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Instagram reel search

Beta GET /v1/instagram/search/reels

GET /v1/instagram/search/reels

Reels for a keyword or phrase from Instagram's public Popular search (the same source as search/popular; it is not Google-indexed), about 50 to 70 over 5 or 6 pages. date_posted is accepted for compatibility and not applied: Popular search has no date filter.

  • Cost: 1 credit
  • 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
querystringyesSearch terms. Also accepted as keyword, q.
date_postedstringnoAccepted for compatibility; not applied (no date filter upstream). One of week, month, year. Also accepted values: last-week for week, last-month for month, last-year for year.

Every request also accepts:

  • cursor: the cursor from the previous page (Pagination).
  • 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/search/reels" \
  -H "x-api-key: $SOCIALSCRAPE_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "query=sourdough"
Python
import os
import requests

params = {
    "query": "sourdough",
}
res = requests.get(
    "https://api.socialscrape.io/v1/instagram/search/reels",
    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/search/reels");
url.search = new URLSearchParams({
  "query": "sourdough"
}).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 search",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.httpRequest",
      "typeVersion": 4.2,
      "position": [
        0,
        0
      ],
      "parameters": {
        "method": "GET",
        "url": "https://api.socialscrape.io/v1/instagram/search/reels",
        "sendQuery": true,
        "queryParameters": {
          "parameters": [
            {
              "name": "query",
              "value": "sourdough"
            }
          ]
        },
        "sendHeaders": true,
        "headerParameters": {
          "parameters": [
            {
              "name": "x-api-key",
              "value": "={{ $env.SOCIALSCRAPE_API_KEY }}"
            }
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "connections": {}
}

Example response#

This is a sample from a recorded response, lists and long text are shortened. Status 200.

{
  "ok": true,
  "credits_charged": 1,
  "credits_remaining": 4999,
  "cached": false,
  "cached_at": null,
  "request_id": "req_085507c98030a51c485c76c1",
  "data": {
    "object": "list",
    "items": [
      {
        "object": "post",
        "platform": "instagram",
        "id": "DWMQ8l6x9hu",
        "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWMQ8l6x9hu/",
        "type": "reel",
        "author": {
          "id": null,
          "handle": "thesourdoughnerd",
          "name": null,
          "url": "https://www.instagram.com/thesourdoughnerd/",
          "avatar_url": null,
          "verified": null
        },
        "title": null,
        "text": "Sourdough Bread Recipe for Beginners\nStep-by-Step Tutorial\n\nINGREDIENTS\n• 500g unbleached bread flour (4 cups)\n• 350g water (1½ cups)\n• 100g active sourdough starter (1 cup)\n• 10g salt (1¾ tsp)\n\nDIREC",
        "published_at": "2026-03-22T15:24:20Z",
        "duration_seconds": 179.0,
        "language": null,
        "hashtags": [],
        "mentions": [],
        "stats": {
          "views": null,
          "likes": null,
          "comments": null,
          "shares": null,
          "saves": null,
          "dislikes": null
        },
        "media": {
          "thumbnail_url": "https://scontent-ord5-2.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.71878-15/655937072_972380852120812_6676440451373029320_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_e35_s640x640_tt6&_nc_cat=110&ccb=7-5&_nc_sid=18de74&efg=eyJlZmdfdGFnIjoiQ0xJUFMuYmVzdF9pbWFnZV91cmxnZW4uQzMifQ%3D%3D&_nc...",
          "video_url": null,
          "audio_url": null,
          "image_urls": null,
          "width": null,
          "height": null
        },
        "song": null,
        "location": null,
        "is_pinned": null,
        "is_sponsored": null,
        "extra": null
      },
      {
        "object": "post",
        "platform": "instagram",
        "id": "DZYYrSZT9kN",
        "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZYYrSZT9kN/",
        "type": "reel",
        "author": {
          "id": null,
          "handle": "anujayanstar",
          "name": null,
          "url": "https://www.instagram.com/anujayanstar/",
          "avatar_url": null,
          "verified": null
        },
        "title": null,
        "text": "slicing a Toasted Sesame Sourdough Country Loaf \nFormula in Baker’s %:\n100% flour\n90% water\n30% levain\n2% salt\n14% toasted sesame seeds (white + black)\n#sourdough #bread #baking #breadmaking #sourdoug",
        "published_at": "2026-06-09T21:56:57Z",
        "duration_seconds": 11.0,
        "language": null,
        "hashtags": [
          "sourdough",
          "bread",
          "baking"
        ],
        "mentions": [],
        "stats": {
          "views": null,
          "likes": null,
          "comments": null,
          "shares": null,
          "saves": null,
          "dislikes": null
        },
        "media": {
          "thumbnail_url": "https://scontent-ord5-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.82787-15/720065118_18467218159111336_7942046629612603074_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_e35_s640x640_tt6&_nc_cat=108&ccb=7-5&_nc_sid=18de74&efg=eyJlZmdfdGFnIjoiQ0xJUFMuYmVzdF9pbWFnZV91cmxnZW4uQzMifQ%3D%3D&_...",
          "video_url": null,
          "audio_url": null,
          "image_urls": null,
          "width": null,
          "height": null
        },
        "song": null,
        "location": null,
        "is_pinned": null,
        "is_sponsored": null,
        "extra": null
      }
    ],
    "cursor": "cAQHTOkOdJyu636zngOhyOqO1vnPCysWcOpv7X1N8SG2RRwgMdSjLgYkCZGrwF5RfIhte",
    "has_more": true,
    "parent": null
  },
  "cursor": "cAQHTOkOdJyu636zngOhyOqO1vnPCysWcOpv7X1N8SG2RRwgMdSjLgYkCZGrwF5RfIhte",
  "has_more": true
}

Response#

A list of Post objects in data.items, with data.cursor and data.has_more.

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.
not_found404noThe platform says this profile, post or item does not exist.

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/reels/search. See Switching from ScrapeCreators.