How much does a call cost?

Each endpoint has its own price in credits. A fixed endpoint, such as an Instagram profile at 10 credits, never costs more than its listed price, and a result served from cache costs less. A metered endpoint quotes a range and charges only what the call actually read. Calls that fail or find nothing cost nothing. Repeating a call is charged like the first time, because it can return newer data.

Is there a free tier?

Yes. Your first 10 calls priced at 100 credits or less are free, and the free plan includes 500 credits every month. No credit card is needed to get a key.

Do I need an Instagram, TikTok or X developer account?

No. There is no app review, no OAuth flow and no per-platform setup. One API key in the x-api-key header works for every platform.

Is the API the same account as the Chrome extension?

Yes. The API and the extension share one login and one credit balance. Credits you buy for exports can be spent on API calls, and the other way round.

What are the rate limits?

Each API key can send 60 requests per minute with 10 in flight at once. A rejected request costs nothing. Beyond that, your credit balance is the only limit, and you can create up to 25 keys per account.

Can an AI agent use it?

Yes. The endpoint catalogue at GET /v1/endpoints is public, free and needs no key. It lists every path, parameter and price, so Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any coding agent can plan calls and estimate cost before it spends anything.

Your first 10 calls are free, up to 100 credits each

Social media data API for developers

Profiles, posts, comments, followers and search from 25 platforms. One API key, one JSON shape, priced per call.

Get a free API key Read the docs

25 platforms
302 endpoints
No credit card

Popular

All 25 platforms

One call, clean JSON back

Send a GET with your key in the x-api-key header. This is a real response, cut to fit.

curl -G "https://api.insightsocial.app/v1/tiktok/profile" \
-d handle=khaby.lame \
-H "x-api-key: $INSIGHTSOCIAL_API_KEY"

200 OKJSON

{
"success": true,
"platform": "tiktok",
"endpoint": "/v1/tiktok/profile",
"schema_version": "2",
"data": {
"author": {
"id": "127905465618821121",
"username": "khaby.lame",
"display_name": "Khabane lame",
"verified": true,
"followers": 162994521,
"following": 81,
"posts_count": 1356,
"likes_count": 2684397698,
"url": "https://www.tiktok.com/@khaby.lame",
"external_url": null
}
},
"unavailable": [],
"credits_used": 10,
"credits_remaining": 9990,
"request_id": "req_6eadb822c9b4",
"cached": false,
"idempotent_replay": false,
"charge_reason": "miss",
"free_call": false
}

25 platforms, one request shape

302 endpoints. Switching platform means changing the path; the auth header, the envelope and the errors stay the same.

TikTok

37 endpoints

/profile10 cr
/profile/videos10 cr
/post10 cr
/post/comments10–30 cr

TikTok scraper API

Instagram

36 endpoints

/profile10 cr
/profile/about10 cr
/profile/posts10–130 cr
/post10 cr

Instagram scraper API

Facebook

29 endpoints

/profile10 cr
/profile/posts10–40 cr
/post10 cr
/post/comments10 cr

Facebook scraper API

YouTube

26 endpoints

/channel10 cr
/channel/about250 cr
/channel/videos10–20 cr
/video10 cr

YouTube scraper API

Twitter/X

15 endpoints

/profile10 cr
/user/tweets10 cr
/tweet10 cr
/community10 cr

Twitter/X scraper API

67 endpoints

/profile50 cr
/company50 cr
/company/by-domain50 cr
/profile/similar50 cr

LinkedIn scraper API

14 endpoints

/subreddit10 cr
/subreddit/details10 cr
/search10–300 cr
/post10 cr

Reddit scraper API

Threads

6 endpoints

/profile10 cr
/user/posts10–1,650 cr
/post10 cr
/search10–340 cr

Threads scraper API

6 endpoints

/search10–260 cr
/pin10 cr
/url-stats10 cr
/board10–160 cr

Pinterest scraper API

16 more platforms

What you can build

The same few calls, pointed at different questions. The numbers below are illustrative examples.

Creator vetting

Vet a creator before you pay them

Pull the profile, the last 30 posts and their comments, then compute real engagement instead of trusting a media kit.

Brand monitoring

Catch mentions on a schedule

Run keyword search on TikTok, Reddit and X from a cron job. A repeat call inside the cache window returns the cached result, so it will not show newer mentions; add fresh=1 for a new read, which is always charged.

Competitor tracking

Watch what competitors publish

Schedule profile and post reads for a list of accounts and diff them day over day: new posts, follower moves, what took off.

Audience research

Read what people actually say

Collect comments and replies under the posts that matter, then feed them to your own model for themes and sentiment.

Connect with AI agents

Add the official MCP server with one command, paste one prompt into Claude Code, Cursor, Codex or Windsurf, or point your agent at the docs as Markdown.

PromptWorks in any coding agent

One prompt, and your agent does the setup

It reads the catalogue, checks your key and makes the first calls, and asks before it spends more than you set.

Claude Code
Cursor
Codex
Windsurf
GitHub Copilot
Cline

Read the full agent guide

Prompt

Set up the InsightSocial API in this project and make a first call.

- Base URL: https://api.insightsocial.app/v1
- Auth: send x-api-key: $INSIGHTSOCIAL_API_KEY. Never Bearer. Never print the key.
- Read GET /v1/endpoints?platform=<platform> first. It is free and needs no key.
- Use only the paths and params it lists.
- Tell me the price before any call over 50 credits.
- On INSUFFICIENT_CREDITS, stop and tell me.

Full guide: https://www.insightsocial.app/docs/ai-agents.md

MCPCLI · skills · open source

One command sets up your agent

Saves your key, installs the agent skill and adds the MCP server to Claude Code, Cursor and Codex. MCP setup · GitHub

Terminal

npx -y insightsocial init

Docsllms.txt · Markdown

The whole docs in one file

Every page as Markdown, for an agent that can fetch a URL. Add .md to any docs page for just that page.

Terminal

curl -s https://www.insightsocial.app/docs/llms-full.txt

Cataloguepublic · free · no key

Agents price a job before they spend

Every path, parameter and price as JSON, so an agent never invents a parameter.

Terminal

curl -s "https://api.insightsocial.app/v1/endpoints?platform=instagram"

Replace a folder of scrapers with one key

1: JSON envelope; the same on all 25 platforms
0: credits for failures; failed and empty calls are free
60: requests per minute; per key, 10 in flight
500: free credits a month; no credit card

Why not the official APIs?

They are built for managing accounts you own. This is built for reading public data across platforms.

	InsightSocial API	Official platform APIs
Approval	None. Sign in and copy a key	App review per platform, often weeks
Whose data	Any public profile, post or comment	Often limited to accounts you manage
Setup	One key and one request shape for 25 platforms	One app, token flow and SDK per platform
Cost	Per call, published per endpoint. Failed and empty calls are free	Free tiers are tight; paid tiers are contracts
Response	The same JSON envelope on every platform	A different schema per platform

Approval: None. Sign in and copy a key; Official APIs: App review per platform, often weeks
Whose data: Any public profile, post or comment; Official APIs: Often limited to accounts you manage
Setup: One key and one request shape for 25 platforms; Official APIs: One app, token flow and SDK per platform
Cost: Per call, published per endpoint. Failed and empty calls are free; Official APIs: Free tiers are tight; paid tiers are contracts
Response: The same JSON envelope on every platform; Official APIs: A different schema per platform

Compared with Apify, Bright Data and others

General scraping platforms and other social data APIs, compared on platforms covered, pricing model, free tier and auth.

Roundup

Best social media scraping APIs in 2026

Seven multi-platform APIs side by side, with prices checked on each vendor's own site.

Read the comparison

Head to head

InsightSocial vs Apify

Where a general scraping platform fits, and where one social API key is simpler.

See the comparison

More head to head

Guides

Pay for what a call reads

Every endpoint has a published price in credits. The balance is the same one the Chrome extension uses.

Priced per endpoint

A fixed endpoint never costs more than its listed price, like 10 credits for an Instagram profile, and a cache hit costs less. A metered one quotes a range and settles at what it used, never above the ceiling.

Failures and retries are free

A call that fails or finds nothing costs 0, and so does a retry sent with the same Idempotency-Key. Any other call that returns data is charged, a repeat included, because it can return newer data.

One balance for everything

API calls and extension exports draw from the same credits. The free plan includes 500 a month; top up with a plan or a credit pack.

See plans and credit packs Price of every endpoint

Not writing code?

The Chrome extension reads the same platforms from your browser, on the same account and credits.

Chrome extension

For marketers and researchers. Open a page, click scrape, export to Excel, CSV or Google Sheets.

Explore the extension

Developer API

For developers and agents. Call it from a backend, a cron job or a pipeline, at any volume your credits cover.

Get your API key

Social media API: frequently asked questions

Public data only: profiles, posts, reels and videos, comments and replies, followers and following lists, search results, hashtags and transcripts, across Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Threads, YouTube, Reddit, Pinterest, Bluesky, Truth Social, Snapchat, Telegram, Twitch, Kick, Rumble, Kwai, Douyin, Xiaohongshu, Weibo, Zhihu, Quora, Substack, Nextdoor and TikTok Shop. Every endpoint, with its parameters and price, is listed in the docs and in the free GET /v1/endpoints catalogue.

Make your first call in a minute

Terminal

curl "https://api.insightsocial.app/v1/instagram/profile?handle=natgeo" \
-H "x-api-key: $INSIGHTSOCIAL_API_KEY"

Get a free API key Browse the docs