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

> Returns a list of reels posted by an Instagram user. Each reel includes view count, like count, comment count, and thumbnail. Every row carries `post.ext.media_type` (`video`) and the remix counter Instagram shows at `post.ext.remix_count`, the number of reels made from this one. A reel that uses licensed music carries `post.ext.music_id`, the id /v1/instagram/audio/reels takes, and `post.ext.music` (`{ id, track_title, artist, is_original }`) on the plain call; send `include=audio` to add the same two leaves on reels that use an original sound, for 1 extra credit per reel filled. Send `include=stats` for the full stat line on every reel of the page, for 1 extra credit a page: `engagement.shares`, `engagement.saves` and `post.ext.repost_count` beside views, likes, comments and the remix counter, `post.ext.music_id` for every reel whatever its sound, and `post.ext.audio_cluster_id`, Instagram's audio cluster for the reel (the id Instagram uses to group different uploads of the same sound; the plain call does not carry it). `exclude_pinned=true` leaves out the reels pinned to the top of the reels tab, and `recent_days=N` keeps only reels from the last N days and stops the pagination once a page reaches older reels. Collaborative reels (Instagram's native "Collab" feature) carry the full co-author list under `post.ext.coauthors` as `{ id, username, full_name, is_verified, profile_pic_url }`; `post.author` stays the producing account, which on a collab is not always the handle you queried. An empty array means Instagram reports the reel 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-reel share counts where a second source exposes them (coverage varies by account), use /v1/instagram/profile/reels/full. With trim=true you get a lighter record: the engagement, the author, the caption, the timestamp and the reel URL are all still returned, but `post.content.media_urls` is null because the trimmed record carries no video file, `post.content.duration_seconds` is null, `post.ext.coauthors` is omitted and `post.flags.pinned` is null. The cover image is returned as `post.content.thumbnail_url` either way. Leave trim unset when you need the video URL or the duration. Instagram is currently serving two record shapes on this endpoint and one of them omits the caption, so `post.content.text` can be null on a page where the reel plainly has one; re-request to get a page from the fuller shape, or read the caption from /v1/instagram/post. Send `sort=most_viewed` for Instagram's own most viewed reels tab: the creator's reels in the order Instagram ranks them by plays, highest first, which reaches back years and can surface reels the default page leaves out. It is Instagram's ranking, served as it comes, so an occasional reel can sit out of strict order. Every row has the same fields as the default page. Only one source serves this order, so when it is unavailable the call returns an error at no charge rather than reels in another order, and its `next_cursor` only continues a `sort=most_viewed` walk. It cannot be combined with `include`, `trim`, `recent_days`, `since` or `stop_at_id`, which read the default newest-first page; that is a free 400. On a reel also posted to Facebook, `engagement.views` can include its Facebook views: `post.ext.instagram_views` is the Instagram-only figure, the same on every Instagram endpoint, and `post.ext.facebook_views` is the Facebook part when the source reports it.

TL;DR: `GET /v1/instagram/profile/reels` costs 1 credit per page. include=stats adds 1 credit a 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; with include=stats every reel already carries its sound, so the audio join costs nothing more. A page costs at most 14 credits. exclude_pinned and recent_days do not change the price of a page. sort=most_viewed costs the same 1 credit 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 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `since` | no | Only reels published on or after this date: YYYY-MM-DD (midnight UTC) or an ISO 8601 timestamp. Older reels 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 reels 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 reel you already hold. The page stops just before it: that reel and everything after it are left off, `next_cursor` is not returned, and `pagination.stopped_at` is `known_id`. A pinned reel 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. |
| `user_id` | no | Instagram user id. Use this for faster response times. |
| `handle` | no | Instagram username without the @ symbol |
| `max_id` | no | Max id to get more reels. Get 'max_id' from previous response. |
| `trim` | no | Set to true to request the lighter upstream record: a smaller, faster page that keeps the engagement, the author, the caption, the timestamp and the reel URL. What it drops is `post.content.media_urls` (the video file), `post.content.duration_seconds`, `post.ext.coauthors` and `post.flags.pinned`. The cover image is returned as `post.content.thumbnail_url` either way. Leave it unset when you need the video URL or the duration. |
| `exclude_pinned` | no | Set to true to leave out the posts the owner pinned to the top of the profile. A row whose pin state is unknown, which is every row with trim=true, is kept. |
| `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 | `stats` returns the full stat line on every reel for 1 extra credit a page: `engagement.shares`, `engagement.saves` and `post.ext.repost_count` beside views, likes, comments, the remix counter, `post.ext.music_id` for original sounds and licensed music alike, and `post.ext.audio_cluster_id`, Instagram's audio cluster for the reel. It is served by a second source, so a cursor from a request without it cannot continue a walk with it; start from page 1. `audio` adds `post.ext.music_id` and `post.ext.music` to reels still missing them from a second lookup: 1 extra credit per reel filled, refunded when the sound could not be read. Both tokens can be combined (`include=audio,stats`). |
| `sort` | no | Send `most_viewed` for the creator's reels in Instagram's most viewed order (highest plays first) instead of newest first. Same price. Its cursors only continue a `sort=most_viewed` walk. Cannot be combined with `include`, `trim`, `recent_days`, `since` or `stop_at_id`. (most_viewed) |
| `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/reels" \
  --data-urlencode "handle=mrbeast" \
  -H "x-api-key: sc_YOUR_API_KEY"
```

## FAQ

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

Send a GET request to /v1/instagram/profile/reels with either the handle parameter (username) or the user_id parameter. SocialCrawl returns a JSON array of the user's reels with view count, like count, comment count, and thumbnail URL.

### Is it faster to pass handle or user_id?

user_id is faster. When you pass handle, SocialCrawl first resolves the username to the numeric ID, then fetches reels. If you already have the user_id from a prior profile call, pass it directly to skip that extra lookup.

### What data does the Instagram Reels API return?

Each reel entry includes the reel ID, shortcode, thumbnail URL, video URL, duration, view count, play count, like count, comment count, caption, audio info, and post timestamp.

### How do I paginate through a user's reels?

Pass the max_id returned from the previous response as the max_id parameter on your next request. The endpoint returns reels in reverse-chronological order and lets you walk back through the user's full reel catalog.

### How much does the Instagram Reels API cost?

One page of reels costs 1 credit on the standard tier. With 100 free credits on signup and no credit card required, you can pull around 100 pages of reels while evaluating the endpoint.

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 track a creator's Instagram reel performance over time
- Instagram reels scraper API with view count and audio metadata