# Instagram User Reels

Retrieve the public Instagram reels of a user with pagination support. Accepts either the username (resolved to the numeric user id internally) or the numeric user id directly. Returns reel details including video URLs, captions, play/view counts, engagement metrics, and a pagination cursor for fetching more reels. A completed lookup costs one credit, including a definitive not-found result, because every lookup uses costly dedicated Instagram proxies.

- **Documentation:** [https://scrappa.co/docs/instagram-api/instagram_user_reels](https://scrappa.co/docs/instagram-api/instagram_user_reels)
- **API group:** Instagram API
- **Endpoint:** `GET https://scrappa.co/api/instagram/user/reels`

## Authentication

Send your Scrappa API key in the `X-API-KEY` request header. Paid endpoints also support accountless x402 payments when called without an API key.

## Parameters

| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `username` | string | No | Instagram username (without @). Required when user_id is not provided. |
| `user_id` | string | No | Numeric Instagram user ID. Required when username is not provided. |
| `max_id` | string | No | Pagination cursor from previous response (next_max_id) |

## Example request

```bash
#!/bin/bash

curl -X GET \
    -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY_HERE" \
    "https://scrappa.co/api/instagram/user/reels?username=natgeo"
```

## Example response

```json
{
    "success": true,
    "found": true,
    "user_id": "787132",
    "username": "natgeo",
    "reels": [
        {
            "id": "3960907739614247380",
            "shortcode": "Db3-Jp3zXnU",
            "media_type": "video",
            "caption": "Reel caption text...",
            "hashtags": [
                "nature"
            ],
            "taken_at": "2026-08-01T10:30:00+00:00",
            "like_count": 52000,
            "comment_count": 800,
            "play_count": 1200000,
            "media": [
                {
                    "type": "video",
                    "thumbnail_url": "https://...",
                    "video_url": "https://..."
                }
            ],
            "location": null,
            "author": {
                "id": "787132",
                "username": "natgeo"
            },
            "permalink": "https://www.instagram.com/natgeo/p/Db3-Jp3zXnU/"
        }
    ],
    "reels_count": 12,
    "more_available": true,
    "next_max_id": "QVFEMWpkZH..."
}
```

## Errors

| Status | Error | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 422 | Validation Error | Neither username nor user_id was provided, or a value has an invalid format. |
| 503 | Instagram Upstream Unavailable | Instagram rejected or failed all bounded attempts through approved proxies. Retry the request later. The request is retryable and does not consume credits. |

## More Scrappa resources

- [API documentation](https://scrappa.co/docs)
- [Full LLM-readable API reference](https://scrappa.co/llms-full.txt)
- [OpenAPI specification](https://scrappa.co/docs/api.json)
- [Pricing](https://scrappa.co/pricing)