Live
Posts & Reels
Full engagement metrics for any public post or Reel, plus caption, hashtags, mentions, publish date and media details.
Refetcher returns real-time public Instagram data — post and Reel views, likes, comments and follower counts — as clean JSON from one endpoint. No Instagram login, cookies or tokens required.
Send any public Instagram URL — the API detects whether it's a post, Reel or profile and returns the matching normalized JSON.
Full engagement metrics for any public post or Reel, plus caption, hashtags, mentions, publish date and media details.
Public profile counts and recent media discovery — track a creator's followers and pull their latest posts for monitoring pipelines.
Authenticate with one header, POST a public Instagram URL, and get the same predictable response shape every time — the identical pattern used for every platform we support.
# Scrape a public Reel
curl -s https://api.refetcher.com/ \
-H "X-API-Key: pc_live_••••" \
-d '{ "url": "https://instagram.com/reel/DWO97wODIaU/" }'
// → 200 OK
{
"platform": "instagram",
"success": true,
"metrics": { "views": 8178, "likes": 237, "comments": 5, "shares": null, "saves": null },
"post": {
"shortcode": "DWO97wODIaU",
"type": "video",
"caption": "Launch day 🚀",
"hashtags": ["launch"],
"publishedAt": "2026-05-29T06:20:58Z"
},
"author": { "handle": "groweasy", "followers": 4015 },
"media": { "durationSeconds": 51, "width": 1080, "height": 1920 }
}Batch up to 50 URLs in one request · Post endpoint docs · Profile endpoint docs
The normalized response shape for Instagram post and Reel scrapes. Fields that Instagram doesn't expose publicly for a given post are returned as null rather than omitted.
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Metrics | ||
metrics.views | number | Play count for Reels and videos. |
metrics.likes | number | Public like count at scrape time. |
metrics.comments | number | Total comment count. |
metrics.shares | number · null | Share count when publicly available. |
metrics.saves | number · null | Save count when publicly available. |
| Post | ||
post.shortcode | string | Instagram media shortcode from the URL. |
post.type | string | video, image or carousel. |
post.caption | string | Full caption text. |
post.hashtags | string[] | Hashtags extracted from the caption. |
post.mentions | string[] | Accounts mentioned in the caption. |
post.publishedAt | ISO 8601 | Original publish timestamp. |
post.isSponsored | boolean | Whether the post is marked as a paid partnership. |
post.isPinned | boolean | Whether the post is pinned on the profile. |
post.commentsDisabled | boolean | Whether comments are turned off. |
| Author | ||
author.handle | string | Username of the posting account. |
author.name | string | Public display name. |
author.followers | number | Follower count at scrape time. |
| Media | ||
media.thumbnailUrl | string · null | Thumbnail image URL when available. |
media.durationSeconds | number · null | Video length for Reels and videos. |
media.width / media.height | number | Media dimensions in pixels. |
media.children | array | Per-slide media entries for carousels. |
Power dashboards, bots and creator tools with live Reel and post metrics — without maintaining proxies, headless browsers or session pools yourself.
Verify influencer post performance with real numbers instead of screenshots. Track campaign Reels across every creator from one endpoint.
Batch up to 50 URLs per request and ingest normalized engagement data into warehouses, models and trend analysis pipelines.
For public posts and Reels: views, likes, comments, shares, saves, caption, hashtags, mentions, publish date and media details. For public profiles: follower count, display name and recent media discovery.
No. You authenticate with a Refetcher API key only. The API retrieves publicly available Instagram data, so no Instagram login, session cookie or Graph API token is required.
Yes. Send a public Reel URL and the API returns its play count, likes, comments and related engagement metrics in the same normalized JSON shape used for regular posts.
Yes. Send a public profile URL and the API returns public profile counts such as followers along with recent media discovery for that account.
Pricing is pay as you go at $0.90 per 1,000 successful scrapes with no subscription or monthly minimum. Failed scrapes are free, credits never expire, and new accounts get $10 of free credit without a card. Full details on the pricing page.
The scrape fails and you are not charged for it. Refetcher only deducts balance for successful scrape results.
Data is retrieved at request time, so the metrics reflect what is publicly visible on Instagram when you make the call. Current latency and success rates are published on the public status page.
$10 of free Instagram scraping, no card required. See real numbers before you commit to anything.
Get your API key →