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Instagram Popular Search

Explore an Instagram topic by keyword and get the curated popular media for it, plus related keyword suggestions and the topic description. Multi-word keywords are supported (e.g. green nature). Returns up to ~12 media items in a single response (Instagram does not paginate this surface on the public web). A confirmed missing topic returns found=false and empty media. A completed lookup costs one credit, including a confirmed not-found result or a valid empty result. If Instagram is unavailable or the lookup cannot be confirmed, the API returns retryable HTTP 503 and does not consume credits.

Run this endpoint

Instagram Popular Search 1 credit/request

Endpoint

GET https://scrappa.co/api/instagram/search/popular?q=nature
Request preview GET
https://scrappa.co/api/instagram/search/popular?q=nature
Auth header x-api-key
Cost 1 credit/request
q = nature
Response preview 200 OK
{
    "success": true,
    "found": true,
    "query": "nature",
    "media": [
        {
            "id": "3865589231042854730",
            "shortcode": "DMCfmHttFvu",
            "media_type": "video",
            "caption": "Reel caption text...",
            "play_count": 2450000,
            "video_url": "https://...",
            "thumbnail_url": "https://...",
            "author": {
...

Parameters

Start with the required fields, then add optional filters only when your use case needs them.

Runnable path

1 required parameter needed before sending a request.

q string Required

Topic keyword (e.g. nature, green nature)

Example value nature

Request Examples

<?php

$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, [
    CURLOPT_URL => "https://scrappa.co/api/instagram/search/popular?q=nature",
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_ENCODING => "",
    CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
    CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 30,
    CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
    CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => "GET",
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
        "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"
    ],
]);

$response = curl_exec($curl);
$err = curl_error($curl);

curl_close($curl);

if ($err) {
    echo "cURL Error #:" . $err;
} else {
    echo $response;
}
<?php

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Http;

$response = Http::timeout(30)
    ->withHeaders(['x-api-key' => 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE'])
    ->get('https://scrappa.co/api/instagram/search/popular?q=nature');

if ($response->successful()) {
    echo $response->body();
} else {
    echo "Error: " . $response->status();
}
const options = {
    method: 'GET',
    headers: {
        'x-api-key': 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE'
    }
};

fetch('https://scrappa.co/api/instagram/search/popular?q=nature', options)
    .then(response => {
        if (!response.ok) {
            throw new Error(`HTTP error! status: ${response.status}`);
        }
        return response.text();
    })
    .then(data => console.log(data))
    .catch(error => console.error('Error:', error));
const axios = require('axios');

const options = {
    method: 'GET',
    url: 'https://scrappa.co/api/instagram/search/popular?q=nature',
    headers: {
        x-api-key: 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE',
    }
};

try {
    const response = await axios(options);
    console.log(response.data);
} catch (error) {
    console.error('Error:', error.message);
}
require 'net/http'
require 'uri'

uri = URI.parse("https://scrappa.co/api/instagram/search/popular?q=nature")
http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
http.use_ssl = uri.scheme == 'https'

request = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri.request_uri)
request['x-api-key'] = 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE'

begin
    response = http.request(request)
    puts response.body
rescue => e
    puts "Error: #{e.message}"
end
import http.client
import json

conn = http.client.HTTPSConnection("scrappa.co")

headers = {
    'x-api-key': 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE',
}

try:
    conn.request("GET", "/api/instagram/search/popular?q=nature", headers=headers)
    res = conn.getresponse()
    data = res.read()
    print(data.decode("utf-8"))
except Exception as e:
    print(f"Error: {e}")
finally:
    conn.close()
import requests

headers = {
    'x-api-key': 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE',
}

try:
    response = requests.get('https://scrappa.co/api/instagram/search/popular?q=nature', headers=headers)
    response.raise_for_status()
    print(response.text)
except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:
    print(f"Error: {e}")
import okhttp3.OkHttpClient;
import okhttp3.Request;
import okhttp3.Response;
import java.io.IOException;

public class ApiExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient();

        Request request = new Request.Builder()
            .url("https://scrappa.co/api/instagram/search/popular?q=nature")
        .addHeader("x-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE")
            .build();

        try (Response response = client.newCall(request).execute()) {
            if (response.isSuccessful()) {
                System.out.println(response.body().string());
            } else {
                System.out.println("Error: " + response.code());
            }
        } catch (IOException e) {
            System.out.println("Error: " + e.getMessage());
        }
    }
}
package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "net/http"
    "io/ioutil"
)

func main() {
    client := &http.Client{}
    req, err := http.NewRequest("GET", "https://scrappa.co/api/instagram/search/popular?q=nature", nil)
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Println("Error creating request:", err)
        return
    }
    req.Header.Set("x-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE")

    resp, err := client.Do(req)
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Println("Error making request:", err)
        return
    }
    defer resp.Body.Close()

    body, err := ioutil.ReadAll(resp.Body)
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Println("Error reading response:", err)
        return
    }

    fmt.Println(string(body))
}
#!/bin/bash

curl -X GET \
    -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY_HERE" \
    "https://scrappa.co/api/instagram/search/popular?q=nature"
using System;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

class Program
{
    static async Task Main()
    {
        using var client = new HttpClient();
        client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("x-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE");

        try
        {
            var response = await client.SendAsync(new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, "https://scrappa.co/api/instagram/search/popular?q=nature"));
            var content = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
            Console.WriteLine(content);
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"Error: {ex.Message}");
        }
    }
}
import axios from 'axios';

async function run(): Promise<void> {
    try {
        const response = await axios({
            method: 'GET',
            url: 'https://scrappa.co/api/instagram/search/popular?q=nature',
            headers: {
        'x-api-key': 'YOUR_API_KEY_HERE',
            },
        });

        console.log(response.data);
    } catch (error) {
        console.error('Error:', error);
    }
}

void run();
use reqwest::Client;

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let client = Client::new();

    let response = client
        .get("https://scrappa.co/api/instagram/search/popular?q=nature")
        .header("x-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE")
        .send()
        .await?;

    println!("{}", response.text().await?);

    Ok(())
}

Response Schema

Example response fields are illustrative; inspect the JSON before integrating.

Example response fields

Scan these fields before integrating.

success found query media media_count related_keywords description

Common media fields

id shortcode media_type caption
JSON Response
200 OK
{
    "success": true,
    "found": true,
    "query": "nature",
    "media": [
        {
            "id": "3865589231042854730",
            "shortcode": "DMCfmHttFvu",
            "media_type": "video",
            "caption": "Reel caption text...",
            "play_count": 2450000,
            "video_url": "https://...",
            "thumbnail_url": "https://...",
            "author": {
                "id": "123456789",
                "username": "creatorname",
                "profile_pic_url": "https://...",
                "is_verified": false
            },
            "permalink": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMCfmHttFvu/"
        }
    ],
    "media_count": 12,
    "related_keywords": [
        "nature photography",
        "nature lover",
        "nature beauty"
    ],
    "description": "Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe..."
}

Errors

Handle these documented responses before retrying or showing customer-facing failures.

403

Login Required

Instagram explicitly requires login. Scrappa does not retry the login-gated resource. Profile lookups may recover from public profile data; unresolved login requirements are nonbillable and not retryable.

{
    "success": false,
    "error": "Instagram requires login to access this resource.",
    "status_code": 403,
    "error_code": "instagram_login_required",
    "require_login": true,
    "retryable": false
}
422

Validation Error

The q parameter is missing or empty.

{
    "message": "The request validation failed",
    "errors": {
        "q": [
            "A topic keyword (q) is required."
        ]
    }
}
503

Instagram Upstream Unavailable

Instagram is unavailable or the topic lookup could not be confirmed. Retry the request later. This is not a confirmed missing topic; the request is retryable and does not consume credits.

{
    "success": false,
    "error": "The upstream service is temporarily unavailable. Please retry shortly.",
    "status_code": 503,
    "upstream_status_code": 429,
    "error_code": "instagram_popular_search_upstream_unavailable",
    "retryable": true
}

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