# Instagram Search API (ScrapeForAgents)

> Instagram Search API (ScrapeForAgents) is a paid API for AI agents from api.scrapeforagents.tech, paid per call via x402, $0.025/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-10-02).

Searches Instagram public data for profiles, hashtags, places, or popular reels by keyword, returning ranked structured results.

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://api.scrapeforagents.tech/v1/instagram-search?utm_source=zero.xyz
- Price: $0.025/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-10-02
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/instagram-search-api-scrapeforagents-dd9f92a8
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_FYGzQUThRrnim3oWT5hw3

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability instagram-search-api-scrapeforagents-dd9f92a8 -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Search Instagram for popular reels about 'sustainable fashion' and 'thrift-flipping' — get up to 10 results per term and stop after 20 total results.

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need structured, ranked Instagram search results — profiles, hashtags, places, or trending reels — without maintaining your own scraping infrastructure. It is pay-per-call with no charge on failed or empty runs, making it cost-efficient for exploratory searches. Prefer this over general web scrapers when you specifically need Instagram-formatted search result data with fields like searchRank, searchTitle, and searchSnippet.

## Known failure modes

- Empty results returned (0 items) when Instagram's public index has no data for the search term — not charged
- Fewer results than requested when Instagram public pages expose fewer than the requested searchLimit
- Rate limiting or blocking by Instagram's public infrastructure causing partial or failed scrapes
- Invalid searchType enum value causing a 400 validation error
- Search terms with spaces may require hyphens for popular reel topics, otherwise returning no results

## How this service works

Pay-per-call structured web data. Failed or empty runs are not charged.

## Output

Returns a JSON object with a count of results and an array of items, each containing the result URL, input URL, search rank, search term, search type, search title, search source, and a search snippet — structured data extracted from Instagram's public search pages.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "properties": {
  "search": {
   "type": "string",
   "description": "One or more public search terms, separated by commas. For popular reels, spaces become hyphens in the public topic URL."
  },
  "maxItems": {
   "type": "integer",
   "default": 0,
   "minimum": 0,
   "description": "Stop after this many results across all terms. Set 0 for no total cap."
  },
  "searchType": {
   "enum": [
    "popular",
    "user",
    "hashtag",
    "place"
   ],
   "type": "string",
   "default": "popular",
   "description": "Find public profiles, hashtags, places, or popular reels. Hashtags come from public topic reels when available; profiles and places depend on public search indexing."
  },
  "searchLimit": {
   "type": "integer",
   "default": 10,
   "maximum": 50,
   "minimum": 1,
   "description": "Maximum results for each term. Public reel pages currently expose up to 12 per term; indexed searches may return fewer than requested."
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "count": 1,
  "items": [
   {
    "url": null,
    "inputUrl": null,
    "searchRank": null,
    "searchTerm": null,
    "searchType": null,
    "searchTitle": null,
    "searchSource": null,
    "searchSnippet": null
   }
  ],
  "product": "instagram-search"
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/instagram-search-api-scrapeforagents-dd9f92a8/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from api.scrapeforagents.tech](https://www.zero.xyz/host/api.scrapeforagents.tech/llms.txt)