Instagram Profile

Instagram Profile is a bulk Instagram profile scraper API that turns up to 1,000 usernames, handles, or profile URLs into one fixed 35-field JSON record per public account, so data teams can store profiles without writing per-account parsing branches.

• One required input and no credentials. Send an array of 1–1,000 strings; the Actor never asks for an Instagram login.
• A fixed 35-key contract. Resolved profiles and explicit not-found rows carry identical keys, so a table schema stays stable across runs.
• Recent post engagement is included. Each row carries the profile's recent public post links with type, publish time, likes, comments, and views.
• Per-row billing. One Result event is charged per returned Dataset row, and a target that returns nothing is not billed as a result.

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The smallest useful run is one username such as instagram: one Actor Start plus one Result event, or $0.01500 on the FREE tier.

What does Instagram Profile do?

Instagram Profile takes a list of public profile targets and returns one normalized record for each target it resolves. It accepts three input shapes for the same account — a bare username, an @handle, and a full instagram.com profile URL — and reduces all of them to one canonical username before the lookup. Each record folds identity text, audience and content counts, account flags, category labels, bio details, optional business fields, a recent-post sample, and related-profile suggestions into one flat object, alongside status, requested_input, processor, and processed_at.

The anti-definition matters as much as the definition. Instagram Profile is not a post, reel, story, comment, follower-list, hashtag, location, or ad-library scraper. It does not log in, accept credentials, or reach private content. It returns no email or phone fields, no full post history, and no engagement-rate, growth, or authenticity scores. It reads public profile surfaces and reports what they expose; it is not affiliated with or endorsed by Instagram or Meta.

How do I run Instagram Profile?

1. Put one known public username into Instagram Profiles — instagram is a good first target.
2. Start the run and read the Dataset before scaling.
3. Compare the Dataset item count with the number of submitted targets.
4. Add the rest of your list once the single-target shape looks correct.

Smallest useful run:

{
  "instagram_url": ["instagram"]
}

The prefilled Console example sends two targets so you see both input shapes:

{
  "instagram_url": ["instagram", "https://www.instagram.com/natgeo/"]
}

Result limits apply per input item, not per run: each resolved target produces at most one Dataset row, and there is no separate result cap to configure. The 1,000-entry ceiling limits submitted array entries; it is not a promise that a maximum-size run resolves all 1,000 accounts.

What data does Instagram Profile return?

Every row has the same 35 top-level keys.

Group	Fields
Identity	username, full_name, user_id, facebook_id, avatar_url, profile_url
Audience and content	followers, following, posts, reels, highlights
Account flags	is_verified, is_private, is_professional, is_business, has_clips, has_threads, hide_counts
Classification	category, category_type, business_category
Bio details	bio, bio_mentions, bio_hashtags, pronouns, website, bio_links
Business contact	contact_method, address
Discovery	related_profiles, recent_posts
Run state	status, requested_input, processor, processed_at

status is success or not found. recent_posts entries contain url, type (image, video, carousel, or reel), posted_at, likes, comments, and views. It is a profile-page sample, not the full post history, and it is empty for private accounts and accounts with no visible posts even when posts is above zero. When hide_counts is true, the account hides counts on its public pages while recent_posts values still come from the source response.

Abbreviated illustrative item for instagram; counts and links change between runs:

{
  "status": "success",
  "requested_input": "instagram",
  "user_id": "25025320",
  "username": "instagram",
  "full_name": "Instagram",
  "bio": "Discover what's new on Instagram",
  "bio_mentions": [],
  "bio_hashtags": [],
  "pronouns": [],
  "website": "https://help.instagram.com/",
  "bio_links": ["https://help.instagram.com/"],
  "contact_method": "UNKNOWN",
  "address": null,
  "category": null,
  "category_type": "MEDIA_NEWS_COMPANY",
  "business_category": null,
  "is_private": false,
  "is_verified": true,
  "is_professional": true,
  "is_business": false,
  "has_clips": true,
  "has_threads": true,
  "hide_counts": false,
  "followers": 700857201,
  "following": 242,
  "posts": 8407,
  "reels": 273,
  "highlights": 15,
  "related_profiles": ["threads", "creators"],
  "avatar_url": "https://scontent.example/profile-hd.jpg",
  "profile_url": "https://www.instagram.com/instagram/",
  "recent_posts": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbWPkbGSC3M/",
      "type": "reel",
      "posted_at": "2026-07-28T19:02:42+00:00",
      "likes": 258922,
      "comments": 8040,
      "views": 10842673
    }
  ]
}

Unavailable source values stay empty rather than disappearing. category, business_category, contact_method, address, pronouns, bio_mentions, bio_hashtags, and related_profiles are frequently null or empty, and an empty value is not evidence that the account lacks that attribute. Keep null and [] distinct in storage.

What inputs can I configure?

Field	Type	Required	Behavior
instagram_url	array of strings	Yes	1–1,000 usernames, @handles, or instagram.com profile URLs

There is one public input and no optional fields. Accepted list items for the same account include instagram, @instagram, instagram.com/instagram, and https://www.instagram.com/instagram/.

Normalization strips the instagram.com/ prefix, any query string, any fragment, a leading @, surrounding slashes, and any trailing path segment. Entries that normalize to a non-profile route — p, reel, reels, stories, tv, explore, graphql, or accounts — are discarded. Duplicates are looked up once and the check ignores letter case, so NatGeo and natgeo produce one row and one Result event. If nothing valid remains, the run exits with an input error rather than producing an empty Dataset. The Console prefill exists for discovery; API and Scheduler callers always send their own array.

What platforms and markets does Instagram Profile cover?

Coverage is one platform and one entity type: publicly reachable Instagram profile pages. There is no country, language, or vertical restriction on the usernames you submit, because the Actor resolves accounts rather than browsing a regional index.

What varies by account is field availability, not market eligibility. Personal accounts often expose no category or business fields, while professional and business accounts more often populate category_type, business_category, contact_method, and address. Bio text, link labels, and category names come back in the account's own language. Private and restricted accounts stay in scope only as far as their public shell is visible: identity fields and is_private still arrive, content-derived fields stay empty.

Why use Instagram Profile?

Capability	What it gives your team
Fixed 35-key output	A table or model that keeps its shape across account types
status plus preserved requested_input	Deterministic reconciliation of targets against rows
Three input shapes, case-insensitive de-duplication	Messy CRM and spreadsheet columns submit without pre-cleaning
recent_posts with engagement counts	An activity signal in the same row, without a second join
Per-row event billing	Cost scales with delivered data, not attempted targets

The main trade-off is breadth versus depth. Every row is a profile snapshot, so you get wide account coverage cheaply but no post history, comments, followers lists, or time series. If the question is "how did this account perform last quarter", this is the wrong starting point; if it is "give me a current, uniform record for these 800 accounts", it is the right one.

Who is Instagram Profile for?

The primary audience is developers and data teams putting Instagram profile data into an existing pipeline: enriching a CRM with website, bio_links, contact_method, business_category, and the professional and business flags; building an internal creator database keyed on user_id with dated snapshots; or giving an agent or MCP tool a bounded lookup it can call without special-case parsing. Research teams use related_profiles and bio_mentions to seed discovery loops, and followers with recent_posts engagement as a quick activity check.

The reverse persona is anyone needing private or authorized data. For follower identities, direct messages, owned-account insights, comment threads, story archives, or ad-library records, use official Instagram or Meta access instead. This Actor is also wrong if you need a guaranteed row per submitted username, because public source availability is outside its control.

How can I use Instagram Profile through the API or MCP?

The Actor ID is truefetch/instagram-profile. Keep the Apify token in an environment secret rather than in code.

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/truefetch~instagram-profile/runs?token=$APIFY_TOKEN&waitForFinish=180" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"instagram_url":["instagram","https://www.instagram.com/natgeo/"]}'

import os
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient(os.environ["APIFY_TOKEN"])
run = client.actor("truefetch/instagram-profile").call(
    run_input={"instagram_url": ["instagram", "https://www.instagram.com/natgeo/"]}
)
items = list(client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items())

MCP call arguments:

{
  "actor": "truefetch/instagram-profile",
  "input": {
    "instagram_url": ["instagram", "https://www.instagram.com/natgeo/"]
  },
  "callOptions": {"build": "latest", "memory": 256, "timeout": 180}
}

Generated SDK snippets and the OpenAPI definition live on the API page. After an MCP call, read the default Dataset separately when rows are not returned inline.

For batch integrations, persist your job ID, the submitted string, the normalized username, the run ID, and the returned row. That separates three per-target outcomes: a success row, a not found row, and no row. Retry only missing targets; replaying a whole batch creates duplicate Result events and snapshots.

How much does Instagram Profile cost?

Instagram Profile uses pay-per-event pricing with two billed events.

Event	Billing unit	FREE	BRONZE	SILVER	GOLD	PLATINUM	DIAMOND
Actor Start	Per charged start event, by memory (one per GB, minimum one)	$0.01000	$0.01000	$0.01000	$0.01000	$0.01000	$0.01000
Result	Per returned Dataset row	$0.00500	$0.00450	$0.00400	$0.00375	$0.00375	$0.00375

Smallest useful run on the FREE tier: one username returns one row, so the run is $0.01000 + $0.00500 = $0.01500. The Actor runs at 256 MB, charged as one Actor Start event.

Only returned rows create Result events, so a target that yields no row costs nothing beyond the start. Set a maximum total charge in the calling platform for a hard ceiling, and check the Store page for current prices before budgeting a large batch — prices can change.

How does Instagram Profile compare with alternatives?

Compared with a narrow post or reel Actor, Instagram Profile trades content depth for account breadth. A post-level Actor answers what an account published; this one answers who the account is and how large and active it looks now. Many teams run both and join on user_id.

Compared with official Instagram or Meta access, the trade-off is authorization and scope. Official access reaches data this Actor never touches, including owned-account insights and private content, but requires app review, permissions, and integration work; Instagram Profile needs an API token and a list of usernames. Compared with your own automation, you keep more control but take on normalization, retries, schema ownership, and maintenance whenever the source changes.

Do not choose Instagram Profile when you need guaranteed completeness, contact-verified leads, historical time series, or authorized private data. Choose it when a wide, current, uniformly shaped public profile snapshot is the actual requirement.

What are the limits and troubleshooting steps?

Fewer rows than submitted targets. Some targets normalized away, some returned a not-found row, and some failed before a usable response arrived. Compare normalized targets against returned requested_input values, then retry only the gaps in a small batch after a short delay. Keep the first Dataset so a retry does not overwrite a good snapshot.

The run exits with an input error. The input must be an array of 1–1,000 text entries, and at least one must normalize to a valid username. A list of only post or reel URLs normalizes to nothing.

No profiles could be returned. Every target failed. Re-run a single known-public username such as instagram to separate a source-side problem from an input problem before touching the batch.

recent_posts is empty although posts is non-zero. The account is private, or the source did not expose the recent-post sample in that response.

Counts disagree with another tool. Values are snapshots taken at processed_at. Compare timestamps and confirm the same user_id before treating a difference as an error, and store dated runs.

A username stopped resolving. Accounts get renamed, deactivated, or restricted. user_id is the stable key, so keep it and a renamed account can still be matched.

The smallest reproducible bug report input is {"instagram_url": ["instagram"]}. Report issues from the Actor page with the run ID, Dataset ID, non-secret input, expected target, and the exact field involved.

Frequently asked questions

Do I get one row for every submitted username? Not guaranteed. Not-found responses produce a row, but a target whose requests all fail produces none. Reconcile with requested_input and the Dataset count.

Does the output include email or phone numbers? No. There are no email or phone fields. You get contact_method and a structured address when the source exposes them, and both are frequently null.

Are duplicate usernames billed twice? No. Duplicates are de-duplicated case-insensitively before the lookup, so they produce one row and one Result event.

Can I submit post, reel, or story URLs? No. Those routes are discarded during normalization. Use Instagram Post Scraper for post-level records.

What exactly does is_verified mean? It is the raw boolean the source returns. It is not independent verification of identity, ownership, safety, or business legitimacy, and it should not be used as a trust signal on its own.

What is the difference between posts and recent_posts? posts is the total timeline count for the account. recent_posts is the small recent public sample shown on the profile page, so its length is far smaller.

Do private accounts work? Partly. You receive the public shell and the is_private flag, while content-derived fields stay empty. The Actor does not bypass access controls.

Can I schedule this Actor? Yes. Because prefills apply only to the Console, a scheduled task must carry its own instagram_url array.

What legal and privacy controls should I apply? Review the Instagram Terms of Use, the Meta Privacy Policy, and applicable privacy and anti-spam law. Apply data minimization, purpose limitation, access controls, and retention limits, and do not infer protected traits from bios, pronouns, names, images, or related accounts.

Related TrueFetch Actors

• Instagram Post Scraper — use when you already have the account and now need its posts, reels, and carousel records.
• Instagram Explore Post — use when you have no usernames yet and need country-scoped Explore discovery to generate candidates.
• X User Profile — use when the same brand or person needs a matching public profile record on X.

Support

Open issues from the Actor page, browse endpoints on the API page, join the TrueFetch community, or contact direct support. Include the run ID, Dataset ID, UTC time, non-secret input, expected targets, returned requested_input values, and the exact missing or unexpected field. Never post API tokens or private personal data.

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