Instagram reel transcript API reference

GET /v1/instagram/post/transcript

AI transcription of a reel or video post (Instagram has no public captions). The post's video file is read from its public embed page and transcribed on the shared speech boxes at the transcript price (1 credit up to 2 minutes, then 5 per started minute of the whole video). Photos and carousels without a video answer transcript_unavailable, which is free.

Cost: 1 credit for captions; AI transcription 1 up to 2 minutes, then 5 per started minute of the whole video
Cache: Results are kept up to 30 days; send max_age_days to reuse them for free.
Timeout: A request still running after about 25 seconds answers 202 with a job to poll (Batch and jobs).

Parameters#

Name	Type	Required	Description
`url`	URL	one of	Post or reel URL (/p/..., /reel/..., /tv/...). Accepted hosts: `instagram.com`, `instagr.am`.
`id`	string	one of	Shortcode or numeric media id. Also accepted as `shortcode`, `media_id`.
`allow_long_transcription`	boolean	no	Transcribe audio past 2 minutes with AI, at 5 credits per started minute of the whole video. Without it a longer video answers transcript_unavailable, which is free. Default `false`. Also accepted as `allowLongTranscription`.

Send at least one of url, id. If you send several, the first listed is used and the rest are ignored.

Every request also accepts:

trim: true for a smaller response without null fields and extra.
raw: true to also get the platform's original object as raw.
max_age_days: accept a cached result up to this many days old, for 0 credits (Caching).

Example request#

Set your key in the environment first (see Authentication).

1curl -G "https://api.socialscrape.dev/v1/instagram/post/transcript" \2  -H "x-api-key: $SOCIALSCRAPE_API_KEY" \3  --data-urlencode "url=https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8rKmYvsrck/"

1import os2import requests34params = {5    "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8rKmYvsrck/",6}7res = requests.get(8    "https://api.socialscrape.dev/v1/instagram/post/transcript",9    headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["SOCIALSCRAPE_API_KEY"]},10    params=params,11)12body = res.json()1314if body["ok"]:15    print(body["data"])16else:17    print(body["error"]["code"], body["error"]["message"])

1const url = new URL("https://api.socialscrape.dev/v1/instagram/post/transcript");2url.search = new URLSearchParams({3  "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8rKmYvsrck/"4}).toString();5const res = await fetch(url, {6  headers: { "x-api-key": process.env.SOCIALSCRAPE_API_KEY! },7});8const body = await res.json();910if (body.ok) {11  console.log(body.data);12} else {13  console.error(body.error.code, body.error.message);14}

1{2  "nodes": [3    {4      "name": "SocialScrape Instagram reel transcript",5      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.httpRequest",6      "typeVersion": 4.2,7      "position": [8        0,9        010      ],11      "parameters": {12        "method": "GET",13        "url": "https://api.socialscrape.dev/v1/instagram/post/transcript",14        "sendQuery": true,15        "queryParameters": {16          "parameters": [17            {18              "name": "url",19              "value": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8rKmYvsrck/"20            }21          ]22        },23        "sendHeaders": true,24        "headerParameters": {25          "parameters": [26            {27              "name": "x-api-key",28              "value": "={{ $env.SOCIALSCRAPE_API_KEY }}"29            }30          ]31        }32      }33    }34  ],35  "connections": {}36}

Example response#

This is a sample from a recorded response. Status 200.

200 OKSample response

1{2  "ok": true,3  "credits_charged": 1,4  "credits_remaining": 4999,5  "cached": false,6  "cached_at": null,7  "request_id": "req_1abb44311f35f490431f9a6e",8  "data": {9    "object": "transcript",10    "platform": "instagram",11    "video_id": "C8rKmYvsrck",12    "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8rKmYvsrck/",13    "language": "en",14    "source": "ai",15    "duration_seconds": 20.0,16    "text": "This is a canned transcript for the fixture.",17    "segments": [18      {19        "start": 0.0,20        "end": 3.2,21        "text": "This is a canned transcript for the fixture."22      }23    ],24    "available_languages": null,25    "extra": null26  },27  "cursor": null,28  "has_more": null29}

Response#

A Transcript object in data.

See Data models for every field. The envelope around data is described in Responses.

Errors#

Failures are free: credits_charged is 0. Branch on error.code, never on the message.

Code	HTTP	Retry	Meaning
`invalid_params`	400	no	A parameter is missing, unknown or has the wrong type.
`unsupported_url`	400	no	The URL is not one this endpoint accepts (wrong platform or form).
`not_found`	404	no	The platform says this profile, post or item does not exist.
`transcript_unavailable`	404	no	No captions exist and AI transcription is not possible for this media.

Every request can also fail with the account and platform errors listed on the Errors page.

Also served at#

These paths answer the same request, so code written for other APIs keeps working: /v2/instagram/media/transcript. See Switching from ScrapeCreators.

Instagram profile (GET /v1/instagram/profile)
Instagram profile by user id (GET /v1/instagram/basic-profile)
Instagram profile post count (GET /v1/instagram/profile/post-count)
Instagram profile posts (GET /v1/instagram/profile/posts)
Instagram profile reels (GET /v1/instagram/profile/reels)
Instagram post or reel details (GET /v1/instagram/post)
Instagram post comments (GET /v1/instagram/post/comments)
Instagram popular topic (GET /v1/instagram/search/popular)