Instagram AI Transcript Extractor

Extract AI transcripts from public Instagram Reels and video posts. Add Reel URLs, run the Actor, and export transcript text, timestamped segments, media metadata, and per-URL status rows for research, repurposing, accessibility, compliance review, and content analysis workflows.

What it does

• Transcribes public Instagram Reels/videos into readable text
• Includes timestamped transcript segments when ASR returns segment timing
• Preserves one dataset row per input URL, including classified failures
• Normalizes Instagram URLs and deduplicates repeated inputs
• Reports duration, media bytes, model/source, and scrape timestamp for QA and cost tracking

Who is it for

• Social media teams turning Reels into blog posts, captions, summaries, and briefs
• Researchers reviewing creator messaging, public campaigns, or trends
• Accessibility and compliance teams that need text from public video content
• Developers and AI agents that need transcript text as structured data

Input example

{
  "startUrls": [
    { "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPR-1mcCAqa/" }
  ],
  "maxItems": 1,
  "language": "en",
  "includeSegments": true,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}

Input settings

Output example

{
  "inputUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPR-1mcCAqa/",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPR-1mcCAqa/",
  "shortcode": "DPR-1mcCAqa",
  "status": "succeeded",
  "errorType": null,
  "errorMessage": null,
  "transcriptText": "When you wake up with all the dreams... You might have a thousand problems until you have one.",
  "segments": [
    { "id": 1, "startSeconds": 0, "endSeconds": 5.12, "text": "When you wake up with all the dreams..." }
  ],
  "language": "en",
  "requestedLanguage": "en",
  "transcriptionSource": "logged-out Instagram browser payload + MP4 download + whisper.cpp",
  "asrModel": "ggml-base.en.bin",
  "durationSeconds": 47.188,
  "ownerUsername": null,
  "ownerId": null,
  "caption": null,
  "mediaType": "clips/reel",
  "mediaId": null,
  "videoUrlFound": true,
  "videoContentLength": 5596476,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-08-02T18:58:12.560Z",
  "metadata": { "httpStatus": 200, "htmlBytes": 733429 }
}

Input recipes

• Single Reel transcript: set one public Reel URL and maxItems to 1.
• Small batch review: provide 3-10 public Reel URLs and keep language as en for English speech.
• Failure audit: include known private/deleted/unsupported URLs to receive classified failure rows without losing successful transcripts from the same run.

Limits and troubleshooting

• Only public Instagram Reel/video URLs are supported. Private, deleted, unavailable, or unsupported URLs return failure rows.
• Transcript quality depends on audio clarity, speech language, background music, and speaker overlap.
• Very long videos take longer because audio must be downloaded and transcribed.
• Instagram may temporarily throttle anonymous access; retry later or keep Apify Proxy enabled.
• No native Instagram transcript is required; the Actor transcribes public media audio.

API usage

JavaScript:

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('fetch_cat/instagram-ai-transcript-extractor').call({
  startUrls: [{ url: 'https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPR-1mcCAqa/' }],
  maxItems: 1,
  language: 'en',
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items[0].transcriptText);

Python:

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient('YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN')
run = client.actor('fetch_cat/instagram-ai-transcript-extractor').call(run_input={
    'startUrls': [{ 'url': 'https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPR-1mcCAqa/' }],
    'maxItems': 1,
    'language': 'en',
})
items = client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items().items
print(items[0]['transcriptText'])

cURL:

curl -X POST 'https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/fetch_cat~instagram-ai-transcript-extractor/runs?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"startUrls":[{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPR-1mcCAqa/"}],"maxItems":1,"language":"en"}'

MCP and agent usage

Use this Actor from agents through Apify MCP with:

https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch_cat/instagram-ai-transcript-extractor

Claude CLI example:

claude mcp add apify-instagram-transcripts https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch_cat/instagram-ai-transcript-extractor

MCP JSON config example:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify-instagram-transcripts": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch_cat/instagram-ai-transcript-extractor"
    }
  }
}

Example prompts:

• "Transcribe these three public Instagram Reel URLs and return transcript text plus timestamps."
• "Run the Instagram AI Transcript Extractor and summarize only rows where status is succeeded."
• "Check failed rows and group them by errorType."

Support

Questions or issues? Open an issue on the Actor page in Apify Console and include the run ID plus a sample URL that reproduces the behavior.