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:

Profile Discovery
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)

Go to Google Cloud Console
Create a new project or select existing
Enable "Custom Search API"
Create API credentials → API Key
Go to Programmable Search Engine
Create a search engine with instagram.com as the site to search
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

Tier	Follower Range
nano	< 1,000
micro	1,000 - 10,000
mid	10,000 - 100,000
macro	100,000 - 1M
mega	> 1,000,000

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:

Advantage	Description
Avoid IP Bans	Residential IPs look like real household users, not data-center bots. Instagram is far less likely to flag them.
Automatic IP Rotation	Each request (or session) gets a fresh IP, so rate-limits never stack up on one address.
Geo-Targeting	Route traffic through a specific country/city so scraped content matches the target audience's locale.
Sticky Sessions	Keep the same IP for a configurable window (e.g. 10 min) — critical for maintaining a consistent browsing session.
Higher Success Rate	Rotating residential IPs deliver 95%+ success rates compared to ~30% with data-center proxies on Instagram.
Long-Running Scrapes	Scrape thousands of profiles over hours or days without interruption.
Concurrent Scraping	Run multiple browser instances across different IPs simultaneously.

Recommended Proxy Providers

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

Provider	Best For	Sign Up
Bright Data	World's largest network, 72M+ IPs, enterprise-grade	👉 Get Bright Data
IProyal	Pay-as-you-go, 195+ countries, no traffic expiry	👉 Get IProyal
Storm Proxies	Fast & reliable, developer-friendly API, competitive pricing	👉 Get Storm Proxies
NetNut	ISP-grade network, 52M+ IPs, direct connectivity	👉 Get NetNut

Setup Steps

1. Get Your Proxy Credentials

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:

Provider	Host	Port
Bright Data	`brd.superproxy.io`	`22225`
IProyal	`proxy.iproyal.com`	`12321`
Storm Proxies	`rotating.stormproxies.com`	`9999`
NetNut	`gw-resi.netnut.io`	`5959`

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

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

Instagram Scraper

Description