---
title: "Instagram"
description: "Profiles, Reels and posts with their stats, comments, media, trends and footage matching. Search and some view counts are limited by what Instagram makes public."
url: https://docs.sonderlabs.co.uk/platforms/instagram
---

# Instagram

Profiles, Reels and posts with their stats, comments, media, trends and footage matching. Search and some view counts are limited by what Instagram makes public.

## What you can get

| Data | Status | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Profiles | Live | A public account's name, followers and, where the platform shows them, bio and verified status. |
| Posts and stats | Limited | Reels carry play counts; some older Reels and photo posts have no view count (returned as null, never 0). |
| Keyword search | Limited | Instagram has no open keyword search: results come from popular and indexed public Reels, so niche terms can return few posts. |
| Hashtag search | Limited | Popular public posts under the hashtag, not the full archive. |
| Sound search | Limited | The first page of Reels that use the sound. |
| Comments | Limited | The top comments on each post (about a dozen); full threads are not guaranteed. |
| Transcripts | Limited | Speech-to-text on Reels with 20,000 views or more. |
| On-screen text | Live | Text written on the video or its cover: titles, captions burned in, show names. |
| Media files | Live | The video or audio file of a public post, for your own analysis. |
| Audience (estimated) | Live | Commenters' estimated age, gender and country. |
| Trends | Live | Formats many creators are adopting, with their stage: just starting, rising, at its peak, cooling off, back again. |
| Footage matching | Live | Clips matched to the exact moment of your own long-form video they came from. |

## Post fields

Every platform returns the same post shape ([all fields](https://docs.sonderlabs.co.uk/concepts#the-post)). On Instagram:

- `views` is the Reel's play count; `null` with `viewsEstimated: true` means Instagram did not publish one for that post.
- `shares` is the reshare count where Instagram shows it.
- Search also takes posts an account is tagged in.

Search kinds: `keyword`, `hashtag`, `sound`, `tagged`.

## Example post

A real public post found by Sonder's Red Bull Rampage 2026 demo campaign (illustration, not a client result). Numbers as of 2026-11-02.

A Instagram post:

```json
{
  "id": "47dd2af11e2fe0f075d88ad970eb737c",
  "platform": "instagram",
  "externalId": "DewxhTugF2T",
  "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DewxhTugF2T/",
  "creator": {
    "handle": "instagram",
    "name": "Instagram",
    "followers": 686358280
  },
  "caption": "Ride @kade_2000’s Rampage line with him 🚵‍♂️\n\n@redbullusa’s freeride mountain bike competition, Red Bull Rampage, returned to the original Utah cliffs for its 25th anniversary.",
  "hashtags": [],
  "postedAt": "2026-10-21T16:00:22Z",
  "durationSec": 54,
  "views": 53652872,
  "viewsEstimated": false,
  "likes": 158720,
  "comments": 11192,
  "shares": 5686,
  "transcriptExcerpt": "Okay, Kid Edwards dropping in five, four, three, two, one, take on. Oh my God.",
  "onscreenText": null,
  "asOf": "2026-11-02T23:04:08Z"
}
```

## Planned endpoints

> **Early access:** The REST API below is in early access: its endpoints are the planned shape and are not open for self-serve use yet. [Request access](https://docs.sonderlabs.co.uk/access). Live today: the [MCP server](https://docs.sonderlabs.co.uk/mcp) and the [free datasets](https://docs.sonderlabs.co.uk/datasets).

Planned shape:

```http
GET /v1/posts/search?platforms=instagram&q=red+bull+rampage&kind=keyword&since=2026-10-01 HTTP/1.1
Host: api.sonderlabs.co.uk
Authorization: Bearer <your API key>
```