Instagram Post Scraper

Read public Instagram post, reel, TV, and profile metadata from page HTML, Open Graph tags, embedded public JSON, JSON-LD, and the public oEmbed endpoint. Save captions or public descriptions, author fields, canonical URLs, media references and dimensions, available engagement counts, and profile links discovered from a username target. Media bytes are never downloaded.

Get started

1. Open the Actor Store page and select Try for free or open the Input tab.
2. Supply media URLs in post_urls, postUrls, or startUrls, and/or profile targets in username or usernames. At least one target is required.
3. Set maxItems and maxPostsPerUsername to bound the run. Keep both small for the first run.
4. Start the Actor, open the dataset, and export the records as JSON, CSV, or Excel. Open Run summary (OUTPUT) to check scheduled, discovered, and failure counts.

Input

At least one target is required at runtime, although the schema marks every field optional. Unsupported field names and out-of-range values are rejected before requests start.

Field	Type	Required?	Default	Meaning
post_urls	string array	One of the target fields	Not supplied (prefill: one reel URL)	Public Instagram post, reel, TV, or profile URLs, up to 100 entries. Tracking parameters are removed and duplicates deduplicated.
postUrls	string array	One of the target fields	Not supplied	Compatibility alias for post_urls; both lists are combined.
startUrls	object array	One of the target fields	Not supplied	Compatibility request-list alias of { "url": "..." } objects, combined with the other URL fields.
username	string	One of the target fields	Not supplied	One public username; a leading @ is accepted.
usernames	string array	One of the target fields	Not supplied	Public usernames, combined with username. Each profile is read and bounded recent post discovery is attempted.
maxPostsPerUsername	integer	Optional	3	Maximum recent public post URLs discovered from each profile, 1–100, also bounded by the remaining maxItems.
maxItems	integer	Optional	100	Maximum unique requested and discovered targets processed, 1–100.
requestTimeoutSecs	integer	Optional	20	Per-request timeout for public pages and oEmbed, 5–60 seconds.
maxRequestRetries	integer	Optional	2	Additional attempts for transient HTTP failures, 0–3.
requestDelayMs	integer	Optional	0	Delay between target requests, 0–10,000 ms.
proxyConfiguration	object	Optional	{"useApifyProxy":false}	Optional Apify Proxy settings: useApifyProxy, apifyProxyGroups, and apifyProxyCountry. Direct access is the default.

Example input using the prefill and defaults:

{
  "post_urls": [
    "https://www.instagram.com/instagram/reel/Dc30nJeRKKz/"
  ],
  "maxPostsPerUsername": 3,
  "maxItems": 100,
  "requestTimeoutSecs": 20,
  "maxRequestRetries": 2,
  "requestDelayMs": 0,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}

Add username or usernames to discover posts from profile pages. URL aliases are merged, normalized, and deduplicated before maxItems is applied.

Output

The dataset contains one row per saved media or profile record. Optional values are omitted when Instagram does not expose them, and source failures produce log diagnostics instead of placeholder rows. Media and profile pages expose different field sets.

Field	Type	Availability	Meaning
url	string	Always	Normalized target URL; added by the dataset sanitizer.
searchUrl	string	Always	Compatibility alias equal to sourceUrl.
id	string	Always	Stable deterministic identifier derived from the normalized target URL.
recordType	string enum	Always	instagram-post or instagram-profile-metadata.
targetType	string enum	Always	media or profile.
targetUrl	string	Always	Normalized requested or discovered target URL.
postUrl	string	For media targets	Post, reel, or TV URL.
profileUrl	string	For profile targets	Normalized profile URL.
sourceUrl	string	Always	Public Instagram page requested for extraction.
discoveredFromProfile	string	When discovered from a profile	Profile URL that exposed the post link.
source	string	Always	instagram-public-page or instagram-public-page-and-oembed.
canonicalUrl	string	Always	Canonical URL from Open Graph or oEmbed, with the target URL as fallback.
pageTitle	string	When published	Public HTML or Open Graph title.
caption	string	When published	Caption or public description. For many pages this includes Instagram's social-description prefix with a like/comment summary and date, not only the creator's caption.
title	string	When published	Public title or page title.
author	string	When published	Public author or creator name.
authorUsername	string	When published	Public author username.
authorUrl	string	When published	Public author profile URL.
authorId	string or number	When published	Public author identifier from oEmbed or embedded data.
imageUrl	string	When published	Primary public image URL.
mediaUrl	string	When published	Primary public video URL.
mediaType	string enum	When a recognizable media node is exposed	image, video, or carousel. Can be absent even when an image URL is present.
width	integer	When published	Media width in pixels.
height	integer	When published	Media height in pixels.
duration	string	When published	Source duration representation.
durationSeconds	number	When published	Normalized media duration in seconds.
uploadDate	string	When embedded data publishes it	Publication date/time. The like/comment prefix in caption is not parsed for a date.
likeCount	integer	When embedded data publishes a numeric count	Like count. Counts appearing only in the caption prefix are not parsed into this field.
commentCount	integer	When embedded data publishes a numeric count	Comment count. Counts appearing only in the caption prefix are not parsed.
videoViewCount	integer	When published	Video view or play count.
carouselItemCount	integer	When published	Number of carousel children.
embedHtml	string	When published	Public oEmbed HTML snippet.
oembedProvider	string	When published	oEmbed provider name.
structuredData	object array	When published	Up to 10 public JSON-LD objects from the page.
mediaReferences	object array	When published	Deduplicated media references with url, kind, width, height, durationSeconds, and source, capped at 30.
downloadAvailable	boolean	Always	Whether a public media URL was observed. Nothing is downloaded or stored.
transcriptAvailable	boolean	Always	Whether a public transcript was observed. Current extraction reports false.
metadata	object	When published	Small page subset: openGraphType and contentLanguage.
scrapedAt	string	Always	Time the row was emitted, in ISO UTC.

Example of a real saved row from the 2026-10-25 run. It contains the full saved image URL and its single media reference; no values are invented.

{
  "id": "instagram:df697121c65cd31bbffda568",
  "recordType": "instagram-post",
  "targetType": "media",
  "targetUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/instagram/reel/Dc30nJeRKKz/",
  "postUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/instagram/reel/Dc30nJeRKKz/",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/instagram/reel/Dc30nJeRKKz/",
  "source": "instagram-public-page",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/instagram/reel/Dc30nJeRKKz/",
  "pageTitle": "Instagram on Instagram: \"that’s his spa now 🚰 #InTheMoment Video by @misterbeanito\"",
  "caption": "966K likes, 22K comments - instagram on September 4, 2026: \"that’s his spa now 🚰 #InTheMoment Video by @misterbeanito\".",
  "title": "Instagram on Instagram: \"that’s his spa now 🚰 #InTheMoment Video by @misterbeanito\"",
  "author": "Instagram",
  "authorUsername": "instagram",
  "authorUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/instagram/",
  "imageUrl": "https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.71878-15/795341832_1575427477361093_319242826385620795_n.jpg?stp=cmp1_dst-jpg_e35_s640x640_tt6&_nc_cat=108&ccb=7-5&_nc_sid=18de74&efg=eyJlZmdfdGFnIjoiQ0xJUFMuYmVzdF9pbWFnZV91cmxnZW4uQzMifQ%3D%3D&_nc_ohc=GwEZWrttYssQ7kNvwHrf9BE&_nc_oc=AdqDKyv5H6uTBfcn1rLKf4rBUqIEGmVbhd_uPVHbJBcsX8aJ1a5IpqpoYiDmYxbJC9M&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_gid=a-xlcFcF_nQnpXEg9f0vXg&_nc_ss=70689&oh=00_AQPKLJJPXNqquQ_XpwYdivvQiAO9u7Ckb8LwMAbAGHIO7Q&oe=6AE4502C",
  "mediaReferences": [
    {
      "url": "https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.71878-15/795341832_1575427477361093_319242826385620795_n.jpg?stp=cmp1_dst-jpg_e35_s640x640_tt6&_nc_cat=108&ccb=7-5&_nc_sid=18de74&efg=eyJlZmdfdGFnIjoiQ0xJUFMuYmVzdF9pbWFnZV91cmxnZW4uQzMifQ%3D%3D&_nc_ohc=GwEZWrttYssQ7kNvwHrf9BE&_nc_oc=AdqDKyv5H6uTBfcn1rLKf4rBUqIEGmVbhd_uPVHbJBcsX8aJ1a5IpqpoYiDmYxbJC9M&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_gid=a-xlcFcF_nQnpXEg9f0vXg&_nc_ss=70689&oh=00_AQPKLJJPXNqquQ_XpwYdivvQiAO9u7Ckb8LwMAbAGHIO7Q&oe=6AE4502C",
      "kind": "image",
      "source": "open_graph"
    }
  ],
  "downloadAvailable": true,
  "transcriptAvailable": false,
  "metadata": {
    "openGraphType": "article"
  },
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-25T20:47:50.405Z",
  "url": "https://www.instagram.com/instagram/reel/Dc30nJeRKKz/",
  "searchUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/instagram/reel/Dc30nJeRKKz/"
}

Run summary

Run summary is stored separately from the dataset in the run's key-value store under OUTPUT.

Field	Meaning
status	Actor process outcome: SUCCEEDED or FAILED.
runStatus	Canonical run status; matches status.
dataStatus	Completeness of saved rows: COMPLETE, PARTIAL, NO_RESULTS, or FAILED.
requestedTargetCount	Unique normalized targets supplied, before the maxItems cap.
scheduledTargetCount	Targets queued after applying maxItems.
emittedCount	Normal records written to the dataset.
normalCount	Normal records written; matches emittedCount.
diagnosticCount	Source diagnostics logged; diagnostics are not dataset rows.
datasetWriteFailureCount	Records that could not be written to the dataset.
failureCount	Diagnostics other than NO_PUBLIC_METADATA, plus dataset write failures.
uniqueTargetCount	Distinct target URLs seen in results, including failed targets.
discoveredPostCount	Saved records that were discovered from a profile page.
oembedRequests	oEmbed endpoint attempts. A media target can try up to two endpoints.
blockedCount	Pages treated as blocked or challenge responses.
maxItems	Target cap used for the run.
optionalFailureCount	Optional summary-write failures.
completedAt	Time the summary was written, in ISO UTC.

Status	Data status	Meaning
SUCCEEDED	COMPLETE	Records were saved without diagnostics.
SUCCEEDED	PARTIAL	Records were saved, but at least one diagnostic or dataset write failure occurred.
SUCCEEDED	NO_RESULTS	The run completed cleanly with no usable public metadata and no counted failures.
FAILED	FAILED	No record was saved and at least one counted failure occurred.

Example OUTPUT from the 2026-10-25 run:

{
  "status": "SUCCEEDED",
  "runStatus": "SUCCEEDED",
  "dataStatus": "COMPLETE",
  "requestedTargetCount": 1,
  "scheduledTargetCount": 1,
  "emittedCount": 1,
  "normalCount": 1,
  "diagnosticCount": 0,
  "datasetWriteFailureCount": 0,
  "failureCount": 0,
  "uniqueTargetCount": 1,
  "discoveredPostCount": 0,
  "oembedRequests": 2,
  "blockedCount": 0,
  "maxItems": 1,
  "optionalFailureCount": 0,
  "completedAt": "2026-10-25T20:47:50.487Z"
}

Coverage and limitations

The Actor reads only public page HTML, embedded public JSON, Open Graph metadata, JSON-LD, and Instagram's public oEmbed endpoints. It does not log in, use cookies or private APIs, solve challenges, bypass rate limits, download media bytes, fetch transcripts, or collect comments. transcriptAvailable currently reports false, and downloadAvailable only means a public media URL was observed; it does not grant reuse rights. Media and CDN URLs are time-limited.

Username targets read one public profile page and discover the recent post shortcodes that page exposes. maxPostsPerUsername caps discovery per profile, and the remaining maxItems budget caps the shared queue. This is not a complete profile catalog. The profile record contains the fields available for that page; it does not include follower, following, bio, or verified fields in this dataset.

caption may be Instagram's public social description, including a like/comment prefix and date; the Actor does not parse that prefix into likeCount, commentCount, or uploadDate. Those fields appear only when embedded data exposes numeric values. mediaType, dimensions, and duration can be absent when the page exposes only a still image, even for a reel URL. A missing field means the public response did not expose it.

maxItems limits queued targets and saved rows; log diagnostics do not create rows. NO_PUBLIC_METADATA, HTTP errors, blocked/challenge responses, and request failures are reported through logs and OUTPUT, which can leave the run PARTIAL or FAILED. Apify Proxy is optional; direct requests are the default.

Usage and support

Cost depends on the number of targets, profile discovery, oEmbed attempts, page size, retries, and proxy use. Start with a single URL or profile and a low maxItems, inspect the dataset and OUTPUT, then scale. See the Actor's Pricing tab for current account rates.

Use the Actor Issues page to report a problem. Include the run ID, the input used, and the run summary; do not include tokens, cookies, or private data. This Actor is not affiliated with Instagram or Meta. Use it only for public data and in accordance with Instagram's terms, robots guidance, and applicable law. Public pages can contain personal information; use the output only for lawful purposes.