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

> Searches Instagram for reels matching a keyword query. Returns matching reels with view counts (engagement.views, the play count), like counts, comment counts, and author info, sourced from the Instagram surface that still carries play counts. Each row carries post.ext.author_id (the creator's numeric user id) and post.author.username. `post.ext.author_followers` is null on a plain call, because Instagram stopped sending follower counts in its search payload in August 2026; `include=creator` fills it. Three optional params add what the search itself lacks. Each works alone, and they combine; without them the call is unchanged. `region` (ES, MX, DE, BR, KR, FR, ZA, NG, KE, AE or SA) localises the results. Instagram does not rank search by country, so the market's own name is added to your query (`fitness` becomes `fitness españa`), unless the query already names the market or is already written in the market's own script (Hangul for KR), which Instagram localises by itself. The response reports what ran in `data.region`: `{ requested, method: "localised_query", query_sent }`. `region` favours creators from that market but does not promise that every creator is from it; `country` does. `include=creator` adds each reel's creator card, read from the creator's About this account panel: `post.ext.author_country`, `author_followers`, `author_following`, `author_posts_count`, `author_public_email` and `author_public_phone`, plus the name, avatar and verified flag where the row lacks them. It labels rows and never drops, adds or reorders them. `include=country` adds only `post.ext.author_country`, the same value, read from the creator's panel by `post.ext.author_id` for 1 credit per creator whose country came back, and `include=creator,country` is the same call as `include=creator`. `author_country` is the country the creator declares on that panel, not where the reel was filmed. A null means Instagram does not publish one for that creator, and nothing is guessed. `country` keeps only the reels whose creator declares that market. It adds the creator card, and when `region` is not sent it localises the query for the same market. `data.country` reports `{ requested, kept, dropped_other, dropped_unknown }`: rows from another country, and rows whose creator publishes none, are dropped and counted. Topics about a place, such as travel or eSIMs, are often made by visitors, so the localised query finds fewer local creators there. A phrasing locals use helps (`esim móvil` rather than `esim`), and `country` keeps only the market's creators. `region` and `country` mean what they mean on TikTok search. Only the mechanism of `region` differs: TikTok searches from the market, while Instagram, which ignores where a search comes from, gets a localised query. Price: `region` costs nothing extra. The creator card costs 2 credits per creator looked up. Two reels by one creator are one lookup, a creator that cannot be found is refunded, and a creator looked up in the last 15 minutes is free. Time: `region` adds nothing. The creator card typically adds about 5 to 17 seconds on a fresh page (the lookups run 12 at a time), and little when the creators were looked up in the last 15 minutes. `data.hydration` reports the rows, lookups, cache hits, credits held and kept, and the time. On a `max_pages` walk each creator is looked up once, the report sums every page, and `from_earlier_pages` counts rows filled free from a creator already looked up earlier in the walk. A walk starts another page with the creator card only while at least 30 seconds of its time remain, so a `max_pages` walk with `include=creator` or `country` often stops after its first fresh page with `stopped: "time_budget"`; pages whose creators are cached go further. `data._warnings` carries `creator_partial` when some creators could not be read (they are refunded) and `creator_unavailable` when none could. With `country`, a page where no creator matches is `items: []` with the warning `country_no_match`, and its lookups are still billed. A page left empty only because the creator lookups failed costs nothing. `format=raw` cannot be combined with `include=creator` or `country`; that is a free 400. Note: engagement.shares carries the reel's share count on most rows; it is null where Instagram's search surface omits it, on date-filtered searches, and on pages served while that surface is unavailable. For a share count on every reel, pass a result URL to /v1/instagram/post/stats, or use /v1/instagram/profile/reels/full to get a whole creator's reels with share counts merged in. engagement.saves is null: saves are platform-private. Instagram exposes no numeric save metric on any surface, and it is never fabricated. Result ordering is Instagram's own relevance ranking and is not stable between calls: the same query re-run minutes later can return a different, overlapping set. Rank on engagement.views client-side rather than relying on result order, and deduplicate by post.id across pages. Note on date_posted: filtered searches are served by the only Instagram surface that offers a date filter, and that surface no longer carries play counts, so engagement.views is null when date_posted is set. If you need both a date window and view counts, omit date_posted and filter on published_at yourself. Pagination: forward `pagination.next_cursor` back as `cursor` and keep calling while `pagination.has_more` is true. Page 1 holds up to 30 reels, and each later page is filled with up to 30 reels the walk has not returned, usually 25 or more. Once Instagram's results for the query run out, the walk ends with `has_more: false` on a shorter page, or on an empty `items` list charged 0 credits. A short or empty page that still says `has_more: true` is not the end (an empty one costs 0 credits), so keep going while `has_more` is true. Follow `next_cursor` in preference to requesting page numbers yourself: the cursor carries the reels already delivered, so repeats are dropped and a page with nothing new is not charged, while a bare `page=3` can return reels from an earlier page. A query with no matches returns an empty list rather than an error. A short keyword query such as `esim europa` usually pages with view counts on every page. A long phrase or a question often matches only on a surface that returns one page with view counts, so its later pages come back with engagement.views null. Note that a date-filtered search draws on a much smaller pool of about 110 reels: a page holds about 30 and the walk ends after about four pages, against far greater depth when date_posted is omitted. 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/search/reels` costs 1 credit per page on a plain call or with `region`; `include=creator` or `country` makes it up to 61 (1 plus 2 per creator looked up). `region` costs nothing extra. `include=country` makes it up to 31: 1 extra credit per creator whose declared country came back, refunded for a creator who publishes none or cannot be found. `include=creator` adds 2 credits per creator looked up: it holds 60 extra credits for a full page of 30 and refunds every creator it did not look up or could not find. Two reels by one creator are one lookup, a creator looked up in the last 15 minutes is free, and on a `max_pages` walk each creator is looked up and billed once. `country` runs the same creator lookup, because it needs each creator's declared country, at the same price, charged for every creator looked up, kept or not; `data.hydration.implied_by` says so on the response. `include=creator,country` is priced as `include=creator` alone, because the creator card already carries the country. Relevance against your query (by default, or with relevance=) is free. Adding relevant_to= holds 4 extra credits and refunds down to 1 credit per started 25 rows that were newly judged: rows already judged for the same topic are free, a page where nothing could be judged refunds the whole extra, and a cached page is free. 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. With `seen`, a page's price falls with its share of rows you already received under that id; credits for joined data (`include=`) are never discounted. and returns SocialCrawl's unified JSON schema. Single x-api-key auth, 100 free credits on signup.

## Parameters

| Parameter | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `query` | yes | Search keyword or phrase to find Instagram reels |
| `date_posted` | no | Date posted (last-week \| last-month \| last-year) |
| `page` | no | The page number to return. |
| `region` | no | Two-letter market code (ES, MX, DE, BR, KR, FR, ZA, NG, KE, AE, SA) to localise the results. Instagram does not rank search by country, so the market's own name is appended to your query (`fitness` with `ES` searches `fitness españa`), unless the query already names the market or is already written in the market's own script (Hangul for KR), which Instagram localises by itself. The query actually searched is returned in `data.region.query_sent`. It favours creators from the market but does not promise that every creator is from it; send `country` for that. For a topic about a place, such as eSIMs or travel, a phrasing locals use works better (`esim móvil` rather than `esim`). Same price as a plain call. Only these markets are supported; any other code is refused with the list, at no charge. A typo is a free 400. (ES \| MX \| DE \| BR \| KR \| FR \| ZA \| NG \| KE \| AE \| SA) |
| `include` | no | Send `creator` to add each reel's creator card, read from the creator's About this account panel: `post.ext.author_country`, `author_followers`, `author_following`, `author_posts_count`, `author_public_email` and `author_public_phone`, plus the creator's name, avatar and verified flag where the row lacks them. `author_country` is the country the creator declares there, not where the reel was filmed; it is null when Instagram does not publish one, and nothing is guessed. 2 extra credits per creator looked up; two reels by one creator cost one lookup, a creator that cannot be found is refunded, and a creator looked up in the last 15 minutes is free. Send `country` for the declared country alone (`post.ext.author_country`, the same value): 1 extra credit per creator whose country came back, refunded for a creator who publishes none or cannot be found, and free for a creator looked up in the last 30 days, with no counts or contact. `creator,country` is the same call as `creator`. A typo is a free 400. |
| `country` | no | Two-letter market code (ES, MX, DE, BR, KR, FR, ZA, NG, KE, AE, SA) to keep only reels whose creator is based in that market. Costs up to 61 credits a page, not 1: 1 credit plus 2 per creator looked up, kept or not, because the country is read from each creator's own profile (`post.ext.author_country`). It therefore adds the creator card (`include=creator`, reported as `data.hydration.implied_by: "country"`) and, when `region` is not sent, localises the query for the same market. To localise without the lookups, send `region` alone (1 credit). Rows from another country, or whose creator publishes none, are dropped and counted in `data.country` (`kept`, `dropped_other`, `dropped_unknown`); kept rows keep their order. When no row matches, the page is `items: []` with the warning `country_no_match`, and the lookups are still billed. A page left empty only because the creator lookups failed costs nothing. Works with `max_pages`. A typo is a free 400. (ES \| MX \| DE \| BR \| KR \| FR \| ZA \| NG \| KE \| AE \| SA) |
| `relevance` | no | Optional. Without this param every row already carries computed.relevance against your query, free ({ p, sense, depth, spam }: is this row about what your query means, or a different thing that shares its words?), and nothing is dropped or reordered. score asks for it explicitly and waits for every row; filter also drops the rows that are not about your query, and lists their ids in data.relevance.dropped_ids. Your query is the topic; nothing to configure. A row that could not be judged is never dropped and carries relevance: null. Pagination is unchanged, so a filtered page can hold fewer rows. Free with your query as the topic; with relevant_to it adds 1 credit per started 25 newly judged rows (rows already judged for the same topic are free, and so is a cached page). (score \| filter) |
| `relevance_threshold` | no | Optional, only with relevance. The probability (0 to 1) a row must reach to be kept by relevance=filter. Default 0.5. Lower keeps more rows, higher keeps fewer. |
| `relevant_to` | no | Optional, only with relevance. Up to 200 characters describing what you mean, used as the topic instead of the query. Use it when the query is ambiguous, for example query=cleopatra with relevant_to=Cleopatra, the IGT slot game. |
| `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) |
| `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. |
| `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. |
| `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) |
| `since` | no | Only rows published on or after this date: YYYY-MM-DD (midnight UTC) or an ISO 8601 timestamp. Rows older than it are left off each page. This list is not in date order, so the walk does not stop at the date: keep following `next_cursor`, and each page costs what a page costs even when every row on it is filtered out. A row with no date is kept. `published_after`, `start_date`, `from_date`, `publish_time` (`yesterday`, `this-week`, `this-month`, `last-3-months`, `last-6-months`) and `max_age_days` are accepted and applied as `since`. |
| `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`. |
| `min_views` | no | Keep only rows with at least this many views (`post.engagement.views`). A row whose view count is unknown is discarded, so every returned row meets the floor. Filtering runs on our side after each page is fetched, so every page walked is billed as usual; `data.walk.discarded` counts what was removed and why. Each page is its own entry in `GET /v1/credits/transactions`, under the page's request id listed in `data.walk.request_ids`. |
| `max_age_days` | no | Keep only rows published within this many days (`post.published_at`), 1 to 3650. A row with no date is discarded. Filtering runs on our side after each page is fetched, so every page walked is billed as usual; `data.walk.discarded` counts what was removed and why. Each page is its own entry in `GET /v1/credits/transactions`, under the page's request id listed in `data.walk.request_ids`. |
| `sort_rows` | no | `views`: return the kept rows ordered by view count, highest first, across every page walked. Rows without a view count go last. (views) |
| `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 (after any filter). 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 (after any filter), 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. |
| `seen` | no | An id you choose (1 to 64 letters, digits, `.`, `_` or `-`). Rows your account already received under the same `seen` id are removed from the page, and the page price falls with the share of repeats: page credits x new rows / rows on the page, rounded up, so a page of nothing but repeats is free. Only the page's own price is discounted: credits for joined data (`include=`) are charged only for rows you have not received, and are never discounted. The memory lasts 24 hours from the last call that used the id, holds row ids only, and is private to your account. Use one id across a set of related searches; `data.walk.repeats` counts what was removed. |

## Code example

```bash
curl -G "https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/instagram/search/reels" \
  --data-urlencode "query=workout routine" \
  -H "x-api-key: sc_YOUR_API_KEY"
```

## FAQ

### How do I search Instagram reels with an API?

Send a GET request to /v1/instagram/search/reels with the query parameter set to your keyword. SocialCrawl returns a JSON array of matching public reels including author, caption, view count, like count, and thumbnail URL.

### Can I filter reels by date posted?

Yes. Pass the date_posted parameter with one of Instagram's supported ranges (for example last 24 hours, last 7 days, last 30 days) to limit results to reels posted within that window.

### What search queries work best for reels?

Short, concrete keywords work best: hashtags without the #, product names, song titles, trending phrases, or niche topics. Instagram's own search weights engagement, so well-trafficked queries return more results than long-tail phrases.

### Does the Instagram Reels Search API return private reels?

No. Only reels from public accounts that Instagram exposes in its own search results are returned. Reels from private accounts or reels restricted by region are filtered out before you receive the response.

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

This search costs 1 credit per request on the standard tier. With 100 free credits on signup you can run around 100 searches before deciding whether to top up.

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 find trending Instagram reels for a keyword with an API
- Instagram reels discovery API for content research and trend tracking