Public Transport

instagrapi uses two network surfaces:

• private mobile API requests, used for authenticated mobile flows;
• public web requests, used by helpers such as public profile and public media lookups.

The default public web transport is requests. It has the smallest dependency footprint and keeps the existing transport-level retry behavior.

For public web endpoints that are sensitive to browser TLS fingerprints, you can install the optional curl transport:

pip install "instagrapi[curl]"

Then opt in explicitly:

from instagrapi import Client

cl = Client(public_transport="curl", public_transport_impersonate="chrome136")

Private mobile API requests still use the regular mobile session. The curl transport only changes the public web session.

Live Comparison

This is a point-in-time live comparison from May 15, 2026. Instagram public web behavior changes frequently, so treat these numbers as a practical signal, not a guarantee.

Method:

• branch: curl public transport PR branch;
• environment: fresh remote Linux clone with instagrapi[curl] installed;
• Python: 3.12;
• rounds: 4;
• public request retry loop: disabled with public_request_retries_count = 1;
• curl impersonation: chrome136;
• identical inputs for both transports.

Public web helper	requests	curl
user_info_by_username_gql("instagram")	0/4 ok, p50 12.05s	3/4 ok, p50 1.42s
user_info_by_username_gql("1fexd")	0/4 ok, p50 12.05s	2/4 ok, p50 0.20s
media_pk_from_url("https://www.instagram.com/p/C_BM2yAN4Rm/")	4/4 ok, p50 0.00s	4/4 ok, p50 0.00s
media_info_gql("3441088131388376166")	0/4 ok, p50 2.49s	0/4 ok, p50 2.45s
Total	4/16 ok, p50 7.28s	9/16 ok, p50 0.23s

Observed failures:

• requests repeatedly hit 429 on users/web_profile_info;
• curl avoided those 429 responses in early rounds, then hit 401 on the same public endpoint;
• both transports hit 404 on the tested public media info path.

Recommendation

Use the default requests transport unless you specifically need public web endpoints that are being rate limited or blocked by TLS fingerprint checks.

Use public_transport="curl" when:

• public profile web lookups return repeated 429 responses with the default transport;
• you can install the optional native dependencies pulled by instagrapi[curl];
• you understand that public web access is still opportunistic and can return 401, 403, 404, or 429.

Prefer authenticated private API helpers for production workflows when an equivalent private/mobile path exists.