Instagram Profile Scraper

A browser-based Instagram profile discovery and scraping tool.

Part of ScrapeClaw — a suite of production-ready, agentic social media scrapers for Instagram, YouTube, X/Twitter, and Facebook built with Python & Playwright, no API keys required.

---
name: instagram-scraper
description: Discover and scrape Instagram profiles from your browser.
emoji: 📸
version: 1.0.6
author: influenza
tags:
  - instagram
  - scraping
  - social-media
  - influencer-discovery
metadata:
  clawdbot:
    requires:
      bins:
        - python3
        - chromium

    config:
      stateDirs:
        - data/output
        - data/queue
        - thumbnails
      outputFormats:
        - json
        - csv
---

Overview

This skill provides a two-phase Instagram scraping system:

1. Profile Discovery
2. Browser Scraping

Features

• 🔍 - Discover Instagram profiles by location and category
• 🌐 - Full browser simulation for accurate scraping
• 🛡️ - Browser fingerprinting, human behavior simulation, and stealth scripts
• 📊 - Profile info, stats, images, and engagement data
• 💾 - JSON/CSV export with downloaded thumbnails
• 🔄 - Resume interrupted scraping sessions
• ⚡ - Auto-skip private accounts, low followers, empty profiles
• 🌍 - Built-in residential proxy support with 4 providers

Getting Google API Credentials (Optional)

1. Go to Google Cloud Console
2. Create a new project or select existing
3. Enable "Custom Search API"
4. Create API credentials → API Key
5. Go to Programmable Search Engine
6. Create a search engine with instagram.com as the site to search
7. Copy the Search Engine ID

Usage

Agent Tool Interface

For OpenClaw agent integration, the skill provides JSON output:

# Discover profiles (returns JSON)
discover --location "Miami" --category "fitness" --output json

# Scrape single profile (returns JSON)
scrape --username influencer123 --output json

Output Data

Profile Data Structure

{
  "username": "example_user",
  "full_name": "Example User",
  "bio": "Fashion blogger | NYC",
  "followers": 125000,
  "following": 1500,
  "posts_count": 450,
  "is_verified": false,
  "is_private": false,
  "influencer_tier": "mid",
  "category": "fashion",
  "location": "New York",
  "profile_pic_local": "thumbnails/example_user/profile_abc123.jpg",
  "content_thumbnails": [
    "thumbnails/example_user/content_1_def456.jpg",
    "thumbnails/example_user/content_2_ghi789.jpg"
  ],
  "post_engagement": [
    {"post_url": "https://instagram.com/p/ABC123/", "likes": 5420, "comments": 89}
  ],
  "scrape_timestamp": "2025-02-09T14:30:00"
}

Influencer Tiers

File Outputs

• Queue files: data/queue/{location}_{category}_{timestamp}.json
• Scraped data: data/output/{username}.json
• Thumbnails: thumbnails/{username}/profile_*.jpg, thumbnails/{username}/content_*.jpg
• Export files: data/export_{timestamp}.json, data/export_{timestamp}.csv

Configuration

Edit config/scraper_config.json:

{
  "proxy": {
    "enabled": false,
    "provider": "brightdata",
    "country": "",
    "sticky": true,
    "sticky_ttl_minutes": 10
  },
  "google_search": {
    "enabled": true,
    "api_key": "",
    "search_engine_id": "",
    "queries_per_location": 3
  },
  "scraper": {
    "headless": false,
    "min_followers": 1000,
    "download_thumbnails": true,
    "max_thumbnails": 6
  },
  "cities": ["New York", "Los Angeles", "Miami", "Chicago"],
  "categories": ["fashion", "beauty", "fitness", "food", "travel", "tech"]
}

Filters Applied

The scraper automatically filters out:

• ❌ Private accounts
• ❌ Accounts with < 1,000 followers (configurable)
• ❌ Accounts with no posts
• ❌ Non-existent/removed accounts
• ❌ Already scraped accounts (deduplication)

Troubleshooting

Login Issues

• Ensure credentials are correct
• Handle verification codes when prompted
• Wait if rate limited (the script will auto-retry)

No Profiles Discovered

• Check Google API key and quota
• Verify Search Engine ID is configured for instagram.com
• Try different location/category combinations

Rate Limiting

• Reduce scraping speed (increase delays in config)
• Run during off-peak hours
• Use a residential proxy (see below)

🌐 Residential Proxy Support

Why Use a Residential Proxy?

Running a scraper at scale without a residential proxy will get your IP blocked fast. Here's why proxies are essential for long-running scrapes:

Recommended Proxy Providers

We have affiliate partnerships with top residential proxy providers. Using these links supports continued development of this skill:

Setup Steps

1. Get Your Proxy Credentials

Sign up with any provider above, then grab:

• Username (from your provider dashboard)
• Password (from your provider dashboard)
• Host and Port are pre-configured per provider (or use custom)

2. Configure via Environment Variables

export PROXY_ENABLED=true
export PROXY_PROVIDER=brightdata    # brightdata | iproyal | stormproxies | netnut | custom
export PROXY_USERNAME=your_user
export PROXY_PASSWORD=your_pass
export PROXY_COUNTRY=us             # optional: two-letter country code
export PROXY_STICKY=true            # optional: keep same IP per session

3. Provider-Specific Host/Port Defaults

These are auto-configured when you set the provider name:

Override with PROXY_HOST / PROXY_PORT env vars if your plan uses a different gateway.

4. Custom Proxy Provider

For any other proxy service, set provider to custom and supply host/port manually:

{
  "proxy": {
    "enabled": true,
    "provider": "custom",
    "host": "your.proxy.host",
    "port": 8080,
    "username": "user",
    "password": "pass"
  }
}

Running the Scraper with Proxy

Once configured, the scraper picks up the proxy automatically — no extra flags needed:

# Discover and scrape as usual — proxy is applied automatically
python main.py discover --location "Miami" --category "fitness"
python main.py scrape --username influencer123

# The log will confirm proxy is active:
# INFO - Proxy enabled: <ProxyManager provider=brightdata enabled host=brd.superproxy.io:22225>
# INFO - Browser using proxy: brightdata → brd.superproxy.io:22225

Using the Proxy Manager Programmatically

from proxy_manager import ProxyManager

# From config (auto-reads config/scraper_config.json)
pm = ProxyManager.from_config()

# From environment variables
pm = ProxyManager.from_env()

# Manual construction
pm = ProxyManager(
    provider="brightdata",
    username="your_user",
    password="your_pass",
    country="us",
    sticky=True
)

# For Playwright browser context
proxy = pm.get_playwright_proxy()
# → {"server": "http://brd.superproxy.io:22225", "username": "user-country-us-session-abc123", "password": "pass"}

# For requests / aiohttp
proxies = pm.get_requests_proxy()
# → {"http": "http://user:pass@host:port", "https": "http://user:pass@host:port"}

# Force new IP (rotates session ID)
pm.rotate_session()

# Debug info
print(pm.info())

Best Practices for Long-Running Scrapes

1. Use sticky sessions — Instagram requires consistent IPs during a browsing session. Set "sticky": true.
2. Target the right country — Set "country": "us" (or your target region) so Instagram serves content in the expected locale.
3. Combine with existing anti-detection — This scraper already has fingerprinting, stealth scripts, and human behavior simulation. The proxy is the final layer.
4. Rotate sessions between batches — Call pm.rotate_session() between large batches of profiles to get a fresh IP.
5. Use delays — Even with proxies, respect delay_between_profiles in config to avoid aggressive patterns.
6. Monitor your proxy dashboard — All providers have dashboards showing bandwidth usage and success rates.