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 Post Comments 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/post/comments

Instagram Post Comments API

Returns a post's comments, each with its text, author, like count, reply count, and time, ranked by popularity by default or newest first.

Get a free API key Full API reference

50–150 credits, metered · cursor pagination · failed calls free · 10 free calls to start

curl "https://api.insightsocial.app/v1/instagram/post/comments?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%2Fp%2FDXidPIVDU6M%2F" \
-H "x-api-key: $INSIGHTSOCIAL_API_KEY"

200 OKJSON

{
"success": true,
"platform": "instagram",
"endpoint": "/v1/instagram/post/comments",
"schema_version": "2",
"data": {
"items": [
{
"comment": {
"id": "<string>",
"url": "<string | null>",
"parent_id": "<string | null>",
"post_id": "<string | null>",
"text": "<string | null>",
"author": {
"id": "<string | null>",
"username": "<string | null>",
"display_name": "<string | null>",
"avatar_url": "<string | null>",
"verified": "<boolean | null>"
},
"engagement": {
"likes": "<integer | null>",
"replies": "<integer | null>"
},
"flags": {
"pinned": "<boolean | null>",
"deleted": "<boolean>"
},
"published_at": "<string | null>",
"language": "<string | null>",
"replies": "<array | null>",
"ext": "<object | null>"
}
}
]
},
"pagination": {
"next_cursor": "<string | null>",
"has_more": "<boolean>"
},
"unavailable": [],
"credits_used": "<integer>"
}

When to use it

Use it to read the comment section of one post, paging deeper with the cursor it returns; pass sort=recent for newest first.

Parameters

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

Name	Required	Description
url	Yes	URL of the Instagram post (a /p/, /reel/, /reels/, or /tv/ link).
sort	No	Ordering: top (default) ranks by Instagram's popularity order (most-liked first); recent returns newest-first. Use recent when you are paging through a whole thread: Instagram ranks only the most-liked head, so a top walk starts repeating comments once you page past it.
cursor	No	Pagination cursor. Use the next_cursor from the previous response to fetch the next page.
safe_url	No	When true, returns URL-safe profile picture links suitable for embedding.
scan_pages	No	Optional, 1 to 3, default 1. With 2 or 3, the call reads that many pages, drops comments repeated across pages, and returns them all sorted by likes (sort=top) or newest first (sort=recent). Use it when the first page of a top-sorted thread is low-like comments.

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.
url	string \| null
parent_id	string \| null	An identifier, always a string. Never parse it as a number: several platforms use ids above 2^53.
post_id	string \| null	An identifier, always a string. Never parse it as a number: several platforms use ids above 2^53.
text	string \| null
author.id	string \| null
author.username	string \| null
author.display_name	string \| null
author.avatar_url	string \| null
author.verified	boolean \| null
engagement.likes	integer \| null	A count. null when the platform does not expose it; 0 only when it is really zero.
engagement.replies	integer \| null	A count. null when the platform does not expose it; 0 only when it is really zero.
flags.pinned	boolean \| null
flags.deleted	boolean
published_at	string \| null	ISO-8601 timestamp in UTC, ending in Z.
language	string \| null	The content's language as the platform states it, e.g. en, pt-BR. Detected languages come later (§7.1).
replies	array \| null
ext	object \| null	Platform-specific fields, snake_case.

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

How much does the Instagram Post Comments API cost?

Metered: 50–150 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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