Instagram Scraper: Extract Public Data Without API Limits

Access Instagram's public data without Business account requirements or API restrictions. This unofficial scraper lets you extract posts, comments, hashtags, and profile data—no limits, no barriers. Whether you're tracking brand mentions, analyzing competitor content, or discovering influencers, you can pull real-time Instagram data at scale without touching Instagram's locked-down official API.

You know what's funny? Instagram used to be this open playground where anyone could grab public data and build cool stuff. Then 2020 hit, and boom—they locked down their API harder than a vault. Suddenly, if you wanted to access even basic public information, you needed to be a Business account, jump through verification hoops, and still face ridiculous limitations.

But here's the thing: public data is public data. If someone posts it for the world to see, why should accessing it require a corporate blessing?

That's exactly what this Instagram scraper fixes. It gives you back the functionality that Instagram took away, letting you extract any public data without asking permission. No Business account needed. No Creator status required. Just straightforward access to information that's already out there.

What Can You Actually Scrape?

The scraper handles four main areas:

Profile scraping gets you two options—either pull all the posts from someone's profile, or just grab the profile metadata (follower count, bio, verification status, all that stuff). Great for building influencer databases or tracking competitor activity.

Hashtag scraping works similarly. Search for hashtags, then either collect all the posts using that tag or just get the hashtag's stats. If you're trying to ride a trend wave before it crashes, this is your early warning system.

Location scraping does the same thing but for places. Find posts tagged at specific locations or get location metadata. Useful if you're doing market research and need to understand what people are posting about in particular cities or venues.

Comment scraping pulls all comments from any post. This one's perfect for sentiment analysis—seeing how real humans actually react to content, not just the curated highlights brands want you to see.

Why Bother Scraping Instagram Anyway?

With a billion monthly users skewing younger than most platforms, Instagram holds some seriously valuable data. The question isn't whether the data exists—it's what you're going to do with it.

Here are some actually useful applications:

Track hashtags and engagement patterns to spot emerging trends before they blow up. Maybe you can launch a product that rides the wave, or at least avoid investing in something that's already peaked.

Pull location-based data to understand regional opportunities or risks. If you're considering opening a store or targeting a new market, seeing what people actually post about that area beats reading chamber of commerce brochures.

Scrape comments to get unfiltered customer opinions. Reviews can be gamed, but comment sections? Those tend to show you what people really think about your brand.

Find influencers who align with your products and track their engagement in real time. No need to rely on influencer marketing platforms that take a cut and show you outdated metrics.

Build constantly updating datasets on your industry or interests. Instead of static market research, you get live insights into how things are changing day by day.

And if you're in academia, this beats surveys by a mile. You're watching actual behavior instead of asking people what they think they do.

Need more specific use cases? Check out different industry applications where companies are already using web scraping to gain competitive advantages.

How to Use This Thing

The process is straightforward. You feed the scraper JSON input containing the Instagram pages you want to visit. The scraper handles the rest, pulling data and organizing it into a structured format you can actually work with.

Want step-by-step guidance? There's a detailed walkthrough with screenshots that covers everything from setup to export.

While it's running, the scraper outputs progress messages so you're not sitting there wondering if it crashed. You'll see which pages are being scraped, how many items are loading, and if anything goes wrong.

If you mess up the input, it won't waste your time—it stops immediately and tells you what's wrong.

How Many Results Can You Get?

Here's the honest answer: it depends.

The number of results varies based on what you're scraping. The easiest way to estimate? Open an incognito browser window, visit the Instagram URL you want to scrape, and see what Instagram shows to logged-out users. That's your baseline.

The maximum results fluctuate depending on input complexity, location, and Instagram's ever-changing structure. We run regular tests to benchmark performance, but Instagram isn't exactly static. Things change without warning.

Your best bet? Run a small test first with your specific use case. That'll give you realistic expectations instead of generic estimates that might not apply to your situation.

What's This Going to Cost?

Pricing is simple: pay-per-result. Scraping 1,000 Instagram comments costs $2.30, which breaks down to $0.0023 per comment.

The free plan includes $5 in monthly credits, enough to scrape over 2,100 comments without paying anything.

For regular extraction, the $49/month Starter plan makes more sense—that gets you over 21,000 comments monthly. If you're running this consistently, the math works out better than paying per run.

When you're working with large-scale data collection projects, having reliable infrastructure matters more than trying to cobble together free solutions that break when you need them most. Speaking of which—if you need to handle proxy rotation, CAPTCHA bypassing, and other scraping headaches without building everything from scratch, 👉 ScraperAPI handles the infrastructure so you can focus on using the data.

Is This Legal?

Our scrapers only extract public data—the stuff users chose to share with the world. We don't grab email addresses, gender, location, or anything private. When used ethically, this falls within reasonable bounds.

That said, your results might contain personal data, and personal data has legal protections. GDPR covers this in the EU, and other regions have their own regulations. You shouldn't scrape personal data unless you have a legitimate reason, and if you're unsure whether your reason qualifies, talk to a lawyer.

Want more context on the legal landscape? Here's a detailed look at web scraping legality that covers common questions and edge cases.

What the Output Looks Like

Results get stored in a dataset where each item is a separate entry. You can access this data using Python, PHP, Node.js, or any language that speaks HTTP.

The API reference has complete details on accessing results programmatically.

For scraped posts, you get fields like:

• Post type (Image, Video, Sidecar)

• Caption with parsed hashtags and mentions

• Engagement metrics (likes, comments)

• Media URLs and dimensions

• Timestamp and location data

• Owner profile information

Comment scrapes return the comment text, username, and metadata.

Profile scrapes include follower counts, bio, verification status, profile pictures, latest posts, and IGTV videos.

Hashtag scrapes give you the hashtag name, post count, top posts, and latest posts.

Common Questions

Can I scrape Instagram and Threads simultaneously?

Yes. Since both platforms share the same userbase and usernames, you can pull data from both at once. If you're interested specifically in Threads, check out the Threads Profile Scraper as well.

What about integrations?

The scraper connects with most cloud services through Apify integrations. Make, Zapier, Slack, Airbyte, GitHub, Google Sheets, Google Drive—basically if it's a popular tool, there's probably an integration.

You can also use webhooks to trigger actions when events occur, like getting notified when a scrape completes.

Can I use this via API?

Absolutely. The Apify API gives you programmatic access to everything. You can manage, schedule, and run the scraper, access datasets, monitor performance, and fetch results—all through RESTful HTTP endpoints.

For Node.js, use the apify-client NPM package. For Python, use the apify-client PyPI package. Full details in the API reference, or check the API tab for code examples.

What if this doesn't fit my needs?

Build your own scraper. Apify has templates in Python, JavaScript, and TypeScript to get you started. Or use Crawlee, their open-source scraping library, to build from scratch.

You can keep it private or publish it to the Apify Store where other users might find it useful.

Found a bug?

Report it on the Issues tab in Apify Console. They're constantly improving performance, so technical feedback helps.

Bottom Line

Instagram locked down their API, but public data stays public. This scraper gives you straightforward access to posts, comments, profiles, hashtags, and locations without requiring Business accounts or API approvals. Whether you're tracking trends, researching markets, or building datasets, you can extract the information you need at scale. And with ScraperAPI handling the infrastructure complexity, you can focus on actually using the data instead of fighting with proxies and rate limits. Try it out, run a test scrape, and see if it fits your workflow—👉 get started with ScraperAPI here.