Instagram Stories & Highlights Scraper - Media Export

Export accessible Instagram Stories and Highlights with direct image/video URLs, timestamps, captions, links, mentions, hashtags, stickers, music, profile metrics, and highlight context. Download results as CSV, Excel, JSON, XML, or RSS, or use them through the Apify API and MCP server.

Instagram requires a logged-in session for story and highlight access. Supply your own authorized sessionid value or full Cookie header. This Actor does not log in for you, bypass private-profile permissions, or expose the cookie in output.

What can it do?

• Collect active 24-hour Stories and saved Highlight items.
• Return direct image/video variants, thumbnails, dimensions, duration, audio presence, and accessibility captions.
• Extract visible captions, links, mentions, hashtags, sticker types, and music title/artist/ID.
• Preserve highlight ID, title, cover, order, item order, and item count.
• Add profile ID, name, biography, verification/privacy status, picture, follower/following/post counts, business category, and external URL when Instagram returns them.
• Filter returned media by sinceDate and prevent duplicate rows by stable ID.
• Keep valid results when another profile or one media source fails.
• Distinguish a verified no-media profile from an expired cookie, private/missing profile, rate limit, changed response, or deadline stop in RUN_SUMMARY.

Who is it for

This scraper is for social media analysts, brand owners, agencies, journalists, and compliance teams that need structured exports of Instagram Stories and Highlights they are authorized to view.

Access and permitted use

Only export Instagram content you are allowed to access and process. Respect Instagram's terms, privacy rules, copyright, and local data-protection laws. Do not use exported media or profile data for spam, harassment, or unauthorized surveillance.

Use cases

• Archive authorized campaign Stories before their 24-hour expiry.
• Monitor accessible brand or creator Highlights for additions and changes.
• Verify influencer Story links, mentions, media, and timestamps.
• Compare Highlight themes, titles, covers, and content across public profiles.
• Feed scheduled media snapshots into spreadsheets, warehouses, alerts, dashboards, or research agents.

Session cookie and privacy

Use a secondary Instagram account dedicated to authorized research where possible. In your logged-in browser, copy either the sessionid cookie value or the full Cookie header and paste it into the secret instagramCookies input.

The session can access only content that account is allowed to view. This Actor rejects private profiles instead of attempting to bypass privacy. Instagram may expire the session, request a checkpoint, or restrict a session/IP; renew the cookie in your browser when that happens. Never paste a cookie into an issue, task title, log, README, or public message.

Input settings

The backward-compatible startUrls input remains accepted through API calls even though targets is the preferred UI field.

Input example

{
  "targets": ["natgeo", "https://www.instagram.com/instagram/"],
  "instagramCookies": "sessionid=YOUR_AUTHORIZED_SESSION_ID",
  "includeStories": true,
  "includeHighlights": true,
  "maxProfiles": 2,
  "maxHighlightsPerProfile": 5,
  "maxItemsPerHighlight": 20,
  "sinceDate": "2026-07-01T00:00:00Z",
  "includeRaw": false,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}

Output example

{
  "kind": "highlight_item",
  "username": "natgeo",
  "profileUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/natgeo/",
  "profileId": "787132",
  "fullName": "National Geographic",
  "isVerified": true,
  "status": "ok",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/123456/",
  "stableId": "787132:highlight_item:123456:987654",
  "mediaId": "987654",
  "mediaType": "video",
  "mediaUrl": "https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/video.mp4",
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/image.jpg",
  "imageUrls": ["https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/image.jpg"],
  "videoUrls": ["https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/video.mp4"],
  "caption": "Field notes #Wildlife",
  "takenAt": "2026-07-14T10:00:00.000Z",
  "durationSeconds": 8.5,
  "width": 1080,
  "height": 1920,
  "linkUrls": ["https://example.org/story"],
  "mentions": ["example_creator"],
  "hashtags": ["Wildlife"],
  "stickerTypes": ["link"],
  "musicTitle": "Example track",
  "musicArtist": "Example artist",
  "highlightId": "123456",
  "highlightTitle": "Expeditions",
  "highlightIndex": 1,
  "highlightItemIndex": 2,
  "highlightItemCount": 12,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-07-14T10:05:00.000Z",
  "raw": null
}

Direct CDN media URLs can expire or require compatible session context later. Archive authorized media promptly if long-term retention is part of your workflow.

Reliability and charging behavior

• Input and cookie format are validated before the start event.
• The start charge is fatal; it is never silently ignored.
• A profile event is charged only after an authorized profile check produces media or confirms a valid no-media result.
• Missing, private, authentication-rejected, rate-limited, deadline, and other failed profiles produce diagnostic rows without a profile event.
• If every profile fails, the platform run fails instead of appearing green with paid error rows.
• Mixed runs preserve successful media and finish with PARTIAL in RUN_SUMMARY.
• Bounded retries use profile-specific proxy sessions, exponential backoff, and Retry-After when Instagram supplies it.
• Highlight items are requested in bounded batches; repeated media IDs are removed.
• A safe work deadline leaves time to persist rows and RUN_SUMMARY before the platform timeout.

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-stories-highlights-scraper').call({
  targets: ['natgeo'],
  instagramCookies: process.env.INSTAGRAM_COOKIE,
  includeStories: true,
  includeHighlights: true,
  maxHighlightsPerProfile: 5,
  includeRaw: false,
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Python

import os
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient(os.environ['APIFY_TOKEN'])
run = client.actor('fetch_cat/instagram-stories-highlights-scraper').call(run_input={
    'targets': ['natgeo'],
    'instagramCookies': os.environ['INSTAGRAM_COOKIE'],
    'includeStories': True,
    'includeHighlights': True,
    'maxHighlightsPerProfile': 5,
    'includeRaw': False,
})
print(client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items().items)

cURL

curl -X POST 'https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/fetch_cat~instagram-stories-highlights-scraper/runs?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"targets":["natgeo"],"instagramCookies":"sessionid=YOUR_AUTHORIZED_SESSION_ID","includeStories":true,"includeHighlights":true}'

Keep cookies in environment variables or secret inputs rather than source code or shell history.

MCP and AI agents

Use the Actor through the Apify MCP server:

https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch_cat/instagram-stories-highlights-scraper

Add it to Claude Code:

claude mcp add apify-instagram-stories 'https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch_cat/instagram-stories-highlights-scraper'

Example MCP JSON configuration:

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

Example prompts:

• “Using my secret Instagram session input, export the accessible Stories from these three public brand profiles.”
• “Collect the first five Highlights for this profile and list external Story links and mentions.”
• “Return media posted since yesterday and summarize music and sticker usage.”

Support

If a run behaves unexpectedly, open an Actor issue with:

• The run ID or run URL.
• The input JSON with instagramCookies, proxy URLs, and all secrets removed.
• The expected output and actual output returned by the dataset.
• An example reproducible public URL, when possible.

Never post a session cookie. RUN_SUMMARY is designed to show whether the problem was input validation, an expired/rejected session, a private/missing profile, source response change, rate limit, partial source failure, or deadline.

Privacy and data handling

Use this Actor only for content your session is authorized to view and for a lawful purpose. Inputs and outputs remain in your Apify account storage according to your settings. Requests go to Instagram and, when enabled, through Apify Proxy; FetchCat does not send them to advertising networks, data brokers, or model-training services.