Apify Instagram Scraper 2026: Price per 1,000 Results, Data and Limits

TL;DR

The Instagram Scraper is built and maintained by Apify itself and is the second most used Actor in its Store, with more than 400,000 users and a 4.7 rating. It collects public Instagram data without a login: posts, reels, comments, profiles, hashtags, places and mentions. It charges per result: $2.70 per 1,000 on the Free plan, $2.30 on Starter, $1.90 on Scale and $1.50 on Business. Private profiles cannot be scraped, and the free plan returns only the top 15 comments per post.

Actor	Instagram Scraper (apify/instagram-scraper)
Price per 1,000 results	$2.70 Free · $2.30 Starter · $1.90 Scale · $1.50 Business
Free plan covers	About 1,850 results a month
Login needed	No, public data only
Private profiles	Not supported
Users	400,000+, rated 4.7

What Can the Apify Instagram Scraper Extract?

Profiles: bio, follower and following counts, post count, external link, verification.
Posts and reels: caption, likes, comment count, date, media URLs, carousel items, location and tagged accounts.
Comments: text, author and date for public posts.
Hashtags and places: recent public posts under a hashtag or a location.
Mentions: public posts that mention a profile.

You can start from profile, post or hashtag URLs, or from a search query, but the Actor does not accept both in the same run. For narrower jobs Apify also publishes specialized versions: a profile scraper, a post scraper and an API-style scraper.

How Much Does the Apify Instagram Scraper Cost?

Apify plan	Price per 1,000 results	What $10 buys
Free	$2.70	About 3,700 results (free credit is $5 a month)
Starter	$2.30	About 4,350 results
Scale	$1.90	About 5,250 results
Business	$1.50	About 6,650 results

A "result" is one item in the output: a post, a comment, a profile. So scraping 100 posts with 50 comments each is about 5,100 results, not 100. Estimate your job this way before running it, and start with a small limit to see the real count and cost.

What Are the Apify Instagram Scraper's Limits?

Public data only. No login means no private profiles, no stories behind follower-only settings and no direct messages.
Comments on the free plan are capped at the top 15 per post, sorted by newest, according to the Actor page. Paid plans are not capped this way.
URLs or search, not both in the same run.
Instagram changes. As with any social media scraper, results can be affected when Instagram changes its site; an Actor maintained by Apify itself is updated faster than most community alternatives.

How Do You Run the Instagram Scraper on Apify?

Create a free Apify account and open the Instagram Scraper.
Add your inputs: profile or post URLs, a hashtag, or a search query.
Choose what to return: posts, comments, details, mentions, and set a result limit.
Run a small test, around 100 results, and check the cost.
Export as CSV, Excel or JSON, or send to Google Sheets, n8n or Make.
Schedule it to track a set of profiles or a hashtag over time.

What Do People Use Instagram Data For?

Influencer research: comparing follower counts, engagement and posting frequency before a partnership.
Competitor tracking: which posts and reels perform best for brands in your niche.
Content ideas: the most engaged posts under a hashtag, as input for your own content.
Audience research: what people actually say in comments about a product or topic.

Collecting comments and profiles means collecting personal data, so use it for analysis rather than unsolicited outreach, and check the rules where you operate.

Is It Legal to Scrape Instagram?

Collecting publicly available data without logging in is generally legal; in 2024 a US court ruled in favor of Bright Data in a case brought by Meta over logged-out public data. That does not remove other obligations: personal data is protected under the GDPR and similar laws even when public, and Instagram's terms restrict automated access. Apify's own legal guide covers these points in more detail.

Is the Apify Instagram Scraper Worth It?

For public Instagram data it is the most proven option: maintained by Apify itself, used by more than 400,000 people, with a clear price per result. It works with public data only, and results can shift when Instagram changes its site. Test it on the free plan with a real list of profiles, then decide. More on the platform in our Apify pricing guide.

Try The Instagram Scraper Free About 1,850 results on the free credit

Free Plan • No Credit Card • $5 Of Usage Every Month

What Do Common Instagram Jobs Cost?

Worked examples at September 2026 prices, counting every post, comment and profile as one result:

Job	Results	Free plan ($2.70/1,000)	Starter ($2.30/1,000)
Vet 50 influencer profiles	50	About $0.14	About $0.12
Last 30 posts of 20 competitors	600	About $1.62	About $1.38
1,000 recent posts under a hashtag	1,000	About $2.70	About $2.30
100 posts with their comments (up to 15 per post on Free, 50 per post on paid plans)	1,600 on Free, 5,100 on paid	About $4.32	About $11.73

Profile and post research is very cheap; comments are where the result count grows fast. The free plan's $5 covers the first three jobs in the table in a single month, and the comments job only because Free returns at most 15 comments per post.

Which Apify Instagram Actor Should You Use?

Apify publishes several Instagram Actors. The general Instagram Scraper covered here is the most flexible; the specialized ones are simpler when you only need one kind of data:

Instagram Scraper: posts, reels, comments, profiles, hashtags and places from one Actor. Start here.
Instagram Profile Scraper: only profile details, useful for vetting a list of accounts quickly.
Instagram Post Scraper: only posts from given profiles, for content and engagement analysis.
Instagram API Scraper: a version designed for developers who want structured output for their own tools.

Check each Actor's own price per result before switching; specialized Actors can be cheaper for narrow jobs.

How Do You Automate Instagram Monitoring With Apify?

Save a run as a task with your list of profiles or hashtags and schedule it daily or weekly. Send the results to Google Sheets to build a history of follower counts and post performance, or use n8n or Make to alert you when a competitor posts or a hashtag spikes. Because you pay per result, scheduling only recent posts keeps ongoing costs small.

How Reliable Is the Data?

The data is what Instagram shows publicly at the moment of the run: counts such as likes and followers change constantly, and Instagram sometimes hides exact numbers. Treat the output as a snapshot, compare trends over several runs rather than single values, and expect occasional gaps when Instagram changes its pages. The Actor's user count and 4.7 rating suggest it is fixed quickly when that happens, but no scraper of a social network is guaranteed to work every day.

For decisions that matter, such as choosing an influencer to pay, combine the scraped numbers with a manual look at the profile and, where possible, the creator's own audience statistics.

Can You Feed Instagram Data Into AI Tools?

Yes, and it is one of the fastest-growing uses. Apify's MCP server lets AI assistants such as Claude or Cursor run the Instagram Scraper and read the results directly, so you can ask for a summary of what a competitor posted this month or which captions drew the most comments. The same results can go into a spreadsheet or a vector database through n8n or the API. The usual cautions apply: stick to public data, keep personal data to a minimum, and treat engagement numbers as snapshots.

Apify Instagram Scraper: Common Questions

How much does the Apify Instagram Scraper cost?

The official Instagram Scraper charges per result. In September 2026 it cost $2.70 per 1,000 results on the Free plan, $2.30 on Starter, $1.90 on Scale and $1.50 on Business.

Can I scrape Instagram for free with Apify?

Yes, within the free plan's $5 of monthly usage, which covers roughly 1,850 results at $2.70 per 1,000. The Actor page says Free usage returns only the top 15 comments per post, sorted by newest, and around 21 mentions.

Can the Apify Instagram Scraper get private profiles?

No. It only collects publicly available data and does not log in. Private profiles and their posts cannot be scraped, with the exception of collaborative posts that are shared publicly.

Do I need an Instagram account or login?

No. The scraper works without logging in, which is also why it is limited to public data.

What can I scrape from Instagram with Apify?

Public posts and reels, comments, profile details, hashtags, places, mentions, carousels and media URLs. You can start from profile or post URLs, or from search queries, but not both in the same run.

Is scraping Instagram legal?

Collecting public data is generally legal, and a 2024 US case between Meta and Bright Data went in the scraper's favor for logged-out public data. Personal data is still protected under laws like the GDPR, and Instagram's terms restrict automated access, so check the rules for your use case.

The Instagram Scraper, in One Paragraph

Apify's Instagram Scraper collects public posts, reels, comments, profiles and hashtags without a login, for $2.70 per 1,000 results on the free plan and as little as $1.50 on Business. It cannot reach private accounts, so plan around public data, count results as items rather than posts, and start with a small test before scaling.

Prices come from the Actor's published pricing, checked in September 2026; they can change without notice.

Open The Instagram Scraper On Apify, free plan available