instagrapi

🔥 The fastest and powerful Python library for Instagram Private API 2026 with HikerAPI SaaS

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instagrapi

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Package PyPI PyPI - Python Version

Fast and effective unofficial Instagram API wrapper for Python.

instagrapi combines public web and private mobile API flows, supports session persistence and challenge handling, and covers users, media, stories, direct messages, notes, uploads, and insights.

Support Python 3.10+

Python 3.9 support was dropped in 2.5.0 — pin to instagrapi==2.4.5 if you need it.

For any other languages (e.g. C++, C#, F#, D, Golang, Erlang, Elixir, Nim, Haskell, Lisp, Closure, Julia, R, Java, Kotlin, Scala, OCaml, JavaScript, Crystal, Ruby, Rust, Swift, Objective-C, Visual Basic, .NET, Pascal, Perl, Lua, PHP and others), I suggest using instagrapi-rest

Support Chat in Telegram and GitHub Discussions

Features

  1. Uses Public API (web, opportunistic) and Private API (mobile app, authorized) flows depending on the situation
  2. Login by username and password, including 2FA and by sessionid
  3. Challenge Resolver have Email and SMS handlers
  4. Support upload a Photo, Video, IGTV, Reels, Albums and Stories
  5. Support work with User, Media, Comment, Insights, Collections, Location (Place), Hashtag and Direct Message objects
  6. Like, Follow, Edit account (Bio) and much more else
  7. Insights by account, posts and stories
  8. Build stories with custom background, font animation, link stickers, and mentions
  9. App-side discovery: chaining, fetch_suggestion_details, discover_recommended_accounts_for_category_v1, user_stream_*, user_web_profile_info_v1
  10. v2 search SERPs (Search): fbsearch_accounts_v2, fbsearch_reels_v2, fbsearch_topsearch_v2, fbsearch_typehead
  11. Alternative media-info path media_info_v2 for ad-tagged / sponsored media

Example

Basic Usage

from instagrapi import Client

cl = Client()
cl.login(ACCOUNT_USERNAME, ACCOUNT_PASSWORD)

user_id = cl.user_id_from_username("example")
medias = cl.user_medias(user_id, 20)

The full example

from instagrapi import Client
from instagrapi.types import StoryMention, StoryMedia, StoryLink, StoryHashtag

cl = Client()
cl.login(USERNAME, PASSWORD, verification_code="<2FA CODE HERE>")

media_pk = cl.media_pk_from_url('https://www.instagram.com/p/CGgDsi7JQdS/')
media_path = cl.video_download(media_pk)
example = cl.user_info_by_username('example')
hashtag = cl.hashtag_info('dhbastards')

cl.video_upload_to_story(
    media_path,
    "Credits @example",
    mentions=[StoryMention(user=example, x=0.49892962, y=0.703125, width=0.8333333333333334, height=0.125)],
    links=[StoryLink(webUri='https://github.com/subzeroid/instagrapi')],
    hashtags=[StoryHashtag(hashtag=hashtag, x=0.23, y=0.32, width=0.5, height=0.22)],
    medias=[StoryMedia(media_pk=media_pk, x=0.5, y=0.5, width=0.6, height=0.8)]
)

Requests

Public web flows are not guaranteed. Instagram can change or block them independently of the library, and some helpers can only work reliably with an authenticated session.

Many high-level helpers try a public/web path first and then fall back to a private/authenticated path when that makes sense for the current session. Example (pseudo-code):

def media_info(media_pk):
    try:
        return self.media_info_gql(media_pk)
    except ClientError as e:
        # Restricted Video: This video is not available in your country.
        # Or media from private account
        return self.media_info_v1(media_pk)

Detailed Documentation

To learn more about the various ways instagrapi can be used, read the Usage Guide page.

If you are dealing with 429, feedback_required, PleaseWaitFewMinutes, or repeated relogins, start with Best Practices and Handle Exceptions.