Best Instagram data APIs, 2026Every main way to get Instagram data.Meta’s official API, Meta’s research library and the main data APIs, compared on what they return, how they charge and how you connect.
An editorial comparison of what each vendor publishes, checked 25 Sept 2026. Monocrawl is ours and listed first. How we compared
What are you building?
Public profiles, posts and comments in a product or pipelineA data API. They differ most in how they charge.
An AI agent that looks things upAn option with an MCP server, so the agent can call it directly.
Insights, messages or publishing for accounts that connect to your appThe official API. It is the only route to an account’s own insights, messages and publishing.
Academic or not-for-profit researchMeta’s research library, free for approved researchers and analysed inside Meta’s research environment.
Audience data that creators agree to sharePhyllo, which pairs public data with data creators consent to share through their own login.
11options compared
6with an MCP server
7free to start
34sources, checked 25 Sept 2026
Three routes
Meta’s official API is built for accounts that connect to your app. Its research library is for approved researchers. Data APIs read any public account.
Instagram Platform API
Meta Content Library
Monocrawl and the vendors below
What they return
What each option lists on its own pages, from profiles to transcripts, and how you connect.
| Instagram data | Connect | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Option | Profiles | Posts | Reels | Comments | Stories | Followers | Hashtags | Transcripts | REST API | MCP server | Sources |
| MonocrawlOur product | Our API | ||||||||||
| Instagram Platform APIOfficial, Meta | – | – | – | 12345 | |||||||
| Meta Content LibraryOfficial, researchers | – | – | – | – | 67 | ||||||
| ApifyInstagram Scraper actor | – | – | – | 8910 | |||||||
| Bright DataInstagram Scraper API | – | 1112131415 | |||||||||
| Data365Social data API | – | – | 161718 | ||||||||
| EnsembleDataSocial data API | – | – | – | 1920 | |||||||
| HikerAPIInstagram API | – | 212223 | |||||||||
| PhylloCreator data API | – | 24252627 | |||||||||
| SociaVaultSocial data API | – | 2829303132 | |||||||||
| XpozAgent data tool | – | – | – | 3334 | |||||||
Pricing
A request, a result, a record and a unit are not the same size, and allowances reset on different schedules. Price your own workload with each vendor.
One key and one response format across 70+ platforms, with monitors for alerts.
Monthly plans
No published price Serving accounts you don’t manage needs App Review and Business Verification.
Worth knowingThe only route to an account’s own insights, messages and publishing.
No published price
Free for approved researchers, with no fees for access or computation.
Worth knowingMeta’s own public archive, analysed inside its research environment rather than exported.
Free for approved researchers
$2.70 per 1,000 results on the free plan
From $1.50 on higher plans. Starter plan $19 a month.
Worth knowingResults land in a dataset you can schedule and export. The free plan stops at one page of comments per post, about 15.
$5 of usage a month
$1.50 per 1,000 records, pay as you go
$499 a month includes 384,000 records.
Worth knowingProxies, unblocking and parsing are included, with bulk delivery to cloud storage.
5,000 records a month
€300 a month for one network
500,000 credits included.
Worth knowingCollects live from the source for each request, through tasks you start, check and then fetch.
14-day trial, on request
$100 a month for 1,500 units a day
Resets daily at 00:00 UTC. Posts and reels cost 1 unit per post returned.
Worth knowingSays every request is fetched live from the source.
50 units a day
$1 per 1,000 requests on its popular tier
$0.60 per 1,000 at volume. The balance never expires.
Worth knowingInstagram only, with no OAuth needed for public data.
100 requests
Quote priced for your use
Its signup page lists a Startup plan at $399 a month.
Worth knowingPairs public data with data creators agree to share through their own login.
Sandbox on signup
$29 for 6,000 credits, one time
Most calls cost 1 credit. Credits never expire.
Worth knowingOne key across about a dozen platform groups, including ad libraries.
50 credits
$20 a month for 7,500 credits
An Instagram query costs 12 credits.
Worth knowingBuilt for AI agents, with keywords and accounts it tracks for you.
500 credits, once
Try a call
The same request in cURL, TypeScript or Python, and the recorded response for Gymshark’s public profile. No Instagram login and no Meta app.
GET /v1/instagram/profilecurl "https://www.monocrawl.com/v1/instagram/profile?handle=gymshark" \
-H "x-api-key: mn_your_key_here"
Gymshark
@gymshark
Selected public fields from the recorded response. Live counts will differ.
Profile1 creditRecent posts1 creditRecent reels1 creditComments on a post3 creditsHashtag search3 creditsStories5 creditsFollowers10 creditsReel transcript5 credits2.1sMedian response in our benchmark. 22 September 2026 catalogue benchmark. Median of recorded endpoint timings across 636 operations with a successful HTTP response. Includes network time; individual requests vary.
Questions
Meta’s Instagram Platform API has no published price, but it only covers professional accounts that connect to your app. For public data, most data APIs let you start free: Monocrawl gives 1,000 credits every month, Bright Data 5,000 records a month, Apify $5 of usage a month, HikerAPI 100 requests, SociaVault 50 credits and EnsembleData 50 units a day.
No. It works with professional accounts that authorise your app. It can return basic data about other professional accounts and search hashtags, capped at 30 unique hashtags per account every 7 days.
Not with Monocrawl: you send your Monocrawl API key and get public data back, with no Instagram login and no Meta app. The official API needs a Meta app, the account’s authorisation and, to serve accounts you don’t manage, App Review.
Monocrawl, Apify, Bright Data, HikerAPI, SociaVault and Xpoz publish their own MCP servers, so assistants such as Claude or Cursor can call them directly. Phyllo’s guide shows how to add its API to your own MCP server.
Units differ: a request, a result, a record and a unit are not the same size, and allowances reset on different schedules. Price your own workload, such as a number of profiles or comments a month, on each vendor’s calculator.
Method
What’s includedMeta’s two official routes, plus a selection of widely used Instagram data APIs that publish their pricing or offer a trial and come up across Instagram API searches and comparison lists.
What we comparedWhat each vendor publishes about its Instagram data, pricing, free allowance and access, read on its own pages. “Best” here means worth comparing, not a ranking from tests: we have not run their APIs.
About MonocrawlMonocrawl is our product and is listed first. Its details come from our live plans and catalogue.
1,000 free credits every month. No card required.
Start free