Instagram Downloader API

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📥 Instagram downloader API for public media URLs

Instagram Downloader API downloads media URLs from public Instagram posts, reels, and TV links. Paste one or more Instagram URLs and export direct media links, thumbnails, captions, engagement counts, source URLs, shortcodes, author usernames, timestamps, and scrape metadata to an Apify dataset.

Use this Instagram downloader API when you already have the Instagram post or reel URLs and need a repeatable way to collect media links for content review, research, reporting, archiving, social media operations, or an API workflow. The Actor works with public Instagram pages only. You do not need to provide Instagram cookies, a login, or an Instagram API key.

For a small first run, keep the prefilled public Instagram reel URL and start the Actor. Once the output shape looks right, paste your own list of public Instagram post, reel, or TV links, schedule the Actor, or call it through the Apify API.

✅ What this Actor does

• Accepts public Instagram post, reel, and TV URLs.
• Supports URL forms such as https://www.instagram.com/p/SHORTCODE/ and https://www.instagram.com/username/reel/SHORTCODE/.
• Saves one dataset row per successfully found media item.
• Handles carousel posts by saving separate rows for the media items Instagram exposes.
• Adds direct media URLs, thumbnail URLs, captions, source links, shortcodes, author usernames, and scrape timestamps.
• Adds visible engagement counts such as likes, comments, and views when Instagram exposes them publicly.
• Can include a small preview of public comments when Instagram exposes preview comments on the page.
• Skips unsupported, private, deleted, unavailable, or temporarily unreachable URLs without saving failure rows.

This Actor is focused on downloading media links from known public Instagram URLs. It does not discover posts from profiles, hashtags, search results, locations, stories, highlights, comments, followers, or private accounts.

📦 Data you can export

Each output row represents one public Instagram media item. Core fields include:

• status with success for saved media rows
• input_url and input_index
• canonical_url and source_url
• shortcode and raw_media_id
• media_type with photo or video
• media_index and carousel_count
• download_url and thumbnail_url
• username and caption
• like_count, comment_count, and view_count when available
• taken_at and taken_at_timestamp
• width, height, and file_extension
• comments_preview
• scraped_at

You can open the dataset in Apify, export it as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, RSS, or HTML, call it through the Apify API, schedule runs, or connect it to webhooks and integrations.

🚀 How to run

1. Paste one or more public Instagram URLs in Instagram URLs.
2. Keep Comments preview limit at 50, lower it, or set it to 0 if you only need media links and post metadata.
3. Start the Actor.
4. Open the dataset and use download_url for the media link and source_url to trace the row back to Instagram.

For quick tests, use 1-2 public URLs. For larger batches, add up to 100 public post, reel, or TV URLs in one run.

🔧 Input

Example input:

{
"urls":[
"https://www.instagram.com/kyliejenner/reel/DRP7Cajkpn9/"
],
"commentsPreviewLimit":50
}

📄 Output example

{
"status":"success",
"input_url":"https://www.instagram.com/kyliejenner/reel/DRP7Cajkpn9/",
"input_index":0,
"canonical_url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/DRP7Cajkpn9/",
"source_url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/DRP7Cajkpn9/",
"shortcode":"DRP7Cajkpn9",
"media_type":"video",
"media_index":0,
"carousel_count":null,
"download_url":"https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/example.mp4",
"thumbnail_url":"https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/example.jpg",
"username":"kyliejenner",
"caption":"obsessed @smashkitchen",
"like_count":865743,
"comment_count":7257,
"view_count":null,
"taken_at":"2025-11-19T18:54:29.000Z",
"taken_at_timestamp":1763578469,
"width":720,
"height":1280,
"file_extension":"mp4",
"comments_preview":[],
"source":"instagram",
"service":"instagram.com",
"parent_shortcode":null,
"raw_media_id":"3769491063829600765",
"scraped_at":"2026-05-28T21:25:00.000Z"
}

Field availability depends on what Instagram exposes on the public page. Missing public values are saved as null or empty arrays instead of guessed.

💰 Pricing

This Actor uses pay-per-event pricing. You pay for each Instagram media item saved to the dataset, plus the standard small Actor start charge shown by Apify before you run it.

The media item event is set to $4.50 per 1,000 media items.

⚠️ Limits and access

Instagram Downloader API works with public Instagram post, reel, and TV pages. It does not use Instagram accounts, cookies, or API keys.

Private accounts, deleted posts, login-only pages, stories, highlights, profile feeds, hashtag feeds, search pages, and comment-only exports are not supported. If Instagram temporarily does not expose a URL, the Actor logs the issue and continues with the rest of your list.

Direct media URLs are source-provided URLs available at scrape time. They can expire or change later, so store or process important media soon after the run.

❓ FAQ

🎞️ Can I download Instagram reels?

Yes. Add a public Instagram reel URL in Instagram URLs. The output includes a media download_url when Instagram exposes one publicly.

🔐 Do I need Instagram cookies or an account?

No. This Actor is designed for public Instagram URLs and does not ask for user cookies, a login, or an Instagram API key.

🖼️ Can this download carousel posts?

Yes, when Instagram exposes carousel media publicly. The Actor saves separate media rows and includes media_index plus carousel_count so you can keep the items grouped.

🚧 Does it save private Instagram posts?

No. Private, deleted, login-only, or otherwise unavailable Instagram content is outside the Actor's contract.

🔌 Can I use it through the Apify API?

Yes. The Actor output is a normal Apify dataset, so you can run it through the Apify API, export the results, schedule runs, or connect it to integrations and webhooks.

📝 Changelog

• 0.1: Initial release.

🆘 Support

For issues, questions, or feature requests, file a ticket and I'll fix or implement it in less than 24h 🫡

🔗 Other actors

• TikTok Video Downloader ↗ - Download public TikTok video or audio files with source metadata.
• Telegram Media Downloader ↗ - Export media links and post data from public Telegram channels and posts.
• Social Media Stats Checker ↗ - Check public profile stats across major social platforms.
• TikTok Transcript Scraper ↗ - Extract public TikTok captions and transcript text.
• YouTube Channel Scraper ↗ - Export public YouTube channel and recent video data.

Made with ❤️ by Maxime Dupré