How to Scrape Instagram Data at Scale (Without Getting Blocked or Writing Code) Post
How to Scrape Instagram Data at Scale (Without Getting Blocked or Writing Code)
If you're a marketer, agency owner, researcher, or content creator trying to understand Instagram trends, analyze competitors, or build influencer databases, you've probably hit the same roadblock: Instagram's API is severely limited, manual data collection is impossibly slow, and custom scraping scripts get blocked within hours.
What if you could extract Instagram profiles, posts, reels, comments, hashtags, and location data at scale—complete with engagement metrics, follower counts, and media URLs—without writing a single line of code or worrying about rate limits?
This guide reveals how Apify's cloud-based scraping platform transforms Instagram data extraction from a technical nightmare into a point-and-click operation. We'll cover everything from scraping 10,000 Instagram reels in minutes to building automated competitor monitoring systems that run 24/7.
Why Instagram Data Extraction Is So Difficult
Instagram is notoriously hostile to automated data collection. Since 2020, when Meta severely restricted the Instagram API, marketers and researchers lost access to most public data that was previously available.
What Instagram Took Away:
Follower/Following Lists: No longer accessible via official API
Hashtag Feeds: Removed from public API endpoints
Location Data: Severely restricted for business accounts only
Engagement Metrics: Hidden behind authentication walls
Comment Threads: Require manual pagination and authentication
The unofficial Instagram API was designed to give back the functionality to access public data that was removed from the Instagram API in 2020. But building your own scraper to replace this lost functionality is a technical minefield.
Why Custom Scrapers Fail:
According to research on Instagram scraping challenges, the platform protects its data with strict anti-bot protections that can block the great majority of automated scripts. Specific obstacles include:
Aggressive Rate Limiting: Make too many requests too quickly, and your IP gets banned for hours or days
Dynamic HTML Structure: Class names and div IDs change constantly, breaking CSS selectors
JavaScript Rendering: Most content loads via React, requiring full browser automation
Datacenter IP Detection: Instagram blocks requests from AWS, DigitalOcean, and other cloud providers
Session Management: Login requirements for certain data types complicate authentication flows
CAPTCHA Challenges: Triggered randomly even for legitimate-looking requests
The result? Many developers find that the technical challenge of building and maintaining a custom Instagram scraper is often too high to justify the effort.
Enter Apify: Cloud Scrapers That Just Work
Apify is a cloud-based web scraping and automation platform that runs pre-built "Actors"—essentially specialized scrapers for specific websites. Think of it as an app store for web scraping.
Apify offers over 230 Instagram scraping Actors, each designed for different data extraction needs. No coding required, no infrastructure to maintain, and most importantly: they don't get blocked.
How Apify Solves the Instagram Scraping Problem:
Residential Proxy Rotation: Every request routes through residential IPs that look like real users, not bots.
Browser Fingerprinting: Automated browsers mimic genuine Chrome/Firefox fingerprints to avoid detection.
Anti-Captcha Systems: Built-in handling for Instagram's CAPTCHA challenges.
Continuous Maintenance: When Instagram changes its layout or API, Apify's team updates the Actors—you don't lift a finger.
Scalable Infrastructure: Run 100 scrapers in parallel or extract millions of data points without managing servers.
According to Apify's platform statistics, their Instagram scrapers maintain 95%+ success rates even as Instagram constantly updates its anti-bot measures.
The Complete Guide to Instagram Data Extraction with Apify
Use Case 1: Scraping Instagram Profiles for Influencer Research
Scenario: You're building an influencer marketing database and need to collect profile data (follower count, bio, contact info, posting frequency) from 5,000 Instagram accounts.
Solution: Instagram Profile Scraper
Instagram Profile Scraper extracts name, join date, number of followers, location, bio, website, related profiles, video and post count, and latest posts.
Step-by-Step:
Create Free Apify Account: Sign up here (free tier includes $5 credit)
Open Instagram Profile Scraper: Navigate to the Actor page and click "Try for free"
Add Username List: Enter Instagram usernames, profile URLs, or profile IDs—one per line or bulk import from CSV
Configure Output: Choose how many latest posts to include per profile (optional)
Run the Scraper: Click "Start" and wait 2-10 minutes depending on volume
Export Results: Download as JSON, CSV, Excel, or push to Google Sheets/database
What You Get:
{ "username": "natgeo", "fullName": "National Geographic", "biography": "Experience the world through the eyes of National Geographic photographers.", "externalUrl": "linktr.ee/natgeo", "followersCount": 283000000, "followsCount": 207, "postsCount": 26543, "verified": true, "joinedDate": "2011-03-15", "location": "Washington, DC", "profilePicUrl": "https://instagram.com/..."
}
Cost Example:
On the Free plan, the price is $2.60 per 1,000 results ($0.0026 per result), giving you nearly 2,000 results for free with the $5 credit.
For 5,000 profiles: $13 (or free if you spread it across 3 months using the free monthly credits).
Compare this to hiring a VA at $15/hour who can manually collect maybe 20 profiles per hour = 250 hours = $3,750.
Use Case 2: Scraping Instagram Reels for Trend Analysis
Scenario: You want to analyze which Instagram Reels are performing best in the #digitalmarketing niche to inform your content strategy.
Solution: Instagram Hashtag Scraper (for discovery) or Instagram Reel Scraper (for specific creators)
Instagram Hashtag Scraper can scrape caption, author username, likes, comments count, play count, video URL, hashtags, and posting date.
For Trend Discovery (Hashtag-Based):
Open Instagram Hashtag Scraper on Apify Store
Enter target hashtags:
["digitalmarketing", "socialmediamarketing", "contentcreation"]Select Content Type: Reels (not posts)
Set Results Limit: 100 reels per hashtag
Run the scraper and export data
For Competitor Analysis (Profile-Based):
Open Instagram Reel Scraper
Add competitor usernames:
["garyvee", "neilpatel", "hubspot"]Set results limit: Last 50 reels per profile
Enable "Include shares count" (paid feature for viral metrics)
Run and download results
What You Get:
{ "shortCode": "C9xYzAbPQrT", "caption": "3 tips for growing your Instagram in 2025...", "hashtags": ["#instagramtips", "#socialmedia", "#marketing"], "likesCount": 12847, "commentsCount": 234, "videoViewCount": 89432, "videoPlayCount": 156789, "sharesCount": 1203, "videoDuration": 47, "videoUrl": "https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/...", "timestamp": "2025-03-15T14:23:00.000Z", "ownerUsername": "socialmediaexpert"
}
Advanced Analysis:
Export the data to Excel or Google Sheets and calculate:
Engagement Rate:
(Likes + Comments) / Video Views * 100Virality Score:
Shares / Video Views * 100Optimal Post Time: Group by timestamp to find peak engagement hours
Top Performing Hashtags: Sort by average engagement per hashtag
According to social media research, reels with 3-5 hashtags and durations between 15-30 seconds see 40% higher engagement than longer or overly tagged content.
Use Case 3: Scraping Instagram Comments for Sentiment Analysis
Scenario: You're a brand manager wanting to understand customer sentiment on your posts and competitor posts.
Solution: Instagram Comment Scraper
Instagram Comment Scraper scrapes the text of all comments and replies, the comment ID and URL, who made it, when they made it, and even their profile picture.
Implementation:
Open Instagram Comment Scraper
Add post URLs you want to analyze (your posts + competitor posts)
Set "Include Replies": Yes (to capture full conversations)
Run scraper—extracts all comments and nested replies
Export to CSV for sentiment analysis tools
What You Get:
{ "text": "This product changed my life! Highly recommend 🔥", "ownerUsername": "happy_customer_2024", "timestamp": "2025-03-10T09:15:33.000Z", "likesCount": 24, "repliesCount": 3, "commentUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/p/ABC123/c/456789/", "parentCommentId": null
}
Sentiment Analysis Workflow:
Export Comments: Download CSV from Apify
Import to GPT-4 or Sentiment Tool: Use OpenAI API, MonkeyLearn, or Google Cloud NLP
Categorize Sentiment: Positive, Negative, Neutral, Question
Identify Themes: Product quality, shipping, customer service, pricing
Action Insights: Respond to negative comments, thank positive ones, address common questions
Cost Example:
It will cost you $2.30 to scrape 1,000 Instagram comments, which comes to $0.0023 per comment.
For analyzing 10,000 comments across 50 posts: $23.
Use Case 4: Location-Based Business Intelligence
Scenario: You're a real estate investor researching foot traffic and business density in specific neighborhoods.
Solution: Instagram Search Scraper (location mode)
Instagram Search Scraper extracts metadata such as place name, category, phone, price range, slug, location ID, and access opening hours and status including location details such as full address, city, zip, latitude, and longitude.
How It Works:
Open Instagram Search Scraper
Select Search Type: Places
Enter Location Keywords:
["soho new york", "downtown austin", "venice beach"]Set Results: 100 places per keyword
Run scraper
What You Get:
{ "placeName": "Blue Bottle Coffee - Soho", "category": "Coffee Shop", "phoneNumber": "+1 212-555-0123", "priceRange": "$$", "address": "450 West Broadway, New York, NY 10012", "latitude": 40.7223, "longitude": -74.0011, "openingHours": { "monday": "7:00 AM - 7:00 PM", "isOpen": true }, "postsCount": 12847, "slug": "blue-bottle-coffee-soho", "locationId": "12345678"
}
Business Intelligence Use Cases:
Competitor Mapping: Identify all coffee shops in a 2-mile radius
Foot Traffic Estimation: High post counts = high foot traffic
Market Gaps: Find underserved neighborhoods with few businesses in your category
Investment Research: Analyze business density before commercial real estate purchases
Use Case 5: Hashtag Performance Tracking Over Time
Scenario: You run a social media agency and need to track hashtag performance trends for client campaigns.
Solution: Scheduled Apify Actors with Instagram Hashtag Scraper
Setup:
Configure Instagram Hashtag Scraper with client hashtags
Click "Create Task" to save the configuration
Go to Schedules tab
Set Frequency: Daily at 9 AM
Enable Email Notifications on completion
The scraper runs automatically every day and:
Extracts the latest 100 posts per hashtag
Logs engagement metrics (likes, comments, shares)
Exports to Google Sheets via Apify integration
Sends summary report to your email
Trend Analysis Dashboard:
Use Google Sheets or Tableau to visualize:
Hashtag Growth: Plot daily post volume over time
Engagement Trends: Track average likes/comments per day
Content Themes: Analyze which types of content perform best
Competitor Activity: Monitor when competitors post to specific hashtags
According to social media analytics research, brands that track hashtag performance weekly see 23% higher campaign ROI than those doing monthly analysis.
Advanced Apify Features for Power Users
API Integration for Automated Workflows
Every Apify Actor can be triggered via API, allowing seamless integration into existing systems.
Example: Trigger Scraper via Python
from apify_client import ApifyClient client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>") run_input = { "username": ["natgeo", "nasa", "bbcearth"], "resultsLimit": 50
} run = client.actor("apify/instagram-profile-scraper").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch results
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items(): print(f"Username: {item['username']}, Followers: {item['followersCount']}")
Use Cases for API Integration:
Automated Lead Generation: Scrape competitor followers nightly, export to CRM
Real-Time Monitoring: Alert when competitor posts get 10K+ likes in 1 hour
Data Pipeline: Feed Instagram data directly into Snowflake, BigQuery, or Redshift
AI Training Data: Collect thousands of posts for computer vision or NLP model training
Webhook Notifications for Event-Driven Automation
Set up webhooks to trigger actions when scraping completes:
Configure Actor to scrape Instagram posts
Add webhook URL (e.g., Zapier, Make.com, n8n)
When scraper finishes, webhook fires with dataset ID
Downstream automation:
Send Slack notification with top performing posts
Add new influencers to Airtable database
Generate weekly report PDF and email to team
Proxy Configuration for Enterprise Scraping
The key to success is to execute requests through machines configured with residential proxies.
Apify provides built-in residential proxy rotation, but for ultra-high-volume scraping (100K+ requests/day), you can:
Use custom proxy pools
Configure geo-targeting (scrape from specific countries)
Set session persistence (same IP for entire scraping session)
When You Need Custom Proxies:
Scraping geo-restricted content (US-only Instagram features)
Avoiding rate limits on massive campaigns (1M+ profiles)
Compliance requirements (route through specific jurisdictions)
Integration with Make, Zapier, and n8n
Apify has plenty of templates with services like Make, n8n, or Zapier.
Example Zapier Integration:
Trigger: New Instagram Reel Scraped (daily schedule)
Filter: If likesCount > 10000
Action 1: Add to Google Sheets (viral content tracker)
Action 2: Send email summary to marketing team
Action 3: Create task in Asana (analyze and create similar content)
Example n8n Workflow:
Instagram Profile Scraper runs every Monday
Filters profiles with 50K-500K followers (micro-influencers)
Enriches data with email finder API
Uploads to HubSpot CRM with "Influencer Prospect" tag
Triggers automated email outreach campaign
Cost Analysis: Apify vs. Alternatives
Scenario: Scraping 10,000 Instagram profiles monthly
Method Setup Time Monthly Cost Maintenance Success Rate Manual Collection 0 hrs $3,750 (250 hrs @ $15/hr) 250 hrs/month 100% Custom Python Scraper 40 hrs $50 (proxies) + $200 (server) = $250 10 hrs/month 40-60% Bright Data 2 hrs $500/month (enterprise pricing) 0 hrs 95% Apify 30 mins $26 (10K profiles @ $2.60/1000) 0 hrs 95%+
Winner: Apify offers 95%+ of the success rate of enterprise solutions at 5% of the cost, with virtually zero setup or maintenance.
Free Tier Generosity:
With the Apify Free plan, you get $5 free usage credits each month, allowing you to scrape over 2,100 Instagram comments for free with those credits.
Perfect for:
Testing scrapers before committing to paid plans
Small-scale monthly analysis (2,000 profiles, 2,100 comments, or 1,900 posts)
Hobbyist projects and academic research
Legal and Ethical Considerations
Apify's Instagram scrapers are ethical and do not extract any private user data, such as email addresses, gender, or location. They only extract what the user has chosen to share publicly.
What's Legal:
Scraping public profiles, posts, and comments
Analyzing publicly available engagement metrics
Using data for research, competitive analysis, and trend identification
What's NOT Legal:
Scraping private accounts or DMs
Collecting personal data without consent (GDPR violation)
Using scraped data for spam or harassment
Violating Instagram's Terms of Service for commercial purposes without permission
Best Practices:
Always respect robots.txt directives
Don't scrape more aggressively than a human could browse
Include attribution when publishing data insights
Consult legal counsel for commercial use cases
According to legal precedent like hiQ Labs v. LinkedIn, scraping publicly accessible data is generally legal in the US, but regulations vary by jurisdiction.
Real-World Success Stories
Case Study 1: Influencer Marketing Agency
Challenge: Manually vetting 500+ influencer applications per month
Solution: Apify Instagram Profile Scraper + automated scoring system
Results:
Verification time: 45 min → 3 min per influencer
Fraud detection: Caught 23% fake follower accounts
Cost savings: $18,000/year in manual labor
Case Study 2: E-Commerce Brand
Challenge: Identifying trending products on Instagram for dropshipping
Solution: Instagram Hashtag Scraper (scheduled daily) + engagement analysis
Results:
Discovered 3 viral product trends 2 weeks before competitors
Launched products early, captured $120K in first-month sales
ROI: 400x on Apify subscription cost
Case Study 3: Social Media Analytics SaaS
Challenge: Building Instagram analytics dashboard for 10,000 users
Solution: Apify API integration with their backend
Results:
Saved 12 months of development time building custom scrapers
99.8% uptime vs. 60% with previous custom solution
Scaled to 5M API calls/month without infrastructure headaches
Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
Pitfall 1: Scraping Too Aggressively
Instagram's rate limits vary by endpoint. Scraping 10,000 profiles in 10 minutes triggers red flags.
Solution: Use Apify's built-in delays and concurrency limits. Set realistic result limits (100-200 per run for testing, scale gradually).
Pitfall 2: Ignoring Data Quality Issues
Not all scraped data is perfect—deleted accounts return null values, private profiles return limited data.
Solution: Implement post-processing filters to remove incomplete records. Apify's datasets support filtering during export.
Pitfall 3: Not Scheduling Regular Scrapes
Instagram data goes stale fast—follower counts, post metrics, and trending hashtags change daily.
Solution: Use Apify's scheduling feature to run scrapers hourly, daily, or weekly. Set up webhooks for real-time alerts on significant changes.
Pitfall 4: Exceeding Free Tier Without Realizing
Apify charges per result on a pay-as-you-go model. One misconfigured scraper requesting 100K results can drain your budget.
Solution: Always test with small result limits first (10-50). Monitor your usage dashboard. Set budget alerts in Apify Console.
FAQ
Q: Can Apify scrape private Instagram accounts?
No. Apify Actors only scrape publicly accessible data. Private accounts require follow approval and cannot be scraped without violating Instagram's Terms of Service and potentially breaking laws.
Q: What happens if Instagram updates their website and breaks the scraper?
Apify's team monitors and maintains Actors continuously. When Instagram changes, they update the scrapers—usually within 24-48 hours. You don't need to do anything.
Q: Can I scrape Instagram Stories?
Yes, but with limitations. Instagram Stories are ephemeral (disappear after 24 hours) and require authenticated sessions. Apify has specialized Actors for Stories, but they're less reliable than profile/post scrapers.
Q: How do I scrape Instagram without getting IP banned?
Use Apify's built-in residential proxy rotation. The platform automatically routes requests through thousands of residential IPs that look like real users, not bots.
Q: Can I integrate Apify with my existing Python/Node.js application?
Absolutely. Apify provides official Python and JavaScript client libraries. Check the API documentation for code examples.
Q: What's the difference between Instagram Scraper and Instagram API Scraper?
Instagram Scraper is feature-rich and handles complex scraping (posts, profiles, comments, locations). Instagram API Scraper is faster and simpler for basic use cases. Choose based on your needs.
The Bottom Line
Instagram data is a goldmine for marketers, researchers, and businesses—but accessing it has been nearly impossible since Meta locked down the official API in 2020.
Apify solves this problem with a fleet of battle-tested, continuously maintained Instagram scrapers that extract profiles, posts, reels, comments, hashtags, and location data without getting blocked, without requiring coding skills, and without the technical headaches of maintaining custom scrapers.
Whether you're building an influencer database, tracking competitor activity, analyzing trending content, or monitoring brand sentiment, Apify provides the infrastructure to collect Instagram data at scale for pennies per result.
The best part? You can start for free with $5 in monthly credits—enough to scrape 2,000 profiles, 2,100 comments, or 1,900 posts every month without paying a dime.
Ready to unlock Instagram's data? Sign up for Apify here and start scraping in minutes. Your competitors are already using these tools—it's time to level the playing field.
