Instagram reel search API

Reels for a keyword or phrase from Instagram's public Popular search (the same source as `search/popular`; it is not search-indexed), about 50 to 70 ove...

GET /v1/instagram/search/reels

Reels for a keyword or phrase from Instagram's public Popular search (the same source as search/popular; it is not search-indexed), about 50 to 70 over 5 or 6 pages. date_posted is accepted for compatibility and not applied: Popular search has no date filter.

Cost: 1 credit
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
`query`	string	yes	Search terms. Also accepted as `keyword`, `q`.
`date_posted`	string	no	Accepted for compatibility; not applied (no date filter upstream). One of `week`, `month`, `year`. Also accepted values: `last-week` for `week`, `last-month` for `month`, `last-year` for `year`.

Every request also accepts:

cursor: the cursor from the previous page (Pagination).
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/search/reels" \2  -H "x-api-key: $SOCIALSCRAPE_API_KEY" \3  --data-urlencode "query=sourdough"

1import os2import requests34params = {5    "query": "sourdough",6}7res = requests.get(8    "https://api.socialscrape.dev/v1/instagram/search/reels",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/search/reels");2url.search = new URLSearchParams({3  "query": "sourdough"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 search",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/search/reels",14        "sendQuery": true,15        "queryParameters": {16          "parameters": [17            {18              "name": "query",19              "value": "sourdough"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, lists and long text are shortened. 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_085507c98030a51c485c76c1",8  "data": {9    "object": "list",10    "items": [11      {12        "object": "post",13        "platform": "instagram",14        "id": "DWMQ8l6x9hu",15        "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWMQ8l6x9hu/",16        "type": "reel",17        "author": {18          "id": null,19          "handle": "thesourdoughnerd",20          "name": null,21          "url": "https://www.instagram.com/thesourdoughnerd/",22          "avatar_url": null,23          "verified": null24        },25        "title": null,26        "text": "Sourdough Bread Recipe for Beginners\nStep-by-Step Tutorial\n\nINGREDIENTS\n• 500g unbleached bread flour (4 cups)\n• 350g water (1½ cups)\n• 100g active sourdough starter (1 cup)\n• 10g salt (1¾ tsp)\n\nDIREC",27        "published_at": "2026-03-22T15:24:20Z",28        "duration_seconds": 179.0,29        "language": null,30        "hashtags": [],31        "mentions": [],32        "stats": {33          "views": null,34          "likes": null,35          "comments": null,36          "shares": null,37          "saves": null,38          "dislikes": null39        },40        "media": {41          "thumbnail_url": "https://scontent-ord5-2.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.71878-15/655937072_972380852120812_6676440451373029320_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_e35_s640x640_tt6&_nc_cat=110&ccb=7-5&_nc_sid=18de74&efg=eyJlZmdfdGFnIjoiQ0xJUFMuYmVzdF9pbWFnZV91cmxnZW4uQzMifQ%3D%3D&_nc...",42          "video_url": null,43          "audio_url": null,44          "image_urls": null,45          "width": null,46          "height": null47        },48        "song": null,49        "location": null,50        "is_pinned": null,51        "is_sponsored": null,52        "extra": null53      },54      {55        "object": "post",56        "platform": "instagram",57        "id": "DZYYrSZT9kN",58        "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZYYrSZT9kN/",59        "type": "reel",60        "author": {61          "id": null,62          "handle": "anujayanstar",63          "name": null,64          "url": "https://www.instagram.com/anujayanstar/",65          "avatar_url": null,66          "verified": null67        },68        "title": null,69        "text": "slicing a Toasted Sesame Sourdough Country Loaf \nFormula in Baker’s %:\n100% flour\n90% water\n30% levain\n2% salt\n14% toasted sesame seeds (white + black)\n#sourdough #bread #baking #breadmaking #sourdoug",70        "published_at": "2026-06-09T21:56:57Z",71        "duration_seconds": 11.0,72        "language": null,73        "hashtags": [74          "sourdough",75          "bread",76          "baking"77        ],78        "mentions": [],79        "stats": {80          "views": null,81          "likes": null,82          "comments": null,83          "shares": null,84          "saves": null,85          "dislikes": null86        },87        "media": {88          "thumbnail_url": "https://scontent-ord5-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.82787-15/720065118_18467218159111336_7942046629612603074_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_e35_s640x640_tt6&_nc_cat=108&ccb=7-5&_nc_sid=18de74&efg=eyJlZmdfdGFnIjoiQ0xJUFMuYmVzdF9pbWFnZV91cmxnZW4uQzMifQ%3D%3D&_...",89          "video_url": null,90          "audio_url": null,91          "image_urls": null,92          "width": null,93          "height": null94        },95        "song": null,96        "location": null,97        "is_pinned": null,98        "is_sponsored": null,99        "extra": null100      }101    ],102    "cursor": "cAQHTOkOdJyu636zngOhyOqO1vnPCysWcOpv7X1N8SG2RRwgMdSjLgYkCZGrwF5RfIhte",103    "has_more": true,104    "parent": null105  },106  "cursor": "cAQHTOkOdJyu636zngOhyOqO1vnPCysWcOpv7X1N8SG2RRwgMdSjLgYkCZGrwF5RfIhte",107  "has_more": true108}

Response#

A list of Post objects in data.items, with data.cursor and data.has_more.

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.
`not_found`	404	no	The platform says this profile, post or item does not exist.

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/reels/search. 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 reel transcript (GET /v1/instagram/post/transcript)
Instagram post comments (GET /v1/instagram/post/comments)