Instagram Reels Search - Keyword to Top Reels, Plays & Creators

What does Instagram Reels Search do?

Instagram Reels Search finds the top public reels for any keyword on Instagram. Type topics such as cooking, street food or home workout and get one row per reel with its link, play count, caption, hashtags, creator username, post date, thumbnail and video URL. Turn on details and each reel also gets its likes, comments, views, duration, audio name and the creator's follower count.

It works like an Instagram reels search API with no login, no cookies and no Instagram account: it reads the public keyword pages Instagram shows logged-out visitors (instagram.com/popular/...), so there is nothing to connect and no account to put at risk.

Not affiliated with Instagram or Meta. Instagram is a trademark of Meta Platforms, Inc.

Why use it?

• 🔥 Trend and content research: see which reels get the most plays in your niche before you script your own.
• 🤝 Influencer discovery: collect the creators behind the top reels for a topic, with verified badges and (with details) follower counts.
• 📊 Competitor and hashtag analysis: compare captions, hashtags and audio across the reels that win a keyword.
• 🤖 AI pipelines: hand an agent a topic and get structured reel data back as JSON, ready for summaries or scoring.
• 📝 Reel transcripts: feed the reel links into Instagram Reels Transcript to get what each reel says as text.

It runs on the Apify platform, so you also get an API, scheduling, webhooks and integrations with Make, Zapier, n8n, LangChain and LlamaIndex.

What data can it extract?

Field	What it is
searchKeyword, rank	your keyword and the reel's position in its results
sourceKeyword, sourceKeywordUrl, depth	the keyword page the reel came from (depth 0 = your keyword or a close variant, 1+ = a related keyword)
url, shortcode, mediaId	https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRFN52TiK3L/, DRFN52TiK3L
playCount	plays Instagram shows for the reel
caption, hashtags, mentions	caption text and the #tags and @handles in it
postedAt	when the reel was posted, read from its ID (usually within minutes)
ownerUsername, ownerId, ownerVerified, ownerProfileUrl, ownerProfilePicUrl	the creator
thumbnailUrl, videoUrl	cover image and MP4 link
likeCount, commentCount, viewCount, durationSec	details option only
ownerFollowers, audioTitle, audioArtist	details option only
detailsIncluded, detailsError, error	what happened for this row

How to search Instagram reels by keyword

1. Click Try for free.
2. Enter one or more keywords, one per line.
3. Set Max reels per keyword (default 50).
4. Optional: turn on Add likes, comments, views and duration.
5. Click Start and download the reels as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, or read them through the API.

How much does it cost to search Instagram reels?

Pay per event, no subscription:

• $2.50 per 1,000 reels ($0.0025 per reel) with the basic fields.
• $3.50 per 1,000 reels ($0.0035 per reel) when the details option adds likes and comments. A reel whose details are not public is charged at the basic price instead, never both.
• A tiny start fee of $0.00005 per run.

These are free: keywords Instagram has no page for, blocked requests and any other failure. Each reel is returned and charged once per run, even if it shows up for several keywords.

Free Apify plan: up to 30 reels per run. Any paid Apify plan removes the limit. Set a maximum cost per run in Apify and the actor stops when it is reached.

Input

{
    "keywords": ["cooking", "street food"],
    "maxReelsPerKeyword": 50,
    "includeRelatedKeywords": true,
    "includeDetails": false
}

Output

{
    "searchKeyword": "cooking",
    "rank": 3,
    "sourceKeyword": "cooking",
    "sourceKeywordUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/popular/cooking/",
    "depth": 0,
    "shortcode": "DRFN52TiK3L",
    "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRFN52TiK3L/",
    "caption": "Would you eat this? ...",
    "hashtags": ["asmr", "cooking"],
    "playCount": 68995721,
    "likeCount": 1961157,
    "commentCount": 737,
    "viewCount": 39495927,
    "durationSec": 29.013,
    "postedAt": "2025-11-15T15:06:05.952Z",
    "ownerUsername": "zap_eat",
    "ownerVerified": false,
    "ownerFollowers": 633472,
    "audioTitle": "Original audio",
    "videoUrl": "https://instagram.fxxx.fna.fbcdn.net/o1/v/t2/...mp4?...",
    "detailsIncluded": true,
    "error": null
}

Each run also saves a KEYWORDS record in its key-value store with, for every keyword, the page title, Instagram's reel count for it ("362M reels"), its description and the related keywords Instagram suggests.

Tips

• Results drift into related keywords. Instagram shows 12 reels per keyword page. To reach 50 reels the actor also opens related keyword pages, the ones that keep your words first, so later rows can be about nearby topics. sourceKeyword tells you where each reel came from; filter on depth = 0 or turn off Use related keywords to stay on your exact keyword.
• Only keywords Instagram has a page for work. Common topics do; very rare words, brand-new slang and some broad single words do not. For those the actor tries best <keyword>, <keyword> ideas and <keyword> tips, and if none exists you get a free row with a note.
• Likes and comments need the details option. The keyword page carries plays but not likes or comments. Dates are read from each reel's ID in both modes.
• Video and image links expire. videoUrl and thumbnailUrl are signed Instagram CDN links that stop working after a few days. Download what you need soon after the run, or keep the reel url, which does not expire.
• Results reflect what Instagram shows a logged-out visitor today; the same keyword can return a different mix later.

FAQ

Do I need an Instagram account or cookies?

No. The actor reads only public pages that Instagram shows anyone who is not logged in.

Why did my keyword return no reels?

Instagram keeps keyword pages only for searches people make often. If it has none for your keyword or its close variants, you get one free row explaining that. Try a more common phrase.

Can I get reels from a hashtag or a profile?

This actor searches by keyword. A keyword such as streetfood or street food usually covers the same topic as the hashtag.

Why do some reels have no likes even with details on?

Some creators turn off embedding, and the like count is only public through the embed page. Those rows have detailsError set and are charged at the basic price.

Can I get the transcript of these reels?

Yes. Pass the url values to Instagram Reels Transcript.

Disclaimer

This actor collects only publicly available data that Instagram shows to logged-out visitors. You are responsible for using the data lawfully, including privacy laws such as the GDPR, and in line with Instagram's terms.

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