How to scrape Instagram?

In this post, we’ll show you how to scrape data from Instagram using a Python script. We’ll go over the basics of scraping and parsing data and how to use tools like Selenium to scrape dynamic content from websites.

 By the end of this post, you’ll know how to use Python to scrape Instagram for data on posts, comments, users, and more.

What’s Instagram Scraping – the Definition

The technique of obtaining information from Instagram is called Instagram scraping. Both physical labour and automatic tools are acceptable for this. 

Information about users, posts, and hashtags can be gathered through scraping. It can also keep tabs on rival activity or gather marketing intelligence.

Legal Ways to Scrape Instagram

There are many ways to get Instagram data, but not all are safe. This article will show you how to scrape Instagram data legally.

You must sign up for an Instagram account and log in before continuing. Next, put the username of the account whose data you wish to scrape into the search field. Next, select “Scrape” from the drop-down menu under the “Tags” tab.

After you click “Scrape,” a pop-up window will ask you to confirm your action. To confirm, press “OK.” After that, Instagram will begin extracting information from the account you chose.

The scraped data will include all of the account’s posts that can be seen by the public, as well as any comments and likes that go with those posts. It will also contain any private communications you and the account holder have exchanged.

After the scraping process, you can download the data in CSV or JSON format. Then, you can give this information to your users, such as for analysis or market research.

Remember that you should only scrape Instagram data from public profiles. It’s against the law to take information from private accounts without permission, and Instagram may take legal action.

1. How to Scrape Instagram using an Unofficial API.

The unofficial Instagram API is an excellent place to start if you want to scrape Instagram for data. You can use this API to search for people, get information about users, and access many other endpoints.

Create a developer account first before using the unauthorized Instagram API. After making an account, you can make an access token. This will be used to verify your requests.

Once you have an access token, you can send requests to the different endpoints. Consider the scenario when you want to obtain a specific person’s most recent media. You would send a GET request to the endpoint /users/:user id/media/recent, substituting the real user id for the user id.

This request will send back a JSON object with information about the user’s most recently used media. You can start parsing the data and getting the required information from this point on.

2. Instagram user accounts

When scraping Instagram, you can look for the two main types of accounts public and private. Anyone can see public profiles, but private profiles can only be seen if the user gives permission.

All you need to scrape an Instagram profile is the user’s username. Once you have this, you may use a program like ScrapeStorm to extract their profile’s exclusive content, including posts, comments, and likes.

The user’s consent is required before you can scrape their private Instagram profile. Once you have this, you can extract all the information from their profile using ScrapeStorm. But because private profiles have sensitive information, we suggest doing this only with the user’s permission.

3. Proxies for Avoiding Being Found

For several reasons, you should avoid detecting while scraping Instagram. You may want to keep a competitor’s information from them, or you’re just attempting to prevent getting banned. You may do a few things to lessen the likelihood of being discovered, regardless of the motive.

The use of proxies is among the most crucial aspects. Proxy servers act as a go-between for your computer and Instagram’s servers, making it look like your requests are coming from a different IP address. Because of this, Instagram needs help keeping track of what you do and figuring out if you are using a scraper.

Rotating your user agents is an additional option. User agents are text strings that describe the operating system and browser you’re using. Because you use different devices, it’s harder for Instagram to keep track of what you’re doing when you change these things up often.

Finally, submit only a few requests quickly. If you do, Instagram will likely flag your account since it will think something suspicious is happening. Instead, spread your queries over more time to appear as a regular human activity.

Building an Instagram Data Scraper: Pros and Cons

Building an Instagram data scraper has various advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side, a scraper can help you get information from many different places. For research or marketing purposes, this can be useful.

 A scraper can also automate repetitive processes that would otherwise require manual labour.

The drawback is that creating a scraper can be difficult and time-consuming. An improperly constructed scraper might also harm the website it is stealing data from. This can result in less traffic or a complete ban.

What data can be obtained without logging in?

You can do a few things when scraping data from Instagram without logging in. You can extract open data, for instance, from user profiles, hashtags, and locations. This information consists of a person’s number of followers, the number of posts they’ve published, and other things.

You can still access some information without checking in using Instagram’s API. However, the amount of information you can access is limited compared to what you could get if you logged in.

 For instance, the API only allows you to retrieve the 20 most recent posts from a hashtag, and it only allows you to retrieve a user’s basic information (such as their username and bio).

How Can Instagram Users’ or Followers’ Data Be Scraped?

An application like Scrapy can scrape information from Instagram users or followers. With Scrapy, you can set rules to get detailed information from websites.

 For instance, you may instruct Scrapy to remove all website links or images. You can also tell it what information you want to pull out, like how many comments and likes each website article has. 

Scraping Instagram with Python

You can scrape Instagram using that language if you know how to write in Python. Though many others exist, Python is one of the easiest and most effective ways to scrape Instagram.

You will require a few components to use Python to scrape Instagram. Installing the Python request library is the first step. With the help of this library, you can issue HTTP requests from Python programs. You also require an Instagram API key. Create a free developer account on the Instagram website to get this key.

After installing the requests module and getting an API key, you can write Python code to scrape Instagram. You will need to import the request library into your code first.

Importing demands

The next step is configuring your code to send an HTTP GET request to the Instagram API. To let the Instagram servers know you have permission to make this call, you must pass your API key as a parameter in this request. The code below demonstrates how to send a GET call to the Instagram API:

r = requests. get

('https://api.instagram/v1/users/self', params=

{'access_token': 'YOUR_INSTAGRAM_API_KEY'})

Once you send this GET request, all of the data that the Instagram API sends back will be in the r variable. You can then use

scraping to get basic details.

from instagramy import Instagram 

# Connecting the profile 

user = Instagram("geeks_for_geeks") 

# printing the basic details like 

# followers, following, bio 

print(user.is_verified()) 

print(user.popularity()) 

print(user.get_biography()) 

# return list of dicts 

posts = user.get_posts_details() 

print('\n\nLikes', 'Comments') 

for post in posts: 

likes = post["likes"] 

comments = post["comment"] 

print(likes,comments)

Instagram Scraper Tools

Over a billion people use Instagram every month, making it one of the most popular social networking sites. You’ll need a dependable and user-friendly tool like Octoparse if you want to scrape data from Instagram.

Octoparse is an Instagram scraper app that can help you get information from public and private Instagram accounts, hashtags, and stories. 

You can get information from Octoparse, like usernames, profile pictures, the number of posts, the number of people you follow, the number of people who follow you, the URLs of posts, likes, and comments.

Octoparse is simple to use and doesn’t require coding expertise. Additionally, it is free to use for 500 scraping activities each month. You can sign up for a premium plan starting at $50/month if you require more than that.

Also, check our guide on How to Scrape Social Media Data?