Instagram popular topic API

Q: Which errors can it return?

invalid_params (do not retry), not_found (do not retry). Account and platform errors from the errors list can also happen. A failure always costs 0 credits.

Q: How do I get more than one page?

Send the same request with cursor set to the cursor you received, until has_more is false . Each page costs its own price. See pagination .

Q: Is there an SDK call for it?

The preview Python client has client.instagram.search_popular(...) and the TypeScript client client.instagram.searchPopular() . Both return the same envelope as the HTTP API. The packages are not published yet; plain HTTP works today in any language.

Explore a topic through Instagram's public Popular search.

GETapi.socialscrape.io/v1/instagram/search/popular

Cost: 1 credit
Cached repeats: 0 creditssend max_age_days, results kept 30 days
Failed requests: 0 credits
Status: Betashape may still gain fields

The reels it curates for a keyword, about 50 to 70 over 5 or 6 pages (health and finance terms are thin; some single words have none). Rows carry the caption, author, time and duration; Instagram sends no counts here, so every count in stats is null. No parent. Pass the cursor back with the same query.

You send query.

Request

Send your key in the x-api-key header.

curl

curl -G "https://api.socialscrape.io/v1/instagram/search/popular" \
  -H "x-api-key: $SOCIALSCRAPE_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode 'query=basketball'

Python

import os
import requests

params = {
    "query": "basketball",
}
res = requests.get(
    "https://api.socialscrape.io/v1/instagram/search/popular",
    headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["SOCIALSCRAPE_API_KEY"]},
    params=params,
    timeout=60,
)
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/popular");
url.search = new URLSearchParams({
  query: "basketball",
}).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 popular topic",
      "type": "n8n-nodes-base.httpRequest",
      "typeVersion": 4.2,
      "position": [
        0,
        0
      ],
      "parameters": {
        "method": "GET",
        "url": "https://api.socialscrape.io/v1/instagram/search/popular",
        "sendQuery": true,
        "queryParameters": {
          "parameters": [
            {
              "name": "query",
              "value": "basketball"
            }
          ]
        },
        "sendHeaders": true,
        "headerParameters": {
          "parameters": [
            {
              "name": "x-api-key",
              "value": "={{ $env.SOCIALSCRAPE_API_KEY }}"
            }
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "connections": {}
}

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
`query`	string	yes	The Popular topic to look up. Also accepted as `keyword`, `q`.
`cursor`	string		Opaque cursor from the previous page; pass it back unchanged. Also accepted as `continuationToken`, `continuation_token`, `next_max_id`, `max_id`, `max_cursor`, `min_time`, `after`, `page_token`, `pageToken`, `paginationToken`, `next_page_id`, `page`.

Every request also accepts trim, raw and max_age_days.

Response

Sample from a recorded response, shortened. Values are public data, not yours.

Status 200Sample

{
  "ok": true,
  "credits_charged": 1,
  "credits_remaining": 4999,
  "cached": false,
  "cached_at": null,
  "request_id": "req_2b0e9f68e817acb97b5f70dd",
  "data": {
    "object": "list",
    "items": [
      {
        "object": "post",
        "platform": "instagram",
        "id": "DPhCDu_jj2l",
        "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPhCDu_jj2l/",
        "type": "reel",
        "author": {
          "id": null,
          "handle": "woahhelijah",
          "name": null,
          "url": "https://www.instagram.com/woahhelijah/",
          "avatar_url": null,
          "verified": null
        },
        "title": null,
        "text": "These moves will make you SHIFTY. 🤝🎒 #basketball #sports #athlete #nba #hooper #trending #reels #viral #explore #explorepage",
        "published_at": "2025-10-07T17:18:32Z",
        "duration_seconds": 12,
        "language": null,
        "hashtags": [
          "basketball",
          "sports",
          "athlete"
        ],
        "mentions": [],
        "stats": {
          "views": null,
          "likes": null,
          "comments": null,
          "shares": null,
          "saves": null,
          "dislikes": null
        },
        "media": {
          "thumbnail_url": "https://scontent-ord5-2.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.82787-15/561460207_17965312502981287_577210961086174914_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_e35_s640x640_tt6&_nc_cat=107&ccb=7-5...",
          "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": "DEM7G6VIqeO",
        "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DEM7G6VIqeO/",
        "type": "reel",
        "author": {
          "id": null,
          "handle": "bbfactory.aep",
          "name": null,
          "url": "https://www.instagram.com/bbfactory.aep/",
          "avatar_url": null,
          "verified": null
        },
        "title": null,
        "text": "Show me Magic doing this\n\n#basketball #nba #stephencuury",
        "published_at": "2024-12-30T12:07:39Z",
        "duration_seconds": 13,
        "language": null,
        "hashtags": [
          "basketball",
          "nba",
          "stephencuury"
        ],
        "mentions": [],
        "stats": {
          "views": null,
          "likes": null,
          "comments": null,
          "shares": null,
          "saves": null,
          "dislikes": null
        },
        "media": {
          "thumbnail_url": "https://scontent-ord5-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.75761-15/471785891_17916571812023081_2244094718618870826_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_e35_s640x640_tt6&_nc_cat=106&ccb=7-...",
          "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": "cAQHTUjoLu1pmfAm4o6Nckd8yoJk9KOmUL4JdHAAlh_morbFU4OaUwW7B7GJN9vF5fTD9",
    "has_more": true,
    "parent": null
  },
  "cursor": "cAQHTUjoLu1pmfAm4o6Nckd8yoJk9KOmUL4JdHAAlh_morbFU4OaUwW7B7GJN9vF5fTD9",
  "has_more": true
}

Fields

A page of results. Each entry in items is a Post. cursor and has_more page through the rest.

A field the platform does not give is null, never made up. Extra platform details are in extra.

Field	Type	Always
`object`	`"post"`
`platform`	Platform	yes
`id`	string	yes
`url`	string or null
`type`	`"video"` or `"short"` or `"reel"` or `"image"` or `"carousel"` or `"story"` or `"live"` or `"clip"` or `"text"` or `"link"` or `"tweet"` or `"pin"` or `"community_post"` or `"episode"` or `"unknown"`
`author`	Author or null
`title`	string or null
`text`	string or null
`published_at`	string (ISO 8601 date-time) or null
`duration_seconds`	number or null
`language`	string or null
`hashtags`	string[] or null
`mentions`	string[] or null
`stats`	Stats

Show the other 6 fields

Field	Type	Always	Notes
`media`	Media
`song`	SongRef or null
`location`	Place or null
`is_pinned`	boolean or null
`is_sponsored`	boolean or null
`extra`	object or null

Full field list in the reference for this endpoint and the data models. Errors are listed under Errors.

Questions

Which errors can it return?

invalid_params (do not retry), not_found (do not retry). Account and platform errors from the errors list can also happen. A failure always costs 0 credits.

How do I get more than one page?

Send the same request with cursor set to the cursor you received, until has_more is false. Each page costs its own price. See pagination.

Is there an SDK call for it?

The preview Python client has client.instagram.search_popular(...) and the TypeScript client client.instagram.searchPopular(). Both return the same envelope as the HTTP API. The packages are not published yet; plain HTTP works today in any language.

Can an AI agent call it?

Yes. The MCP server reaches every built endpoint, with the same prices.

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