Instagram Post & Reel Details API

What is the Instagram Post & Reel Details API?

Paste an Instagram post or Reel URL and get the item as clean JSON: caption, like and comment counts, media URLs, author profile, duration when it is a Reel, and publish date (ISO 8601 with milliseconds). postType is customer vocabulary — image | video | carousel (never Meta's internal "Sidecar"). productType is clips | feed | carousel (carousel_container is normalized). On Reels, engagement.views is the canonical play count when the media object exposes it, and viewsSource is instagram|facebook whenever views is set. Every present counter carries a precision flag (likesIsApproximate / commentsIsApproximate / viewsIsApproximate — false: Instagram counts are exact integers). Carousels omit durationSeconds, engagement.views, viewsIsApproximate, and children[].videoUrl on image slides — the same rule as views that do not apply. Carousels ship mediaCount plus children[] with per-slide id / mediaType / thumbnailUrl / videoUrl. mediaUrlsExpireAt is the earliest Instagram CDN oe= stamp (typically ~5 days) across media URLs. previewComments is Instagram's embedded preview (usually 2); previewCommentsTruncated is true when engagement.comments is larger — it does not point at /v1/instagram/comments (that path used to return the same preview after a billed hang). Slim preview authors omit avatar/verified — those keys are null, never fabricated false. A 200 is the post only — no source / stages / timings. Fetch is GraphQL first, then the public embed card; if GraphQL misses, a fallback path starts in parallel (55s deadline), so a login-wall window does not 502 just because the fallback never ran. A definitive miss is reason not_found | private | deleted (404, retryable false — fix the URL); a fallback "Post does not exist" verdict maps to not_found too, so deleted Reels stop cycling as retryable 502s. A timeout/login-wall cascade is fetch_exhausted (502, retry later). A resolved but hollow body is empty_payload (502, retryable). A public embed/og card is a 200 even when later paths miss. 404/502 are 0 credits. Flat 1 credit on a 200. Pass cache=true for the 24h shared cache.

What you get

• Caption, media URLs, and publish date (.000Z)
• engagement.views + viewsSource on Reels when the media object exposes plays
• Per-counter *IsApproximate flags on engagement
• mediaCount + children[] on carousels
• Named miss: not_found | private | deleted (404) or fetch_exhausted | empty_payload (502). GraphQL → embed → fallback path.
• mediaUrlsExpireAt from CDN oe=

Fill in the parameters below and copy a ready-to-run request, or open the live Playground to run it against your account (no API key paste).

curl "https://api.captapi.com/v1/instagram/details?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%2Fp%2FDbYaLffE2DD%2F" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer capt_live_..."
# or: -H "x-api-key: capt_live_..."

Example response

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "platform": "instagram",
    "url": "https://www.instagram.com/p/DbYaLffE2DD/",
    "id": "DbYaLffE2DD",
    "postType": "Sidecar",
    "productType": "carousel_container",
    "caption": "Suit up!\n\nThese photos show NASA astronaut candidates @astro_fuhrmann and @astro_lawler preparing for their training flights aboard a high-flying WB-57 aircraft. These high-altitude flights train astronaut candidates to operate in tight spaces while wearing a pressure suit—a feat that prepares them for missions to the @ISS, Moon, or beyond.\n\nWhy are pressure suits necessary? The two main bodily dangers of high altitude are extremely thin air and low oxygen. Pressure suits counteract those dangers and make it possible to survive if something goes wrong in the aircraft.\n\nCredit: NASA\n\n#NASA #FlightSuit #Aircraft",
    "description": "Suit up!\n\nThese photos show NASA astronaut candidates @astro_fuhrmann and @astro_lawler preparing for their training flights aboard a high-flying WB-57 aircraft. These high-altitude flights train astronaut candidates to operate in tight spaces while wearing a pressure suit—a feat that prepares them for missions to the @ISS, Moon, or beyond.\n\nWhy are pressure suits necessary? The two main bodily dangers of high altitude are extremely thin air and low oxygen. Pressure suits counteract those dangers and make it possible to survive if something goes wrong in the aircraft.\n\nCredit: NASA\n\n#NASA #FlightSuit #Aircraft",
    "publishedAt": "2026-07-29T15:12:56Z",
    "durationSeconds": null,
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://scontent-cdg6-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.82787-15/759146473_18631780879049152_2448145103133242635_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_e35_tt6&_nc_cat=1&ig_cache_key=Mzk1MjAyMzc0MDE1ODgxNjA1Ng%3D%3D.3-ccb7-5&ccb=7-5&_nc_sid=58cdad&efg=eyJ2ZW5jb2RlX3RhZyI6IkNBUk9VU0VMX0lURU0ueHBpZHMuMTQ0MC5zZHIucmVndWxhcl9waG90by5DMyJ9&_nc_ohc=BPWQAJMWpuwQ7kNvwGdQP1J&_nc_oc=AdpoHH53slN9fDJSer4UjuFXtie2IU4sLFlWgiGTWkMWn-EWgJmycNqbEl-vSfl9oio&_nc_ad=z-m&_nc_cid=0&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-cdg6-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_gid=1yBugmDENcLlZjn1A6HEwA&_nc_ss=7a22e&oh=00_AQBHLNkf4idtmygEvZN9hi2njvz2sW_xF8-tUE-yiJHOBw&oe=6A701485",
    "videoUrl": null,
    "author": {
      "username": "nasa",
      "displayName": "NASA",
      "url": "https://instagram.com/nasa",
      "verified": true,
      "profileImage": "https://scontent-cdg6-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-19/29090066_159271188110124_1152068159029641216_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_s150x150_tt6&efg=eyJ2ZW5jb2RlX3RhZyI6InByb2ZpbGVfcGljLmRqYW5nby4xMDgwLmMyIn0&_nc_ht=scontent-cdg6-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=1&_nc_oc=Q6cZ2gG0njRcG3R5cIO9GnRRbYfsbfpvVHqGuePg7pDchBmh38Bj_6EQCeIjnFgc-p5lkTA&_nc_ohc=sUQGBsPKUTMQ7kNvwFOpZpy&_nc_gid=1yBugmDENcLlZjn1A6HEwA&edm=AOmX9WgBAAAA&ccb=7-5&oh=00_AQA7UnNpNR2oyCzn_iZJwhJgHlzakMt5b8t3btT6ne2AUA&oe=6A701229&_nc_sid=bfaa47"
    },
    "engagement": {
      "likes": 34510,
      "comments": 178
    },
    "hashtags": [
      "NASA",
      "FlightSuit"
    ],
    "mentions": [
      "astro_fuhrmann",
      "astro_lawler"
    ]
  }
}

Billing metadata is returned in response headers: X-Captapi-Credits (credits charged), X-Captapi-Cache (hit or miss), and X-Captapi-Source. Failed requests (4xx/5xx) are never charged. See the full list of error codes in the error reference.

Response structure

A successful call returns success and a data object with the following fields:

Parameters

Authentication: send your key as Authorization: Bearer capt_live_.... A typical call costs 1 credit. Pass cache=true for a free 24h cache hit; default is always fresh.

How it works

1. 1. Sign up — get 100 free credits, no card required.
2. 2. Create a key from your dashboard.
3. 3. Send one request to /v1/instagram/details and parse the JSON response.

Use cases

Frequently asked questions

More Instagram APIs