Instagram Scraper

A local React app that runs the Apify Instagram Scraper actor and displays results in the browser.

Setup

1. Copy the environment file and add your Apify API token:

   cp .env.example .env

   Edit .env and set APIFY_TOKEN=your_token_here.

2. Install dependencies and start dev servers (API + Vite):

   npm install
   npm run dev

3. Open the URL shown by Vite (usually http://localhost:5173).

Usage

• URLs mode: paste one or more Instagram URLs (profile, post /p/, reel, etc.) and choose what to scrape (posts, profile details, comments, etc.).
• Search mode: enter a hashtag, profile, or place search query with a search type and limits.
• Connections mode (Instagram connected): export your following or followers list, including private accounts your session can see.

Connect Instagram (private profiles & connections)

Instagram does not offer an official OAuth scope for follower/following lists or other users’ private profiles. This app uses your browser session cookies after you log in:

1. Click Login with Instagram and sign in on instagram.com.
2. Export cookies for instagram.com with Cookie-Editor (JSON format).
3. Paste the JSON and click Connect account.

Cookies are kept in sessionStorage in your browser and sent to your API only when you scrape. With a connected account:

• Connections tab: export following/followers (yours or another username you can view).
• Direct URLs + content type details: read private profile metadata your account can access.

Public scrapes without a connected account still use the Apify Actor as before.

Results appear after the run finishes. Use Download JSON to export items.

Scripts

Command	Description
npm run dev	Start API server and Vite dev server
npm run dev:server	API only (port 3001)
npm run dev:client	Vite only
npm run build	Production frontend build
npm start	Run production server (API + built UI)
npm run start:server	Same as npm start

Deploying on Vercel

1. Push the repo to GitHub and import it in Vercel.
2. Vercel reads vercel.json automatically:
   • Build: npm run build → static files in dist/
   • API: api/index.js (Express) handles /api/*
3. In the Vercel project → Settings → Environment Variables, add:
   • APIFY_TOKEN = your Apify token (all environments you use)
4. Deploy.

Or from the CLI:

npm i -g vercel
vercel
vercel env add APIFY_TOKEN
vercel --prod

Check: open https://<your-project>.vercel.app/api/health — expect {"ok":true,"hasToken":true}.

Timeouts: Scraping waits for the Apify Actor to finish. That can take minutes. vercel.json sets maxDuration: 300 (5 minutes), which needs a Vercel Pro plan. On the Hobby plan the limit is 10 seconds, so long scrapes will fail with a timeout — use a VPS/Railway/Render with npm start instead, or upgrade Vercel.

Do not set a custom “Output Directory” in the Vercel UI if it conflicts with vercel.json; the repo config already points to dist.

Deploying (VPS, Railway, Render, etc.)

This app needs one Node process that serves both the React UI and /api/*. Static-only hosting (GitHub Pages, S3 without a proxy) will return 404 on scrape requests because there is no API.

On the remote machine:

git clone <your-repo>
cd instagram-scraper
npm ci
npm run build
export APIFY_TOKEN=your_token_here
export PORT=3001   # optional; platform often sets PORT automatically
npm start

Set APIFY_TOKEN in your host’s environment variables (not only in a local .env file unless you copy it to the server).

Platform settings (typical):

Setting	Value
Build command	npm ci && npm run build
Start command	npm start
Port	Use the platform’s PORT (the server reads process.env.PORT)

Health check: GET /api/health should return {"ok":true,"hasToken":true} when the token is set.

Reverse proxy (nginx): proxy all traffic to the Node port, e.g. proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3001;

Process manager (PM2):

npm run build
pm2 start server/index.js --name instagram-scraper

Cost and legal notes

This Actor is paid per result. Keep resultsLimit low while testing. Scraping public Instagram data may be subject to Instagram’s terms and applicable privacy laws; use responsibly.