Instagram Public Profile & Post Scraper (No Login) 📸 Scrape public Instagram profiles, posts, and hashtags without login and export clean, analysis-ready data to CSV or JSON. This production-ready Apify Actor is designed for marketers, founders, researchers, and analysts who need reliable public Instagram data without dealing with authentication, cookies, or private APIs. > ⚠️ PUBLIC DATA ONLY > This Actor scrapes only publicly visible information. It does not log in to Instagram, access private profiles, stories, or use internal APIs. --- ## 🎯 Who This Is For Perfect for: * 📊 Market & competitor research * 📣 Influencer discovery & analysis * 🧠 Content & hashtag research * 🏷️ Lead generation from public profiles * 🎓 Academic & social media research --- ## ✨ Key Features * ✅ No login required (public data only) * 👤 Profile scraping (followers, bio, verification, counts) * 🖼️ Post scraping (captions, hashtags, media, engagement) * 🔍 Hashtag scraping (public posts) * 📦 Clean output (CSV & JSON friendly) * 🛡️ Anti-blocking measures (sessions, delays, fingerprinting) * 🌍 Proxy support (residential required for hashtags) * 🧪 Debug mode for development & troubleshooting --- ## 🚨 Limitations (Important) | Capability | Supported | Notes | | ------------------------- | --------- | -------------------------------- | | Public profiles | ✅ Yes | Proxy optional | | Hashtag scraping | ⚠️ Yes | Residential proxies required | | Private profiles | ❌ No | Public data only | | Stories / Reels (private) | ❌ No | Requires login | | Login / cookies | ❌ No | By design | > ⚠️ Hashtag scraping fails fast without residential proxies to prevent wasted compute. --- ## 📥 Quick Start (30 seconds) json { "profiles": ["instagram", "natgeo"], "maxPostsPerSource": 10, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"] } } --- ## 📊 What Data You Get ### Profile Data * Username, full name, biography * Followers & following counts * Total posts count * Profile picture URL * Verified status * Profile URL ### Post Data * Post URL & ID * Caption text & extracted hashtags * Likes & comments counts * Media type (image / video / carousel) * Media URLs * Timestamp (ISO-8601) * Owner username --- ## 📤 Output Schema (Consistent) All dataset items — including errors — follow one schema: json { "sourceType": "profile | hashtag", "sourceValue": "string", "scrapedAt": "ISO-8601", "data": { "status": "success | error", "type": "profile | post", "message": "error message (if error)", "...": "scraped fields (if success)" } } This guarantees: * CSV export compatibility * BigQuery / Sheets compatibility * Stable downstream processing --- ## 🌐 Proxy Requirements | Scraping Type | Proxy | | ------------- | ------------------------ | | Profiles | Optional (recommended) | | Hashtags | Residential required | ### Recommended (Hashtags) json { "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"] } } Datacenter proxies may work for profiles only but usually fail for hashtags. --- ## ⚙️ Technical Overview * Runtime: Node.js 18+ * Crawler: PlaywrightCrawler * Framework: Apify SDK v3 + Crawlee * Browser: Headless Chromium ### Anti-Blocking Strategy * Session rotation * Randomized delays * Human-like scrolling * Browser fingerprint randomization * Automatic retries --- ## ⚖️ Legal & Compliance This Actor: * Scrapes only public data visible to non-logged-in users * Does not bypass paywalls, logins, or CAPTCHAs * Does not store cookies or sessions You are responsible for: * Complying with Instagram’s Terms of Service * Complying with GDPR, CCPA, and local data laws * Using scraped data ethically and legally --- ## 🐛 Troubleshooting Login wall detected * Use residential proxies (mandatory for hashtags) * Reduce maxPostsPerSource * Increase delays Actor fails at startup * Happens when hashtags are requested without residential proxies Slow performance * Intentional to avoid blocking * Increase concurrency at your own risk --- ## 📁 Project Structure src/ ├── main.js ├── input-schema.json └── helpers/ ├── extractProfile.js ├── extractPosts.js ├── scrollPage.js └── utils.js --- ## 🚀 Ready to Use Push and run: bash apify push --- ## 📄 License ISC License --- ## 🤝 Support Questions, issues, or feature requests? Open an issue in the repository — feedback is welcome.