Instagram Profile & Recent 12 Reels Scraper

A fast, lightweight, and zero-login Instagram scraper designed to extract creator profile information and exact performance metrics for the latest 12 Reels (real view counts, likes, comments, and CDN media URLs) with high-concurrency multi-account batch processing.

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What Does This Actor Do?

1. Creator Basic Profile Information:

   • Username, full name/nickname, account PK and ID.
   • Verified badge status, private account status, active story status.
   • Follower count, following count, total media/posts count.
   • Biography text, external links/URLs, and profile avatar URL.
   • Associated Threads username and category.

2. Accurate Performance Metrics for the Latest 12 Reels:

   • Exact Play Counts (Views): Real frontend video play counts rather than estimates.
   • Engagement Counts: Accurate like count and comment count for each Reel.
   • Post Content: Full video captions, extracted hashtags, and @mentions.
   • Exact Publishing Dates: Precise created_at timestamps calculated directly via Instagram Snowflake algorithm.
   • Media URLs: Direct high-resolution CDN cover/thumbnail image URLs and video landing URLs.
   • Flags: Video duration, pinned status, and counts-disabled flags.

3. Multi-Account Parallel Concurrency:

   • Supports scraping multiple Instagram creator accounts concurrently.
   • Configurable concurrency limit (max_concurrency) and request delays (delay_seconds) for high-throughput batch execution.

4. 100% Zero-Login & Anonymous:

   • Requires no Instagram account, login, or session cookies.
   • Immune to login checkpoints, phone verification, and account bans.

5. Pre-configured Dynamic Residential Proxy:

   • All requests are automatically routed through high-anonymity dynamic proxies.
   • Zero Apify residential proxy fees; no additional proxy configuration or setup required.

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Input Parameters

Configured in the Actor input:

Field	Type	Default	Description
usernames	array	["natgeo"]	List of target Instagram creator usernames (without @, one per line).
max_concurrency	integer	5	Number of creator profiles scraped simultaneously in parallel (5–20).
delay_seconds	number	0.5	Pause in seconds between profile scraping tasks.

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Output Dataset Schema

Each creator produces an item in the Apify dataset:

{
  "target_username": "natgeo",
  "scraped_at": "2026-09-21T09:45:00.000Z",
  "mode": "reels",
  "traffic_saving_mode": true,
  "success": true,
  "error": null,
  "traffic_bytes": 182400,
  "traffic": "178.1 KB",
  "requests_count": 13,
  "elapsed_seconds": 4.25,
  "profile": {
    "username": "natgeo",
    "nickname": "National Geographic",
    "id": "787132",
    "pk": "787132",
    "followers_count": 268573000,
    "following_count": 194,
    "biography": "Step into wonder and find your inner explorer with National Geographic 🌎",
    "external_urls": ["http://visitstore.bio/natgeo"],
    "category": null,
    "posts_total_count": 32000,
    "is_verified": true,
    "is_private": false,
    "profile_pic_url": "https://scontent.../profile.jpg",
    "has_active_story": true,
    "threads_username": "natgeo"
  },
  "posts_count": 12,
  "posts": [
    {
      "order_index": 1,
      "id": "3989102446432402227",
      "code": "DdgSav2A7WT",
      "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdgSav2A7WT/",
      "display_url": "https://scontent-lax3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.82787-15/..._n.jpg",
      "image_url": "https://scontent-lax3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.82787-15/..._n.jpg",
      "cover_url": "https://scontent-lax3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.82787-15/..._n.jpg",
      "type": "reels",
      "is_video": true,
      "is_pinned": false,
      "caption": "While searching for anteaters at night, Nat Geo Explorer @fernando.faciole spotted...",
      "hashtags": ["#wildlife", "#nature"],
      "mentions": ["@fernando.faciole"],
      "play_count": 3896954,
      "view_count": 3896954,
      "likes_count": 59555,
      "comments_count": 128,
      "video_duration": null,
      "created_at": "2026-09-20T09:41:46.220000+00:00"
    }
  ]
}

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Local Execution

You can also run and test the scraper locally:

# Run local crawl with default settings
python3 run_local.py --username natgeo

# Adjust batch settings or proxy
python3 run_local.py --username natgeo --use-local-proxy