Instagram Post Scraper: Posts, Likes & Captions by Profile

Export public Instagram posts by profile or post URL, including likes, comment counts, captions, locations and media URLs. Collect public Instagram data, no login, and export one row per post as CSV, Excel or JSON.

Use it to compare public brand content, collect campaign posts or send engagement data to a reporting workflow. Images, videos and carousels share the same row format.

Quick start

1. Enter nasa, @nike, a profile URL, or a post URL such as https://www.instagram.com/p/DewuZccPEQA/.
2. Set Posts per profile and the run-wide Maximum posts per run.
3. Keep the default Apify datacenter proxy, run and export the dataset.

The prefill requests 10 NASA posts. A post URL requests one row. No Instagram account or account cookies are needed.

{"username":["nasa"],"resultsLimit":10,"maxItems":1000,"proxyConfiguration":{"useApifyProxy":true}}

Call the actor from an Apify integration or over HTTP:

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/xmolodtsov~instagram-post-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"username":["nasa"],"resultsLimit":10}'

For deeper jobs, start an asynchronous run and read its default dataset after completion. You can connect runs to n8n, Make, Zapier, webhooks or Apify schedules. Keep your token in the integration credential store.

Input

Field	Default	Meaning
username	Required	1–100 handles, profile URLs or /p/, /reel/, /tv/ post URLs. Trimmed and deduplicated; handle case is normalized and shortcode case is preserved. Invalid entries are skipped with a warning when valid inputs remain; all-invalid input fails invalid:.
resultsLimit	30	Maximum posts saved per profile, 1–10,000. Each post URL contributes at most one row.
onlyPostsNewerThan	Unset	UTC YYYY-MM-DD or relative N days. Tests each root timestamp and stops after four consecutive older posts. Up to three old pinned posts can appear first. No pinned-skipping guarantee.
maxItems	1000	Run-wide saved-row cap, 1–100,000. Free-plan limits can reduce it.
proxyConfiguration	Apify DC	Apify RESIDENTIAL is replaced by datacenter. Paid runs may use their own proxy URLs. Free runs use Apify Proxy only.

Profiles run in input order. Root requests have bounded concurrency within each grid page, and rows are saved as the walk progresses. Results are deduplicated by post ID across inputs and reboots.

Output

The overview shows URL, owner, type, caption, date, likes, comment count and location. IDs remain strings. Missing scalar values are null; absent collections are empty arrays. Hidden likes remain null.

This example retains identity and counters from a real NASA proof run. Caption text and personal attribution are redacted or replaced with explicit placeholders; signed media URLs are omitted here for readability.

{
  "id": "4004634989362489982",
  "shortCode": "DeTUk4sDSp-",
  "url": "https://www.instagram.com/p/DeTUk4sDSp-/",
  "type": "Video",
  "productType": "clips",
  "caption": "[Caption redacted for privacy; @example_creator is a placeholder.]",
  "hashtags": [
    "example"
  ],
  "mentions": [
    "example_creator"
  ],
  "timestamp": "2026-10-10T15:15:02.000Z",
  "likesCount": 722728,
  "commentsCount": 7202,
  "videoDuration": 43.766666,
  "dimensionsHeight": 1908,
  "dimensionsWidth": 1074,
  "coauthorProducers": [
    "example_creator"
  ],
  "taggedUsers": [
    "example_creator"
  ],
  "locationName": null,
  "locationId": null,
  "isCommentsDisabled": null,
  "ownerUsername": "nasa",
  "ownerId": "528817151",
  "ownerFullName": "NASA",
  "inputUrl": "nasa",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-21T22:59:44.788Z"
}

Fields	Meaning
id, shortCode, url	Exact media identity and canonical https://www.instagram.com/p/<code>/ URL.
type, productType	Image, Video or Sidecar, plus the source product type.
caption, hashtags, mentions, timestamp	Caption text, extracted tags and mentions, and ISO publication time.
likesCount, commentsCount	Public counters; comment text is separate and excluded.
displayUrl, videoUrl, videoDuration	Image/video playback URLs and source duration in seconds, when present. URLs expire.
images, childPosts	Carousel image URLs and children with id, type, displayUrl, videoUrl; empty for other types.
dimensionsHeight, dimensionsWidth	Source media dimensions.
locationName, locationId	Tagged location, when supplied; a null location is valid.
coauthorProducers, taggedUsers	Source-supplied usernames without profile enrichment.
isCommentsDisabled	Source comments setting when available.
ownerUsername, ownerId, ownerFullName	Public media owner; collaborative posts may name another owner.
inputUrl, scrapedAt	Original input and ISO collection time.

Harmless source errors in location pictures or tagged-user objects do not discard a valid post. A malformed or mismatched post root is reported as an input failure.

Pricing and free-plan limits

Billing uses the saved dataset-item event, titled Post. There are no actor start or add-on fees.

Apify plan	USD per 1,000 posts
Free	$0.78
Bronze	$0.72
Silver	$0.66
Gold	$0.60
Platinum / Diamond	$0.60

Examples: 10 posts cost $0.0078 at the Free rate; 100 cost $0.072 on Bronze; 1,000 cost $0.60 on Gold. Fewer saved rows mean fewer result events.

Is it free?

The developer limit on the Apify free plan is 100 results per run and 20 runs per calendar month (UTC). Free-tier result events consume available Apify credits at the rate above; the cap does not waive fees. Monthly reservations are atomic across concurrent runs and reset on the 1st. After the monthly limit, a run succeeds with a quota message before any target requests. Paid plans use the requested caps. Free runs use Apify Proxy only.

Coverage and failure handling

The actor follows the public Posts-tab grid and hydrates each post from its public root. It stops at a clean source end, requested cap, four consecutive older posts, or a bounded failure. It does not download media or accumulate an entire profile in memory.

Unknown/private/unavailable inputs are counted separately when Instagram confirms their status. An individual input failure ends that input and allows later inputs to run. A global grid-query schema change ends the run. Saved rows survive later errors with a successful partial status. Zero rows succeed for confirmed empty outcomes; processing errors fail with blocked:, network:, timeout:, invalid:, quota: or outdated:. Missing/repeated cursors or repeated pages with more available are counted as truncations, never clean ends.

The actor stops starting requests before its platform deadline to flush rows and STATISTICS. A result-event ceiling ends successfully with run budget reached. Dataset rows seed deduplication and caps after a reboot. Check STATISTICS for per-input outcomes, requests, refusal codes, bytes, truncations and elapsed time.

Residential Apify Proxy is not used by this actor: an Apify RESIDENTIAL group is replaced by datacenter, with a warning and STATISTICS.proxyOverride = "RESIDENTIAL->DATACENTER". Datacenter measured 0 refusals in the build proof. Paid runs can use their own proxy URLs for another route. A 300-post build proof measured about $0.028/1,000 posts in datacenter platform usage. This is a measured sample, not a price quote or reliability guarantee. Every retry uses fresh public guest tokens and a fresh proxy session. The guest-visible inventory and ordering can change, and counters or media URLs may differ from the app. Relative dates are evaluated at run start. No promise covers every post ever published.

What's not included

Video views/plays, pinned flags, latest comments, downloads, private profiles, account access or contact enrichment are excluded. For video engagement fields use our Instagram Reel Scraper; for comment text use our Instagram Comment Scraper. These sibling links come from the live developer catalog.

FAQ

Why did I receive fewer posts than requested?

The source may expose fewer posts; duplicates, dates, an unavailable input, the free cap, deadline or run budget can also reduce results. Inspect the input outcomes in STATISTICS for a clean end versus truncation.

Why are locations, duration or likes null?

The source may not supply them. Hidden likes remain null; null does not mean zero. A field-level source error can also remove an optional value while preserving the post.

Is it legal to scrape public Instagram data?

This actor accesses publicly available data without an account. You are responsible for checking your purpose, applicable terms and laws, including GDPR/CCPA obligations where relevant. Public information can still be personal data: minimize collection, respect deletion requests and avoid unwanted contact.

Where can I get help?

Use the Apify Issues tab with the run ID, input shape and affected public profile or post. Never include credentials. Logs and STATISTICS distinguish refusals, transport faults and pagination changes.

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