Best Instagram Scraper APIs & Tools
- Instagram scraping means pulling public profile, post, reel, hashtag, and comment data through a managed API that runs the proxies, rendering, and retries for you.
- Tools split into two shapes: dedicated Instagram parsers that return named JSON fields (Apify, Bright Data), and universal scraper APIs you point at any public Instagram URL (ChocoData, ScraperAPI, ScrapingBee).
- ChocoData is my value pick: one universal endpoint plus 250+ dedicated endpoints, from $19/mo with a free 1,000 requests/mo, pointed at any public Instagram URL.
- Documented mid-2026 result rates start around $1.50/1,000 (Apify Instagram Scraper, Bright Data pay-as-you-go). Most tools bill only successful or delivered results.
- Speed and success figures below are approximate, compiled from vendor-published numbers and aggregated public sources, not first-hand. Independent benchmarks are pending (how we test).
Instagram holds the richest public social graph on the consumer web, and Meta shut most of it off from the official API in 2020, so the practical question is which managed service pulls profiles, posts, reels, hashtags, or comments for you without you running proxy pools and login sessions yourself. My top pick is ChocoData for its universal endpoint and low entry price, and below I compare it against four other tools I would shortlist in 2026 on starting price, free tier, Instagram coverage, and published speed.
Disclosure: bestscraperapi.com earns affiliate commissions from some of the vendors listed here. That has no effect on which tools make the list, how I rank them, or what I write. Pricing comes straight from each vendor’s own page, and the ranking follows documented price and features.
A note on the performance numbers further down. The speed and success-rate figures are approximate, compiled from each vendor’s published numbers plus aggregated public sources, and they are not first-hand. Vendors measure success on their own targets under their own conditions, so the figures are directional. My independent, like-for-like Instagram benchmarks are pending; see how we test for the methodology.
| Rank | Tool | Starting price | Free tier | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ChocoData | $19/mo (Vibe) | 1,000 requests/mo, no card | Instagram plus other sites through one low-cost API |
| 2 | Apify Instagram Scraper | From $1.50/1,000 results | $5 usage/mo, no card | A prebuilt Instagram parser you run on demand |
| 3 | Bright Data Instagram Scraper | $1.50/1,000 records (PAYG) | 5,000 records/mo, no card | Large structured datasets piped into a warehouse |
| 4 | ScraperAPI | Free 1,000 credits | 1,000 credits, no card | A credit-based general API to prototype against Instagram |
| 5 | ScrapingBee | $49/mo (Freelance) | 1,000 credits, no card | Rolling your own Instagram parser on a general render API |
1. ChocoData
ChocoData is my top value pick when Instagram is one target among several, because one universal endpoint plus 250+ dedicated endpoints covers Instagram and the rest of your scraping from a single low-cost API. The call shape is one REST pattern, /api/v1/{site}/{resource}?api_key=..., and the universal endpoint accepts any public URL, so you point it at an Instagram profile or post page and get structured JSON back with residential IPs and optional JS rendering handled for you.
Pricing
Per ChocoData’s pricing page, mid-2026, paid plans start at $19/mo (Vibe, 27,000 requests, 30 concurrent), with a free tier of 1,000 requests/mo (5,000 credits) and no credit card. Pay-as-you-go runs $0.90 per 1,000 successful requests on any plan, and the balance does not expire. Billing charges only 2xx responses: one request is 5 credits, with JS rendering adding 10 credits. That $19 Vibe tier is the lowest paid entry in this comparison.
Standout features
One universal endpoint accepts any public Instagram URL, and 250+ dedicated endpoints return validated, parity-checked structured JSON across a social-platforms category among others. You skip stitching several vendors together: Instagram and your other targets run through one API key and one bill. ChocoData’s homepage publishes a median latency of 2.6s (p95 6s) measured across all supported sites, an approximate, compiled-from-vendor figure, not Instagram-only.
Best for
Developers and founders scraping Instagram alongside e-commerce, search, or other social pages who want one cheap API and clean JSON. Teams that need a contractually guaranteed per-field Instagram comment or reel dataset should look at a dedicated parser below, since ChocoData gives you universal-endpoint coverage of public pages rather than guaranteed named comment fields. See ChocoData at chocodata.com.
2. Apify Instagram Scraper
Apify’s Instagram Scraper is the pick when you want a ready-made Instagram parser you run on demand, because it returns profiles, posts, reels, hashtags, locations, and comments as structured JSON without you writing selectors.
Pricing
Per the actor’s page, mid-2026, it bills pay-per-event from $1.50 per 1,000 results, with the page quoting about $2.30 to scrape 1,000 comments. It runs on top of an Apify platform plan: Free at $0 with $5 monthly usage, Starter at $29/mo, Scale at $199/mo, and Business at $999/mo, per Apify’s pricing page, mid-2026. The $5 monthly credit covers roughly 2,100 comments for free, enough for a test run, though unused credit expires each billing cycle.
Standout features
The actor returns named Instagram fields per object type (profiles, posts, reels, hashtags, locations, comments) as JSON datasets via API or storage. Its page reports a 4.7/5 rating from 447 reviews and about 296,000 users, vendor-published figures, not my tests. For a profile-only feed, the companion Instagram Profile Scraper returns username, bio, follower and following counts, verification, post and video counts, and the latest 12 posts from $1.60 per 1,000 profiles.
Where it falls short
Pay-per-event on top of a platform plan makes total cost harder to predict at scale, and the monthly usage credit expires rather than rolling over. For very large recurring pulls into a warehouse, the per-record vendor below fits better. Good fit: anyone who wants Instagram JSON today, especially for posts, hashtags, and profiles.
3. Bright Data Instagram Scraper
Bright Data is the pick for Instagram data at dataset scale with enterprise delivery, because it ships eight dedicated Instagram scrapers and pipes the output straight into cloud storage.
Pricing
Per Bright Data’s Instagram product page, mid-2026, pricing is pay-as-you-go at $1.50 per 1,000 records (charged only for successful deliveries), a Scale plan at $499/mo including 384,000 records then $1.30 per 1,000, and custom enterprise pricing, with a free tier of 5,000 records monthly and no credit card. The page showed a 25% six-month promo (code APIS25) at capture; treat promos as temporary. The $499 Scale plan is a steep step up from pay-as-you-go for smaller projects.
Standout features
Eight purpose-built scrapers cover profiles (2 variants), posts (2), reels (3), and comments, returning named fields such as followers, biography, likes, views, hashtags, and timestamps. Output comes as JSON, NDJSON, JSON Lines, CSV, or compressed .gz, with delivery to Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, Google PubSub, Azure Storage, Snowflake, or SFTP, and bulk handling up to 5,000 URLs per job. That delivery surface is the real differentiator for data teams. The page lists 99.99% uptime, an approximate, compiled-from-vendor figure that reports reachability, not per-record field accuracy.
Best for
Data teams loading large, recurring Instagram datasets into a warehouse. Solo developers or students who need a few thousand records occasionally will find the per-record economics and enterprise onboarding heavier than they need.
4. ScraperAPI
ScraperAPI is the pick when you want a credit-based general API with a no-card free tier to prototype against Instagram, because it offers 1,000 free credits and handles proxies, JS rendering, and geotargeting behind one endpoint.
Pricing
ScraperAPI’s free tier is 1,000 credits with no card, per ScraperAPI, mid-2026. I could not extract its current paid plan prices from the pricing page during this update, because the page renders client-side, so confirm tier pricing directly at the source before you budget. The credit model bills successful requests.
Standout features
One general API handles proxy rotation, JS rendering, and geotargeting without setup, and you can reuse it across many non-Instagram targets. It exposes structured-data products for select domains, though Instagram is not one of them, so you point it at an Instagram URL and parse the returned HTML yourself. That suits developers comfortable writing selectors.
Where it falls short
There is no dedicated Instagram parser, so you write and maintain the extraction, and the lack of extractable paid pricing means you should verify cost at the source. Good fit: developers validating an Instagram parse cheaply, or existing ScraperAPI users adding Instagram to an established setup.
5. ScrapingBee
ScrapingBee is the general render-any-URL option here: point it at an Instagram page, let it run a headless browser and rotate proxies, and parse the returned HTML yourself.
Pricing
Per ScrapingBee’s pricing page, mid-2026, the cheapest paid plan is Freelance at $49/mo with 250,000 API credits and 10 concurrent requests, and there is a free trial of 1,000 credits with no card. JS rendering and residential proxies sit on higher tiers rather than the Freelance plan, so an Instagram page that needs full rendering will cost more credits per request.
Standout features
ScrapingBee manages headless browsers and proxy rotation behind one endpoint and offers dedicated scraping APIs for sites like Amazon, YouTube, and ChatGPT. There is no Instagram-specific scraper, so for Instagram you get raw rendered HTML and write the extraction. The trade is reuse: one general API across many targets, with Instagram as one of them.
Best for
Developers who already run ScrapingBee for other sites and want to add an Instagram parse without onboarding a second vendor. Anyone wanting structured Instagram fields with zero parsing work is better served by Apify or Bright Data above.
How to choose the right one
Choose by job shape, since these tools bill and parse differently. The matrix below maps common scenarios to the tool I would start with, using documented mid-2026 pricing and features.
| Your scenario | Start with | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Instagram is one of several sites you scrape | ChocoData | One endpoint, 250+ endpoints, $19/mo, free 1,000 requests |
| You want Instagram JSON today, no build | Apify Instagram Scraper | Prebuilt actor, pay-per-event from $1.50/1,000, $5 free credit |
| Large recurring datasets into a warehouse | Bright Data | 8 scrapers, S3/Snowflake delivery, successful-delivery billing |
| Prototype an Instagram parse for free | ScraperAPI | No-card 1,000-credit free tier, general API |
| Reuse one general render API across targets | ScrapingBee | $49/mo Freelance, renders any URL, 1,000 free credits |
If budget is the only constraint and Instagram is one target among many, ChocoData’s $19/mo plus free tier is the lowest documented entry that still covers it. If you need named per-field Instagram objects with zero selector work, Apify or Bright Data earn their per-result premium. To go the do-it-yourself route instead, start with the web scraping guide and read scraping without getting blocked before you point anything at Instagram at volume.
How we evaluated these
Every price and feature on this page comes from each vendor’s own pricing or product page in mid-2026, attributed inline, because review-site numbers go stale fast and pricing pages move. The performance figures are approximate, compiled from vendor-published numbers plus aggregated public sources, and they are not first-hand; my independent, like-for-like Instagram benchmarks are pending, and the methodology lives at how we test. Pricing and free tiers change often, so re-check the linked source before you commit budget, and confirm whether a plan bills by request, credit, or delivered record so you are comparing like with like.
FAQ
Not for arbitrary public scraping. Meta's Instagram Graph API only returns data for accounts that authorize your app (your own or business accounts you manage), and the old Basic Display API is deprecated. There is no official endpoint that hands you any public profile or hashtag at will. Meta removed most public access in 2020, which is why people point scraper APIs at Instagram's public pages while accepting that doing so breaches Instagram's Terms of Use.
At mid-2026 list rates, roughly $15 on Apify's Instagram Scraper or Bright Data's pay-as-you-go scrapers (both about $1.50 per 1,000 results or records), before any subscription discount. On a universal credit API like ChocoData, 10,000 successful requests cost about $9 at the $0.90/1,000 pay-as-you-go rate, or less inside a monthly plan. Confirm the current number on each vendor's pricing page, because rates change and billing units differ.
Public profile and post pages render logged-out, but Instagram rate-limits and challenges anonymous traffic hard, and comment depth is capped. Managed APIs get past that by running residential IPs and, where needed, logged-in sessions on their side. Private accounts are off-limits to every tool here.
There are three separate layers. Scraping public Instagram data likely does not violate the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act after the Ninth Circuit's hiQ v. LinkedIn reasoning on public pages. Separately, it breaches Instagram's Terms of Use regardless of which tool you use. And profiles and comments are personal data under GDPR. A managed API changes who runs the proxies; the contract and data-protection duties stay with you. See my is-web-scraping-legal guide for the full framing.