How do I get an Instagram account's follower count via API?
Call GET /instagram/profile/details with the account's username: the response includes the follower count, following count and post count of any public Instagram account. It costs 1 credit.
Meta's official option
Through Meta's API, Business Discovery returns the follower count of Business and Creator accounts only, and needs your own professional account and a Meta app.
How to do it with SocialAPIs
To track growth, call it once a day per account and store the count with the date. 30 accounts checked daily is about 900 calls a month.
Endpoints
GET /instagram/profile/details1 credit
Get user profile information by username including bio, followers, posts count, and related profiles.
Params:
username(required),linkInstagram Profile Details: docs and playgroundMCP:
instagram_profile→details
curl -G "https://api.socialapis.io/instagram/profile/details" \
--max-time 100 \
--fail-with-body \
-H "x-api-token: $SOCIALAPIS_API_KEY" \
--data-urlencode "username=nasa"import os
import requests
response = requests.get(
"https://api.socialapis.io/instagram/profile/details",
headers={"x-api-token": os.environ["SOCIALAPIS_API_KEY"]},
params={
"username": "nasa",
},
timeout=100,
)
response.raise_for_status()
print(response.json())// Node 18+, as an ES module (e.g. main.mjs)
async function get(url, params) {
const query = new URLSearchParams(params).toString();
const response = await fetch(query ? `${url}?${query}` : url, {
headers: { "x-api-token": process.env.SOCIALAPIS_API_KEY },
signal: AbortSignal.timeout(100000),
});
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`HTTP ${response.status}: ${await response.text()}`);
return response.json();
}
const data = await get("https://api.socialapis.io/instagram/profile/details", {
username: "nasa",
});
console.log(data);import java.net.URI;
import java.net.URLEncoder;
import java.net.http.HttpClient;
import java.net.http.HttpRequest;
import java.net.http.HttpResponse;
import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
import java.time.Duration;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.stream.Collectors;
public class Main {
private static final HttpClient CLIENT = HttpClient.newBuilder()
.connectTimeout(Duration.ofSeconds(10))
.build();
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
String body = get("https://api.socialapis.io/instagram/profile/details", Map.of(
"username", "nasa"));
System.out.println(body);
}
static String get(String url, Map<String, String> params) throws Exception {
String query = params.entrySet().stream()
.map(e -> URLEncoder.encode(e.getKey(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8) + "="
+ URLEncoder.encode(e.getValue(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8))
.collect(Collectors.joining("&"));
HttpRequest request = HttpRequest.newBuilder(URI.create(query.isEmpty() ? url : url + "?" + query))
.header("x-api-token", System.getenv("SOCIALAPIS_API_KEY"))
.timeout(Duration.ofSeconds(100))
.GET()
.build();
HttpResponse<String> response = CLIENT.send(request, HttpResponse.BodyHandlers.ofString());
if (response.statusCode() / 100 != 2) {
throw new RuntimeException("HTTP " + response.statusCode() + ": " + response.body());
}
return response.body();
}
}package main
import (
"fmt"
"io"
"log"
"net/http"
"net/url"
"os"
"time"
)
func main() {
body, err := get("https://api.socialapis.io/instagram/profile/details", url.Values{
"username": {"nasa"},
})
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
fmt.Println(string(body))
}
func get(endpoint string, params url.Values) ([]byte, error) {
if len(params) > 0 {
endpoint += "?" + params.Encode()
}
req, err := http.NewRequest(http.MethodGet, endpoint, nil)
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
req.Header.Set("x-api-token", os.Getenv("SOCIALAPIS_API_KEY"))
client := &http.Client{Timeout: 100 * time.Second}
resp, err := client.Do(req)
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
defer resp.Body.Close()
body, err := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
if resp.StatusCode/100 != 2 {
return nil, fmt.Errorf("HTTP %d: %s", resp.StatusCode, body)
}
return body, nil
}# pip install socialapis-sdk
import os
from socialapis import Instagram
client = Instagram(api_token=os.environ["SOCIALAPIS_API_KEY"])
response = client.get_profile_details("nasa")
print(response)// npm install socialapis-sdk
import { Instagram } from "socialapis-sdk";
const client = new Instagram({ apiToken: process.env.SOCIALAPIS_API_KEY });
const response = await client.getProfileDetails("nasa");
console.log(response);Your API key goes in the x-api-token header (here from the SOCIALAPIS_API_KEY environment variable). Get a free key.
Good to know
- Private accounts: not available.
- Facebook Pages work the same way:
/facebook/pages/detailsreturns the follower count (addexact_followers_count=truefor the exact number instead of the rounded one). - The count is read when you call, so it's current, not a cached estimate.