# Instagram Profile Posts API (https://www.socialcrawl.dev/platforms/instagram/profile-posts)

> Returns the public posts on an Instagram profile, newest first. Paging the cursor continues through that grid until it ends. Each post includes the written caption, the post URL, the media type, the post date, the like count and the comment count. Instagram is currently returning two record widths on this surface, and the narrow one carries no like count, no comment count, no post date and no author display name. When a whole page comes back narrow, the page is served from a second source that carries all four, at the same price, and its `next_cursor` continues on that source. If no second source answers, the narrow page is returned rather than an error, so those leaves can still be null on a page. Every row still carries its id, URL and caption. Every row also carries `post.ext.media_type` (`image`, `video` or `carousel`), a carousel carries its slide count at `post.ext.carousel_count`, and `post.flags.pinned` says whether the owner pinned the post to the top of the grid. The pins are read when you send `exclude_pinned=true`, at the same price: the pinned posts are left out and the rows kept carry `post.flags.pinned: false`. A row the pin read did not reach, or a page where only a source that cannot mark pins answered, carries `post.flags.pinned: null`, is kept, and `data._warnings` says so. Without `exclude_pinned`, `post.flags.pinned` is null on rows from the first source, whose record carries no pin data. `recent_days=N` keeps only posts from the last N days and stops the pagination once a page reaches older posts, so walking a feed back to a date window needs no manual stop. Send `include=audio` to add the sound each video uses: `post.ext.music_id`, the id /v1/instagram/audio/reels takes, and `post.ext.music` (`{ id, track_title, artist, is_original }`), for 1 extra credit per video filled. Every row carries the place the post is tagged at as `post.ext.location` (`{ id, name, lat, lng }`, null when the post has no place), a carousel lists its slides in `post.ext.media` (`{ type, url, width, height }`), and the `#tags` and `@handles` in the caption are listed in `post.ext.hashtags` and `post.ext.mentions`. Send `include=tags` to add `post.ext.usertags`, the usernames tagged in each post, for 1 extra credit per post that names someone. When you need the engagement for a specific post, pass its URL to /v1/instagram/post/stats; for a whole feed with share counts merged in, use /v1/instagram/profile/posts/full. Collaborative posts (Instagram's native "Collab" feature) are fully resolved: `post.ext.coauthors` lists every co-author account as `{ id, username, full_name, is_verified, profile_pic_url }`. Read it whenever you list a profile: a collab post has a single producer and appears in every co-author's grid, so `post.author` is whichever account created the post and is not always the handle you queried. The complete set of accounts on a post is `post.author.username` plus every `username` in `post.ext.coauthors`. An empty array means Instagram reports the post as not a collab; on a narrow record the key is absent rather than empty, which means the question was not answered for that row, so treat absent and `[]` as different. Note: engagement.shares is null on this endpoint (the upstream carries no per-post share count); to additionally merge in per-post share counts where a second source exposes them (coverage varies by account), use /v1/instagram/profile/posts/full. With trim=true the upstream record is the narrow one, so the page is normally served from the second source described at the top and carries every field above. A trimmed page served as it is omits `post.ext.coauthors` and leaves `post.flags.pinned` null, because the trimmed record carries neither signal.

TL;DR: `GET /v1/instagram/profile/posts` costs 1 credit per page. include=audio holds 1 more per row, up to 12, and keeps it only for each video whose sound came back, refunding the rest, so a page costs at most 13 credits and a page with no videos costs 1. include=tags holds 1 more per row, up to 12, and keeps it only for each post whose tagged accounts came back, refunding the rest; with both tokens a page costs at most 25 credits. exclude_pinned and recent_days do not change the price of a page. The default labels (sponsored, intent, niche) are free. label=mention, quality, ai_style, ai_written, injection, or label=intent with offer=, holds 4 extra credits and refunds down to 1 credit per started 25 posts that were newly judged: posts already labelled are free, a page where nothing could be judged refunds the whole extra, and a cached page is free. With `max_pages`, `max_items` or `max_credits`, each page walked is billed at this price (a cached page is free), and `max_credits` caps the total. and returns SocialCrawl's unified JSON schema. Single x-api-key auth, 100 free credits on signup.

## Parameters

| Parameter | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `handle` | yes | Instagram username without the @ symbol |
| `since` | no | Only posts published on or after this date: YYYY-MM-DD (midnight UTC) or an ISO 8601 timestamp. Older posts are left off the page, and the page that reaches one ends the walk: `next_cursor` is not returned and `pagination.stopped_at` is `since`. Pinned posts sit out of date order and never end the walk. The page still costs what a page costs, so a daily poll pays for the pages it walks and no more. |
| `stop_at_id` | no | The id (`post.id`) or URL (`post.url`) of the newest post you already hold. The page stops just before it: that post and everything after it are left off, `next_cursor` is not returned, and `pagination.stopped_at` is `known_id`. A pinned post never counts as the stop point. If it is not on this page the page is returned in full with its cursor, so keep walking. `pagination.stopped_at` is `end` when the list ran out first and `null` while there is more to walk. A post counts as pinned when `post.flags.pinned` is true or when it is older than a post below it on the page, so a pinned post that also sits in date order is never the stop point on a page that marks pins, and can be on a page whose `post.flags.pinned` is null. |
| `next_max_id` | no | Cursor to get next page of results. |
| `trim` | no | Set to true to request the lighter upstream record. That record is the narrow width described above, so the page is normally served from the second source with every field. A trimmed page served as it is omits `post.ext.coauthors`, and its `post.flags.pinned` is null, as it is on any page called without `exclude_pinned`. The price is the same either way. |
| `exclude_pinned` | no | Set to true to leave out the posts the owner pinned to the top of the profile. The pins are read from a second source alongside the page, at the same price, and the rows kept carry `post.flags.pinned: false`. A row whose pin state is unknown (`post.flags.pinned: null`), such as a row that pin read did not reach, a trimmed row, or a page from a source that cannot mark pins, is kept, and `data._warnings` says so. Without this parameter `post.flags.pinned` is not read and is null on rows from the first source, except on a page reached with a cursor, whose rows are `false` either way because a pinned post is served on the first page only. |
| `recent_days` | no | Keep only posts published in the last N days (1 to 3650). Older posts are removed from the page, pinned ones included, and once a page reaches posts older than the window `next_cursor` is not returned, so a walk back to a date window stops on its own. The page still costs what a page costs. |
| `include` | no | `audio` adds `post.ext.music_id` and `post.ext.music` to video rows from a second lookup: 1 extra credit per video filled, refunded when the sound could not be read. Photos and carousels are never looked up. `tags` adds `post.ext.usertags`, the usernames tagged in the post, to every row from a second lookup: 1 extra credit per post that names someone, refunded for a post that tags nobody or whose lookup failed. Both tokens can be combined (`include=audio,tags`). Adds a few seconds; read `data.hydration` for the credits held and kept and the time. |
| `label` | no | Optional CSV of SocialCrawl labels to add to every post. Without this param every page already carries sponsored, intent and niche, free; label= adds the labels you name to them (the defaults keep running). sponsored, intent and niche are free when asked for too; mention, quality, ai_style, intent with offer=, and injection add 1 credit per started 25 newly judged posts. judgments=off (or label=none) turns the default labels off. sponsored: is the post a paid or gifted promotion (p, 0 to 1), did it carry a disclosure marker such as #ad or 광고 (disclosed), is it likely paid with no marker (undisclosed), and which of the accounts it mentions does it promote (brand, or null). These are signals to review, never a finding. mention (needs brand=): is the post about that brand rather than something that shares its name (about_brand, 0 to 1), how it feels about the brand on five levels (sentiment_level 0 to 4 and sentiment_score 0 to 1, null when the post is not about the brand), is it sarcastic, which aspect it talks about (taste_or_quality, price_or_value, availability_or_delivery, health_or_safety, advertising_or_campaign, customer_service, none), and did the author buy or use it (first_hand). intent: what the author is mainly doing (label: asking_for_recommendation, comparing_options, switching_away, complaining, promoting, news_or_discussion, other, or null when unsure, with confidence), whether they read as a potential buyer rather than a seller (buyer, seller), how pressing the need is (urgency, 0 to 3), and, when you pass offer=, whether your offer would plausibly help them (fits_offer). niche: which of the 33 niches of the published taxonomy sc-niche-v1 the caption belongs to, or personal_no_niche, or other (label, confidence, taxonomy), with label null when the caption is too thin to tell or the pick is unsure. It reads the caption only, not the video. quality: how much checkable detail the caption carries (fact_density 0 to 3), whether it mainly asks for likes, replies, shares, follows or tags (engagement_bait, 0 to 1), whether it is written to provoke anger as a way to get engagement (rage_bait, 0 to 1; about the writing, never the side taken), whether it only repeats someone else's news or view (secondhand, 0 to 1), and what the post is mainly doing (post_aim: inform, opinion, sell, entertain, provoke, other). exclude=engagement_bait drops posts whose engagement_bait is 0.8 or higher. ai_style: writing patterns common in AI-generated text, judged on the text alone. It does not say who wrote the post, and a person who writes in this style is flagged too. Six patterns are judged, each a probability (0 to 1): binary_contrast ("This is not X. It's Y."), faux_insight ("Here's what nobody tells you" and throat-clearing openers), colon_reveal ("The best part: it learns."), profound_kicker (ends on an aphorism or mic-drop line), puffery ("marks a pivotal moment", "highlighting the importance of") and rhetorical_setup ("What if I told you", a question the post answers itself, "Not a X. Not a Y. A Z."). Four are counted in the text: slop_words (words and phrases such as delve, leverage, robust, game changer, at the end of the day), em_dashes, emoji_bullets (lines that start with an emoji or a symbol bullet) and one_line_paragraphs (paragraphs that are one short line). pattern_count is how many patterns are present (a judged pattern at 0.8 or higher, slop_words 1 or more, em_dashes 2 or more, emoji_bullets 2 or more, one_line_paragraphs 5 or more) and markers lists their names, comma-separated. A post with less than about eight words of text is only counted, with every judged pattern 0. The judged patterns read the first 400 and the last 150 characters of a long post, and the counts read the whole post. exclude=ai_style drops posts with 2 or more patterns. ai_written: how likely the post was written by an AI model, from SocialCrawl's own text classifier, reading the opening of the post (about 1,000 characters): p (0 to 1, calibrated), level (likely (p 0.95 or higher), possible (p 0.71 or higher) or unlikely) and model (the model name; a new name means a new scale). A post under 8 words is too short to read: p null, level too_short. It is a probability, not proof: a person can be flagged and an AI-written post can pass, and the shorter the post the less certain it is. exclude=ai_written drops likely posts. injection flags text that addresses an AI system and tries to direct it (flagged, p); it never drops or rewrites a row. A post that could not be judged carries labels: null. Posts already labelled for anyone are free, and so is a cached page. data.labels reports what was judged and billed. |
| `exclude` | no | Optional CSV (engagement_bait, ai_style, ai_written). engagement_bait, only with label=quality, drops posts whose engagement_bait probability is 0.8 or higher. ai_style, only with label=ai_style, drops posts that show 2 or more of its writing patterns (pattern_count 2 or higher). ai_written, only with label=ai_written, drops posts whose level is likely (p 0.95 or higher), or whose p reaches your ai_written_threshold; a post too short to read is never dropped. Dropped posts are listed in data.labels.dropped_ids. A post that could not be judged is never dropped. |
| `ai_written_threshold` | no | Optional, only with label=ai_written and exclude=ai_written. The p (0 to 1) at which exclude=ai_written drops a post. Default 0.95 (level likely). 0.71 also drops possible posts: more AI posts go, and more posts by people with them. |
| `brand` | no | Required by label=mention, ignored otherwise. The brand or product the posts are judged against, up to 300 characters, for example brand=Buldak. Without it label=mention is skipped with the warning label_mention_needs_brand and is not billed. |
| `brand_description` | no | Optional, with label=mention. One plain sentence saying what the brand is, for example brand_description=Samyang's spicy instant noodle brand. Use it when the name is also an ordinary word or another company's name. |
| `offer` | no | Optional, with label=intent. One or two plain sentences saying what you sell, up to 300 characters, for example offer=A web design agency that builds websites for small businesses. Adds fits_offer to every post; without it fits_offer is null. |
| `judgments` | no | Optional, on (the default) or off. By default every row gains free SocialCrawl judgments (computed.labels, and computed.relevance on search endpoints), reported in data.labels (mode default) and data.relevance (origin default), each with a status (complete, partial or skipped) and pending: the rows still being judged when the page was sent, which carry null now and are filled on your next call or cached read. Default judgments never add credits, never change an existing field, and never drop or reorder a row. off returns the page exactly as before, with none of those keys. label=none does the same. (on \| off) |
| `dry_run` | no | Optional. When 1, return a cost preview for this labelled or relevance-filtered request without fetching the page or judging any row. data.estimate reports rows_expected, rows_cached, label_credits_min, label_credits_max and base_credits. 0 credits charged. (1) |
| `label_evidence` | no | Optional, only with label=. When 1, every labelled row also carries computed.labels_evidence.<preset> = { quote, sentence_index }: the sentence in the row that most clearly shows the label, copied verbatim. Absent or null when no single sentence shows it. (1) |
| `fit` | no | Optional. When goal, keep the rows and fields needed for the goal you pass in goal= (plus any that are uncertain, and the first and last), and replace the rest with a stub. data.held_back lists the held ids and a recall id that re-reads the full page from cache at no extra charge. Without this param the page is unchanged. (goal) |
| `goal` | no | Required by fit=goal. What you are trying to do, in your own words, up to 300 characters. |
| `fit_tokens` | no | Optional, only with fit=goal. Soft cap on how much of the page to keep, in tokens. Uncertain blocks and the first and last block are kept even if they exceed it. |
| `until` | no | Only rows published on or before this date: YYYY-MM-DD (that whole UTC day is included) or an ISO 8601 timestamp. Newer rows are left off each page and the walk does not stop, so older pages follow. A row with no date is kept. `published_before`, `end_date` and `to_date` are accepted and applied as `until`. |
| `max_pages` | no | 1 to 50 (default 1, or 50 when `max_items` or `max_credits` is sent). Walk up to this many pages in one call and return the rows from all of them. Each page walked is billed exactly as one call to this endpoint (a cached page is free) and counts against your rate limit; its charge and any refund are recorded under the page's own request id, listed in `data.walk.request_ids`. The walk stops early at the last page, or when the request's time budget runs low; `data.walk.stopped` says why (`end`, `max_pages`, `max_items`, `max_credits`, `time_budget`, `page_error`) and `pagination.next_cursor` continues from where it stopped. |
| `max_items` | no | 1 to 5000. Get more in one call: keep walking pages until the response holds at least this many rows, then stop with `data.walk.stopped: "max_items"`. The last page is returned whole (it was billed), so `data.items` can hold up to one page more than this, and `pagination.next_cursor` resumes right after it without skipping a row. Walks up to 50 pages unless `max_pages` says fewer; each page is billed as one call (a cached page is free). Add `max_credits` to cap the spend. A long walk can stop on the time budget first (`"time_budget"`): send the returned cursor with the same params to continue. |
| `max_credits` | no | 1 to 100000. The most this call may spend, across every page it walks. A page starts only while the credits already spent plus that page's price (or, when higher, the most any page of this walk has cost) still fit, so the call never goes past it; the walk then stops with `data.walk.stopped: "max_credits"` and the cursor to resume. Sent alone, it walks as far as the budget goes (up to 50 pages). A value below the price of one page is a free 400 whose `error.details.page_credits` names that price. Credits a row join (`include=`) adds are known only once a page has run, so page 1 is checked against its own price. |

## Code example

```bash
curl -G "https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/instagram/profile/posts" \
  --data-urlencode "handle=instagram" \
  -H "x-api-key: sc_YOUR_API_KEY"
```

## FAQ

### How do I list a user's Instagram posts with an API?

Send a GET request to /v1/instagram/profile/posts with the handle parameter. SocialCrawl returns a JSON array of the user's most recent posts, each with caption, like count, comment count, media URL, media type, and timestamp.

### How do I paginate through Instagram posts?

The response includes a next_max_id cursor. Pass that value back as the next_max_id query parameter on your next request to fetch the next page. Keep paginating until the cursor is empty.

### Does the Instagram Posts API return photos and videos?

Yes. Each post entry includes a media_type field (image, video, or carousel) and a media URL. Carousel posts include an array of child media URLs so you can iterate over every slide in a single post.

### How much does the Instagram Posts API cost per request?

Each call costs 1 credit on the standard tier and returns one page of posts. New accounts get 100 free credits with no credit card, so you can fetch roughly 100 pages of posts before paying.

### How recent are the posts returned?

Posts are returned in reverse-chronological order starting with the most recent. The first page gives you the newest posts; pagination lets you walk back through the user's full public post history as far as Instagram exposes it.

See the full Instagram API: https://www.socialcrawl.dev/platforms/instagram

## Pricing

- Standard endpoints: 1 credit per call
- Advanced endpoints: 5 credits per call
- Premium endpoints: 10 credits per call
- 100 free credits on signup, no credit card required. Cached responses cost 0 credits. Credit packs never expire.
- Full pricing: https://www.socialcrawl.dev/pricing

## Explore with AI

Questions this API answers, phrased for an AI assistant:

- How to paginate Instagram user posts with an API
- Best API to pull a user's full Instagram post history