Instagram Reels
Instagram Reels are short-form video posts with captions, creator context, media, audio, duration, hashtags, mentions, play counts, and visible engagement. These creative and performance signals support format research, creator comparison, campaign review, and trend analysis.
Features
- Profile Reel collectionCollect public Reels for one or more Instagram usernames through one normalized response shape.
- Content, media, and engagement fieldsReturn captions, timestamps, play counts, likes, comments, shares, duration, thumbnails, video references, hashtags, mentions, and audio metadata.
- Requested result capUse results_limit to cap the number of Reels requested for each request.
- Public data boundaryKeep private, restricted, removed, and login-only Reels outside the result scope.
Parameters
| Parameters | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
usernames | Required | Public Instagram usernames without @, separated by commas or new lines. |
results_limit | Optional | Maximum number of records the collection task should request. Must be a positive integer. |
How to Use
Submit public usernames as an asynchronous task, poll its task ID, then read normalized Reel records with cursor pagination.
- Prepare one or more public Instagram usernames without @.
- POST usernames and an optional results_limit to /v1/instagram/reels.
- Poll /v1/tasks/{task_id} until the status is succeeded or failed.
- Read /v1/tasks/{task_id}?limit=50 and follow results.next_cursor when more records exist.
curl -X POST "https://api.socq.ai/v1/instagram/reels" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $SOCQ_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"usernames":["natgeo"],"results_limit":25}'
# Poll GET /v1/tasks/{task_id}, then read /v1/tasks/{task_id}?limit=50 and use data.results.Best Use Cases
- Reels performance research: Collect public play counts, likes, comments, shares, captions, and timestamps to compare short-form video performance.
- Creator discovery: Review public Reels from relevant profiles, then enrich selected creators with profile or post timeline APIs.
- Campaign monitoring: Track public Reels connected to a launch, hashtag, music trend, creator brief, or recurring content format.
- Media archive workflows: Store public Reel metadata, thumbnails, source URLs, duration, audio details, and collection times for review or reporting systems.
- Audio analysis: Use public audio fields when available to support topic clustering, moderation review, or creative analysis.
Pro Tips
- Store stable Reel IDs, shortcodes, URLs, and task IDs so collection jobs can be retried and audited.
- Use conservative results_limit values and backoff logic when collecting large public profile Reel lists.
- Expect some public Reels to omit counters, video references, or audio details depending on source availability.
- Use the Search API for profile discovery and the Reels API for the selected usernames' public Reels.
- Avoid designing workflows around private accounts, restricted Reels, or login-only fields.
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 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 Following List API — Collect public profiles followed by Instagram accounts with identity, relationship context, and visible account counts.
- 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.