# Instagram Search Scraper (`parseforge/instagram-search-scraper`) Actor

Discover Instagram users, hashtags, and places instantly! Run any keyword and pull profile URLs, bios, follower counts, verified status, post counts, location data, and hashtag popularity. Ideal for influencer research, brand monitoring, and social intelligence. Start exploring today!

- **URL**: https://apify.com/parseforge/instagram-search-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [ParseForge](https://apify.com/parseforge) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, Lead generation, Marketing
- **Stats:** 110 total users, 8 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per event

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

![ParseForge Banner](https://github.com/ParseForge/apify-assets/blob/ad35ccc13ddd068b9d6cba33f323962e39aed5b2/banner.jpg?raw=true)

## 📸 Instagram Search Scraper

> 🚀 **Lookup any Instagram profile in seconds.** Get **18 fields per username** including followers, following, posts, bio, external links, verified status, and profile picture. No login, no API key, no Meta Developer account.

The **Instagram Search Scraper** accepts a list of Instagram usernames and returns a structured profile record per handle. You get follower count, following count, total post count, biography, external URL, verified status, private-account flag, business-account flag, category name (for business accounts), bio link list, and a high-resolution profile picture URL. All through Instagram's public web profile info endpoint, which works without login when paired with the Apify residential proxy.

Concurrent lookups process 15 profiles in parallel, so a prospect list of 100 finishes in about a minute. Output lands in your dataset as clean JSON, ready to import into a CRM, influencer-marketing platform, or lead-enrichment workflow.

| 🎯 Target Audience | 💡 Primary Use Cases |
|---|---|
| Marketers, influencer managers, sales teams, brand monitors, researchers, recruiters | Influencer vetting, CRM enrichment, competitor tracking, lead qualification, brand monitoring |

### 📋 What the Instagram Search Scraper does

Five lookup workflows in a single run:

- 👤 **Profile data.** Username, full name, user ID, bio, external URL, and bio link list.
- 📊 **Engagement metrics.** Follower count, following count, and total post count.
- ✅ **Status flags.** Verified, private-account, and business-account badges.
- 🏷️ **Business category.** The `category_name` when the profile is a business account.
- 🖼️ **Profile picture.** High-resolution avatar URL ready for embedding.

Output includes the original query, the actor type (user), and a timestamp so you always know which profile each record came from and when it was captured.

> 💡 **Why it matters:** influencer campaigns and lead enrichment rely on up-to-date follower counts and verified status. Manual lookups do not scale. This Actor turns a list of usernames into a clean dataset in under a minute.

### 📊 Data fields

Each record includes: `bio`, `category`, `externalUrl`, `followerCount`, `fullName`, `hashtag`, `isPrivate`, `isVerified`, `mediaCount`, `placeLocation`, `placeName`, `postCount`, `profilePicUrl`, `profileUrl`, `query`, `results`, `scrapedAt`, `type`, `username`. These field names come straight from the actor's dataset schema, so what you see here is what lands in your dataset.

> ⚠️ **Good to Know:** Instagram blocks datacenter IPs for profile lookups. Always use the Apify residential proxy on paid plans for reliable results. Private profiles return a minimal record with `isPrivate: true` and no follower or post counts.

### 🚀 How to use

1. 📝 **Sign up.** [Create a free account with $5 credit](https://console.apify.com/sign-up?fpr=vmoqkp) (takes 2 minutes).
2. 🌐 **Open the Actor.** Go to the Instagram Search Scraper page on the Apify Store.
3. 🎯 **Paste usernames.** Add handles to the `queries` field. Residential proxy is on by default.
4. 🚀 **Run it.** Click **Start** and let the Actor enrich your list.
5. 📥 **Download.** Grab your dataset as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML.

> ⏱️ Total time from signup to enriched dataset: **3-5 minutes.** No coding required.

### 🔗 Recommended Actors

- [**📱 Instagram Profile Scraper**](https://apify.com/parseforge/instagram-profile-scraper) - Full profile with recent posts
- [**📸 Instagram Posts Scraper**](https://apify.com/parseforge/instagram-posts-scraper) - Posts from any profile
- [**🎞️ Instagram Reel Scraper**](https://apify.com/parseforge/instagram-reel-scraper) - Reel data and engagement
- [**👥 Facebook Search Scraper**](https://apify.com/parseforge/facebook-search-scraper) - Facebook page discovery
- [**🎬 YouTube Transcript Scraper**](https://apify.com/parseforge/youtube-transcript-scraper) - Full video transcripts

> 💡 **Pro Tip:** browse the complete [ParseForge collection](https://apify.com/parseforge) for more social media tools.

> **⚠️ Disclaimer:** this Actor is an independent tool and is not affiliated with Instagram or Meta. It accesses only publicly available profile data. Respect Instagram's terms of service and applicable privacy laws (GDPR, CCPA) when using profile data commercially.

### 🆘 Need Help?

If you hit a bug, have questions about setup, or need a scraper we haven't built yet, open our [contact form](https://tally.so/r/BzdKgA) or write to parseforge@protonmail.com. We also take on paid custom data projects.

For faster answers, join our [Discord](https://parseforge.co/discord). It's the best place to get support and suggest new actors.

# Actor input Schema

## `queries` (type: `array`):

List of search queries

## `searchTypes` (type: `array`):

Types of entities to search

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

How many results to collect per run.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "queries": [
    "nike",
    "travel"
  ],
  "searchTypes": [
    "user",
    "hashtag",
    "place"
  ],
  "maxItems": 10
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Complete dataset

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "queries": [
        "nike",
        "travel"
    ],
    "searchTypes": [
        "user",
        "hashtag",
        "place"
    ],
    "maxItems": 10
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("parseforge/instagram-search-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "queries": [
        "nike",
        "travel",
    ],
    "searchTypes": [
        "user",
        "hashtag",
        "place",
    ],
    "maxItems": 10,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("parseforge/instagram-search-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "queries": [
    "nike",
    "travel"
  ],
  "searchTypes": [
    "user",
    "hashtag",
    "place"
  ],
  "maxItems": 10
}' |
apify call parseforge/instagram-search-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=parseforge/instagram-search-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/IPMHwMtx1fusnR8lD/builds/ffPat5xz48ytvEvxv/openapi.json