Instagram Comments API examples for SocQ

Collect comments from public Instagram post URLs in bulk and receive normalized text, authors, timestamps, post references, and visible engagement metrics through one API.

Try Instagram Comments API · Get an API key · Documentation · All SocQ examples

Use cases

• Consumer sentiment monitoring: Analyze public comment text, emojis, and visible engagement signals to track how audiences respond to selected posts.
• Trend and opportunity discovery: Find emerging topics, product feedback, feature requests, recurring questions, and early demand signals in public discussions.
• Campaign response analysis: Compare public reactions across campaign posts, creatives, launches, or announcements using consistent comment records.
• Brand and reputation monitoring: Track praise, complaints, recurring concerns, and changes in audience response around selected public posts.

API behavior

• Submit one or more public Instagram post URLs.
• This endpoint does not accept results_limit; every publicly available returned comment is included in the completed task.
• Comment records can include parent references and visible reply counts, but a reply count is not a guarantee that every reply is returned.
• Deleted, restricted, or unavailable posts can return fewer records or no records.

All requests use the shared asynchronous flow:

submit -> task_id -> poll task -> read every cursor page -> save results

Quick start

cp .env.example .env
export SOCQ_API_KEY="your-api-key"

Run the complete Node.js workflow:

cd node
npm start

Run the complete Python workflow:

python3 -m pip install -r python/requirements.txt
python3 python/main.py

Both examples load payload.example.json, retry transient API responses, wait for task completion, read every cursor page, and save a paginated public-comment dataset for feedback and discussion analysis to output/results.json.

Never expose SOCQ_API_KEY in browser code, mobile apps, public repositories, screenshots, fixtures, or logs.

Request

POST https://api.socq.ai/v1/instagram/comments
Authorization: Bearer <SOCQ_API_KEY>
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.instagram.com/p/POST_CODE/"
  ]
}

The submit response contains data.task_id. Poll the task endpoint until data.status becomes succeeded or failed, then continue with data.results.next_cursor while data.results.has_more is true.

Complete workflow example

The Node.js and Python programs implement the production-shaped happy path:

1. Load and validate configuration.
2. Submit the endpoint-specific payload.
3. Retry rate-pressure and transient server responses with bounded backoff.
4. Poll the asynchronous task with a ten-minute application timeout.
5. Stop cleanly on a failed task and surface the public error message.
6. Read all cursor pages instead of silently returning only the first page.
7. Write a stable JSON artifact containing task metadata and normalized records.

Use the synthetic files in fixtures/ for tests and documentation. They do not contain customer, account, or production data.

Production notes

See docs/production-notes.md for validation, retry, timeout, pagination, deduplication, logging, and endpoint-specific guidance.

Responsible use and platform scope

• Use only publicly accessible Instagram profiles, posts, Reels, comments, and fields supported by the selected endpoint.
• Do not use the examples to access private accounts, restricted content, login-only surfaces, or authentication controls.
• SocQ is not an official API of the represented social platform and is not affiliated with or endorsed by that platform.
• Before production use, assess the laws, platform terms, privacy obligations, and retention requirements that apply to your organization and use case.
• Collect only the fields needed for a defined purpose, restrict access, set retention periods, and support correction or deletion workflows where required.
• Platform names and trademarks belong to their respective owners.

This section describes the public-data boundary; it is not legal advice or a guarantee that every use case is permitted in every jurisdiction.

Repository contents

Path	Purpose
curl/request.md	Copy-paste submit, poll, and pagination requests
node/index.mjs	Complete Node.js workflow
python/main.py	Complete Python workflow
payload.example.json	Safe endpoint-specific request body
fixtures/	Synthetic submit and task response shapes
docs/production-notes.md	Production integration guidance