Get Any Instagram Profile in 10 Lines of Python

f you're building dreabee and need Instagram profile data, the first thing many developers try is scraping. I went down that path too, but maintaining sessions, handling account issues, and fixing breakages quickly became more work than the actual project.

Recently, I switched to using HikerAPI, a hosted Instagram API, and was able to get profile data with just a few lines of Python.

Why I Chose an API Instead of Scraping

For simple projects, scraping can work. But as soon as you need reliability, things get complicated.

Using a hosted API means I don't have to worry about managing Instagram sessions, authentication headaches, or maintaining scraping infrastructure. I can focus on building features instead.

I'm using HikerAPI (https://hikerapi.com), which exposes Instagram data through a REST API.

Step 1: Install Requests

First, install the requests package:

pip install requests
Step 2: Fetch a Profile

Here's the entire script:

import requests

headers = {"x-access-key": "YOUR_KEY"}

r = requests.get(
"https://api.hikerapi.com/v2/user/by/username?username=instagram",
headers=headers
)

print(r.json())

That's it.

Replace YOUR_KEY with your API key and change the username parameter to any Instagram username you want to look up.

Step 3: Extract Useful Fields

Instead of printing everything, you can pull out the fields you care about.

data = r.json()

print("Username:", data.get("username"))
print("Followers:", data.get("follower_count"))
print("Following:", data.get("following_count"))
print("Posts:", data.get("media_count"))

This makes it easy to build:

Creator discovery tools
Influencer databases
Analytics dashboards
Competitor monitoring systems

Step 4: Save the Data

A simple next step is storing profile snapshots in a CSV file or database so you can track growth over time.

Once you start collecting historical data, you can calculate follower growth, posting frequency, and other useful metrics.

Final Thoughts

One thing I like about this approach is how little code is required to get started. Instead of spending time maintaining a scraper, I can focus on processing the data and building features around it.

If you're working on an Instagram-related project and just need reliable profile data, a hosted API can be a much simpler starting point than building and maintaining your own scraping stack.