> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.scrapebadger.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Instagram API Overview

> Pull public Instagram data — profiles, posts, media, comments, hashtags and search — as clean JSON, with no Instagram login or API key required.

## Overview

The ScrapeBadger **Instagram API** turns `instagram.com`'s public surface into a
clean JSON feed: user profiles and their `related` accounts and `posts`, media
detail with `oembed`, comments and comment-likers, hashtag info and `recent`
feeds, and search (hashtags + blended top).

<Note>
  Authenticated (account-pool) endpoints — stories, highlights,
  followers/following, locations, audio, and the user about/videos/reels/tagged/pinned,
  hashtag top/reels, media likers, comment replies and search
  users/places/reels/music/autocomplete variants — are **temporarily
  unavailable** and not documented while offline.
</Note>

<Info>
  All endpoints are `GET`, live under `https://scrapebadger.com/v1/instagram/*`,
  and authenticate with the `X-API-Key` header. **No Instagram account or
  upstream API key is required** — ScrapeBadger handles authentication, rate
  limiting, TLS fingerprinting and proxy rotation transparently. Credits are
  charged per request (see the table below) and reported on the
  `X-Credits-Used` response header.
</Info>

## Features

* **Profiles** — full public profile by `username`: bio, links, counts,
  verification, business/professional metadata, plus `related` accounts and
  paginated `posts`.
* **Media** — media detail by shortcode `code`, oEmbed, paginated `comments`,
  and per-comment `likers`.
* **Hashtags** — hashtag info by `tag`, plus a paginated `recent` feed.
* **Search** — `hashtags` and blended `top` results.

## Honesty caveat

<Warning>
  These endpoints read Instagram's **public** surface only. Private accounts
  expose profile metadata but not their posts or media. Fields
  reflect what Instagram serves to an unauthenticated client; some
  professional/business fields are only present when the account has opted into
  them.
</Warning>

## Conventions

* **Pagination.** List endpoints take `amount` (page size) and a `cursor`
  (opaque next-page token). Every list response is wrapped in
  `{ items, count, next_cursor, has_more }` —
  pass `next_cursor` back as `cursor` to walk forward until `has_more` is
  `false`.
* **Datetimes.** Every datetime ships in **both** a Unix form (`*_utc`) and an
  ISO 8601 UTC string (`*_at`), e.g. `taken_at` + `taken_at_utc`.

## Credits

| Endpoint group           | Example path                               | Credits |
| ------------------------ | ------------------------------------------ | ------- |
| Health / reference       | `GET /v1/instagram/health`                 | 0       |
| oEmbed / search hashtags | `GET /v1/instagram/media/{code}/oembed`    | 2       |
| Standard read            | `GET /v1/instagram/users/{username}`       | 5       |
| Paginated listings       | `GET /v1/instagram/users/{username}/posts` | 8       |

<Info>
  Standard read (5) covers profile, `related`, media detail, hashtag info and
  search `top`. Paginated listings (8) cover `posts`, hashtag `recent`,
  comments and comment-likers.
</Info>

## Quickstart

<CodeGroup>
  ```bash cURL theme={null}
  curl "https://scrapebadger.com/v1/instagram/users/instagram" \
    -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"
  ```

  ```javascript Node.js theme={null}
  const res = await fetch(
    "https://scrapebadger.com/v1/instagram/users/instagram",
    { headers: { "X-API-Key": process.env.SCRAPEBADGER_API_KEY } },
  );
  const { user } = await res.json();
  console.log(user.follower_count, "followers");
  ```

  ```python Python theme={null}
  import requests

  res = requests.get(
      "https://scrapebadger.com/v1/instagram/users/instagram",
      headers={"X-API-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY"},
  )
  print(res.json()["user"]["follower_count"], "followers")
  ```
</CodeGroup>

<Tip>
  Resolve a handle with [`/users/{username}`](/api-reference/endpoint/instagram/get-user),
  then page their media with
  [`/users/{username}/posts`](/api-reference/endpoint/instagram/user-posts) by
  passing the returned `next_cursor` back as `cursor` until `has_more` is false.
</Tip>