Instagram Hashtag Scraper

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Scrape public Instagram hashtag posts and reels by hashtag. Get post URLs, shortcodes, captions, usernames, public engagement signals, media thumbnails, video URLs when available, parsed hashtags, parsed mentions, and scrape timestamps.

Use this actor when you need a repeatable dataset of public Instagram hashtag content for campaign monitoring, influencer discovery, UGC tracking, trend analysis, or social listening workflows.

What does Instagram Hashtag Scraper do?

Instagram Hashtag Scraper opens public Instagram hashtag pages and collects visible post and reel cards from the rendered page. For each result, it saves the content URL, media type, caption text, creator username, profile URL, public media preview URLs, visible engagement counts, hashtags, mentions, and metadata about the scrape.

It is designed for lightweight monitoring of public hashtag pages. You provide one or more hashtags, choose the maximum number of results per hashtag, and export the dataset from Apify in JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, RSS, or HTML.

Who is it for?

• 📣 Social media managers tracking campaign hashtags and UGC.
• 🧑‍💼 Influencer marketers finding creators who post about a niche.
• 🛍️ E-commerce teams monitoring product and brand hashtags.
• 🧪 Market researchers collecting examples of public Instagram content.
• 🧰 Automation builders feeding Instagram hashtag results into CRM, sheets, BI, or AI workflows.
• 📰 Trend analysts watching topics, memes, challenges, and recurring phrases.

Why use this scraper?

• ✅ Collect multiple hashtags in one run.
• ✅ Export structured data instead of copying Instagram cards manually.
• ✅ Capture captions, hashtags, and mentions for text analysis.
• ✅ Save direct post/reel URLs for follow-up review.
• ✅ Use Apify integrations, schedules, webhooks, API, and MCP tools.
• ✅ Keep test inputs small and scale up only when you need more records.

What Instagram data can I extract?

How much does it cost to scrape Instagram hashtags?

This actor uses pay-per-event pricing. There is a small start fee per run and a per-result charge for each Instagram post or reel saved to the dataset.

Current event prices:

Example cost estimates for a Bronze-tier user:

Free-plan estimate: Apify's free monthly credits can cover many small validation runs. For example, a 10-result test run is roughly eleven cents in actor charges before any platform-level usage limits or credit policies shown in your Apify account.

To keep costs predictable:

• Start with maxResultsPerHashtag set to 10–20.
• Add only the hashtags you actually need.
• Schedule recurring small runs rather than one very large exploratory run.
• Review the dataset after the first run before increasing limits.

Exact current prices are also shown on the Apify actor page before you start a run.

How to scrape Instagram hashtags

1. Open the actor on Apify.
2. Add one or more hashtags, for example apify, webscraping, or ugc.
3. Set maxResultsPerHashtag.
4. Keep includeReels enabled if reels are relevant to your workflow.
5. Run the actor.
6. Download the dataset or connect it to an integration.

Input options

hashtags

List of Instagram hashtags. Use values with or without #.

Examples:

["apify","#webscraping","ugc"]

startUrls

Optional Instagram hashtag URLs. This is useful if your workflow already stores full URLs.

Example:

[{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/apify/"}]

maxResultsPerHashtag

Maximum number of public post or reel cards to save for each hashtag.

includeReels

If enabled, reel URLs are saved. If disabled, the scraper skips reel cards and keeps regular post URLs only when Instagram shows them.

proxyConfiguration

Instagram cloud runs are most reliable with Apify residential proxy enabled. The default input uses residential proxy so scheduled and production runs start from the reliable path.

Example input

{
"hashtags":["apify"],
"maxResultsPerHashtag":20,
"includeReels":true,
"proxyConfiguration":{
"useApifyProxy":true,
"apifyProxyGroups":["RESIDENTIAL"]
}
}

Example output

{
"hashtag":"apify",
"postUrl":"https://www.instagram.com/reel/DX5rTD_soy2/",
"shortcode":"DX5rTD_soy2",
"mediaType":"reel",
"caption":"I literally used Claude (and Apify and LinkedIn) to get unlimited jobs...",
"authorUsername":"msbintel",
"authorProfileUrl":"https://www.instagram.com/msbintel/",
"thumbnailUrl":"https://scontent...jpg",
"displayUrl":"https://scontent...jpg",
"videoUrl":"https://scontent...mp4",
"likesCount":null,
"commentsCount":null,
"viewsCount":458000,
"timestamp":null,
"hashtags":["#ai","#aitools","#claude","#apify","#linkedin"],
"mentions":[],
"sourceUrl":"https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/apify/",
"scrapedAt":"2026-05-23T08:00:00.000Z"
}

Tips for better results

• 🔎 Use specific hashtags rather than broad generic tags.
• 📉 Keep the first run small to validate output quality.
• 🕒 Use schedules for recurring monitoring.
• 🧹 Deduplicate by postUrl or shortcode in downstream systems.
• ⚠️ Instagram may show different fields for different hashtags, regions, or sessions.
• 🧾 Treat null metric fields as “not publicly visible in the hashtag grid,” not as zero.

Integrations

You can connect this actor with Apify integrations and external tools:

• Google Sheets for campaign tracking.
• Make.com or Zapier for no-code workflows.
• Webhooks for new-run notifications.
• Slack or Discord for hashtag monitoring alerts.
• Airtable for UGC review queues.
• Data warehouses for trend dashboards.
• AI tools for caption classification and sentiment analysis.

API usage

Node.js

import{ ApifyClient }from'apify-client';
const client =newApifyClient({token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN});
const run =await client.actor('automation-lab/instagram-hashtag-scraper').call({
hashtags:['apify'],
maxResultsPerHashtag:20,
includeReels:true,
});
const{ items }=await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient('YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN')
run = client.actor('automation-lab/instagram-hashtag-scraper').call(run_input={
'hashtags':['apify'],
'maxResultsPerHashtag':20,
'includeReels':True,
})
items = client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items().items
print(items)

cURL

curl-X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~instagram-hashtag-scraper/runs?token=$APIFY_TOKEN"\
-H'Content-Type: application/json'\
-d'{"hashtags":["apify"],"maxResultsPerHashtag":20,"includeReels":true}'

MCP usage

Use this actor through Apify MCP from Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, or VS Code:

https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=automation-lab/instagram-hashtag-scraper

Claude Code quick add:

$claude mcp add apify-instagram-hashtag --transport http "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=automation-lab/instagram-hashtag-scraper"

Claude Desktop JSON config:

{
"mcpServers":{
"apify-instagram-hashtag":{
"url":"https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=automation-lab/instagram-hashtag-scraper"
}
}
}

Cursor setup:

1. Open Settings → MCP servers.
2. Add a new HTTP server named apify-instagram-hashtag.
3. Use https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=automation-lab/instagram-hashtag-scraper as the server URL.
4. Save, reconnect the server, and ask Cursor to run the Apify Instagram hashtag tool.

VS Code setup:

1. Install an MCP-compatible assistant extension that supports HTTP MCP servers.
2. Add a server named apify-instagram-hashtag.
3. Set the HTTP endpoint to https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=automation-lab/instagram-hashtag-scraper.
4. Confirm the tool list includes automation-lab/instagram-hashtag-scraper before prompting the assistant.

Example prompts:

• “Run the Instagram Hashtag Scraper for apify and summarize common captions.”
• “Find public reels for webscraping and return the top creator usernames.”
• “Collect 20 posts for ugc and group captions by mentioned brands.”

Data quality notes

Instagram hashtag pages are dynamic. The public page may expose captions, usernames, thumbnails, video URLs, and view counts, but exact timestamps and comment counts may not be visible in the hashtag grid. This actor preserves those fields and returns null when Instagram does not expose them publicly during the run.

Limitations

• The actor only scrapes public hashtag pages.
• It does not log in to Instagram.
• It does not bypass private accounts or restricted content.
• Very large runs may be affected by Instagram rate limits.
• Instagram can change the public page structure, which may affect extraction.

FAQ and troubleshooting

Why did I get fewer results than requested?

Instagram may expose fewer public cards for a hashtag, or the page may stop loading additional cards during the run. Try a smaller limit first, then increase it gradually.

Why are timestamps or comment counts null?

Those values are often not present in the public hashtag grid. The actor returns null rather than guessing.

Why did the page redirect?

Instagram sometimes redirects /explore/tags/<tag>/ pages to public topic URLs. The scraper follows browser redirects and still saves the original sourceUrl.

Legality and ethical use

This actor is intended for public Instagram content visible without logging in. Make sure your use case complies with Instagram’s terms, applicable laws, and privacy requirements. Do not use scraped data for spam, harassment, or unauthorized profiling.

Related scrapers

Other automation-lab actors that may fit related workflows:

• https://apify.com/automation-lab/instagram-scraper
• https://apify.com/automation-lab/instagram-comments-scraper
• https://apify.com/automation-lab/instagram-stories-scraper
• https://apify.com/automation-lab/tiktok-search-scraper
• https://apify.com/automation-lab/youtube-search-scraper

Changelog

0.1

• Initial version for public Instagram hashtag post and reel cards.
• Supports multiple hashtags, maximum results per hashtag, optional reel filtering, and proxy settings.

Support

If the actor stops returning data, include your input, run ID, and a short description of the expected hashtag results when reporting an issue.