Profile

When to use this

Use it to look up a brand or creator: bio, links, follower and following counts, and whether the account is private or verified. Pass a username or profile URL. For their posts, use user posts (instagram_user_posts).

Instagram doesn't always return the post count or a high-resolution picture. Missing fields are null.

Example request

Copy one and replace YOUR_API_KEY with your API key (get one free). The code versions read the key from the LURKAPI_API_KEY environment variable instead.

curl "https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/instagram/profile?username=nike" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

const params = new URLSearchParams({
  username: "nike",
});
const res = await fetch(`https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/instagram/profile?${params}`, {
  headers: { "x-api-key": process.env.LURKAPI_API_KEY },
});
const data = await res.json();
if (!data.success) throw new Error(`${data.code}: ${data.error}`);
console.log(data);

import os
import requests

res = requests.get(
    "https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/instagram/profile",
    params={
        "username": "nike",
    },
    headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["LURKAPI_API_KEY"]},
    timeout=60,
)
data = res.json()
if not data["success"]:
    raise RuntimeError(f"{data['code']}: {data['error']}")
print(data)

package main

import (
	"encoding/json"
	"fmt"
	"net/http"
	"net/url"
	"os"
	"time"
)

func main() {
	params := url.Values{}
	params.Set("username", "nike")
	req, _ := http.NewRequest("GET", "https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/instagram/profile?"+params.Encode(), nil)
	req.Header.Set("x-api-key", os.Getenv("LURKAPI_API_KEY"))

	client := &http.Client{Timeout: 60 * time.Second}
	res, err := client.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer res.Body.Close()

	var data map[string]any
	if err := json.NewDecoder(res.Body).Decode(&data); err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	if data["success"] != true {
		panic(fmt.Sprintf("%v: %v", data["code"], data["error"]))
	}
	out, _ := json.MarshalIndent(data, "", "  ")
	fmt.Println(string(out))
}

<?php
$params = http_build_query([
    'username' => 'nike',
]);
$context = stream_context_create(['http' => [
    'header' => 'x-api-key: ' . getenv('LURKAPI_API_KEY'),
    'timeout' => 60,
    'ignore_errors' => true,
]]);
$body = file_get_contents('https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/instagram/profile?' . $params, false, $context);
$data = json_decode($body, true);
if (!$data['success']) {
    throw new Exception("{$data['code']}: {$data['error']}");
}
print_r($data);

require 'json'
require 'net/http'

uri = URI('https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/instagram/profile')
uri.query = URI.encode_www_form(
  'username' => 'nike',
)
req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri)
req['x-api-key'] = ENV.fetch('LURKAPI_API_KEY')
res = Net::HTTP.start(uri.host, uri.port, use_ssl: uri.scheme == 'https', read_timeout: 60) do |http|
  http.request(req)
end
data = JSON.parse(res.body)
raise "#{data['code']}: #{data['error']}" unless data['success']
puts JSON.pretty_generate(data)

Parameters

Add them to the URL after a ?, as in ?username=nike. Join several with &.

Example response

A real response, captured from the live API. Lists are trimmed to a couple of items, and long text such as media links is cut short with ….

{
  "success": true,
  "credits_remaining": 99,
  "credits_charged": 1,
  "data": {
    "pk": "13460080",
    "id": "17841400602400210",
    "username": "nike",
    "url": "https://www.instagram.com/nike/",
    "full_name": "Nike",
    "biography": "Just Do It.",
    "profile_pic_url": "https://scontent-iad6-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.82787-19/551608484_185671…",
    "profile_pic_url_hd": "https://scontent-iad6-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.82787-19/551608484_185671…",
    "is_private": false,
    "is_verified": true,
    "follower_count": 291074487,
    "following_count": 266,
    "media_count": null,
    "external_url": "http://empli.fi/nike",
    "bio_links": [
      {
        "url": "http://empli.fi/nike",
        "title": ""
      }
    ],
    "pronouns": [],
    "account_type": 2,
    "category": "",
    "total_clips_count": null
  }
}

Response fields

Every field in a successful response, and what it means. A name with [] belongs to each item of a list: data.bio_links[].url is the url of every item in data.bio_links. null means there's no value.

Cost and freshness

Each call costs 1 credit. Calls turned away before they reach the platform (invalid parameters, a key or balance problem, a rate limit) are free, and so are 5xx errors. A not_found is charged, since the platform was checked. How charging works.

Answers are cached for up to 10 minutes. A repeat call within that time can return the same data, and costs the same.

Errors

A failed call returns success: false, an error message, a code your program can check, and a docs link. These are the errors this endpoint can return. All error codes.

Use it in Claude

Connect LurkAPI to Claude and ask in plain English. This endpoint is the instagram_profile tool. For example:

Use LurkAPI's instagram_profile tool with username "nike", then summarize what you find.

Claude calls instagram_profile with arguments like these, and each call costs 1 credit:

{"username": "nike"}

To save tokens, tool results leave out empty fields, keep one URL per image or video, and give transcripts as plain text unless you pass timestamps=true. A result over 45,000 characters comes in parts. Its _note gives the offset for the next part, and later parts are free for 15 minutes. Pass trim=false for the full response.