Instagram's terms of use prohibit scraping without permission. However, they do allow limited scraping for non-commercial personal use. Here's what you need to know about scraping Instagram data without getting blocked.
What Instagram's Terms Allow
Instagram's terms state:
This means any large-scale or automated scraping is prohibited.
However, Instagram does tolerate limited scraping for non-commercial personal use. For example, scraping a few public profiles to analyze influencer marketing trends would likely be fine.
Best Practices to Avoid Blocks
Even if your scraping follows the terms, being flagged by Instagram's abuse detection can lead to blocks. Here are some tips:
Commercial Scraping Alternatives
For commercial scraping needs, consider using the Instagram API or data resellers instead of scraping. While not free, they provide higher rate limits and reduce abuse detection risks.
The key takeaway is that while some limited scraping is tolerated, Instagram prohibits automated large-scale scraping. Following best practices can help avoid blocks, but commercial usage requires considering paid alternatives.