketing, #travel, ai startup
usernames	creators to pull posts for, in the profile modes
instagramCookies	your Instagram session — unlocks real Instagram search
threadsCookies	your Threads session — unlocks real Threads search
maxResults	hard stop for the whole run
maxResultsPerQuery	cap per individual query
maxPostsPerProfile	how many posts to take from each profile
rawOutput	keep the untouched source payload alongside the clean row

Recipes

Find creators in a niche, with their Threads presence

{ "mode": "INSTAGRAM_SEARCH", "queries": ["sustainable fashion"],
  "maxResults": 200, "instagramCookies": "sessionid=…" }

Filter the output to type = account, then to hasThreadsProfile = true.

Track a topic on Threads and rank by engagement

{ "mode": "THREADS_SEARCH", "queries": ["ai regulation"],
  "maxResults": 300, "threadsCookies": "sessionid=…" }

Filter to type = post and sort by likeCount or repostCount.

Size up hashtags before a campaign

{ "mode": "INSTAGRAM_SEARCH", "queries": ["skincare", "haircare"],
  "instagramCookies": "sessionid=…" }

Filter to type = hashtag and read mediaCount.

Compare a creator across both platforms

{ "mode": "PROFILE_COMPARISON", "usernames": ["nasa"], "maxPostsPerProfile": 10 }

Output

Three tabs — results, profiles and posts — each exportable to CSV, Excel, JSON or XML, or readable straight from the API.

FAQ

Do I have to provide cookies? No. Every mode runs without them; search just returns public results instead of the full ones. Profile and post modes do not use cookies at all.

Is my session safe? The cookie fields are secret inputs: encrypted at rest and hidden from logs. They are only ever sent to Instagram / Threads, and the Actor only reads — it never posts, follows or likes.

Why did search stop returning rows? The session expired. Re-export the cookies and run again.

Why do some accounts have no follower count? Instagram returns follower context on search hits only for some accounts. Use a profile mode when you need reliable follower numbers.

Can I search hashtags on Threads? Threads search matches post text, so a #tag query returns posts containing that tag. Instagram returns hashtags as their own rows with post counts.

How much does it cost? You pay per row saved, and the price on this page is all-in.