instagram

Original：🇺🇸 English

Translated

Scrape Instagram profiles, posts, reels and comments as JSON through the Bright Data Scraper API. Use when the user asks for any Instagram data - an account's followers or bio, a post's likes and comments, the recent posts or reels of an account, the comments on a post - or says "instagram scraper", "instagram api", "instagram data". Routes between the CLI (`bdata pipelines run` with the Instagram dataset ids), the Python SDK (`client.search.instagram.*` and `client.scrape.instagram.*`), and the MCP scraper tools. Carries the credit costs, the reels timeout, the `post_type` values that work, and the error-row cases the API returns as success.

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Sourcebrightdata/skills

Added on2026-11-08

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add brightdata/skills instagram

SKILL.md Content

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Bright Data - Instagram

Four datasets: profiles, posts, reels, comments. Three routes into them. Pick by what the user has and wants. The SDK lines were verified on 2026-09-11 against

brightdata-sdk

2.5.2; the CLI and MCP lines follow

@brightdata/cli

0.4.1 and

@brightdata/mcp

4.1.0.

Dataset	dataset_id	Methods
Profiles	`gd_l1vikfch901nx3by4`	`collect_by_url` , `discover_by_user_name`
Posts	`gd_lk5ns7kz21pck8jpis`	`collect_by_url` , `discover_by_url` (a profile URL: its recent posts)
Reels	`gd_lyclm20il4r5helnj`	`collect_by_url` , `discover_by_url` , `discover_by_url_all_reels`
Comments	`gd_ltppn085pokosxh13`	`collect_by_url`

Pick your route

You have	You want	Route
a profile URL	the account's recent posts	CLI `bdata pipelines run gd_lk5ns7kz21pck8jpis discover_by_url <url> --num_of_posts N` or SDK `client.search.instagram.posts(url, num_of_posts=N)` . `collect_by_url` with a profile URL returns `It is not a post URL`
a profile URL	the account's recent reels	CLI `bdata pipelines run gd_lyclm20il4r5helnj discover_by_url <url> --num_of_posts N` or SDK `client.search.instagram.reels(url, num_of_posts=N, timeout=420)`
a profile URL	the profile	CLI `bdata pipelines run gd_l1vikfch901nx3by4 collect_by_url <url>` or SDK `client.scrape.instagram.profiles(url)`
a username, no URL	the profile	CLI `bdata pipelines run gd_l1vikfch901nx3by4 discover_by_user_name --user_name nasa` or SDK `client.search.instagram.profiles("nasa")`
a post URL	that post	CLI `bdata pipelines run gd_lk5ns7kz21pck8jpis collect_by_url <url>` or SDK `client.scrape.instagram.posts(url)`
a reel URL	that reel	CLI `bdata pipelines run gd_lyclm20il4r5helnj collect_by_url <url>` or SDK `client.scrape.instagram.reels(url)`
a post or reel URL	its comments	CLI `bdata pipelines run gd_ltppn085pokosxh13 collect_by_url <url>` or SDK `client.scrape.instagram.comments(url)` . One credit per comment
no terminal (hosted assistant)	any of the above	MCP `run_scraper` with the dataset id and method above (see MCP below)

Every route is an asynchronous job on the API: trigger, poll, return. Expect one to three minutes per call. One credit per record; 5,000 credits are free each month. Always pass

num_of_posts

on a discovery call: without it the number of posts collected, and billed, has no limit.

Setup gate (run first)

Run

node <agent-onboarding skill folder>/scripts/check-auth.mjs --for instagram

. Exit

means ready. Any other exit, a missing CLI, or a missing login is the

agent-onboarding

skill's job. These datasets need no zone, only the key.

For the SDK route:

pip install brightdata-sdk

. The SDK reads the token from

BRIGHTDATA_API_TOKEN

or

BRIGHTDATA_API_KEY

, then from a

.env

file found by searching upward from its own install folder, then from the CLI's stored login. After

bdata login

nothing else is needed.

CLI: run a dataset by id

bash

bdata pipelines run gd_l1vikfch901nx3by4 collect_by_url "https://www.instagram.com/nasa/" --pretty
bdata pipelines run gd_lk5ns7kz21pck8jpis collect_by_url "https://www.instagram.com/p/Dc1W1uFj-CW/" --format csv -o posts.csv
bdata pipelines run gd_lyclm20il4r5helnj collect_by_url "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcMXl1IPNtB/" --pretty
bdata pipelines run gd_ltppn085pokosxh13 collect_by_url "https://www.instagram.com/p/Dc1W1uFj-CW/" --pretty
bdata pipelines run gd_lk5ns7kz21pck8jpis discover_by_url "https://www.instagram.com/nasa/" --num_of_posts 5 --pretty

bdata pipelines info <dataset_id> <method>

lists a method's input fields; each one is a

--<field> <value>

flag.

--format json|csv|ndjson|jsonl

,

-o FILE

,

--timeout SECONDS

(default 600). Typical times: profile 50s, post 40s, reel 25s, comments 10s.

SDK: recent posts of an account

python

from brightdata import SyncBrightDataClient

with SyncBrightDataClient(auto_create_zones=False) as client:
    result = client.search.instagram.posts("https://www.instagram.com/nasa/", num_of_posts=5)
    for post in result.data:
        print(post["likes"], post["num_comments"], post["url"])

Rules that are not in the SDK docstrings:

Always pass
auto_create_zones=False
. Left on, the client tries to create Web Unlocker and SERP zones on entry, which Instagram never uses and which fails with a 403 on accounts without a payment method (sdk-python#57).
Many URLs in one call is one job. Pass a list rather than looping.
Shapes:
```
search.*
```
calls always return a list in
```
result.data
```
.
```
scrape.*
```
calls with one URL return one record as a dict, several as a list.
Date window:
```
start_date="08-01-2026", end_date="09-07-2026"
```
, format
```
MM-DD-YYYY
```
.
```
post_type="Post"
```
keeps posts only,
```
post_type="Reels"
```
keeps reels only. The docstring's
```
"Reel"
```
returns an error row and no reels (sdk-python#59).
Reels discovery needs
timeout=420
. The 180-second default expires.
An empty window is a success with zero records: it arrives as a row whose
```
error
```
contains
```
There are no public posts in the profile for the specified period
```
. Match the message; a dead account uses the same
```
error_code
```
.
A dead account is a row with an
error
key and varying text, for example
```
Sorry, this page isn't available.
```
or
```
Crawler error: Cannot read properties of null
```
. The other rows in the same result are fine.

A timeout is

result.success == False

with

result.status == "timeout"

.

Collaborative posts carry the co-author's handle in
```
user_posted
```
, so a post fetched from
```
nasa
```
can say
```
nasajohnson
```
.
```
coauthor_producers
```
lists everyone.
reels_all(url)
costs one credit per reel the account has ever posted. Check
```
posts_count
```
on the profile first. Comments cost one per comment; check
```
num_comments
```
on the post first.
Never hardcode a field list. The schema changes without notice. Read it with
```
client.datasets.instagram_posts.get_metadata().fields
```
, a dict keyed by field name. A post carries 34 to 36 of the 44 fields.
Big runs:
```
posts_trigger
```
,
```
posts_status
```
,
```
posts_fetch
```
. Keep the snapshot id; snapshots stay downloadable for 30 days.

The other seven SDK calls, each with a complete snippet, are in

references/sdk.md

.

MCP: no terminal

The Bright Data MCP server reaches the same datasets through its scraper tools, which are on by default:

run_scraper

with a dataset id and method from the table at the top, and an input such as

[{"url": "https://www.instagram.com/nasa/"}]

.

discover_by_url

on the posts dataset gives an account's recent posts; pass

num_of_posts

in the input and

limit_per_input

.

search_scrapers

and

get_scraper_details

look the ids and fields up. The

brightdata-mcp

skill covers setup.

Hand-offs

Unsupported URL, or an Instagram page these datasets do not cover:
```
scrape
```
.
Need to find the profile or post URL first:
```
search
```
.
Other platforms:
```
scrape
```
.

Docs

Instagram Scraper API: https://docs.brightdata.com/products/scrapers/instagram/introduction
Posts, discover by URL (the recent-posts call): https://docs.brightdata.com/api-reference/web-scraper-api/social-media-apis/instagram-posts-discover-by-url
Free tier: https://docs.brightdata.com/general/account/billing-and-pricing/free-tier