Instagram Post Scraper

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Scrape public Instagram posts, reels, IGTV and carousel posts from direct URLs — no login, no cookies, no browser required. Supply a list of Instagram links (/p/, /reel/, /reels/, /tv/, or the canonical username/p/shortcode format) and receive a structured dataset with author details, caption, media URLs, engagement counts, publish date, music, location, and more. Handles batches of 10,000 URLs per run with per-IP proxy rotation that keeps pace fast even under rate limiting.

What this actor does

• Scrape posts by URL — accepts any mix of /p/, /reel/, /reels/, /tv/, and canonical username/p/shortcode links in a single run
• Full media extraction — returns direct CDN URLs for every photo, video, reel and carousel item, including per-item resolution and duration
• Rich author data — username, display name, verified status, follower count, post count, and profile picture URL
• Engagement metrics — like count, comment count, play count, video duration, and whether likes are publicly hidden
• Captions, hashtags, and mentions — caption text parsed with hashtags and @mentions extracted as separate arrays
• Location and music — tagged location (name, coordinates) and reel music (artist, title, audio ID) when present
• Status tracking — every input URL produces a record; inaccessible, deleted, age-restricted, and invalid URLs each carry a clear status value so no URL is silently lost
• Scale without blocks — per-IP cooldown with exponential back-off, automatic slot recycling, and UUID-prefixed sessions that guarantee fresh IPs on every run

Output per post record

Always present

• status — scrape outcome: success, not_found, invalid_url, error, or blocked (see Status values section below)
• post_url — full Instagram post URL (https://www.instagram.com/p/{shortcode}/)
• shortcode — the post's unique shortcode identifier
• scraped_at — ISO 8601 timestamp of when the record was scraped
• hashtags — array of hashtags found in the caption (empty array [] when none)
• mentions — array of @mentioned usernames in the caption (empty array when none)
• tagged_users — array of usernames tagged in the post media (empty array when none)
• collaborators — array of co-author usernames (empty array when none)
• caption — full caption text (empty string "" when there is no caption)
• likes_hidden — true if the author has hidden like counts, false otherwise
• comments_disabled — true if comments are turned off on the post, false otherwise

Present on successfully scraped posts (status: success)

• post_id — Instagram's internal numeric post ID
• username — author's Instagram username
• full_name — author's display name
• owner_id — author's numeric account ID
• profile_url — full URL to the author's Instagram profile
• is_verified — true if the author has a verified badge
• owner_profile_pic_url — CDN URL of the author's profile picture
• owner_is_business — true if the account is a business account
• owner_followers — author's follower count
• owner_post_count — total number of posts on the author's profile
• pub_date — ISO 8601 publish timestamp
• media_type — one of Photo, Video, Reel, IGTV, or Carousel
• media_count — number of media items (always 1 except for carousels)
• media_urls — array of direct CDN URLs for each media item
• thumbnail_url — CDN URL of the post thumbnail image
• like_count — number of likes (null when likes_hidden is true)
• comment_count — number of comments
• media_items — array of per-item objects, each with index, type, url, width, height. Single-item array for photos, videos, reels, and IGTV; multi-item array for carousels. Video items also include duration and has_audio
• dimensions — {width, height} object of the primary media item

Present only for video, reel, and IGTV posts

• play_count — total view / play count
• video_duration — duration in seconds (float)
• has_audio — true if the video has an audio track

Present only when location is tagged

• location — object with name, id, slug, lat, lng

Present only for reels with music attribution

• music — object with artist, title, audio_id, is_trending

Present only for paid partnerships

• sponsor_tags — array of sponsor usernames
• is_paid_partnership — true if the post is a paid partnership

Present only for posts with accessibility captions

• accessibility_caption — auto-generated accessibility description of the image

Status values

Every input URL — whether valid or not — produces exactly one output record with a status field:

Age-restricted content

Instagram age-gates some posts (alcohol brands, adult content) at the API level. Without a logged-in session the anonymous endpoint returns a not-found response for these posts — they appear with status: "not_found" rather than raising an error. This is a server-side restriction; no workaround exists without authentication.

Input

Example: scrape a single post

{
"post_urls":[
"https://www.instagram.com/p/DUtk38cj2TA/"
]
}

Example: mixed batch of posts, reels, and canonical URLs

{
"post_urls":[
"https://www.instagram.com/p/DUtk38cj2TA/",
"https://www.instagram.com/reel/C9uzjsSpHJC/",
"https://www.instagram.com/leomessi/p/DZifppZj_cB/",
"https://www.instagram.com/tv/CQa7HaGlRPD/"
]
}

Example: large batch

{
"post_urls":[
"https://www.instagram.com/p/DUtk38cj2TA/",
"... (up to 10,000 URLs)"
]
}

Example output

{
"status":"success",
"post_url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/DUtk38cj2TA/",
"shortcode":"DUtk38cj2TA",
"post_id":"3672810928374650123",
"username":"natgeo",
"full_name":"National Geographic",
"owner_id":"787132",
"profile_url":"https://www.instagram.com/natgeo/",
"is_verified":true,
"owner_profile_pic_url":"https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/v/...",
"owner_is_business":false,
"owner_followers":284000000,
"owner_post_count":32400,
"caption":"The ancient forest at dawn. #nature #wildlife #photography",
"hashtags":["nature","wildlife","photography"],
"mentions":[],
"pub_date":"2025-11-12T08:30:00+00:00",
"media_type":"Photo",
"media_count":1,
"media_urls":["https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/v/...jpg"],
"media_items":[
{"index":1,"type":"Photo","url":"https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/v/...jpg","width":1080,"height":1350}
],
"thumbnail_url":"https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/v/...jpg",
"dimensions":{"width":1080,"height":1350},
"like_count":482910,
"comment_count":3204,
"likes_hidden":false,
"comments_disabled":false,
"tagged_users":[],
"collaborators":[],
"is_paid_partnership":false,
"scraped_at":"2025-11-12T09:14:33.421000+00:00"
}

Records for inaccessible or invalid URLs look like this:

{"status":"not_found","post_url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/DELETED123/","shortcode":"DELETED123","scraped_at":"..."}
{"status":"invalid_url","post_url":"https://www.google.com/","scraped_at":"..."}

Age-restricted and private content

Instagram does not expose age-gated content through its anonymous API. Posts from accounts that require age verification (alcohol brands, adult content) return status: "not_found" rather than producing a data record. Private account posts behave the same way. This is a server-side restriction enforced by Instagram and cannot be bypassed without authenticated session cookies.

Use cases

• Competitor content analysis — track post frequency, engagement rates, media types and captions across competitor accounts to benchmark your own content strategy
• Influencer vetting — verify follower counts, engagement ratios and posting history before signing a partnership deal
• Brand monitoring — collect all posts tagged with your brand name or product from any source URL and feed them into a monitoring dashboard
• Social media archiving — create a permanent structured archive of a campaign's posts before content is deleted or made private
• Research and journalism — gather public post metadata at scale for academic studies on misinformation, trends, or audience behaviour
• Content repurposing — extract caption text and media URLs from your own posts to migrate or republish content across platforms
• Hashtag performance tracking — scrape posts sharing a known hashtag to measure reach and identify top-performing formats
• E-commerce product research — collect posts from brand accounts to analyse product launches, promotions and customer response

FAQ

Do I need an Instagram account or cookies to use this actor? No. This actor scrapes public posts anonymously without any login, cookies, or account credentials. No authentication is required for publicly accessible content.

Why do some posts return status: "not_found"? A not_found status means Instagram's API returned no data for that URL. This happens when a post has been deleted, made private, or when the post is from an age-restricted account (such as alcohol brands or accounts requiring age verification). These are server-side restrictions that cannot be bypassed without an authenticated session.

Why is like_count missing on some posts? When an author hides their like counts, Instagram does not return the figure in the API response. The record will have likes_hidden: true and like_count will be absent from the output.

How many URLs can I submit in one run? Up to 10,000 URLs per run. The actor automatically uses residential proxies with per-IP session rotation to handle large batches reliably — no proxy configuration is required on your end.

How fresh is the data? Data is scraped live at the time of the run. Post metadata reflects the current state of Instagram at the moment of scraping — including the latest like and comment counts.

What URL formats are supported? The actor accepts /p/, /reel/, /reels/, and /tv/ links, as well as canonical username/p/shortcode URLs (e.g. https://www.instagram.com/natgeo/p/DUtk38cj2TA/). Duplicate URLs pointing to the same post are automatically de-duplicated.

Is this actor affiliated with Instagram or Meta? No. This is an independent third-party tool that automates interaction with the public Instagram website. It is not endorsed by or affiliated with Meta Platforms, Inc.

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