How to Scrape Instagram Posts by Hashtag or Keyword

To scrape Instagram posts by hashtag, use apidojo’s Instagram Hashtag Scraper with a hashtag as its keyword and choose posts, reels or both; to search by plain keyword, put words in the keywords input of the Instagram Scraper. Both return posts with captions, likes, comments, dates, locations and owners, and need no Instagram login.

Hashtags show what people tag; keyword search shows what people talk about, tagged or not. This guide covers both, the inputs that matter, how to collect reels, and costs. The full overview is in how to scrape Instagram data in 2026. Places and sounds work like tags, covered in how to scrape Instagram location data and how to scrape Instagram reels and audio.

Which apidojo Actor Should You Use?

Use the Hashtag Scraper for hashtag research and the Instagram Scraper for keyword searches or mixed inputs. The table compares them (Apify, Apify).

Point	Instagram Hashtag Scraper	Instagram Scraper
Main input	keyword (one hashtag or keyword) or hashtag search URLs	keywords (a list) or tag, profile, location and other URLs
Posts and reels	getPosts and getReels, both on by default	Tag URLs return posts; set getReels to add the hashtag’s reels
Date filter	until: posts on or after a date, most reliable with posts only	until: posts newer than a date, not applied to reels
Extra field	hashtags list on each post	Full owner profile summary
Price	$0.016 per hashtag with 60 posts included, then $0.0004 per post	$0.50 per 1,000 posts

How Do You Scrape an Instagram Hashtag?

Give the Hashtag Scraper one hashtag, choose posts and reels, and set a cap.

{
  "keyword": "veganrecipes",
  "getPosts": true,
  "getReels": true,
  "maxItems": 1000
}

For a date cut-off, set getReels to false and add until, because results come back in date order only for posts (Apify). 1,000 posts from one hashtag cost about $0.39.

How Do You Scrape Instagram by Keyword?

Put one or more words in the Instagram Scraper’s keywords input; each keyword runs its own search.

{
  "keywords": ["plant based protein", "vegan meal prep"],
  "maxItems": 600
}

A keyword stops when its results stop surfacing new posts, so it can return fewer than maxItems (Apify). The same search works from a search URL in startUrls, such as https://www.instagram.com/explore/search/keyword/?q=vegan%20meal%20prep. On the Instagram Scraper API, keyword results may come with limited captions, like counts and comment counts, because Instagram’s search results don’t always include them (Apify).

How Do You Collect a Hashtag’s Reels With the Instagram Scraper?

Add the tag URL and set getReels to true; posts and reels then share maxItems.

{
  "startUrls": ["https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/veganrecipes/"],
  "getReels": true,
  "maxItems": 500
}

A tag URL alone returns recent posts, which don’t include reels (Apify).

What Can You Learn From Hashtag Data?

Hashtag data shows how active a topic is, who drives it, and which formats win. The table maps questions to fields.

Question	Fields
Is the hashtag active?	Posts per day from createdAt
Which posts win?	likeCount, commentCount, video.playCount
Who posts most?	owner.username
Which tags travel together?	hashtags
Where are posts from?	location.name, location.lat, location.lng

Spotting rising tags is covered in how to find trending hashtags on Instagram, and running this on a schedule in how to monitor Instagram hashtags and brand mentions. TikTok hashtag pages are covered in how to scrape TikTok hashtag pages.

What Does Scraping Instagram Hashtags Cost?

On the Hashtag Scraper, 60 posts from one hashtag cost $0.016, 1,000 posts $0.39, 10,000 posts $3.99, and 5 hashtags with 2,000 posts in total $0.76 (Apify). On the Instagram Scraper, 10,000 posts cost $5.