Instagram Reels Scraper & Reels Downloader

Overview

An Apify actor that scrapes Instagram Reels to extract video/audio files and detailed metadata. It's built for developers and analysts who need structured data from Reels, offering both content download and extensive technical analysis.

Key Features

• Media Download: Fetches available video variants (DASH, merged streams) and can extract lossless audio tracks and thumbnails.
• Layered Metadata: Retrieves structured data in increasing detail:
  • Surface: Creator info, engagement stats (likes, comments), upload date, description, basic media specs.
  • Intermediate: Open Graph, Twitter Card, and platform-specific metadata (enabled by additional_metadata).
  • Deep Technical: Frame-by-frame video analysis, audio sample inspection, and container diagnostics (requires Key-Value Store).
• Flexible Storage: Outputs direct download links or saves media files to the Apify Key-Value Store.
• Configurable Scraping: Toggle specific metadata layers and control performance.

How to Use

Run the actor on the Apify platform. Provide input configuration (see below) via the Apify console, API, or scheduler. Results are available in the actor's dataset, containing metadata and media references or storage keys.

Input

Configure the actor using a JSON input similar to the following schema. The main required field is reel_urls.

{
  "reel_urls": [
    { "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/ABC123/", "method": "GET" }
  ],
  "use_key_value_store": true,
  "additional_metadata": true,
  "additional_reels_metadata": true,
  "additional_thumbnail_metadata": false,
  "add_hashtags": true
}

Key Parameters:
* reel_urls: (Required) Array of Reel URLs to scrape.
* use_key_value_store: If true, saves media files (videos, audio) to the Apify Key-Value Store. If false, output includes direct download URLs.
* additional_metadata: Enables intermediate metadata layer (Open Graph, platform tags).
* additional_reels_metadata: Enables deeper Reel-specific metadata.
* add_hashtags: Includes extracted hashtags in the output.

Output

The dataset contains one item per scraped Reel. Output structure includes:

• Core Data: url, id, author_username, description, likes, comments, upload_date, duration.
• Media Information: video_url (or video_kv_store_key if stored), audio_url, thumbnail URLs, resolutions, and formats.
• Extended Metadata: When enabled, includes og_metadata, twitter_metadata, hashtags, and detailed technical specs for video/audio streams.

Example Output Snippet:

{
  "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/ABC123/",
  "id": "ABC123",
  "author_username": "user123",
  "description": "Reel caption...",
  "likes": 15000,
  "video_url": "https://direct.cdn.example.com/video.mp4",
  "video_resolution": { "width": 1080, "height": 1920 },
  "hashtags": ["example", "reel"],
  "og_metadata": { "title": "Reel Title", "description": "..." }
}

Find the actor and run it here: https://apify.com/your-actor-page?fpr=python_automation