Instagram Reels API

Q: Which count shows how often a reel was played?

play_count holds the reel's play count, and view_count holds views or plays as the platform reports them. Pick one of the two and use it consistently when you compare reels. Leave out rows where your chosen count is null: null means the figure was not disclosed, not that nobody watched.

POST

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Pull an Instagram account's Reels by username, with caption, play count, duration in seconds, likes, comments, music and a subtitle transcript when available. Not every reel has a transcript, and private metrics are not included.

Instagram Reels lists the Reels one public account has posted, given its username, and returns each reel's caption, length in seconds in duration_sec, play_count, like and comment counts, publish time, location text, the author's follower count and a transcript of the reel's subtitles. It answers which short videos an account makes and how they perform, for creator marketers vetting accounts, social teams benchmarking competitors' video output and researchers studying short-form formats.

Pass the bare handle, such as nasa, without an @ and not as a profile URL. Compare reels by plays relative to author_follower_count to spot the ones that traveled beyond the existing audience, and use transcript to analyze what is said without watching each video. Null counts mean Instagram did not disclose the figure, which is not zero.

Price $0.56 per 1,000 requests ($0.000556 per call). Failed calls and empty results are not charged. Synchronous. For slow jobs add "mode": "async" to the body, take the job_id and poll.

AI prompt

Paste this into your AI assistant. It already holds this endpoint's parameters, response fields and an example request, so the assistant can ask what you need and then write the scraper.

Please help me write a data collection script with the EveryInfra Instagram Reels endpoint (instagram/reels).

Endpoint contract:
- Request: POST https://api.everyinfra.com/api/v1/social with the header Authorization: Bearer <API key>. Read the key from the EVERYINFRA_API_KEY environment variable and never hard-code it.
- In the request body, set platform to instagram and action to reels, and put the parameters inside params.
- Required parameters:
  - username: Identifies an Instagram account handle without the @ symbol or as a full profile URL. Used by profile, persona, user_posts, and reels to fetch account data.
- Optional parameters:
  - limit: The most rows to return in this call, an integer from 1 to 100. The default applies when you leave it out, and a call can return fewer rows. Larger values return 422 before any charge. (default: 30)
- Returns a list of records. Main fields of each record: post_id, url, text, media_type, like_count, comment_count, view_count, author_username, author_name, posted_at, location, author_follower_count; 19 fields in total, full list at https://api.everyinfra.com/api/v1/social/catalog?platform=instagram.
- Example request body:
{
  "platform": "instagram",
  "action": "reels",
  "params": {
    "username": "nasa"
  }
}
- Price: $0.56 per 1,000 requests; failed and empty results are not charged.
- For dozens or hundreds of targets, add "mode": "async" to the body: you get a job_id at once and poll GET https://api.everyinfra.com/api/v1/jobs/{job_id} for the result.
- On 422, fix the request using the suggested parameter names and allowed values in the error; on 429 or 503, wait for Retry-After and try again.

Before writing code, ask me which targets I need, how many, which fields, and what output format I want; then confirm the plan and the rough cost with me.

Request parameters

Name	In	Type	Required	Default	Description
`Authorization`	header	`string`	Yes	-	Bearer followed by your API key. Create it in the console; never put it in a URL or a code repository.
`platform`	body	`string`	Yes	`instagram`	Platform identifier, fixed value.
`action`	body	`string`	Yes	`reels`	Capability identifier, fixed value.
`username`	body.params	Not declared	Yes	-	Identifies an Instagram account handle without the @ symbol or as a full profile URL. Used by profile, persona, user_posts, and reels to fetch account data. The followers action returns only total follower counts, whereas followers_list and following_list return account lists.
`limit`	body.params	`integer (1–100)`	No	`30`	The most rows to return in this call, an integer from 1 to 100. The default applies when you leave it out, and a call can return fewer rows. Larger values return 422 before any charge.

Code samples

bash

curl -X POST 'https://api.everyinfra.com/api/v1/social' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $EVERYINFRA_API_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data-raw '{
  "platform": "instagram",
  "action": "reels",
  "params": {
    "username": "nasa"
  }
}'

[OpenAPI definition (JSON)]Samples read the key from the EVERYINFRA_API_KEY environment variable; copied code never contains your key.

Response example

Real response

Captured September 26, 2026 at 08:56 (UTC) by calling this API with the parameters in the code sample above. results and count are that call's real response with personal information (names, handles, avatars, profile links, contact details) removed; the list keeps the first 2. id, billing and quota differ on every call, so only their shape is shown.

json

{
  "id": "req_…",
  "platform": "instagram",
  "action": "reels",
  "results": [
    {
      "post_id": "DdhFkS7KGkZ",
      "url": "https://www.instagram.com/p/DdhFkS7KGkZ/",
      "text": "Our first Leader of the Uprising 🔥\n\nTune in on @（已隐去） / @（已隐去）",
      "media_type": "video",
      "like_count": 44461,
      "comment_count": 591,
      "author_username": "（已隐去）",
      "author_name": "（已隐去）",
      "posted_at": "2026-09-20T17:20:00+00:00",
      "location": "M&T Bank Stadium",
      "top_comments": [
        {
          "text": "😊",
          "author_username": "（已隐去）"
        },
        {
          "text": "😍👏🔥",
          "author_username": "（已隐去）"
        },
        {
          "text": "❤️🫶 What an honor!",
          "author_username": "（已隐去）"
        }
      ],
      "play_count": 6843490,
      "duration_sec": 23.381042,
      "transcript": "الفصل الرابع",
      "music": {
        "artist": "ravens",
        "title": "Original audio"
      },
      "platform": "instagram"
    },
    {
      "post_id": "DdPsDCWRT-u",
      "url": "https://www.instagram.com/p/DdPsDCWRT-u/",
      "text": "Today’s @（已隐去） flyover in Pittsburgh is just the beginning.\n\nThis is how @nasa does game day. 🇺🇸",
      "media_type": "video",
      "like_count": 59514,
      "comment_count": 258,
      "author_username": "（已隐去）",
      "author_name": "（已隐去）",
      "posted_at": "2026-09-13T23:01:52+00:00",
      "top_comments": [
        {
          "text": "😊✈️⭐",
          "author_username": "（已隐去）"
        },
        {
          "text": "YASSS!!!! Made my day to know my bro Chris Condon was flying one of those!!!!! 🫡❤️🚀",
          "author_username": "（已隐去）"
        },
        {
          "text": "❤️",
          "author_username": "（已隐去）"
        }
      ],
      "play_count": 5573146,
      "duration_sec": 45.416779,
      "transcript": "NASA's inbound to the NFL. This season, we're bringing the excitement of American exploration to stadiums across the country. We have NASA flyovers, tailgates, astronaut meet and greets, and immersive experience zones that put the future of spaceflight right in front of the next …",
      "music": {
        "artist": "nasaadmin",
        "title": "Original audio"
      },
      "platform": "instagram"
    }
  ],
  "count": 21,
  "billing": {
    "charged": …,
    "charged_usd": …,
    "balance_after_usd": …,
    …
  },
  "quota": { … }
}

Response fields

Business data is in results. The table lists the fields a record can contain; values the platform does not show are never made up.

Field	Meaning
`post_id`	Keeps the platform's own meaning
`url`	Link to the record on the platform.
`text`	Body text with HTML removed, returned in full and never cut short (on a few platforms the list results themselves carry only an excerpt; the platform's field notes say so).
`media_type`	Keeps the platform's own meaning
`like_count`	Likes. null means the platform or this capability does not disclose it; it is not 0.
`comment_count`	Comments. null means not disclosed, not 0.
`view_count`	Views or plays. null means not disclosed, not 0.
`author_username`	Author's username (@handle), usually usable in URLs.
`author_name`	Author's display name.
`posted_at`	Publish time in ISO 8601, UTC (for example 2026-08-07T12:34:56+00:00). Non-standard strings from the platform are passed through as is, so parse defensively. null means the platform does not disclose it.
`location`	Location description passed through as is; the format varies by platform.
`author_follower_count`	Author's follower count. null means not disclosed.
`hashtags`	Hashtags in the text, in order of appearance; absent when there are none.
`top_comments`	Keeps the platform's own meaning
`play_count`	Keeps the platform's own meaning
`duration_sec`	Keeps the platform's own meaning
`duration_seconds`	Duration in seconds. null for content that is not video or audio.
`transcript`	Keeps the platform's own meaning
`music`	Keeps the platform's own meaning
`platform`	Source platform identifier, the same as platform in the request (for example xiaohongshu, tiktok).

FAQ

How do I read an account's Reels through the API?

Send one call to Instagram Reels with the account's handle as username, such as nasa, and its Reels come back as rows, each with post_id, url, the caption in text and the counts. To read the comments under one reel, pass its url to the Instagram Comments capability, which takes a single post or Reel link.

What is in `transcript`?

The subtitle text of the reel, so you can search, count or classify what is said without playing the video. The caption the author wrote is a separate field, text. Store the transcript with post_id and duration_sec, since the length helps you compare how much is said per reel.

Which count shows how often a reel was played?

play_count holds the reel's play count, and view_count holds views or plays as the platform reports them. Pick one of the two and use it consistently when you compare reels. Leave out rows where your chosen count is null: null means the figure was not disclosed, not that nobody watched.

Errors and billing

401: Missing or invalid key. Authentication runs before parameter checks, so unauthenticated requests never see the parameter schema.
422: Wrong parameter name or value. The error lists the parameters and allowed values this capability accepts and the closest match; it happens before any charge.
402: Insufficient balance. Top up first.
429: The account's per-minute request limit was reached (all of its API keys count together; a key's own lower limit applies first). Wait for Retry-After and try again; a rate package in the console raises the limit.
503: Could not complete right now. Any charge for the call goes back to your balance automatically, and the billing receipt in the response states the actual outcome, including when it is not yet known. Do not resend blindly.
200 empty: The request completed without data and is not charged (billing.reason = empty_result_refunded).