Search reels

When to use this

Pass a keyword or phrase. Results are the reels on Instagram's public keyword page (instagram.com/popular/<keyword>/), in Instagram's ranking, not by date. Instagram sends its logged-out hashtag pages there too, so a hashtag's word (with or without #) returns the reels Instagram shows for that hashtag.

About 12 reels per page and around 40 to 50 in all; an unknown keyword returns an empty list. A count the author hides is null.

Pagination. Pass the response's cursor back as cursor with the same query; has_more is false on the last page.

Parameters

All parameters go in the query string.

Example request

Replace YOUR_API_KEY with your key, or set LURKAPI_KEY for the code. Get a free key.

curl "https://api.lurkapi.com/v2/instagram/reels/search?query=nike" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

const params = new URLSearchParams({
  query: "nike",
});
const res = await fetch(`https://api.lurkapi.com/v2/instagram/reels/search?${params}`, {
  headers: { "x-api-key": process.env.LURKAPI_KEY },
});
const data = await res.json();
if (!data.success) throw new Error(`${data.code}: ${data.error}`);
console.log(data.reels);

import os
import requests

res = requests.get(
    "https://api.lurkapi.com/v2/instagram/reels/search",
    params={
        "query": "nike",
    },
    headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["LURKAPI_KEY"]},
    timeout=60,
)
data = res.json()
if not data["success"]:
    raise RuntimeError(f"{data['code']}: {data['error']}")
print(data["reels"])

Example response

A real response from this endpoint, captured from the live API and trimmed to a couple of items. Strings over 96 characters (mostly signed media URLs) are cut short and end in ….

{
  "success": true,
  "credits_remaining": 999999,
  "credits_charged": 1,
  "query": "nike",
  "reels": [
    {
      "pk": "3999988656176912624",
      "code": "DeC0H1tBFjw",
      "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeC0H1tBFjw/",
      "caption": "Most NFL players go broke within three years of retirement. Gronkowski b…",
      "taken_at": 1791055806,
      "like_count": 15736,
      "comment_count": 81,
      "play_count": 1846559,
      "display_url": "https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.82787-15/817867378_179076…",
      "video_url": "https://scontent-iad6-1.cdninstagram.com/o1/v/t2/f2/m86/AQMVoH7y0zI7p5VL…",
      "width": 1080,
      "height": 1920,
      "has_audio": true,
      "user": {
        "pk": "75202986782",
        "username": "cashepreneurs",
        "full_name": null,
        "profile_pic_url": "https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.82787-19/543739635_178569…",
        "is_verified": false
      }
    },
    {
      "pk": "4008454019827433040",
      "code": "Deg47F-TP5Q",
      "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/Deg47F-TP5Q/",
      "caption": "Everyone tag @nike so they can see this 🙏\n-\n#cinematic #travel #filmmak…",
      "taken_at": 1792065018,
      "like_count": 132267,
      "comment_count": 2417,
      "play_count": 1982511,
      "display_url": "https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.71878-15/848547585_253364…",
      "video_url": "https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/o1/v/t2/f2/m86/AQPEI9-6-YN5fF3G…",
      "width": 1080,
      "height": 1920,
      "has_audio": true,
      "user": {
        "pk": "80234280468",
        "username": "asahi.filmss",
        "full_name": null,
        "profile_pic_url": "https://scontent-iad3-2.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.82787-19/723852848_178773…",
        "is_verified": false
      }
    }
  ],
  "cursor": "AQHTb2hlN7GkKNdRvmrFMLmWdYpTW1-GXhwA6VNcU1ax_CLySlLDDqp0NSO9UEwhHkMN",
  "has_more": true
}

Response fields

Every field of a successful response. [] marks a list: a[].b is the b of each item in a. nullable fields can be null; optional fields can be missing.

Pagination

Pass the response's cursor back as cursor, with the other parameters unchanged, for the next page. It's null on the last page. Each page costs 1 credit.

let cursor = null;
for (let page = 1; page <= 5; page++) {
  const params = new URLSearchParams({ query: "nike" });
  if (cursor) params.set("cursor", cursor);
  const res = await fetch(`https://api.lurkapi.com/v2/instagram/reels/search?${params}`, {
    headers: { "x-api-key": process.env.LURKAPI_KEY },
  });
  const data = await res.json();
  if (!data.success) throw new Error(`${data.code}: ${data.error}`);
  console.log(data.reels);
  cursor = data.cursor;
  if (!cursor) break; // last page
}

Caching and freshness

Responses are cached for up to 10 minutes, so a repeat call within that window can return the same data. It still costs 1 credit.

Errors

Errors return { success: false, error, code, docs } with the HTTP status below. Validation errors, 401/402/429 rejections and 5xx failures are free; not_found is charged (how charging works). All error codes.

Use it in Claude

Once LurkAPI is connected to Claude, this endpoint is the instagram_reels_search tool. Ask in plain English, for example:

Use LurkAPI's instagram_reels_search with query "nike" and summarize what you find.

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

{
  "query": "nike"
}

Tool results are compact to save tokens: no nulls or empty lists, one URL per image or video, 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 rest, and later parts are free for 15 minutes. trim=false returns the full response.