I fetched the same 50 public Instagram profiles through Apify’s Instagram Scraper and the ScrapeCreators Profile endpoint.
Both services returned every requested account. ScrapeCreators was 2.43 times faster and 14.9% cheaper at its $47 credit-pack rate.
Result
| Metric | ScrapeCreators | Apify Instagram Scraper |
|---|---|---|
| Profiles requested | 50 | 50 |
| Profiles matched | 50 | 50 |
| Success rate | 100% | 100% |
| Total wall time | 12.66 seconds | 30.78 seconds |
| Observed cost | $0.094 | $0.1104 |
| Median ScrapeCreators response | 3.52 seconds | Not measured per profile |
| p95 ScrapeCreators response | 10.33 seconds | Not measured per profile |
This was a clean result. Neither service failed, so the comparison comes down to workflow, speed, and price.
Methodology
I used the 50 most-followed accounts in Wikipedia’s July 2026 Instagram table. The list included large personal, sports, entertainment, and brand accounts.
For ScrapeCreators, I sent one request per handle:
curl --get "https://api.scrapecreators.com/v1/instagram/profile" \
-H "x-api-key: $SCRAPE...KEY" \
--data-urlencode "handle=cristiano" \
--data-urlencode "trim=true"
The 50 requests ran in parallel. A result counted only when the returned username matched the requested handle.
For Apify, I submitted the same 50 profile URLs in one Actor run:
{
"resultsType": "details",
"directUrls": [
"https://www.instagram.com/cristiano/"
],
"resultsLimit": 1
}
The Apify run returned 50 profile records. Its billing record reported 48 charged result events and an actual run cost of $0.1104. I use that actual charge here rather than replacing it with a theoretical 50-result price.
This benchmark did not attempt to prove which provider had the most accurate follower count. Public counts can change between calls, and the benchmark did not freeze a third-party reference value. It tested whether each service returned the requested profile, how long the workload took, and what it cost.
You can download the normalized profile results.
Cost
ScrapeCreators charged one credit for each of the 50 successful profile requests.
| Pricing basis | Cost for 50 profiles | Difference from observed Apify cost |
|---|---|---|
| Apify Bronze, actual run | $0.1104 | Baseline |
| ScrapeCreators $47 pack | $0.0940 | 14.9% less |
| ScrapeCreators $497 pack | $0.0497 | 55.0% less |
The percentage gap is smaller than it was for the feed endpoints because Apify profile details produce one billable result per profile. ScrapeCreators’ larger advantage appears when one credit returns a page containing multiple posts or Reels.
Apify’s $29 Starter subscription includes $29 of monthly usage. Existing customers may treat the run as part of that commitment, but it still consumed $0.1104 of the included usage.
ScrapeCreators credits come in one-time packs and do not expire.
Speed and reliability
ScrapeCreators completed all 50 requests in 12.663 seconds. Apify completed its 50-profile Actor run in 30.783 seconds.
That made ScrapeCreators 2.43 times faster for this workload.
The architecture is different:
- ScrapeCreators returns one synchronous JSON response per HTTP request.
- Apify starts an Actor, writes records to a dataset, and then lets the caller retrieve or export that dataset.
Apify’s extra machinery is useful when schedules, webhooks, and dataset exports are part of the job. It adds overhead when an application simply needs profile JSON now.
Reliability was tied. Both services matched all 50 requested profiles on the first attempt.
Which API should you use?
Choose ScrapeCreators’ Instagram API when:
- you need a normal synchronous profile endpoint
- response time and lower unit cost matter
- you do not want a monthly subscription
- your product also needs posts, Reels, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, or other social APIs
Choose Apify when:
- the profile collection belongs inside an existing Actor workflow
- you want Apify datasets, exports, schedules, or webhooks
- you already have unused included usage
- your project also needs custom crawling outside supported social APIs
For profile lookup alone, ScrapeCreators won this test on speed and price while matching Apify’s 100% success rate.
For individual post details, see the 1,000-URL Apify Instagram Scraper benchmark. The next comparison tests complete profile post feeds rather than one profile record.
