Instagram Reels & Posts Scraper

Extract data from public Instagram profiles — Reels, Posts, and Carousels. Get likes, comments, video views, hashtags, captions, and more. No API key required.

Features

• Posts, Reels and Carousels — scrape all content types from public profiles
• Full engagement metrics — likes, comments, video views, duration
• Hashtag extraction — automatic from captions
• Content type detection — distinguishes Reels vs Posts vs Carousels
• Multiple profiles — scrape several profiles in one run
• Cookies support — optionally provide cookies for better access
• Validated output — every item checked before delivery
• Apify Proxy — built-in residential proxy support

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
profiles	string[]	required	Instagram usernames (with or without @)
maxPosts	integer	10	Max posts per profile (1–50)
cookies	object[]	—	Optional browser cookies for authenticated access

Example Input

{
  "profiles": ["cristiano", "leomessi"],
  "maxPosts": 15
}

Output

Each post/reel produces one object:

Field	Type	Description
id	string	Instagram media ID
shortCode	string	Short code for the post URL
url	string	Full post URL
caption	string	Full caption text
timestamp	string	ISO 8601 creation date (or null)
likesCount	integer	Number of likes
commentsCount	integer	Number of comments
videoViewCount	integer	Video views (reels/videos only)
videoDuration	number	Duration in seconds
hashtags	string[]	Extracted hashtags from caption
displayUrl	string	Media display/thumbnail URL
type	string	reel, post, or carousel
productType	string	feed, clips (reels), igtv
isVideo	boolean	Whether the content is video
coauthors	string[]	Co-author usernames (if any)
author	string	Username of the profile
scrapedAt	string	ISO 8601 scrape timestamp

Output Example

{
  "id": "3012345678901234567",
  "shortCode": "CxYzAbCdEf",
  "url": "https://www.instagram.com/p/CxYzAbCdEf/",
  "caption": "Training day! #fitness #motivation",
  "timestamp": "2024-01-15T18:30:00Z",
  "likesCount": 1250000,
  "commentsCount": 3200,
  "videoViewCount": 5000000,
  "videoDuration": 32.5,
  "hashtags": ["fitness", "motivation"],
  "displayUrl": "https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/...",
  "type": "reel",
  "productType": "clips",
  "isVideo": true,
  "coauthors": [],
  "author": "cristiano",
  "scrapedAt": "2024-01-15T20:00:00Z"
}

How It Works

The actor uses a multi-strategy cascade approach with Playwright:

1. XHR Intercept — Captures Instagram's internal GraphQL API responses during page load (best data quality)
2. Embedded JSON — Parses __additionalDataLoaded, _sharedData, and embedded script data
3. Browser Fetch — Calls Instagram's API with browser session cookies
4. DOM Extraction — Last resort: extracts post/reel links from the page (limited metrics)

Pricing

Pay Per Event (PPE) — $0.003 per post extracted.

Free tier included with Apify subscription.