# Instagram Highlights Scraper (`xtracto/instagram-highlights-scraper`) Actor

List the story highlights on any public Instagram profile — title, cover image and highlight link — with no login, cookies or API key. Reads the logged-out profile page.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/xtracto/instagram-highlights-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Farhan Febrian Nauval](https://apify.com/xtracto) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media
- **Stats:** 3 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $4.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Instagram Highlights Scraper

List the story highlights on any public Instagram profile — title, cover image and
a direct link — with no login, no cookies and no API key.

Give it usernames or profile URLs; you get one row per highlight, with the account's
follower count and verification status attached to each.

### What you get

| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `title` | The highlight's name, as the account set it |
| `highlightId` | Instagram's stable id for the highlight |
| `highlightUrl` | Link to open the highlight in a browser |
| `coverImageUrl` | Cover thumbnail; empty when the account never set one |
| `rank` | Position in the tray, left to right |
| `trayTruncated` | Whether this account has more highlights than are public |
| `ownerUsername`, `ownerId`, `ownerFullName` | Account identity |
| `ownerFollowerCount`, `ownerIsVerified`, `ownerIsPrivate` | Account context |

### Input

```json
{ "usernames": ["nasa", "https://www.instagram.com/zara/", "@victoriassecret"] }
```

Handles, `@handles` and full profile URLs are all accepted.

### Things worth knowing

**Ten highlights is the public ceiling.** The logged-out profile page renders at
most ten, regardless of how many the account actually has. Accounts under the limit
return everything they have; accounts over it return exactly ten. Every row carries
`trayTruncated` so you can tell which case you got — `true` means the rest exist but
sit behind a login. Reaching them would need an authenticated session, which this
actor does not use.

**This actor reads the tray, not the stories inside it.** Instagram serves highlight
*contents* only to signed-in viewers; a logged-out request for the media returns an
empty success rather than a refusal. What you get here is each highlight's identity
and cover — enough to track how an account organises and renames its highlights over
time, and to see when new ones appear. `highlightUrl` is a link for a person to open,
not a second endpoint to scrape.

**A missing account still returns HTTP 200.** Instagram serves a full-size page for a
username that does not exist, so the status code cannot tell you the account is gone.
This actor treats the absence of the profile payload as the signal and reports
`profile_not_found`, including the page size it saw.

**Private accounts have no public tray.** They are reported as `no_highlights` with
`ownerIsPrivate` set, so a private account is distinguishable from a public one that
simply has no highlights.

**Use a residential proxy.** Instagram is selective about client IPs. The input
defaults to Apify's residential group; datacenter addresses are refused far more
often.

### Failure reporting

Every input produces at least one row. Failures carry `_error` and `_errorDetail`:

| `_error` | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `no_highlights` | The account is public but has no highlights, or is private |
| `profile_not_found` | No profile payload in the page — account missing or removed |
| `login_walled` | The page came back as a login prompt; try a residential proxy |
| `invalid_username` | The input is not a usable Instagram handle |
| `network_error` | The request never reached Instagram |
| `blocked` | A response arrived but was unusable |

If every profile fails, the run aborts rather than finishing with an empty dataset.

# Actor input Schema

## `usernames` (type: `array`):

Handle, @handle or full profile URL — all three are accepted.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Strongly recommended. Instagram is selective about client IPs; a residential proxy is the reliable choice.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "usernames": [
    "nasa",
    "zara"
  ],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `overview` (type: `string`):

Dataset items shown in the 'Highlights' view.

## `items` (type: `string`):

Every record this run produced, with all fields, as JSON.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "usernames": [
        "nasa",
        "zara"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("xtracto/instagram-highlights-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "usernames": [
        "nasa",
        "zara",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("xtracto/instagram-highlights-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "usernames": [
    "nasa",
    "zara"
  ]
}' |
apify call xtracto/instagram-highlights-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,xtracto/instagram-highlights-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/4d2z8wHPKZLg2mB0e/builds/efycwDJFbbmxXngfR/openapi.json