How to scrape Instagram comments
Instagram is the most locked-down of the big platforms. The official Graph API returns comments only for professional accounts you own or manage, so the moment your question involves a competitor's post or a creator's reel, the API route is closed by design.
What is left: manual collection, fragile scripts, or a browser-based scraper that reads the post the way you do. Here is how each holds up in 2026.
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Why the Graph API won't get you competitor comments
Meta scoped the Instagram Graph API around managing your own presence: you can read and moderate comments on your own posts, and that is roughly it. There is no endpoint for 'give me the comments on this public reel I do not own'. Any tool claiming API-based competitor comment access is reading the page, not calling an API.
Manual and script-based collection
Manually, Instagram loads comments in small batches behind repeated taps, hides replies by default, and truncates long threads, so hand-collection is only realistic for small posts. Scripts face the harder version: Instagram is aggressive about blocking automated traffic, rotates its markup, and rate-limits hard. Self-maintained Instagram scrapers are famously the first thing in a stack to break.
The browser-session route
Adlicio captures comments from public posts and reels through your own browser session, the same content you can see as a viewer, no API and no separate scraping infrastructure to maintain. Paste the post URL; collection runs and the thread lands in your history.
The output is the part that saves the afternoon: comments come back clustered into ranked angles, the demand signals, objections, and repeated phrases, each backed by verbatim quotes, with the raw comments exportable as CSV.
The 60-second version
- 01Pick posts where buyers talk
A competitor's launch post, a creator's review reel, or your own best ad. Posts with hundreds of comments carry the patterns.
- 02Paste the post or reel URL into Adlicio
Public posts only. The comment thread is captured and stored in your history.
- 03Read the clusters, export if needed
Work from the ranked angles first; pull the CSV when you want to filter the raw comments yourself.
Questions people also ask
Can you scrape Instagram comments without the API?+
Yes, and for posts you do not own it is the only way: Adlicio reads public comments through your own browser session, capturing what any viewer can see.
Does it work on reels?+
Yes, public posts and reels both. Paste the URL; if a large thread is still collecting, retry the same URL and it returns the completed scrape.
Is this safe for my Instagram account?+
Adlicio behaves like a viewer: it reads public comments and nothing else. No auto-following, no liking, no DMs, none of the mass-action behavior that gets accounts flagged.
Can I scrape comments from a private account?+
No. Adlicio only captures publicly visible content, which keeps the research on the right side of both ethics and platform rules.
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Run this play on your own Instagram page.
Paste one public URL. Adlicio returns the angle, hook, and proof to test next.