Sign Up
Social Media Scraping API

Instagram Video Download API with Python

Paste an Instagram Reel, post, or /tv/ URL. Get back a hosted download link. Pick MP4 for video, MP3 for audio. Same interface as the YouTube and TikTok Download APIs. Easy integration with Python.

Start Scraping for Free
No credit card required.

Loved by 15,000+ data lovers

https://api.socialkit.dev/instagram/download?url=instagram.com/reel/DRU4smMj0cu/
AI Summary
+transcript

Video discusses upcoming social media trends including AI-generated content...

• Full transcript available
Engagement
+15 metrics
94%
Rate
8.2
Score
• Views, likes, comments...
Topics
+keywords
AI ContentTrendsMarketing...
• Sentiment, entities...
Ziv ErlichsonFounder at Plynn

"It was very easy to set up and get going, and support was superb."

Ziv Erlichson, Founder at Plynn

Thomas PuechDesigner

"Quick, caring and efficient support!"

Thomas Puech, Designer

Robert PodsiadloFounder at PrimeStuff

"Easy to connect - work's smooth and properly!"

Robert Podsiadlo, Founder at PrimeStuff

How It Works

Start extracting insights from Social Media Videos in minutes, and save days of development.

01

Get Your Access Key

Sign up and get your API key instantly - no sales calls, no complex onboarding.

02

Send Your First Request

Call our Social Media API with any YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook URL.

03

Extract Insights at Scale

Get video summaries, transcripts, engagement metrics, and more.

Quick Integration Example

Get started in minutes

typescript
import requests

# Using GET request
url = "https://api.socialkit.dev/youtube/transcript"
params = {
    "access_key": "YOUR_ACCESS_KEY",
    "url": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
}
response = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = response.json()

# Or using POST request
response = requests.post(url, json=params)
data = response.json()

print(f"Transcript: {data['data']['transcript']}")
print(f"Word count: {data['data']['wordCount']}")

6 Ways to Use the Instagram Video Download API

Download Instagram Reels and videos programmatically for archiving, repurposing, transcription, and AI pipelines.

Multi-Format Downloads

Download Instagram videos in MP4, MP3, AVI, WebM, M4A, OGG, or WAV. Same interface as the YouTube and TikTok Download APIs.

Audio Extraction

Pull MP3 or M4A audio out of Reels in one call. Perfect for podcast clipping, transcription, or AI pipelines.

Cached and Fast

Repeat downloads of the same (shortcode, format, quality) tuple hit a deterministic S3 cache and return in under 2 seconds.

Rich Metadata

Each response includes title, thumbnail, duration, file size, and a 1-hour pre-signed download URL.

Quality Selection

Choose from 240p to 1080p for video formats. Same shape as /youtube/download and /tiktok/download.

All Instagram Video Surfaces

Works with Reels (/reel/, /reels/), regular video posts (/p/), and IGTV (/tv/). No login required.

Tips & Best Practices

Learn from common mistakes and follow proven patterns

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

  • Forgetting to handle API errors and rate limits
  • Not URL-encoding video URLs properly
  • Hardcoding access keys instead of using environment variables

Best Practices

  • Store access_key in environment variables
  • Implement retry logic for failed requests
  • Cache responses to minimize API calls
  • Use asyncio/aiohttp for concurrent requests

Popular Use Cases

See how teams are using this API in production

Reel Archiving

Archive trending Reels before they get removed. Download in MP4 and pull the transcript with one extra call.

Research teams archive viral Reels for evidence and reference, keeping a copy even if the creator deletes the original.

Audio Extraction

Extract audio tracks from Reels for podcast clipping, transcription, or AI training data.

Podcast producers strip the spoken audio out of Reels for use in episode soundtracks and rough cuts.

AI / RAG Ingestion

Download raw video for multi-modal models, computer-vision pipelines, or fine-tuning datasets.

AI teams download Reels as input to vision models for trend recognition and scene classification.

Cross-Platform Repurposing

Pull a top-performing Reel in MP4, re-cut for TikTok, YouTube Shorts, or X.

Agencies download a creator's top Reel and remix it for cross-platform campaigns without manual scraping.

Common Workflows

Integrate with your existing tools and platforms

Reel Trend Archiver

Watch a hashtag, auto-download the top Reels every day, store in S3, index with metadata.

Node.jsAWS S3PostgreSQLCronSlack

Audio Pipeline

Extract Reel audio, run through Whisper for transcription, store transcripts for search and analytics.

PythonOpenAI WhisperGoogle Cloud StorageMakeZapier

Competitor Content Library

Auto-download competitor Reels, transcribe and summarize, build a searchable content intelligence library.

ReactNode.jsMongoDBOpenAIStripe

Our Social Media APIs

Comprehensive social media analysis APIs for YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook content.

Facebook

Video Files

Integrate with Your Favorite No-Code Platform

Use Zapier, Make, n8n or any other no-code platform using our native connection or by using the access token.

Frequently Asked Questions

Ready to Extract Social Media Videos Data?

Extract video summaries, transcripts, comments, and engagement metrics from social media content with our powerful Social Media Data Extraction API.

Start Extracting for FreeNo credit card required.
https://api.socialkit.dev/instagram/download?url=instagram.com/reel/DRU4smMj0cu/
AI Summary
+transcript

Video discusses upcoming social media trends including AI-generated content...

• Full transcript available
Engagement
+15 metrics
94%
Rate
8.2
Score
• Views, likes, comments...
Topics
+keywords
AI ContentTrendsMarketing...
• Sentiment, entities...