Instagram Data API in 2026: What Meta's API Can and Can't Do

You want Instagram data in your app. The first question is whose data it is. Meta's official API is built around accounts that connect to your app. Public data from accounts that never heard of your app is a different job. This article draws the line using Meta's current documentation, and shows what to do on the other side of it.

Updated October 2026.

TL;DR: pick by need (as of 2026-10-28)#

What Meta's official API is#

Meta's Instagram Platform overview describes two setups:

• Instagram API with Instagram Login. App users sign in with Instagram credentials, no Facebook Page is needed, and requests go to graph.instagram.com. Scopes are the instagram_business_* family. See the setup page.
• Instagram API with Facebook Login. App users sign in with Facebook, the account must be linked to a Facebook Page, and requests go to graph.facebook.com.

Both serve Instagram professional accounts: business or creator accounts. The Instagram Login page lists comment moderation, content publishing, media insights, mentions and messaging as what the API is for.

Basic Display is gone. Meta's announcement says that starting on December 4th, 2024 the API is no longer available and all its requests fail, and that after that date there is no set of Instagram APIs for consumer developer apps. Meta points business and creator use cases to the two setups above.

Official API: can and cannot#

"Own" means accounts whose owners connected to your app and granted permissions.

Rate limits: most endpoints use Instagram Business Use Case limits, where calls in 24 hours equal 4800 times the account's impressions, counted per app and app user pair. Business Discovery and Hashtag Search use Platform Rate Limits instead (overview).

Two takeaways. First, Business Discovery is genuinely useful for a quick look at another professional account's counts and recent media, but it is an aggregate view. Second, anything that touches accounts you don't own at scale comes with review and verification steps, and tokens that depend on a signed-in app user.

When you need public data from accounts you don't own#

If your job is "look up this username and give me data", the official API does not fit, and no amount of configuration changes that. This is where a REST API for public data fits.

StoriesFly is a REST API that reads public Instagram and TikTok data. You never log in to Instagram, and your own account never appears among a story's viewers. The person is not notified. You send an API key and pay per request: from $1.50 per 1,000 requests, prepaid, and 100 free requests once per Telegram account. For more details, see our guide on view stories anonymously.

Install the official client (storiesfly 1.1.0, Node 18+, ESM, no runtime dependencies):

npm install storiesfly

import { StoriesFly, StoriesFlyError } from "storiesfly";

const client = new StoriesFly({ apiKey: process.env.STORIESFLY_API_KEY! });

async function main() {
  try {
    const profile = await client.user.profile({ username: "instagram" });
    console.log(profile.username, profile.followers, profile.is_private);

    // First 3 pages of followers: up to 25 per page, one request per page.
    for await (const page of client.paginate(client.user.followers, { username: "instagram" }, { maxPages: 3 })) {
      for (const user of page.users) console.log(user.username);
    }

    const { stories } = await client.user.stories({ username: "instagram" });
    for (const s of stories) console.log(s.media_type, s.taken_at_iso, s.media_url);

    const { media } = await client.download({ url: "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdY3MUJCfby/" });
    for (const file of media) console.log(file.type, file.url);
  } catch (err) {
    if (err instanceof StoriesFlyError && err.code === "private_account") {
      console.log("Private account: no data.");
      return;
    }
    throw err;
  }
}
main();

Get a key by signing in with Telegram at storiesfly.com/developers/dashboard. Full method list: docs and the OpenAPI spec. Beyond profiles, followers and stories, the client has calls for posts, reels, comments, hashtags, places and search, plus TikTok profiles, videos and lists.

Honest limits:

• Private accounts return private_account, and that answer is charged like any answer. The API reads public data only.
• Media links expire. Links in answers are signed CDN links that last days, not months. Download what you need soon.
• Lists are paged. A page of followers holds up to 25 accounts and costs one request. Always set maxPages, or paginate walks the list to its end. For a verified account, Instagram shows only about 50 followers and no next page.
• Stories are live ones. user.stories returns what is up right now. It is not an archive.
• Numbers can be null. A value the answer doesn't carry is null, never 0.

Use the same data from ChatGPT or Claude (MCP)#

The same data is available to AI assistants through an MCP server, with no code. In Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http storiesfly https://storiesfly.com/mcp

ChatGPT and Claude connect to the same address and sign in with Telegram. Details: storiesfly.com/developers/mcp.

Check the rules that apply to you#

This is not legal advice. Use public data only. Before you build, read Instagram's and Meta's terms and the privacy law that applies to your use and your users, such as rules on storing personal data, retention and deletion requests. Decide what you keep, for how long, and why.