If you’re trying to get the email address or follower's of a public Instagram profile, you’re probably realizing Instagram doesn’t exactly make that easy.
You’ve got three real options:
- Use a paid service like Influencers Club
- Build your own system (good luck)
- Use an API that scrapes behind the login
Let’s break down the pros, cons, and effort involved in each:
1. Use a Paid Service like Influencers Club
If you want clean data, no hassle, and you're okay paying a bit more, a paid software like this is the easiest option.
Influencers Club
- They already have massive databases of creators
- You get emails, bios, engagement, and more
- Great if you’re doing influencer outreach or building a list
Downside?
- It’s not cheap. You're paying for polish and convenience.
- You don’t get full control or flexibility over how data is pulled or filtered.
But if you're not technical or just want results now, this is your move.
2. Build Your Own Scraper (Good Luck)
This is the DIY route. You’ll need to:
- Buy or create aged IG accounts
- Reverse engineer Instagram’s private mobile API
- Deal with logins, proxies, rate limits, blocks, and bans
- Parse out JSON responses and handle IG’s anti-bot systems
It’s a mess. And Instagram makes it harder every year.
The only reason to go this route is if you want full control or are doing this at massive scale. But for most people, it’s way more headache than it’s worth.
3. Use an API That Scrapes Behind the Login
This is the sweet spot between DIY and done for you.
There are services that already handle the hard part: logging in, navigating Instagram’s internal APIs, and returning the data you care about.
Here are a couple solid ones:
Hiker API
- Based in Russia or Ukraine
- UI looks like it was made in 2008
- But it works, and it’s relatively cheap
Use it with this endpoint: https://api.instagrapi.com/v1/user/by/id?id={IG user id}
(you'll need an x-access-key API key)
Social Master on RapidAPI
- Simple API that takes an IG username and gives you the associated email
- Also supports YouTube email lookups
- Great for devs who want programmatic access without building a full system
This route gives you flexibility, a decent price point, and way less headache than building your own stack from scratch.
Final Thoughts
| Option | Difficulty | Cost | Speed to Results | Control |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Influencers Club | Easy | High | Fast | Low |
| Build Your Own | Hard | Cheapest | Slow | High |
| Use an API | Medium | Medium | Fast | Some |
Weighing your options
If you're technical but don’t want to waste days building scrapers and dodging bans, use an API. If you're non-technical, go with something like Influencers Club.
Just know: Instagram doesn't want you doing any of this. You're operating in a gray zone. So move smart.
Need Public Data From IG, TikTok, YouTube, or TruthSocial?
If you're looking for an API that gives you public social media data, without logging in, check out Scrape Creators.
You can:
- Get public Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and TruthSocial data
- Make your first request in under a minute
- Get 100 free requests (no credit card required)
It’s the easiest way to get started with social scraping, without building anything from scratch.