Instagram Stories & Highlights Scraper 📸

Instagram Stories & Highlights Scraper downloads the active stories and all saved highlights of any public Instagram account — no login, no cookies, no password. Get every story and highlight media item with direct photo and video download URLs, plus mentions, hashtags, swipe-up links and location. Run it on a schedule to monitor accounts and get only new stories before they expire. Export to CSV, Excel or JSON, or pull it straight from the API.

Perfect for social media monitoring, competitor tracking, influencer research and content archiving.

• ✅ No login / no cookies — your Instagram account is never touched or put at risk
• ✅ Stories and highlights for any public profile
• ✅ Direct download URLs for every photo and video — save the media itself
• ✅ Monitoring mode — schedule it and pay only for new stories
• ✅ Captures mentions, hashtags, links & location stickers
• ✅ CSV, Excel, JSON, XML export + full API, scheduler and integrations

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What does the Instagram Stories & Highlights Scraper do?

Give it one or more Instagram usernames or profile URLs and it returns one clean row per media item — every currently-active story and every clip inside every saved highlight album — each with a direct, downloadable image or video URL. Schedule it with monitoring mode on and it becomes a story watcher that captures new stories automatically, 24/7, before they disappear.

What data does it extract?

One row per story / highlight media item:

Field	Description	Example
source_username	Profile the media belongs to	nasa
item_type	story or highlight	highlight
highlight_title	Highlight album name (highlights only)	Mars
media_type	photo or video	video
image_url	Direct image download URL	https://…jpg
video_url	Direct video download URL (videos)	https://…mp4
video_duration	Length in seconds	12.5
taken_at	When it was posted (Unix)	1724980000
expiring_at	When a story expires (stories only)	1725066400
mentions	@mentioned accounts	["spacex"]
hashtags	Hashtags on the story	["mars"]
link_urls	Swipe-up / link-sticker URLs	["https://nasa.gov"]
location	Tagged location name	Kennedy Space Center

How to download Instagram stories & highlights (step by step)

1. Enter one or more usernames or profile URLs (nasa or https://www.instagram.com/nasa/).
2. Choose Stories + Highlights, Stories only, or Highlights only.
3. (Optional) Cap max highlight albums per profile.
4. (Optional) Turn on monitoring mode to get only new media on scheduled runs.
5. Click Start, then download from the Storage → Dataset tab as CSV, Excel, JSON or XML — or read it via the API. Each row's image_url / video_url links straight to the media file.

Example input

{
  "targets": ["nasa", "natgeo"],
  "scrapeType": "both",
  "maxHighlights": 20
}

Example output

{
  "source_username": "nasa",
  "item_type": "highlight",
  "highlight_title": "Mars",
  "media_type": "video",
  "image_url": "https://cdn.instagram.com/…thumb.jpg",
  "video_url": "https://cdn.instagram.com/…clip.mp4",
  "video_duration": 12.5,
  "taken_at": 1724980000,
  "mentions": ["spacex"],
  "hashtags": ["mars"],
  "location": "Kennedy Space Center"
}

Monitor accounts for new stories (scheduling)

Turn on onlyNew and set an Apify schedule (for example every hour). Each run returns only stories that have appeared since the last run — so you capture stories before the 24-hour expiry, and you are billed only for the new ones.

{
  "targets": ["nasa", "natgeo", "spacex"],
  "scrapeType": "stories",
  "onlyNew": true
}

Run it via the Apify API

curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/YOUR~ACTOR/runs?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"targets": ["nasa"], "scrapeType": "both"}'

Works with the Apify SDK (JavaScript & Python), scheduled runs, webhooks, and integrations for Make, Zapier, n8n, Google Sheets, Slack and LangChain.

Pricing — pay only for results

You are billed per media item delivered to your dataset. Failed lookups, private-profile errors, and already-seen items in monitoring mode cost nothing.

Result type	Price
Story or highlight media item	$0.0085 per item ($8.50 / 1,000)

That is deliberately set below the category average — comparable Instagram story/highlight Actors on the Apify Store average roughly $0.0096–0.0107 per result, so this Actor comes in about 10% cheaper while returning direct download URLs and monitoring for free.

What can I use this for?

• Social media monitoring — watch competitors' and partners' stories on a schedule and archive them automatically.
• Competitor & campaign tracking — see what brands post in stories and highlights, including swipe-up links and promoted products.
• Influencer research & vetting — review a creator's highlights to judge content quality and brand fit before a campaign.
• Content archiving & backup — save your own or clients' stories and highlights, with the original media files, before they expire.
• Trend & hashtag research — collect story hashtags, mentions and locations across many accounts.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to log in to download Instagram stories?

No. This scraper uses its own managed data infrastructure — no login, no cookies, no password. Your account is never used, so it is never at risk, and viewing is anonymous (the account owner is not notified).

Can it download stories anonymously?

Yes. Nothing is done from your account, so the target never sees you in their story viewers.

Can it scrape a private account's stories or highlights?

No. Stories and highlights of private accounts are not publicly accessible. Private targets return a clear error row and are not billed.

How do I get new stories automatically before they expire?

Turn on monitoring mode (onlyNew) and set an Apify schedule (e.g. hourly). Each run returns only newly-appeared stories, so you capture them within the 24-hour window and pay only for the new ones.

Does it give me the actual photo and video files?

Yes. Every row includes a direct image_url and, for videos, a video_url that links straight to the media file for download.

What export formats are supported?

CSV, Excel (XLSX), JSON, JSONL and XML, plus direct API access and integrations with Make, Zapier, n8n and Google Sheets.

Is scraping Instagram stories legal?

This scraper collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using it in compliance with the laws that apply to you (including GDPR and CCPA) and Instagram's terms, and for respecting the rights of content creators. Do not republish media without permission.

Support & roadmap

Found a bug or want a feature? Open an issue on the Actor's Issues tab. On the roadmap: story-viewer lists, poll/quiz sticker results, and direct media file archiving to key-value storage.