Instagram Post Details Scraper

Extract structured metadata from direct public Instagram post URLs. Paste /p/{shortcode}/ links and get normalized post details for reporting, research, enrichment, exports, API workflows, and AI agents.

At a glance

• Primary job: Turn public Instagram post URLs into clean dataset rows.
• Input: Direct public Instagram /p/ post URLs.
• Output: Caption, author, shortcode, timestamp, visible engagement counts, media links, and diagnostics.
• Best for: Social media analysis, creator research, brand monitoring, compliance review, and content datasets.

Who is this for?

• Social media analysts tracking public post performance from known URLs.
• Influencer and creator marketers auditing campaign posts without crawling full profiles.
• Brand, compliance, and research teams collecting normalized public post records for review.
• AI and automation builders feeding public post metadata into reports, alerts, or enrichment pipelines.

Use cases

• Campaign reporting: Export captions, authors, dates, and visible engagement for a curated URL list.
• Content research: Build datasets from public posts you already know about.
• Compliance review: Keep reproducible records of public post metadata and capture missing/error diagnostics.
• Workflow automation: Trigger runs from API, Zapier-like tools, or MCP agents and process the dataset downstream.

Input recipes

• Small smoke test: Use one public post URL and maxItems: 1.
• Campaign audit: Paste a list of saved campaign post URLs and export owner, caption, date, likes, and comments.
• Research dataset: Schedule repeat runs for the same URL list to refresh public metadata over time.

What data can you extract?

Example input

{
  "startUrls": [
    { "url": "https://www.instagram.com/p/DWZitMjgHp1/" }
  ],
  "maxItems": 1,
  "includeMediaUrls": true,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}

Example output

{
  "inputUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/p/DWZitMjgHp1/",
  "status": "success",
  "shortCode": "DWZitMjgHp1",
  "url": "https://www.instagram.com/p/DWZitMjgHp1/",
  "type": "post",
  "ownerUsername": "cristiano",
  "ownerFullName": "Cristiano Ronaldo",
  "ownerProfileUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/cristiano/",
  "caption": "On the ball ⚽️",
  "hashtags": [],
  "mentions": [],
  "timestamp": "2026-03-27T00:00:00.000Z",
  "likesCount": 3000000,
  "commentsCount": 28000,
  "isVideo": false,
  "isCarousel": false,
  "missingFields": [],
  "scrapedAt": "2026-07-15T08:49:40.909Z"
}

Tips for best results

• Use direct post links: This Actor is for /p/{shortcode}/ URLs, not profile, hashtag, search, or comment URLs.
• Start small: Test 1-3 URLs before running larger batches.
• Expect missing fields: Instagram may hide likes, comments, dates, or media URLs on some public posts. Missing public fields are listed in missingFields.
• Use proxies: Residential proxy is prefilled because Instagram often rate-limits cloud traffic.

API usage

Node.js:

import { ApifyClient } from "apify-client";

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor("fetch_cat/instagram-post-details-scraper").call({
  startUrls: [{ url: "https://www.instagram.com/p/DWZitMjgHp1/" }],
  maxItems: 1,
  includeMediaUrls: true
});
console.log(run.defaultDatasetId);

Python:

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("fetch_cat/instagram-post-details-scraper").call(run_input={
    "startUrls": [{ "url": "https://www.instagram.com/p/DWZitMjgHp1/" }],
    "maxItems": 1,
    "includeMediaUrls": True,
})
print(run["defaultDatasetId"])

cURL:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/fetch_cat~instagram-post-details-scraper/runs?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"startUrls":[{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/DWZitMjgHp1/"}],"maxItems":1,"includeMediaUrls":true}'

MCP and AI agents

Use this Actor from MCP-compatible tools through the official Apify MCP Server.

claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=fetch_cat/instagram-post-details-scraper"

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=fetch_cat/instagram-post-details-scraper"
    }
  }
}

Example prompt: "Run Instagram Post Details Scraper for these public post URLs and summarize captions, owners, and visible engagement."

Limits and caveats

• Public direct Instagram post URLs only. Private, deleted, age-gated, login-only, profile, hashtag, search, follower, liker, DM, and comment-thread data are out of scope.
• Visible public metrics can be hidden or rounded by Instagram.
• Instagram may throttle large or frequent runs; keep concurrency low and use proxies.
• Error rows are saved for invalid or unsupported URLs so batch runs are easier to debug.

Legality and responsible use

Process only public data that you are allowed to access. Follow Instagram's terms, Apify's terms, and applicable laws. Do not use this Actor for private account data, login-only data, or personal data misuse.

Support

Open an issue from the Actor page if a run fails or output looks wrong. Include the run ID or run URL, input JSON, expected output, actual output, and one reproducible public URL.