# Can the Instagram API read other people's public data? > Meta's Instagram API reads other accounts only through Business Discovery and Hashtag Search, with App Review and limits. How to get public data instead. Canonical: https://apiforagents.dev/guides/instagram-api-for-public-data ยท Updated 2026-10-21 Only a little. Meta's official API reads other accounts through two features: Business Discovery, which returns basic metadata and metrics for other business and creator accounts, and Hashtag Search, capped at 30 hashtags per 7 days. Both need App Review. Personal accounts, follower lists and comments on other people's posts are out of reach. - Other accounts: Business and creator only - Hashtags: 30 per 7 days - Comment text: Owner only - Approval: App Review ## Public data, side by side Instagram's side is from Meta for Developers, seen 21 October 2026. | | Official Instagram API | API for Agents | |---|---|---| | Profile counts of other accounts | Business and creator accounts, via Business Discovery | Any public account | | Their recent posts | Basic media fields via Business Discovery | Yes, with likes, comments and views | | Hashtag posts | 30 unique hashtags per 7 days | $0.00045 per record | | Comment text on their posts | No | Yes | | Followers or following lists | No | Yes | | Who can get access | App Review and Advanced Access for accounts you do not own | Anyone. An agent signs itself up in one call and starts on a $0.10 trial | | Price model | No per-call price listed | Pay as you go, from $0.00045 per record | | Setup | Meta app, linked professional account, App Review | One API key. No Instagram account or app review | ## What Meta's docs say - Business Discovery gets basic metadata and metrics about other Instagram professional accounts. Age-gated accounts are not returned. - Hashtag Search allows a maximum of 30 unique hashtags in a rolling 7-day period, and needs App Review for Instagram Public Content Access. - Reading comments on a post needs an access token from the user who created it. - Serving accounts you do not own or manage needs Advanced Access, which needs Meta App Review. ## When the official API is still right For anything you do on your own accounts or your clients' accounts (publishing, moderation, insights, messages) the official API is the right tool, and a data API cannot do it. ## What you can get here - **[Instagram Profile API](https://apiforagents.dev/platforms/instagram/profile-api).** Bio, followers, posts count, engagement rate and category for any public account, ten per call. - **[Instagram Posts API](https://apiforagents.dev/platforms/instagram/posts-api).** An account's recent posts or Reels with caption, likes, comments, views and hashtags. - **[Instagram Comments API](https://apiforagents.dev/platforms/instagram/comments-api).** Top comments on any public post or Reel by URL, with author, text, likes and date. - **[Instagram Hashtag API](https://apiforagents.dev/platforms/instagram/hashtag-api).** Posts tagged with a hashtag, top or newest. - **[Instagram Followers API](https://apiforagents.dev/platforms/instagram/followers-api).** The followers or following list of public accounts. ## Operation pages - [Instagram Profile API](https://apiforagents.dev/platforms/instagram/profile-api) - [Instagram Posts API](https://apiforagents.dev/platforms/instagram/posts-api) - [Instagram Comments API](https://apiforagents.dev/platforms/instagram/comments-api) - [Instagram Hashtag API](https://apiforagents.dev/platforms/instagram/hashtag-api) - [Instagram Followers API](https://apiforagents.dev/platforms/instagram/followers-api) ## Questions ### Can I get another account's followers list from the Instagram API? No. Business Discovery returns a follower count, not a list. Here the followers operation returns the list for public accounts. ### Can it read private accounts? No, neither API can. This one reads what is public on the profile page and flags a private account as private. ### Do I need an Instagram account to use this API? No. You need an API key, or an agent signs itself up in one call. No Instagram login, password or cookie is used. ### What is Business Discovery? A feature of the Instagram API with Facebook Login that returns basic metadata and metrics, such as follower and media counts, for other business and creator accounts. ## Sources 1. [Meta for Developers: Business Discovery](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/instagram-platform/instagram-api-with-facebook-login/business-discovery), seen 21 October 2026 2. [Meta for Developers: Hashtag Search](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/instagram-platform/instagram-api-with-facebook-login/hashtag-search), seen 21 October 2026 3. [Meta for Developers: IG Media comments reference](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/instagram-platform/instagram-graph-api/reference/ig-media/comments), seen 21 October 2026 4. [Meta for Developers: Instagram Platform overview](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/instagram-platform/overview), seen 21 October 2026 ## Why API for Agents - One key for 26 platforms: social, commerce, jobs, places, search and contacts, with one request shape and one response shape. - A free quote before any spend: add "estimateOnly": true to any call and see the most it can cost. - Pay per record in US dollars. No subscription, nothing expires, top-ups from $5. - $0.10 free to try, no card. An AI agent can sign itself up in one request; a person claims it later. - Measured, not estimated: every answer says when each row was measured, whether it was fresh or a recent capture, and how sure to be of each field. - Partial success is success: anything that could not be fetched is named with a reason, and the charge settles to what came back, never above the quote. - Typed fields that keep their names whichever source answered, and a details object last with everything else the source sent, under our own field names. - Try any endpoint in the playground and download the answer as CSV or JSON. ## Start The playground runs any endpoint by hand: pick a platform and what you want from it, fill a short form named in plain words (or press Use sample input), see the free quote on the Run button, run it, then read the answer as a table or JSON and download it as CSV or JSON. The same call is written out as cURL, Python and Node while you type. Open it at https://apiforagents.dev/dashboard/run (sign in first). Agents register at https://apiforagents.dev/auth.md (one POST, $0.10 free). People: https://apiforagents.dev/docs#start. Prices: https://apiforagents.dev/pricing.md