Similar profiles

When to use this

Pass a username or profile URL. Returns the accounts Instagram suggests to visitors of that profile, usually about 50, in Instagram's order. Accounts that turned off suggestions (nike, for one) return an empty list.

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/v1/instagram/profile/similar?username=natgeo" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

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

import os
import requests

res = requests.get(
    "https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/instagram/profile/similar",
    params={
        "username": "natgeo",
    },
    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["profiles"])

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": 999995,
  "credits_charged": 1,
  "profiles": [
    {
      "pk": "378353537",
      "username": "animalplanet",
      "full_name": "Animal Planet",
      "profile_pic_url": "https://scontent-iad3-2.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-19/471307838_1123917…",
      "is_verified": true,
      "is_private": false
    },
    {
      "pk": "1389225126",
      "username": "natgeoyourshot",
      "full_name": "National Geographic Your Shot",
      "profile_pic_url": "https://scontent-iad6-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.82787-19/682869933_185867…",
      "is_verified": true,
      "is_private": false
    }
  ]
}

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.

Caching and freshness

Responses are cached for up to 1 hour, 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_similar_profiles tool. Ask in plain English, for example:

Use LurkAPI's instagram_similar_profiles with username "natgeo" and summarize what you find.

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

{
  "username": "natgeo"
}

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.