Instagram API alternative for reading public posts
Meta retired the Instagram Basic Display API in December 2024, and the Graph API only reads accounts that have explicitly authorised your app through app review. There is no first-party way left to read an arbitrary public profile. Public hashtag search is gone too, so profile lookup and search-by-name are the only entry points that still exist.
Fix: one call, 2 credits
50 free credits on signup, no card
unified JSON, no proxies or parsers to keep alive
50 free credits on signup, no card
unified JSON, no proxies or parsers to keep alive
1What people try first
| Approach | What happens |
|---|---|
| Basic Display API | Shut down 4 December 2024. Nothing to migrate to. |
| Graph API | Only reads accounts that authorised your app, after app review. |
| Hashtag search | Removed. Any tool still advertising it is returning nothing. |
| Direct scraping | Unsupported and unreliable - Meta actively restricts it, and what works changes continuously. |
2The one-call fix
curl -H "x-api-key: $SS_KEY" \ "https://api.socialsearchapi.com/v1/instagram/profile/posts?handle=instagram"
Signup is an email and a 6-digit code, no card. Create a key in the dashboard and your account starts with 50 free credits on any platform, so the command above runs as-is.
Real response from that endpoint, captured 2026-08-27:
{
"success": true,
"platform": "instagram",
"data": {
"total": 12,
"items": [
{
"id": "3973065140916017975",
"url": "https://www.instagram.com/p/DcjKbIJyVs3/",
"author": "instagram",
"created_at": "2026-08-27T16:00:25Z",
"metrics": {
"comments": 2822,
"likes": 48903,
"views": 14534004
}
}
]
},
"credits_used": 3
}Get a key50 free credits ยท no card
3Related
Search Instagram: full guideAPI referencePricingReddit returns 403 to curl: why, and how to fix itHow to search Reddit without logging inCheap X/Twitter search API alternativesTikTok scraper API for videos and hashtag searchDuckDuckGo returns 202 to your scraper - what to use instead
Verified against a live Instagram response on 2026-08-27. Platform terms and pricing change often. If something here has gone stale, tell us at support@socialsearchapi.com.