Can I get an Instagram account's followers list?

Yes. /v1/instagram/followers and /v1/instagram/following return the accounts page by page, each with its username and profile details. Private accounts are not readable by anyone outside their approved followers, including us.

Can the API find an Instagram creator's email?

Only when it is public. /v1/instagram/profile returns public business contact info (email/phone) where the account lists it: an email written in the bio arrives in author.ext.public_email, and /v1/instagram/profile/about returns the contact details the account publishes. When there is none, the field is null.

How much does an Instagram profile lookup cost?

A profile call costs at most 10 credits, and 2 when the answer comes from the shared cache. Repeating it is charged again, so keep the profiles you already fetched. List endpoints such as posts or comments are metered: they quote a range and charge what the page actually read. Calls that fail or find nothing are free.

Do I need a Instagram developer account?

No. There is no Instagram app, OAuth flow or review. One API key in the x-api-key header works for Instagram and the other 24 platforms.

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.

What are the Instagram API rate limits?

60 requests a minute and 10 requests in flight at once, per API key. Going over either returns a 429 with a Retry-After header, and a rejected request costs nothing. There is no daily quota: past those two limits, your credit balance is what bounds volume.

How does pagination work on Instagram list endpoints?

List endpoints return rows in data.items and a pagination object with next_cursor and has_more. Send next_cursor back unchanged as the cursor parameter for the next page, and stop when has_more is false. A handful of endpoints page with their own parameter instead; their reference pages name it.

Am I charged for failed calls?

No. A call that errors or finds nothing costs 0 credits. A live fetch costs the endpoint's price, or for a metered endpoint what it actually read. An answer served from the shared cache costs 2 credits. Repeating a call is charged like the first time, because it can return newer data.

How fresh is the Instagram data?

A call fetches live unless a recent copy is in the shared cache, and every response says which with the cached field; a cached answer costs 2 credits. Add fresh=1 or send Cache-Control: no-cache to skip the cache; that call is charged at the normal price.

Is it legal to scrape Instagram?

Collecting publicly available data is generally treated differently from accessing private data, but the answer depends on your jurisdiction, Instagram's terms and what you do with personal data afterwards. The API reads public data only. Talk to a lawyer for anything commercial.

Instagram scraper API

The Instagram scraper API for public profiles, posts, reels, comments and followers, as JSON. No Meta app review, no Business account, no scraper to keep alive.

Get a free API key Instagram API docs

36 endpoints · from 10 credits a call · 10 free calls up to 100 credits each · no credit card

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

200 OKJSON

{
"success": true,
"platform": "instagram",
"endpoint": "/v1/instagram/profile",
"schema_version": "2",
"data": {
"author": {
"id": "1234567890",
"username": "example_creator",
"display_name": "Example Creator",
"avatar_url": "https://cdn.example.com/avatars/example_creator.jpg",
"bio": "Travel photos and slow mornings. Collabs: hello@example.com",
"verified": false,
"followers": 48210,
"followers_approximate": null,
"following": 612,
"posts_count": 734,
"likes_count": null,
"url": "https://www.instagram.com/example_creator/",
"location": null,
"external_url": "https://example.com",
"private": false,
"joined_at": null,
"last_post_at": "2026-09-30T08:12:44.000Z",
"ext": {
"public_email": "hello@example.com",
"business_category": "Photographer"
}
}
},
"unavailable": [],
"credits_used": 0,
"charge_reason": "miss",
"free_call": true
}

What Instagram data can you get?

Public Instagram data only, returned in the same JSON envelope as every other platform.

Profiles and contact details

Bio, exact follower count and verification, plus public business contact info (email/phone) where the account lists it.

Posts and reels

An account's recent posts and reels with captions, like, comment and play counts, and Collab co-authors.

Comments, replies and likers

Comment threads under any public post, with replies, plus a sample of the accounts that liked it.

Followers, search and discovery

Follower and following lists, hashtag and location posts, profile search and similar accounts.

Instagram API endpoints

All 36 Instagram endpoints and their price in credits. 14 are metered: they show a range and charge what the call actually read.

Endpoint	Credits	What it returns
/profile	10	Returns an Instagram account's public profile: bio, exact integer follower count on author.followers, following count, picture URL, verification, and author.ext.public_email from the bio.
/profile/about	10	Returns Instagram's "About this account" details for a public account (country, month joined, published contact) plus its follower count and lifetime post count.
/profile/posts	10–130	Returns a user's recent posts with caption, like and comment counts, media URL, media type, and timestamp; share counts are not included.
/post	10	Returns one post's details: caption, view count on videos and reels, like and comment counts, media URLs, media type, the author, and any tagged users.
/post/comments	50–150	Returns a post's comments, each with its text, author, like count, reply count, and time, ranked by popularity by default or newest first.
/comment	50–150	Returns one comment's current text, like count, reply count, author, and timestamp, plus the post's total comment count for context.
/basic-profile	10	Returns a minimal Instagram profile looked up by numeric user id: username, full name, and profile picture.
/profile/reels	10–140	Returns a user's reels with view, like and comment counts and a thumbnail; share counts are not included here.
/highlights	10	Returns a user's saved story highlight collections, each with its title, cover image, and the number of items inside.
/highlight/detail	10	Returns the individual stories saved inside one highlight, with their media URLs, timestamps, and interaction counts.
/search/reels	10–650	Returns reels matching a keyword, each with its view count, like count, and author; share and save counts are not included on this endpoint.
/media/transcript	100	Returns the spoken words in an Instagram video or reel of up to 2 minutes as text.
/media/screen-text	50–50	Returns the text shown on an Instagram post's images, read by AI: the photo, each carousel slide up to 10, or a reel's cover frame, with results per slide.
/audio/reels	10	Returns reels that use one specific audio track, each with its engagement counts and the account that posted it.
/search/hashtag	50	Returns public posts carrying a hashtag, each with shortcode, URL, caption, media URLs, engagement counts, and the author; share and save counts are not included.
/search/profiles	10–250	Returns public profiles matching a keyword, each with username, display name, bio, follower and following counts, post count, and profile URL.
/reels/trending	50	Returns reels from Instagram's public trending page, each with shortcode, URL, caption, media URLs, engagement counts where shown, and the account.
/followers	50–100	Returns the accounts that follow a user, each with username, display name, avatar URL, verification status, and profile URL.
/following	50–100	Returns the accounts a user follows, each with username, display name, avatar URL, verification status, and profile URL.
/similar	50–850	Returns the accounts Instagram suggests as similar to a given user, each with username, display name, avatar URL, verification status, and URL.
/post/likers	50	Returns up to about 2,000 of the accounts that liked a post, each with username, display name, avatar, and verification status, plus the full like count, in one call with no further pages.
/post/stats	50–90	Returns one post's engagement: likes, comments, and, on video posts only, the play count and the share count shown by the paper plane icon.
/tagged	50	Returns posts that tag a given user, each with its shortcode, URL, caption, media URLs, engagement counts, and the account that posted it.
/location/posts	50	Returns posts tagged at a place, newest first, about 60 a page, each with shortcode, URL, caption, media URLs, engagement counts, and the author.
/engagement	50	Returns an engagement report for an account: its engagement rate over the recent posts, follower count, total likes and comments, and a per-post breakdown.
/search/location	50	Returns places matching a keyword, each with its location id, name, and coordinates, plus a display title and subtitle.
/search	10	Returns mixed Instagram search matches for a query: accounts, hashtags, and places in one payload.
/search/popular	10–130	Returns popular Instagram posts matching a keyword, each with caption, play count, permalink, thumbnail, and the owner's username.
/post/comment/replies	10	Returns replies under one Instagram comment, each with text, like count, nested reply count, author, and timestamp.
/username-suggestions	50	Returns suggested available Instagram usernames built from a keyword you supply.
/search/music	50	Returns audio tracks matching a keyword, each with artist, title, audio and cover artwork URLs, duration, and usage details.
/stories	50	Returns the stories a user has live right now, each with its id, image or video URLs, thumbnail, duration, capture time, and the author.
/story/download	50	Returns the full resolution image or video URLs and metadata for one specific story.
/profile/full	50	Returns the profile plus its latest 12 posts in one call.
/profile/reels/full	50–250	Returns a user's reels with views, likes, comments, and a per-reel share count where the second source exposes one, plus a coverage figure.
/profile/posts/full	50–250	Returns a user's recent posts with likes, comments, views, and a per-post share count where the second source exposes one, plus a coverage figure.

Parameters, response fields and examples for each endpoint are in the Instagram API reference.

InsightSocial vs the official Instagram API

The Instagram Graph API is built for Business and Creator accounts that connect to your app, and every permission goes through Meta app review.

	InsightSocial API	Official Instagram API
Whose data	Any public account, personal or business	Accounts that connect to your app; limited lookups of other Business accounts
Approval	None. Sign in and copy a key	Meta app review for each permission
Followers and likers	Lists of accounts, page by page	Counts only, not the accounts
Comments	Any public post, with replies	Posts on accounts you manage
Cost per call	10 credits	No per-call price; access is gated by Meta app review

The official API is the right tool for posting, messaging or managing accounts you own. This one is read-only public data.

How much does the Instagram API cost?

Instagram calls start at 10 credits. Every endpoint's price is in the table above and in the free GET /v1/endpoints catalogue, so you know the cost before you call. Pro's 10,000 monthly credits cover about 1,000 profiles at 10 credits each.

Failed calls are free
A call that errors or finds nothing costs 0 credits.
Retries are free
Resend a request with the same Idempotency-Key and the replay costs 0. Repeating a call without one is charged like the first time, because it can return newer data.
One balance
API calls and Chrome extension exports share the same credits. The free plan includes 500 a month.

See plans and credit packs How credits work

Not writing code?

Connect InsightSocial to Claude or ChatGPT and ask for Instagram data in plain English. Same account, same credits.

Use it from Claude or ChatGPT

Instagram API: frequently asked questions

Not for personal accounts. Meta retired the Instagram Basic Display API in December 2024, and the Graph API that remains reads Business and Creator accounts that connect to your app, after app review. The InsightSocial API reads any public profile with one key and no review.

Instagram scraper API

What Instagram data can you get?

Profiles and contact details

Posts and reels

Comments, replies and likers

Followers, search and discovery

Instagram API endpoints

InsightSocial vs the official Instagram API

How much does the Instagram API cost?

Failed calls are free

Retries are free

One balance

Not writing code?

Instagram API: frequently asked questions

Instagram API guides

The same key works for 24 more platforms