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Instagram reel transcript

Beta GET /v1/instagram/post/transcript

GET /v1/instagram/post/transcript

AI transcription of a reel or video post (Instagram has no public captions). The post's video file is read from its public embed page and transcribed on the shared speech boxes at the transcript price (1 credit per started 5 minutes of audio). Photos and carousels without a video answer transcript_unavailable, which is free.

  • Cost: 1 credit for captions; AI transcription 1 up to 2 minutes, then 1 per started minute
  • Status: Beta. Built and tested against recorded responses; the shape may still gain fields.
  • 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#

NameTypeRequiredDescription
urlURLone ofPost or reel URL (/p/..., /reel/..., /tv/...). Accepted hosts: instagram.com, instagr.am.
idstringone ofShortcode or numeric media id. Also accepted as shortcode, media_id.

Send at least one of url, id. If you send several, the first listed is used and the rest are ignored.

Every request also accepts:

  • 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).

curl
curl -G "https://api.socialscrape.io/v1/instagram/post/transcript" \
  -H "x-api-key: $SOCIALSCRAPE_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "url=https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8rKmYvsrck/"
Python
import os
import requests

params = {
    "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8rKmYvsrck/",
}
res = requests.get(
    "https://api.socialscrape.io/v1/instagram/post/transcript",
    headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["SOCIALSCRAPE_API_KEY"]},
    params=params,
)
body = res.json()

if body["ok"]:
    print(body["data"])
else:
    print(body["error"]["code"], body["error"]["message"])
TypeScript
const url = new URL("https://api.socialscrape.io/v1/instagram/post/transcript");
url.search = new URLSearchParams({
  "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8rKmYvsrck/"
}).toString();
const res = await fetch(url, {
  headers: { "x-api-key": process.env.SOCIALSCRAPE_API_KEY! },
});
const body = await res.json();

if (body.ok) {
  console.log(body.data);
} else {
  console.error(body.error.code, body.error.message);
}
n8n
{
  "nodes": [
    {
      "name": "SocialScrape Instagram reel transcript",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.httpRequest",
      "typeVersion": 4.2,
      "position": [
        0,
        0
      ],
      "parameters": {
        "method": "GET",
        "url": "https://api.socialscrape.io/v1/instagram/post/transcript",
        "sendQuery": true,
        "queryParameters": {
          "parameters": [
            {
              "name": "url",
              "value": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8rKmYvsrck/"
            }
          ]
        },
        "sendHeaders": true,
        "headerParameters": {
          "parameters": [
            {
              "name": "x-api-key",
              "value": "={{ $env.SOCIALSCRAPE_API_KEY }}"
            }
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "connections": {}
}

Example response#

This is a sample from a recorded response. Status 200.

{
  "ok": true,
  "credits_charged": 1,
  "credits_remaining": 4999,
  "cached": false,
  "cached_at": null,
  "request_id": "req_1abb44311f35f490431f9a6e",
  "data": {
    "object": "transcript",
    "platform": "instagram",
    "video_id": "C8rKmYvsrck",
    "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8rKmYvsrck/",
    "language": "en",
    "source": "ai",
    "duration_seconds": 20.0,
    "text": "This is a canned transcript for the fixture.",
    "segments": [
      {
        "start": 0.0,
        "end": 3.2,
        "text": "This is a canned transcript for the fixture."
      }
    ],
    "available_languages": null,
    "extra": null
  },
  "cursor": null,
  "has_more": null
}

Response#

A Transcript object in data.

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.

CodeHTTPRetryMeaning
invalid_params400noA parameter is missing, unknown or has the wrong type.
unsupported_url400noThe URL is not one this endpoint accepts (wrong platform or form).
not_found404noThe platform says this profile, post or item does not exist.
transcript_unavailable404noNo captions exist and AI transcription is not possible for this media.

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/media/transcript. See Switching from ScrapeCreators.