Instagram Public Profile & Post Scraper

Give it any public Instagram username and get back structured profile data — no login, no API key, no bypassing privacy.

What it does

For each username or profile URL in the input, the Actor:

1. Navigates to the public profile page with an anonymous browser (Playwright + Apify residential proxy recommended).
2. Reads profile metadata from Instagram's server-rendered Open Graph tags and DOM: username, full name, follower count, following count, post count, verified flag, profile picture URL, and external website link.
3. Detects whether the account is private — if so, the profile is recorded with isPrivate: true and posts: [], and scraping stops. Private accounts are never bypassed.
4. If the account is public, the Actor attempts to scroll the post grid to extract up to maxPostsPerProfile recent posts: post URL, shortcode, caption, like count (when visible), comment count, publish date, media type (photo / video / carousel), and thumbnail URL.
5. Detects Instagram login walls / rate-limit interstitials and skips the profile with a clear blocked: true flag rather than crashing the run.
6. Deduplicates posts by shortcode within a single run.

Known limitations (Instagram platform behavior, not Actor bugs)

Instagram progressively removed anonymous access to post data during 2024. Anonymous visitors are typically served a "limited preview" page that contains the profile header but no post grid. When this happens, posts will be an empty array [] and postsScraped: 0 — the profile row is still returned. Post extraction works on the rare anonymous views where Instagram serves the grid; this depends on IP reputation and is not under the Actor's control.

This is documented honestly so you can calibrate expectations: the Actor will reliably return profile-level data (username, full name, follower/following/post counts, profile picture URL, external URL, verified flag, private/public status) for any public account, and will always correctly detect and skip private accounts.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
usernames	array<string>	["natgeo"]	List of usernames or profile URLs
maxPostsPerProfile	integer	12	Cap on posts per profile (0–100)
includePostDetails	boolean	true	If false, only profile-level data is returned
resultsType	string	profiles+posts	profiles (no posts array) or profiles+posts
delayBetweenRequestsSecs	integer	3	Randomized delay (50–150 % of value) between profiles
proxyConfiguration	object	{useApifyProxy:true}	Standard Apify proxy config

Output

One dataset row per profile. Example (truncated):

{
  "username": "natgeo",
  "fullName": "National Geographic",
  "followerCount": 269000000,
  "followingCount": 195,
  "postCount": 32000,
  "isPrivate": false,
  "isVerified": true,
  "profilePictureUrl": "https://scontent...",
  "externalUrl": "https://www.nationalgeographic.com",
  "postsScraped": 12,
  "posts": [ { "url": "...", "shortcode": "...", "caption": "...", "likeCount": 254321, "commentCount": 1820, "publishDate": "2025-05-12T10:00:00.000Z", "mediaType": "carousel", "thumbnailUrl": "..." } ],
  "scrapedAt": "2025-07-27T12:00:00.000Z"
}

Private profiles produce:

{ "username": "some.private.account", "isPrivate": true, "posts": [], "postsScraped": 0 }

Proxy configuration

Instagram aggressively detects datacenter traffic. Residential proxies are effectively required. Configure via the standard proxyConfiguration input field:

{ "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"] } }

Without a residential proxy the Actor will typically hit Instagram's login wall immediately and report blocked: true for the entire run.

Disclaimer

This Actor only reads publicly visible, non-authenticated data from Instagram's public web interface. It does not log in, does not use any Instagram API key or session cookie, does not access private accounts, direct messages, stories, or any content that requires authentication. Private accounts are always detected and skipped. The Actor performs read-only extraction: it does not like, follow, comment, or send DMs. It does not bypass Instagram's rate limits or terms of service — when Instagram blocks the run, the Actor reports the block and moves on. Use responsibly and in accordance with Instagram's Terms of Service and applicable law.

Pricing

Pay-per-result. One profile row = one result. See the Store listing for current per-1,000-results pricing.