LurkAPI is the best social media scraping API overall: 1,000 profile lookups cost $0.93 ($0.59 on the Growth pack), an Instagram profile comes back in 0.42 s, and one key reads TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit and Threads. ScrapeCreators suits pages you re-read, Social Fetch a fixed monthly bill, EnsembleData a steady daily volume, SociaVault audience demographics, Apify no-code runs, and Bright Data and Data365 batches that can wait.
The best social media scraping APIs at a glance
| Service | Best for | What it covers | Price per 1,000 profile lookups | Speed | Free to start |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LurkAPI | Many platforms, live, on one key | Profiles, posts, comments, search, transcripts, ads | $0.93 to $0.59 | 0.42 s (median) | 100 credits, then 20 a day, no card |
| ScrapeCreators | Re-reading the same pages | Profiles, posts, comments, transcripts, ad libraries | $1.88 to $0.99, billed per request | 3.12 s average | 100 credits |
| Social Fetch | A fixed monthly bill | Profiles, posts, transcripts, metrics | $14 to $1.65, billed per request | About 3.2 s average | 100 credits, no card |
| EnsembleData | A steady daily volume | Profiles, posts, comments, hashtags | Instagram $6.67 to $2.80, TikTok $2.22 to $0.93, on monthly plans | Under 3 s average | 50 units a day |
| SociaVault | Audience demographics | Profiles, posts, comments, demographics | $4.83 to $2.00, billed per request | Under 0.5 s average | 50 credits |
| Apify | No-code runs | Profiles, posts, comments, an Actor per platform | $2.70 to $1.50, billed per result | Not published | $5 of usage a month |
| Bright Data | Big batches of links | Profiles, posts, comments, followers | $1.50 to $1.30, billed per record | Batch job | 5,000 records a month |
| Data365 | Scheduled batches | Profiles, posts, comments, search | About $6.03, on a €300 monthly plan | 1 to 5 minutes average | 14-day trial |
1. LurkAPI: the best social media scraping API overall
LurkAPI turns public social media pages into clean JSON. Send a handle, a link or a keyword and get the data back in one request.
- Covers: Profiles, posts, comments, search, transcripts and ads: 88 endpoints on 16 platforms.
- Price: 1 credit a call on every social platform, for a profile, a page of posts or a page of comments: $0.93 per 1,000 calls on the Pro pack, $0.59 on Growth.
- Speed: 0.42 s for an Instagram profile and 0.61 s for a TikTok creator's videos (medians).
- Best for: Apps and AI agents that read several platforms live.
Why it's #1
- Cheapest: the Growth pack's $0.59 per 1,000 profile lookups beats every other service's best rate, the lowest of which is EnsembleData's $0.93, TikTok only, on a $1,400 monthly plan. The $39 Pro pack's $0.93 beats every other service's entry price.
- Fastest: an Instagram profile in 0.42 s (median). SociaVault claims under 0.5 s; ScrapeCreators, Social Fetch and EnsembleData average about 3 s.
curl "https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/instagram/profile?username=nike" \-H "x-api-key: $LURK_KEY"Try it on any account:
GET/v1/instagram/profile
1 credit per requestRun it to see live data here.
2. ScrapeCreators: best for re-reading the same pages
ScrapeCreators sells social media data per request. LurkAPI uses the same paths, so switching is a new base URL and key (the two compared).
- Covers: Profiles, posts, comments, transcripts and ad libraries.
- Price: $1.88 per 1,000 requests on its $47 pack, $0.99 on its $497 pack.
- Speed: 3.12 s on average.
- Best for: Re-reading the same pages, since a cached answer costs nothing.
- Limits: The smallest pack is $47.
- Compared with LurkAPI: 1,000 profile lookups cost $0.93 to $0.59 on LurkAPI, answered in 0.42 s.
3. Social Fetch: best for a fixed monthly bill
Social Fetch sells credits as one-time packs or as monthly plans.
- Covers: Profiles, posts, transcripts and metrics.
- Price: $14 per 1,000 requests on its smallest pack, $1.65 on its largest, or $29 a month for 18,000.
- Speed: About 3.2 s on average.
- Best for: A fixed monthly bill.
- Limits: A monthly plan's credits reset each billing period.
- Compared with LurkAPI: 1,000 profile lookups cost $0.93 to $0.59 on LurkAPI, under every Social Fetch price, answered in 0.42 s.
4. EnsembleData: best for a steady daily volume
EnsembleData sells a daily allowance of request units on monthly plans.
- Covers: Profiles, posts, comments and hashtags.
- Price: 1,000 Instagram profiles cost $6.67 on its $100 Wood plan and $2.80 on its $1,400 Platinum plan, if you use every day's units.
- Speed: Under 3 s on average.
- Best for: The same volume every day.
- Limits: Units you don't use by 00:00 UTC are gone.
- Compared with LurkAPI: A profile on any platform is 1 credit on LurkAPI: 1,000 cost $0.59 on the Growth pack, under its best rate, with nothing to use up.
5. SociaVault: best for audience demographics
SociaVault sells one-time credit packs, with most calls at 1 credit.
- Covers: Profiles, posts, comments and audience demographics.
- Price: $4.83 per 1,000 credits on its $29 pack, $2.00 on its $399 pack.
- Speed: Under 0.5 s on average.
- Best for: Audience demographics.
- Limits: Demographics and audience analytics cost 20 credits or more a call.
- Compared with LurkAPI: 1,000 profiles cost $0.93 on LurkAPI's $39 pack, under SociaVault's best rate of $2.00.
6. Apify: best for no-code runs
Apify is a marketplace of ready-made scrapers, called Actors, that you run from a form or by API. These prices are for its own Instagram Scraper.
- Covers: Profiles, posts and comments, from a separate Actor for each platform.
- Price: $2.70 per 1,000 Instagram profiles on the Free plan, $1.50 on Business ($999 a month).
- Speed: Not published.
- Best for: Scheduled runs with no code.
- Limits: Usage you don't spend in a month is gone.
- Compared with LurkAPI: The same 1,000 profiles cost $0.93 to $0.59 on LurkAPI, every platform on one key.
7. Bright Data: best for big batches of links
Bright Data's Web Scraper API runs a ready-made scraper for each platform over a list of links and returns records.
- Covers: Profiles, posts, comments and followers, by link.
- Price: $1.50 per 1,000 records, $1.30 on its $499 monthly plan.
- Speed: Runs as a batch job.
- Best for: Up to 5,000 links in one call.
- Limits: Records that fail on a wrong input are still billed.
- Compared with LurkAPI: The same 1,000 profiles cost $0.93 to $0.59 on LurkAPI, answered live.
8. Data365: best for scheduled batches
Data365 runs each request as a task: you post it, check its status, then fetch the data.
- Covers: Profiles, posts, comments and search, on up to 7 networks.
- Price: About $6.03 per 1,000 profiles: 9 credits each on its €300 monthly plan.
- Speed: 1 to 5 minutes on average, with a callback when a task finishes.
- Best for: Scheduled batches.
- Limits: Plans start at €300 a month for one network, €850 for three.
- Compared with LurkAPI: A profile is 1 credit on LurkAPI: 1,000 cost $0.93 to $0.59, each back in 0.42 s.
Which social media scraping API for which job
- Live lookups across platforms, from your code or from Claude and ChatGPT: LurkAPI, because 1,000 profiles cost $0.93 and an Instagram profile comes back in 0.42 s.
- Audience demographics: SociaVault, because it sells them as their own calls.
- No-code schedules: Apify, because you run its scrapers from a form.
- Thousands of links overnight: Bright Data or Data365, because both run as jobs you collect later.
- Your own accounts' analytics: each platform's official API (Instagram's, TikTok's).
- One profile, once: our free Instagram lookup.
For anything else, run your own job on 100 free credits: that's 100 profiles on any platform, and you see the JSON before you pay.
