Instagram Reels Scrapy Actor

Scrapes clean metadata from Instagram Reels for given profiles. Outputs structured data to an Apify Dataset, ready for export to JSON, CSV, or NDJSON for dashboards, automation, and analytics.

Actor: esdrasdw/instagram-reels-scrapy

Overview

This actor extracts metadata from public Instagram Reels. You provide a list of usernames, and it returns data for each Reel, such as views, likes, comments, and publication date. Results are stored in an Apify Dataset with two views: an Overview table for essential fields and an Advanced view for full technical metadata.

Key Features

• Targeted Scraping: Fetches Reels from specific public Instagram profiles.
• Structured Output: Returns data in a consistent schema, ideal for database ingestion or analysis.
• Flexible Fields: Use the automatic preset for essential data or select specific fields from a full catalog to control output size and detail.
• Multiple Export Formats: Results can be downloaded as JSON, CSV, or NDJSON from the Apify console.
• API Access: Can be triggered and managed via the Apify API using cURL, Python, or Node.js.

How to Use

Via Apify Console

1. Go to the Actor page and click Run.
2. In the Input tab, configure:
   • usernames (Required): Enter target Instagram handles, one per line (e.g., instagram). Do not include the @ symbol.
   • quantity_per_user (Required): Set the maximum number of Reels to fetch per profile. Default is 100.
   • selected_fields (Optional): Leave empty for the automatic preset. To customize, select from the available field catalog.
3. Start the run. Upon completion, find your data in Storage → Dataset.

Via API

Start a run programmatically using your APIFY_TOKEN.

cURL Example:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/esdrasdw~instagram-reels-scrapy/runs?token=APIFY_TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
  "usernames": ["instagram"],
  "quantity_per_user": 50,
  "selected_fields": ["thumb","titulo","usuario","link_post","visualizacoes","curtidas"]
}'

(Python and Node.js examples follow the same payload structure. See original README for full code snippets.)

Input & Output

Input Parameters

• usernames (array, required): List of Instagram usernames. Example: ["instagram", "loud_coringa"].
• quantity_per_user (integer, required): Max Reels to scrape per user. Minimum 1. Default 100.
• selected_fields (array, optional): Customize output. Leave empty for the automatic preset. Available fields include:
  thumb, titulo, usuario, link_post, data_criacao_iso, visualizacoes, curtidas, comentarios, duracao, aspect_ratio, url_video_preferencial, codigo, id, caption, video_versions, dash_qualidades, spritesheet, audio_original, thumbs, flags, owner, product_type, media_type, original_width, original_height.

Output Dataset

Each item in the dataset represents one Instagram Reel.

• Overview (Default View): Contains essential fields like thumbnail URL, title, user, post link, creation date, views, likes, comments, duration, aspect ratio, video URL, post code, and media ID.
• Advanced View: Includes all technical metadata when the corresponding fields are selected in the input.

Example Output Item (JSON):

{
  "thumb": "https://.../thumb.jpg",
  "titulo": "Weekly highlights",
  "usuario": "instagram",
  "link_post": "https://www.instagram.com/p/ABC123/",
  "data_criacao_iso": "2025-10-21T18:42:10Z",
  "visualizacoes": 123456,
  "curtidas": 7890,
  "comentarios": 321,
  "duracao": 27.4,
  "aspect_ratio": "9:16",
  "url_video_preferencial": "https://.../video.mp4",
  "codigo": "ABC123",
  "id": "3747990562646302857"
}