Unbeatable Instagram Profile Scraper: Social Media Scraping API

An Instagram profile scraper allows you to gather public Instagram profile data. Instead of building a scraper yourself, use our Social Media Scraping API. In this blog post, you’ll get Python code samples for real-time and on-demand data collection at a 100% success rate. Avoid blocks and errors and scrape with a shielded IP – check out this game-changing scraping tool and follow our step-by-step guide on how to set it up!

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Unbeatable Instagram Profile Scraper: Social Media Scraping API

In 2022, Instagram hit over 2 billion MAU (monthly active users). With the world population hitting 8 billion, a quarter of people worldwide use Instagram monthly! That makes a humongous base of individuals, businesses, and organizations worldwide who share photos and videos, connect with others, and promote their products and services, thus creating an essential database for marketing researchers.

We at Smartproxy are very much aware of effective ways of data collection. And if you’re looking to scrape Instagram profiles, we can help. You can up your scraping game using Smartproxy’s Social Media Scraping API in no time. Grab public profile data with our dedicated tool and take your marketing research to the next level!

What is an Instagram profile scraper?

It’s always a good idea to agree on the terms, right? We call an Instagram profile scraper a tool that extracts all the public Instagram profile data and delivers it to you. Use our own Social Media Scraping API as an Instagram profile scraper to get the results in raw HTML form or structured in JSON.

What makes a good Instagram profile scraper?

100% success rate. With the Social Media Scraping API, you’re guaranteed to get the results you ask for. Even if your first request fails, we’ll keep working on it till we deliver the goods to you. You’ll only be charged for successful requests.

Solid IP protection. If Instagram blocks your IP address, that means no more scrolling for you, pal. Whenever you’d need to access your account, you’d have to look for ways of getting a new IP from somewhere. That makes it challenging to gather profile data and even use Instagram. The good news is that our Social Media Scraping API has an integrated 65M+ proxy pool, so you can stop worrying about IP blocks, CAPTCHAs, or exposing your real digital identity.

Anti-bot protection. If you Google-it-up, you may find people talking about how powerful Instagram anti-bot systems are. So, collecting data from Instagram can be a real challenge. But not if you use Social Media Scraping API. Along with proxies, it also has an integrated browser fingerprinting functionality. It helps you simulate human-like activity, making your Instagram profile scraper remain undercover.

Why would you need to scrape Instagram user profiles?

The boldest aim for scraping Instagram user profile data is to get all the information you need into one place. What you will do with the extracted data is down to your research goals and strategic business moves.

Reasons to scrape Instagram profiles:

mapping global influencer marketing trends,
monitoring competitors,
overviewing local influencers,
mining ideas for your content plan.

Public data you can get with Social Media Scraping API:

profiles,
follower and following count,
usernames,
posts,
photos,
hashtags,
and so much more!

Scraping Instagram profiles step-by-step

Once you get a Social Media Scraping API subscription, you can go ahead with this tutorial on scraping Instagram profiles. Here are the steps:

On the dashboard, select Social Media under the Scraping APIs umbrella on the left-side panel.
Then, go to the API Setup tab. Create a password for your authentication credentials by clicking on the pencil icon.
Check our documentation for the parameters and code samples relevant to your Instagram profile scraping case. For this tutorial, we’ll scrape Instagram’s HTML and use the Python programming language. The process is very similar if you scrape Instagram’s GraphQL API endpoint.
The basic three things you need to enter into the code are the URL of the Instagram profile you wish to scrape, your username, and your password. We’ll gather profile data from Instagram’s own Instagram profile (https://www.instagram.com/instagram). You can also modify the locale (language locale) and geo (geolocation) parameters. Our final code looks like this:

import requests

headers = {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
}

task_params = {
    'url': 'https://www.instagram.com/instagram',
    'target': 'instagram_profile',
    'locale': 'en-us',
    'geo': 'United States'
}

username = 'S0000099117'
password = 'Password'
  
response = requests.post(
    'https://scraper-api.smartproxy.com/v1/scrape',
    headers = headers,
    json = task_params,
    auth = (username, password)
)
print(response.text)

5. Run your code in your preferred environment! In seconds, you'll receive the results parsed in JSON format like so:

{
    "data": {
        "content": {
            "account": {
                "username": "instagram",
                "verified": true
            },
            "stats": {
                "posts": "7,376",
                "followers": "627M",
                "following": "51"
            },
            "biography": {
                "name": "Instagram",
                "occupation": "",
                "description": "Discover what's next on Instagram 🔎✨",
                "url": "help.instagram.com"
            },
            "posts": [
                {
                    "href": "https://www.instagram.com/p/CqdYhcTjdff/",
                    "description": "Six pounds of pure fluff ☁️ \n \nStruttin’ into the weekend with @teeny.kini (Kini), a Persian munchkin rescue with an adorably angry look. \n \n#WeeklyFluff \n \nVideo by @teeny.kini \nMusic by @thumpasaurusmusic",
                    "image": "https://scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/338614110_768868941243027_9036998125204663083_n.jpg?stp=c0.280.720.720a_dst-jpg_e15_s640x640&_nc_ht=scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=1&_nc_ohc=S8_z76o1IlMAX9KVGIw&edm=AOQ1c0wBAAAA&ccb=7-5&oh=00_AfDRwGCm1AW0JyYLZm3DpghDwBIxPVW8OuHvlyRtJP1c0A&oe=642C4EAA&_nc_sid=8fd12b"
                },
                {
                    "href": "https://www.instagram.com/p/Cqa0u78jOc1/",
                    "description": "“Low key just trying to exist.” \n\n#InTheMoment \n\nVideo by @darendarendaren",
                    "image": "https://scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/338202850_548284397437558_5137763398328645680_n.jpg?stp=c0.420.1080.1080a_dst-jpg_e35_s640x640_sh0.08&_nc_ht=scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=1&_nc_ohc=RYbrZNQr7h4AX9miYPZ&edm=AOQ1c0wBAAAA&ccb=7-5&oh=00_AfBSThqcxAioP4l1SaQ5zr7wlbR15FYKvSUpH-qQ93K_ng&oe=642C9AF7&_nc_sid=8fd12b"
                },
                {
                    "href": "https://www.instagram.com/p/CqYQLW3plQl/",
                    "description": "#HelloWorld \n \n“I want to create work that is both visually captivating yet still conceptually rigorous,” says self-taught animator, director and music producer @jeronbraxton (Jeron Braxton). \n \nJeron’s provocative and surreal 3D animations use retro video game aesthetics to explore Black identity in America and social issues, such as capitalism, climate change and human rights. \n \n“I was drawn to 3D animation by its ability to channel music, sculpture and poetry into one fantastic package. I’m able to utilize all these different art forms in one to create a very powerful experience, something that people can really feel,” says Jeron. “Recently, I have been getting back to my roots and creating work that 13-year-old me would have been really excited about. \n \nArt can really help people connect. However, the media is using the art of video to spread division and hate. We have been oversaturated with white male dominated media for centuries and, quite frankly, it’s starting to get boring and stale. People want to see something new and interesting from the source.” \n \nVideo and music by @jeronbraxton",
                    "image": "https://scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/338220339_531879325766554_3578856171428850252_n.jpg?stp=c0.419.1077.1077a_dst-jpg_e15_s640x640&_nc_ht=scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=1&_nc_ohc=r1_EVT93tFEAX8QoAHb&edm=AOQ1c0wBAAAA&ccb=7-5&oh=00_AfCfS3sOe6E81iIXm1wEwvPjZq5pKle-ElxxzObpQKZx8A&oe=642C1085&_nc_sid=8fd12b"
                },
                {
                    "href": "https://www.instagram.com/p/CqWbeRRD4zh/",
                    "description": "“On the way to work.” \n \nThe South Korean girl group @newjeans_official (NewJeans) — with five members Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin and Hyein — presents a new paradigm for K-pop. “NewJeans does not follow the familiar formula of standardized K-pop. It’s based on pop, but does not adhere to a specific style.” \n \nNewJeans’s music video “Attention” debuted in the summer of 2022, and from there they have cemented their reputation and built their “Bunnies” fandom via their self-titled four-track EP and single album “OMG.” \n \nThe name NewJeans refers to the group’s ambition to be like a good pair of jeans: “Something that you will find every day and never get tired of.” It’s also a double-entendre on “new genes,” signaling their determination to become the new generation of pop music. \n \nVideo and music by @newjeans_official",
                    "image": "https://scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/337894897_1221272385159847_2798030448444131592_n.jpg?stp=c0.280.720.720a_dst-jpg_e15_s640x640&_nc_ht=scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=1&_nc_ohc=fGvS-z3xGrgAX96H3DZ&edm=AOQ1c0wBAAAA&ccb=7-5&oh=00_AfAGPXJuLfaHv05JeSMc0twHxxaz_mfPzV249WS99N3XSw&oe=642C1A8D&_nc_sid=8fd12b"
                },
                {
                    "href": "https://www.instagram.com/p/CqTGJOKDICs/",
                    "description": "🐝🐝🐝 We’re on the set of “Yellowjackets” with Canadian actress @sophie__nelisse (Sophie Nélisse). \n \n“I forget that the clothes were clean at the beginning; I don’t even notice the transition myself. Guess you’ll have to keep watching to see why we get so dirty.” \n \nTo celebrate the show’s new season on @showtime, step into a thrilling (and slightly messy) world as Sophie takes us behind the scenes on a typical shoot day in Vancouver. From shocking wardrobe changes to on set snacks with her costars-turned-besties, anticipate blood, dirt and… yogurt?!",
                    "image": "https://scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/337660807_945272983325337_6092171514309302315_n.jpg?stp=c0.1987.5108.5108a_dst-jpg_e35_s640x640_sh0.08&_nc_ht=scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=1&_nc_ohc=PON9Hd2sNoMAX9GcnYj&edm=AOQ1c0wBAAAA&ccb=7-5&oh=00_AfCrgCJW965uQkplaxdVEttv_f2uZ9P71WtwVeYLq1G9cw&oe=642C5DF9&_nc_sid=8fd12b"
                },
                {
                    "href": "https://www.instagram.com/p/CqLXD30jdF3/",
                    "description": "In for a treat 🐑 \n\nHeading into the weekend with @bopeep_valaisblacknose (BoPeep Jessie), who simply loves a ginger nut biscuit. The Valais blacknose breed is (understandably) known as “the world’s cutest sheep.” \n\n#WeeklyFluff\n\nVideo by @bopeep_valaisblacknose \nMusic by Jeppe Reil",
                    "image": "https://scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/337389978_1628034800957863_9090413002851389868_n.jpg?stp=c0.419.1080.1080a_dst-jpg_e35_s640x640_sh0.08&_nc_ht=scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=1&_nc_ohc=dqrhWokPGvEAX_wx8m5&edm=AOQ1c0wBAAAA&ccb=7-5&oh=00_AfCAGz8yQOrQaZ7kKfdyJ2NtES6Py4FOcCdbqSvdWfeM3Q&oe=642C3ED9&_nc_sid=8fd12b"
                },
                {
                    "href": "https://www.instagram.com/p/CqJZHyeDYZt/",
                    "description": "Poolside playlists, dining alfresco and time on two courts?! \n \nSoak up some sun and spend a #DayOff with @bigfoe1998 (Frances Tiafoe) ahead of his opening match at the @miamiopen. 🎾☀️",
                    "image": "https://scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/337181008_574504317980139_4740662349320492992_n.jpg?stp=c0.800.2064.2064a_dst-jpg_e35_s640x640_sh0.08&_nc_ht=scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=1&_nc_ohc=BYXxiV8yo2cAX-ijHDf&edm=AOQ1c0wBAAAA&ccb=7-5&oh=00_AfAHAGNVejANWPDqhTza__qoO66VKe5rjni5usnBB2S-CQ&oe=642C93EE&_nc_sid=8fd12b"
                },
                {
                    "href": "https://www.instagram.com/p/CqIy4YdJZlB/",
                    "description": "Love bug 🐛🌸🦋 \n \n#InTheMoment \n \nVideo and music by @tinyumbrellahs",
                    "image": "https://scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/337135821_1375256139971995_1738650990527337675_n.jpg?stp=c0.362.930.930a_dst-jpg_e15_s640x640&_nc_ht=scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=1&_nc_ohc=WGRMx-UtejAAX9sYrop&edm=AOQ1c0wBAAAA&ccb=7-5&oh=00_AfAu8YJi14DsbnoMArO5qXTVxTZAUeu_pXhPfDSDMUPW5w&oe=642C35C1&_nc_sid=8fd12b"
                },
                {
                    "href": "https://www.instagram.com/p/CqGMSSAJEv7/",
                    "description": "🌞✨🌀 “Ceramics has been a guide, a light and a state of mind for me,” says @theturmerictimes (Teya Kepila). \n \n“There is magic when we return to our breath and listen to our heartbeat. I love how clay, just like humans, can be overworked. Clay gets tired when constantly reshaping it or by adding too much water. It cracks when there is not enough water. There is a balance and harmony that clay needs to show up and hold the message you give it. \n \nDancing with the clay to songs that make me feel more connected to myself is a source of joy I never knew would fill me up this much! It reminds me of being 3-year-old dancing to Bollywood music in the living room, being unapologetic about my movements and enjoying myself fully in the moment. \n \nI hope my videos and the snippets I share are the smallest glimmers of joy that someone can take with them in their day, and I hope each of us transforms our feeds into people and creators who *feed* us energy.” \n \nVideo by @theturmerictimes \nMusic by Babu Studio",
                    "image": "https://scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/337311036_493432686173567_6310499564948995999_n.jpg?stp=c0.280.720.720a_dst-jpg_e15_s640x640&_nc_ht=scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=1&_nc_ohc=75XZbF5hbBQAX-0LJyW&edm=AOQ1c0wBAAAA&ccb=7-5&oh=00_AfBQGCJJ9N98Y3IpsdXhEffM9BRyp2_Nm8L5QYgBZDDZyw&oe=642C9185&_nc_sid=8fd12b"
                },
                {
                    "href": "https://www.instagram.com/p/CqDpQo4piyE/",
                    "description": "Artwork of a blue figure holding two large flowers.",
                    "image": "https://scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/337168066_1261839148018857_5812921738820167513_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_e35_s1080x1080&_nc_ht=scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=1&_nc_ohc=tCxnt5ANBfkAX9eSIS6&edm=AOQ1c0wBAAAA&ccb=7-5&oh=00_AfCKbE7FbzjDzCdRGhY36mOLs5u5lBqYJBO3s57KqQtgXw&oe=642F0A2D&_nc_sid=8fd12b"
                },
                {
                    "href": "https://www.instagram.com/p/CqBDf3tLVc_/",
                    "description": "A woman wearing a red coat and silver jewelry.",
                    "image": "https://scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/336252560_871723063888829_43347964198572709_n.jpg?stp=c6.0.1268.1268a_dst-jpg_e35_s640x640_sh0.08&_nc_ht=scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=1&_nc_ohc=Wg9bqndKgAIAX_hSZkk&edm=AOQ1c0wBAAAA&ccb=7-5&oh=00_AfBezbUj0lkO-Fotif_zIr9IYVIR4sYP62oEVFYgBQIvoA&oe=6430052C&_nc_sid=8fd12b"
                },
                {
                    "href": "https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp5VHXNDTqF/",
                    "description": "The butterfly effect 🦋🐶💖 \n \nOn today’s #WeeklyFluff meet @theadventuresofaspen (Olive), an English crème golden retriever, and her fluttering friend. \n \n“Olive has been very accepting of the caterpillars and monarchs. I introduced her to them when she was only 8 weeks old,” says Olive’s human and monarch conservationist, Keri. “I have caterpillars, milkweed and butterflies all over my property. I had to make sure she would not harm herself or them, so coexisting was a huge priority.” \n \nVideo by @theadventuresofaspen \nMusic by @firstladyofsong",
                    "image": "https://scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/336521544_1701911793638915_4346605851949365443_n.jpg?stp=c0.280.720.720a_dst-jpg_e15_s640x640&_nc_ht=scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=1&_nc_ohc=oQu3gqpf_18AX-qTQ-a&edm=AOQ1c0wBAAAA&ccb=7-5&oh=00_AfDtQvRLTz6_x_3PBV2VEJv6KcgeIynxDQeV0Y2XRERhlg&oe=642C5218&_nc_sid=8fd12b"
    },
    "task_id": "7048602994954213377",
    "url": "https://www.instagram.com/instagram"
}

Congrats – you’ve now got your target Instagram profile’s username, verified status, post count, follower count, following count, name, description, email address, website link, 12 latest posts, and other details. Take this data and put it to good use by filtering, storing, analyzing, and so on.

Ending points

Social Media Scraping API can be very helpful when it comes to Instagram profile scraping. The catch is that you don't have to build a scraper and parser yourself. You don’t have to look for proxies to get your scraping job done either.

And again, if you have doubts, remember Smartproxy charges for successful requests only. Feel free to shoot our 24/7 support team a line if you encounter any issues. Happy scraping!

Topics: Data Collection,Social Media Marketing

Mariam Nakani

Say hello to Mariam! She is very tech savvy - and wants you to be too. She has a lot of intel on residential proxy providers, and uses this knowledge to help you have a clear view of what is really worth your attention.

Frequently asked questions

Is it legal to scrape Instagram profiles?

Scraping public data is indeed legal. Before any scraping activity, however, we recommend you read Instagram scraping policy and give a thorough review of Instagram (Meta’s) T&C.

Does Instagram allow scraping?

Get the information from the first source: basic media information from Instagram is available to get. Instagram even shows how to do that. However, all the legal issues must align with Instagram’s policy guidelines.