Instagram Following List
Instagram Following List records represent public profiles that a source username follows, with normalized identity, profile URLs, visibility signals, and relationship context. Repeated collections can support relationship snapshots while collected_at, source_username, and position preserve when and where each record was observed.
Features
- Batch source usernamesSubmit one or more public Instagram usernames in a single task, without the leading @ character.
- Relationship provenanceKeep source_username, relationship, and position in extra so every profile can be traced to its source account.
- Normalized profile identityReceive profile ID, username, display name, canonical profile URL, avatar, and public verification or privacy signals when available.
- Visible account metricsUse returned follower, following, and post counts when those public values are present in the collected record.
- Asynchronous result pagingSubmit collection work outside the request thread, poll task status, and page through normalized results with next_cursor.
Parameters
| Parameters | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
usernames | Required | One or more public Instagram usernames without @, separated by commas or new lines. |
results_limit | Optional | Maximum number of following profiles requested per source username; an integer from 1 to 2,000, defaulting to 100. |
How to Use
Submit public usernames as an asynchronous task, poll the returned task ID, then read normalized following profiles with cursor pagination.
- Prepare one or more public Instagram usernames without the leading @ character.
- POST usernames and an optional results_limit from 1 to 2,000 to /v1/instagram/following-list.
- Poll /v1/tasks/{task_id} until the status is succeeded or failed.
- Read /v1/tasks/{task_id}?limit=50 and continue with results.next_cursor when has_more is true.
curl -X POST "https://api.socq.ai/v1/instagram/following-list" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $SOCQ_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"usernames":["instagram"],"results_limit":100}'
# Poll GET /v1/tasks/{task_id}
# Read GET /v1/tasks/{task_id}?limit=50 and follow data.results.next_cursorBest Use Cases
- Creator network mapping: Build reviewable maps of which public creators, publishers, and organizations selected accounts follow.
- Brand account research: Compare visible following relationships across brand, campaign, regional, or competitor accounts.
- Partnership discovery: Identify public profiles that appear in the following lists of accounts relevant to a partnership program.
- Profile directory enrichment: Add canonical URLs, display names, avatars, account signals, and relationship provenance to internal directories.
- Relationship change tracking: Store timestamped snapshots and compare stable profile IDs across runs to review additions or removals.
Pro Tips
- Remove the leading @ from every username before submission; the provider input is normalized to plain usernames.
- Start with a focused results_limit and increase it only when the workflow needs a larger visible relationship set.
- Store profile ID together with extra.source_username because the same followed profile may appear for multiple source accounts.
- Treat missing avatars, account metrics, verification signals, or positions as normal variability in public results.
- Design for empty or partial results because private, restricted, removed, or login-only relationships are outside the supported boundary.
Related APIs
Use these APIs when you need a different type of public Instagram data.
- Instagram Followers Count API — Retrieve public profile identity and visible follower, following, and post counts.
- Instagram Posts API — Collect public posts, media, hashtags, mentions, timestamps, and engagement by username.
- Instagram Reels API — Collect public Reels, media, audio, hashtags, mentions, and engagement by username.
- Instagram Search API — Search public profiles by keyword or handle with identity and visible account signals.
- Instagram Comments API — Collect public comments, authors, timestamps, likes, and replies from post URLs.
- Instagram Profiles API — Retrieve public profile identity, biographies, links, account flags, categories, and visible counts by username.
- Instagram Followers List API — Collect public follower profile records with source-account and relationship context.
- Instagram Hashtag Posts API — Discover public posts by hashtag with source-tag context, media, creators, timestamps, and visible engagement.
- Instagram Tagged Posts API — Collect public posts that tag selected profiles with authors, media, mentions, tagged-user context, and engagement.
- Instagram Transcript API — Extract transcript text, language, format, source URLs, and shortcodes from public post or Reel URLs.
- Instagram Audio Reels API — Collect public Reels by known numeric audio ID with captions, creators, media, timestamps, visible engagement, and source-audio context.
- Instagram Highlight Items API — Retrieve saved public Story items from known highlight IDs with text, author identity, media, timestamps, visible metrics, and source context.
- Instagram Post Info API — Look up known public post, Reel, or legacy IGTV URLs with captions, author identity, media, timestamps, visible engagement, and input context.
- Instagram Reels Search API — Search public Reels by text query with captions, creators, media, timestamps, visible engagement, and query context.
- Instagram Story Highlights API — List public Story Highlight containers by username with titles, owner context, media counts, and reusable highlight IDs.
- Instagram Trending Reels API — Capture the current public Reel set from the trending feed with captions, creators, media, timestamps, and visible engagement.