Do I need a Instagram developer account?

No. There is no Instagram app, OAuth flow or app review. One InsightSocial API key works for this endpoint and every other platform, and your first 10 calls priced at 100 credits or less are free.

How do I get every result, not just the first page?

This endpoint pages. Each response carries pagination.next_cursor and pagination.has_more. Send next_cursor back unchanged as the cursor parameter and stop when has_more is false. Every page is a separate call and is charged as one.

What happens if the account is private or nothing is found?

You get an error or an empty result, and it costs 0 credits. The API reads public Instagram data only, so private accounts and deleted content come back as not found rather than as partial data.

Can I call the Instagram Following API from Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor?

Yes. Add the hosted MCP server at https://api.insightsocial.app/mcp to your AI app and sign in. The assistant finds this endpoint by name, shows its price and calls it with your credits.

GET /v1/instagram/following

Instagram Following API

Returns the accounts a user follows, each with username, display name, avatar URL, verification status, and profile URL.

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50–100 credits, metered · cursor pagination · failed calls free · 10 free calls to start

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

200 OKJSON

{
"success": true,
"platform": "instagram",
"endpoint": "/v1/instagram/following",
"schema_version": "2",
"data": {
"items": [
{
"author": {
"id": "<string>",
"username": "<string | null>",
"display_name": "<string | null>",
"avatar_url": "<string | null>",
"bio": "<string | null>",
"verified": "<boolean | null>",
"followers": "<integer | null>",
"followers_approximate": "<boolean | null>",
"following": "<integer | null>",
"posts_count": "<integer | null>",
"likes_count": "<integer | null>",
"url": "<string | null>",
"location": "<string | null>",
"external_url": "<string | null>",
"private": "<boolean | null>",
"joined_at": "<string | null>",
"last_post_at": "<string | null>",
"ext": "<object | null>"
}
}
],
"total": "<integer | null>",
"truncated": "<boolean | null>"
},
"pagination": {
"next_cursor": "<string | null>",
"has_more": "<boolean>"
},
"unavailable": [],
"credits_used": "<integer>"
}

When to use it

Use it for the other side of the graph from followers: the accounts this user chose to follow.

Parameters

Query parameters for GET /v1/instagram/following. Send your key in the x-api-key header.

Name	Required	Description
handle	One of handle, user_id	Instagram username without the @ symbol.
user_id	One of user_id, handle	Instagram numeric user ID. Use this for faster responses.
cursor	No	Pagination cursor. Use the next_cursor from the previous response to fetch the next page.
coverage	No	Send full to walk a merged list: accounts are added from several reads of the list and no account appears twice inside a page, until the rows reach the profile's count in data.total. On the pages one source covered on its own a handful of accounts can repeat across consecutive pages; wherever that source cannot cover the list the merged walk runs instead, and it never returns an account it has already given you. Requires handle. A page usually takes about 8 seconds and can take up to about 45, and a 503 is retried with the same cursor. A cursor from this mode only continues this mode.

Response fields

The same unified schema every platform returns, so code written for Instagram works on the other eight. A field the platform did not provide is null and listed in unavailable.

Field	Type	Notes
id	string	An identifier, always a string. Never parse it as a number: several platforms use ids above 2^53.
username	string \| null
display_name	string \| null
avatar_url	string \| null
bio	string \| null
verified	boolean \| null
followers	integer \| null	A count. null when the platform does not expose it; 0 only when it is really zero.
followers_approximate	boolean \| null
following	integer \| null	A count. null when the platform does not expose it; 0 only when it is really zero.
posts_count	integer \| null	A count. null when the platform does not expose it; 0 only when it is really zero.
likes_count	integer \| null	A count. null when the platform does not expose it; 0 only when it is really zero.
url	string \| null
location	string \| null
external_url	string \| null
private	boolean \| null
joined_at	string \| null	ISO-8601 timestamp in UTC, ending in Z.
last_post_at	string \| null	ISO-8601 timestamp in UTC, ending in Z.
ext	object \| null	Platform-specific fields, snake_case.

Every field, error and example is in the Instagram Following API reference.

How much does the Instagram Following API cost?

Metered: 50–100 credits a call. The ceiling is reserved when the call starts and you are charged what it actually read.

Failed calls are free
A call that errors or finds nothing costs 0 credits.
Know the price first
Add dry_run=1 and the response quotes the call without making it. Nothing is charged.
One balance
API calls and Chrome extension exports share the same credits, on the free plan too.

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