Instagram Transcript Scraper

Get the transcript of any public Instagram Reel, or of a whole profile's newest posts, as plain text and as timestamped segments. Instagram videos rarely have captions, so this actor transcribes their audio with AI. Use it to summarize Reels, research what creators and brands in a niche are saying, repurpose content, build subtitles or feed an AI pipeline.

What you get

• Reel links in, transcripts out. Paste Instagram Reel links and get each one's full text.
• Whole profiles. Add a profile (username or link) and the actor transcribes its newest posts, up to the limit you set, with each post's caption, publish date and play count.
• AI transcription when there are no captions. The spoken language is detected automatically. Prefer to skip videos without captions? Choose Captions only and you never pay for AI transcription.
• Timestamps. Each line comes with its start time and length, or turn them off and keep just the text.
• Failed videos are free. Private, deleted, photo-only or music-only posts come back as a row that says why, at no charge.

Input

Field	What it is
videoUrls	Instagram Reel links.
profiles	Instagram profiles, as username or https://www.instagram.com/username/.
maxVideosPerSource	How many of each profile's newest posts to transcribe (default 10).
transcriptSource	auto (captions, else AI transcription), captions (captions only), or audio (always AI).
includeTimestamps	Adds timestamped segments next to the full text (default on).

{
  "videoUrls": ["https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeroUGDhF2D/"],
  "profiles": ["natgeo"],
  "maxVideosPerSource": 10,
  "transcriptSource": "auto",
  "includeTimestamps": true
}

Output

One row per video. A real row, shortened:

{
  "inputUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeroUGDhF2D/",
  "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeroUGDhF2D/",
  "platform": "instagram",
  "videoId": "DeroUGDhF2D",
  "title": "new NBA season prep with @jordanclarksons and @cbrickley603 🏀 …",
  "author": null,
  "publishedAt": null,
  "plays": null,
  "durationSeconds": 87,
  "language": "en",
  "transcriptSource": "ai_transcription",
  "text": "Three more chances to do this. What up, what up, it's Steve Brick. Jordan Clarkson. About to show you some drills. Let's get it. …",
  "segments": [
    { "start": 0, "duration": 29.3, "text": "Three more chances to do this. What up, what up, it's Steve Brick. …" },
    { "start": 29.3, "duration": 29.5, "text": "Yeah, pull up hit range. Three ball for goal. Game time. …" }
  ],
  "status": "ok"
}

A video that could not be transcribed has "status": "failed" with an errorCode (for example not_public, no_video or no_speech) and an errorMessage, and costs nothing. Export the dataset as JSON, CSV or Excel, or read it through the Apify API.

Pricing

Pay per event, only for transcripts you receive:

• AI transcription: one per started 5 minutes of audio. Almost every Reel is under 5 minutes, so that is one per Reel.
• Transcript: one per video whose transcript came from its captions, in the rare case it has them.

Failures, profile listings and links that are not Instagram videos are never charged. Set a maximum charge for a run in its options and the actor stops before going over it.

Other platforms

• TikTok Transcript Scraper: videos and whole profiles.
• YouTube Transcript Scraper: videos, Shorts, channels and playlists.

Using it from code or an AI assistant

This actor runs on TranscriptFetch, a transcript API for YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. If you would rather call it directly, TranscriptFetch has a REST API, an MCP server for Claude and ChatGPT, and a no-code dashboard: see transcriptfetch.com/docs.

FAQ

Which languages are supported? AI transcription detects the spoken language by itself.

How long does it take? AI transcription of a Reel usually finishes within a minute; the actor works on several videos at once.

Does it read private videos? No. It reads only what is publicly viewable without logging in, and never needs your Instagram account.

Is scraping Instagram transcripts legal? The actor reads only public videos. How you use the transcripts is up to you: respect copyright and the creators' rights, and check with a lawyer if you are unsure about your use.

Something went wrong? Open an issue on this actor's Issues tab and include the run's link.