Instagram Reels Transcript — $0.004/min, No Login

Turn Instagram reels into text. Paste reel links, @usernames or an audio page. You get the spoken words of each reel, in the language it was spoken, in the same row as its plays, likes, comments, caption, audio track and creator. Nothing is translated or summarized. No account or cookies are needed.

Good for content research, hook swipe files, repurposing reels into posts and blogs, checking what competitors say, and feeding AI agents with real creator scripts.

Why this one

• $0.004 per minute of audio. A 60-second reel costs $0.0059 in total, including its data row.
• Music-only reels cost nothing extra. A reel set to a licensed song has no speech to transcribe, so it's skipped and never charged a transcript minute.
• Performance data in the same row. Plays, likes, comments, date, duration, caption, audio and the creator's follower count come with every transcript, so you can see which scripts actually worked.
• Transcribe only the reels that performed. When you give a creator, minPlays skips the flops before any transcription is done.
• Creators, single reels or a sound. An @username transcribes that creator's latest reels. An audio page transcribes the reels that use that sound.
• Any language. Each row carries the language the reel was spoken in (transcriptLanguage).

Input

Field	What it does
reelUrls	Reel URLs, profile URLs, @usernames (their latest reels), or /reels/audio/<id>/ pages.
maxReels	Stop after this many reels (default 20).
newerThan	Only reels after a date (2026-09-01) or within a period (30 days).
minPlays	Only transcribe reels with at least this many plays. This works when you give a creator (play counts come from their reels tab).
includeAiSummary	Add the title and summary that Instagram's own AI writes for the post (free).
includeVideoViews	Add the public view count, which is separate from plays (free).

{ "reelUrls": ["@natgeo"], "maxReels": 10, "minPlays": 500000 }

Output

Each row is one reel. The fields below are from a real run on 2026-09-26, with the transcript shortened:

{
  "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdpAtTHkvgk/",
  "owner": { "username": "natgeo", "followerCount": 268501633 },
  "createdAt": "2026-09-23T19:00:54.000Z",
  "video": { "duration": 39.04, "playCount": null },
  "likeCount": 23208,
  "commentCount": 202,
  "transcript": "You can't speed up and accelerate faster than the speed of light. But there are back doorways to accomplish that. … If we discover a substance called negative mass, that actually has negative gravity, you can use that to pry open a wormhole. …",
  "transcriptLanguage": "en",
  "caption": "It's not possible to accelerate faster than the speed of light, but that doesn't…",
  "audio": { "id": "28641574595474603", "title": "Original audio", "artist": "natgeo", "isOriginal": true }
}

Rows carry every field of yugenox/instagram-scraper: media URLs, hashtags, mentions, tagged users, co-authors, location and more. A reel with no speech has transcript: "".

Pricing

These are the same prices as yugenox/instagram-scraper with "Video transcripts" on.

• $0.0019 per reel row ($1.90 per 1,000), with volume discounts by Apify plan (table below).
• $0.004 per started minute of audio transcribed, on every plan. Reels set to a licensed song are skipped and not charged. Reels longer than 15 minutes aren't transcribed, and no minute is charged for them.

Reel length	You pay (Free and Starter plans)
30 seconds	$0.0059
60 seconds	$0.0059
90 seconds	$0.0099

Your Apify plan (discount tier)	Per reel row	Per 1,000 reel rows
Free (FREE)	$0.0019	$1.90
Starter (BRONZE)	$0.0019	$1.90
Scale (SILVER)	$0.0015	$1.50
Business (GOLD)	$0.0011	$1.10
Enterprise (PLATINUM)	$0.0008	$0.80
Enterprise (DIAMOND)	$0.0006	$0.60

• AI summaries and video view counts are included at no extra cost.
• Free Apify plans are limited to 100 reels per run.
• The pricing tab also lists creator-report, an optional add-on of the shared engine. Transcript runs never use it.

How it compares

This is the total cost of one 60-second reel with a transcript, at Free-plan list prices on the Apify Store (2026-09-26):

Actor	Price for one 60-second reel	Plays, likes and creator in the row
This Actor	$0.0059	Yes
apple_yang / Instagram Transcript API	$0.0055 ($0.0045/min + $0.001/row)	Partly
steadyfetch / Instagram Reels Transcript Scraper	$0.015 per reel	Yes
crawlerbros / Instagram Transcript Scraper	$0.07 ($0.01 per 10 s + $0.01/row) plus a start fee	Partly
afanasenko / Reel Transcript & Hooks	$0.075 per reel (also reads on-screen text)	Yes

FAQ

Do I need an Instagram account or cookies? No.

Which languages work? Any language spoken in the reel. The transcript stays in the original language, and transcriptLanguage gives its ISO code.

Can I transcribe photo posts or a hashtag? Photos have no audio, and hashtag or location pages mix photos with videos. This Actor only accepts sources that are all videos. For mixed sources, use yugenox/instagram-scraper with "Video transcripts" turned on.

Why is playCount empty for a single reel link? Logged-out visitors only see play counts on a creator's reels tab. Give the @username instead of the link and every row gets its plays.

Does it read text shown on screen? No, only the spoken audio.

Is it legal to scrape Instagram? This Actor only collects publicly available data: posts, reels and profiles from public Instagram accounts, which anyone can see without logging in. Collecting publicly available data is generally legal, but you're responsible for how you use it. Results can include usernames, profile details, captions and comments from public accounts, and that counts as personal data. You must follow privacy laws such as GDPR, PIPEDA and CCPA, as well as Instagram's terms. If you're unsure, check with a lawyer. More on this: Is web scraping legal?

Transcripts reproduce creators' words, so respect copyright when you republish them. If you contact creators you find, anti-spam laws apply: CASL in Canada, CAN-SPAM in the US, and GDPR/ePrivacy in the EU.

Does it access any private data? No. Everything comes from pages Instagram shows to any visitor without logging in. It never uses a login, never touches private or restricted accounts, and never reaches password-protected areas. Private accounts are never accessed.

Use it from code, n8n, Make or an AI agent

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/yugenox~instagram-reels-transcript/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -d '{"reelUrls":["@natgeo"],"maxReels":5}'

• n8n / Make: use the Apify node, choose "Run Actor and get dataset items" and pick yugenox/instagram-reels-transcript.
• MCP (Claude, Cursor and others): add https://mcp.apify.com?actors=yugenox/instagram-reels-transcript as an MCP server.

More Instagram tools

• Instagram Scraper: posts, reels, profiles, hashtags, locations and audio.
• Instagram Comments Scraper: every public comment, top comments first.
• Instagram Trends: Instagram's own trending keywords and rising profiles.
• Instagram Influencer Analytics: median reel plays, engagement and brand deals per creator.