Instagram’s official API has no transcripts. Paste reel links, or just a creator’s username, and get the spoken text of each reel with views and dates.
sources) or creators (profiles: up to the 12 newest reels Instagram shows without login).onlyNewVideos to follow creators on a schedule.from apify_client import ApifyClient # pip install apify-client
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("fguiraud/instagram-reels-transcript-scraper").call(run_input={
"profiles": [
"@zachking"
],
"maxVideosPerProfile": 3,
"outputs": [
"text"
]
})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
print(item["source"], item.get("text", "")[:200])
No Python? Open the Actor page, paste your input in the form and press Start; results export to JSON, CSV or Excel.
Fields from a real run on 2026-10-03 (long values shortened):
{
"source": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0hQSaMpD97/",
"status": "ok",
"language": "en",
"durationSeconds": 60.02,
"text": "Hey Space Nerds, I got a special delivery for you. So picture this. You're on a military range in the middle of the Utah desert. It's flat, it's barren, and everyone's looking up to the sky, waiting to catch sight of a c...",
"video": {
"platform": "instagram",
"url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0hQSaMpD97/",
"title": "Video by nasagoddard",
"author": "NASA Goddard",
"uploadDate": "2023-12-06",
"views": null,
"likes": 8391,
"comments": 17
}
}
$0.009 per reel (includes the first minute), then $0.006 per extra minute.
Do I need to log in?
No. Public reels and public accounts only.
Why at most 12 reels per account?
That is what Instagram shows to visitors who are not logged in.
Can an AI agent use it?
Yes. It is an MCP server at https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fguiraud/instagram-reels-transcript-scraper (listed in the official MCP registry), and there is an agent skill for Claude Code, Codex and Cursor. Field-name guesses such as url or urls are accepted.