Browse Instagram’s public reel feed
Reels from Instagram's own public feed, from no particular account — the one discovery surface Instagram leaves open to a reader who is not signed in. Returns the listing shape with full engagement counts and posting dates, so unlike a posts grid these records are complete. There is no keyword search and no hashtag feed on Instagram for a signed-out caller: both redirect to a login page, so this and trending-searches are the public substitutes. Instagram serves 12 reels per page, up to 20 pages in one request. Billing: 1 credit per page read.
/reels-feed Discovery https://api.fetchlayer.dev/instagram/reels-feed Headers
Authorization string required Bearer token — your FetchLayer API key.
Parameters
limit integer optional Maximum items returned, up to 240. Use -1 for the maximum. Instagram serves 12 per page, so a limit of 60 is read as five pages and costs five credits. (default: 12)
pages integer optional Pages of results to read in one request, up to 20. Use -1 for the maximum. Instagram serves 12 items per page, each page read is one billable page, and the response reports how many were read as pagesFetched. (default: 1)
cursor string optional Continue from a previous response’s nextCursor. Cursors belong to the route and the account that produced them — do not carry one between routes.
format string optional json or markdown. Markdown returns a rendered summary instead of the structured record. (default: json)
timeoutMs integer optional Time limit for each individual page read, in milliseconds (max 60000). It bounds one page, not the whole request.
Response Fields
reels-feed
Browse Instagram’s public reel feed
transport string The upstream source. Always "instagram".
notes string[] Caveats you can act on — a ceiling Instagram imposes, a counter it withholds, a list that stopped early. Several real limits are reported only here, so read them. An empty result always comes with a note explaining it, never as an unexplained empty array.
pagesFetched number Pages of results read, which is what the request costs: one credit per page. resolve-url reports 0 and is not billed.
posts object[] The reels Instagram is serving publicly.
posts[].id string Instagram’s numeric media id.
posts[].shortcode string The code in the post URL. post-detail and post-comments both accept it.
posts[].url string Canonical link to the post or reel.
posts[].kind string image, video or carousel.
posts[].productType string What Instagram calls the surface — "feed" for a grid post, "clips" for a reel — or null.
posts[].caption string The author’s own written post body, or null. This is a caption, not a transcript: Instagram publishes no transcript of spoken audio to a signed-out reader.
posts[].createdAt string ISO 8601 timestamp, or null. Null on a posts listing — Instagram does not publish a date on a grid.
posts[].likeCount number Likes, or null where Instagram does not publish them (on a posts listing, or when countsHidden is true).
posts[].commentCount number Comments, or null on a posts listing.
posts[].playCount number Plays on a reel. user-reels is the only listing that carries it; a feed image has none.
posts[].countsHidden boolean True when the account has turned like and view counts off. The counts are then absent rather than zero.
posts[].width number Pixel width, or null on a listing.
posts[].height number Pixel height, or null on a listing.
posts[].altText string Instagram’s own auto-generated image description ("Photo by NASA on August 19, 2026. May be an image of text."), or null. Machine-written alt text, not a caption and not a transcript.
posts[].thumbnailUrl string Preview frame, or null.
posts[].assets object[] Ordered and de-duplicated renditions, each with kind, url, width, height and downloadUrl.
posts[].assets[].downloadUrl string Pass it to GET /media to stream the bytes. Instagram’s own links are signed and expire; this one keeps working.
posts[].carousel object[] One entry per frame of a carousel, each with its own renditions. Empty for a single image or video.
posts[].author object id, username, fullName, profilePicUrl, verified, privateAccount and profileUrl. Fields Instagram does not publish on a listing are null.
posts[].coauthors object[] Accounts credited as co-authors of a collab post.
posts[].taggedUsers object[] Accounts tagged in the image.
posts[].location object The place the post was tagged at, or null.
posts[].hashtags string[] Without the #.
posts[].mentions string[] Usernames without the @.
posts[].topics string[] Instagram’s own subject labels for the post ("jwst", "star birth"), where it publishes them.
posts[].hasAudio boolean Whether the video carries audio, or null.
posts[].fieldsFrom string "listing" or "detail" — which shape produced this record, so a null count is never mistaken for a zero.
postCount number How many items are in this response.
hasMore boolean Whether more results exist beyond what was returned.
nextCursor string Opaque value to pass back as cursor to continue. null when there is nothing further.
Request
curl -X POST "https://api.fetchlayer.dev/instagram/reels-feed" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer ss-your-key" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"limit":12}'Response
{
"transport": "instagram",
"notes": [
"More results are available beyond the pages read. Continue with nextCursor."
],
"pagesFetched": 1,
"posts": [
{
"id": "3984576414567693339",
"shortcode": "DdMDyNKtPwb",
"url": "https://www.instagram.com/p/DdMDyNKtPwb/",
"kind": "video",
"productType": null,
"caption": "Yeni bölüm açıldı 🔓 Kimler denedi? 😎\n\ninspo: @lukegibsonfitness",
"createdAt": "2026-09-12T13:10:58.000Z",
"likeCount": 13005,
"commentCount": 56,
"playCount": null,
"countsHidden": false,
"width": 720,
"height": 1280,
"altText": null,
"thumbnailUrl": null,
"assets": [
{
"kind": "video",
"url": "https://scontent-fra5-2.cdninstagram.com/o1/v/t16/...",
"width": null,
"height": null,
"downloadUrl": "https://api.fetchlayer.dev/instagram/media?url=..."
}
],
"carousel": [],
"author": {
"id": "214008948",
"username": "canererdeniz",
"fullName": null,
"verified": null,
"privateAccount": null,
"profileUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/canererdeniz/"
},
"coauthors": [],
"taggedUsers": [],
"location": null,
"hashtags": [],
"mentions": [
"lukegibsonfitness"
],
"topics": [],
"hasAudio": true,
"fieldsFrom": "listing"
}
],
"postCount": 8,
"hasMore": true,
"nextCursor": "QVFEZ..."
}