User reels

When to use this

Use it to see which of an account's reels get the most plays. Pass a username or profile URL. You get each reel's cover image and its play, like and comment counts, as the reels tab shows them, plus the account's follower count, so engagement rate takes one call.

Captions, dates and video URLs aren't included. For those, pass a reel's code to the post endpoint (instagram_post). A private account's reels aren't available.

Pagination. Pass end_cursor back as after for the next page. has_next_page is false on the last page.

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/user/reels?username=nike&first=12" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

const params = new URLSearchParams({
  username: "nike",
  first: "12",
});
const res = await fetch(`https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/instagram/user/reels?${params}`, {
  headers: { "x-api-key": process.env.LURKAPI_API_KEY },
});
const data = await res.json();
if (!data.success) throw new Error(`${data.code}: ${data.error}`);
console.log(data.reels);

import os
import requests

res = requests.get(
    "https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/instagram/user/reels",
    params={
        "username": "nike",
        "first": "12",
    },
    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["reels"])

package main

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

func main() {
	params := url.Values{}
	params.Set("username", "nike")
	params.Set("first", "12")
	req, _ := http.NewRequest("GET", "https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/instagram/user/reels?"+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["reels"], "", "  ")
	fmt.Println(string(out))
}

<?php
$params = http_build_query([
    'username' => 'nike',
    'first' => '12',
]);
$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/user/reels?' . $params, false, $context);
$data = json_decode($body, true);
if (!$data['success']) {
    throw new Exception("{$data['code']}: {$data['error']}");
}
print_r($data['reels']);

require 'json'
require 'net/http'

uri = URI('https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/instagram/user/reels')
uri.query = URI.encode_www_form(
  'username' => 'nike',
  'first' => '12',
)
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['reels'])

Parameters

Add them to the URL after a ?, as in ?username=nike&first=12. 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,
  "reels": [
    {
      "pk": "3993300839542953931",
      "code": "DdrDfTGOhfL",
      "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdrDfTGOhfL/",
      "display_url": "https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.82787-15/797725010_186670…",
      "like_count": 107,
      "comment_count": 17,
      "play_count": 12145,
      "clips_tab_pinned_user_ids": []
    },
    {
      "pk": "3991849403537918302",
      "code": "Ddl5eH-u4le",
      "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ddl5eH-u4le/",
      "display_url": "https://scontent-iad6-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.82787-15/809201733_186664…",
      "like_count": 67593,
      "comment_count": 1062,
      "play_count": 2317934,
      "clips_tab_pinned_user_ids": []
    }
  ],
  "end_cursor": "AQHTKRUgapY-YIJL3ILe9dr1pwmQSvqY4V6JQg3_BluiL95O4Xl7M2s9Y8jH-6y7-4eP1wGbT1xZsWB58pzKat-6Pw",
  "has_next_page": true,
  "follower_count": 291074487
}

Response fields

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

Pagination

Results come in pages. To load more, pass the cursor from the previous response as after (When to use this says which field holds it). Each call costs 1 credit.

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 3 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_user_reels tool. For example:

Use LurkAPI's instagram_user_reels tool with username "nike", first "12", then summarize what you find.

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

{"username": "nike","first": "12"}

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.