How to analyse an Instagram creator's account

The endpoint

Make the call

Put your key in FASTFETCHZ_KEY. The target below is a real one — it works as written.

curl "https://fastfetchz.com/v1/instagram/posts?target=natgeo" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $FASTFETCHZ_KEY"

What comes back

Trimmed to the fields that matter. The full payload carries more.

{
  "success": true,
  "service": { "platform": "Instagram", "name": "Posts" },
  "credits_charged": 1,
  "data": {
    "posts": [
      {
        "code": "C8xKq1PuJ4a",
        "url": "https://www.instagram.com/p/C8xKq1PuJ4a/",
        "taken_at": 1782043200,
        "media_type": "carousel",
        "caption": "Photograph by @babaktafreshi. A total lunar eclipse over the Atacama.",
        "like_count": 412873,
        "comment_count": 3182,
        "is_video": false
      }
    ]
  },
  "cursor": "QVFEZjE5NTc3"
}

Getting more than one page

instagram/posts returns 11 posts per call with a next_max_id cursor; instagram/reels returns 12; instagram/comments returns 15. None of the three page sizes is adjustable, so the number of calls a job takes is arithmetic, not a setting.

Pages are serial — pass the cursor from one response into the next call, and stop when it comes back empty. Store the cursor with your progress so an interrupted run resumes instead of paying for the same pages twice.

# Page 1 — 11 posts
curl "https://fastfetchz.com/v1/instagram/posts?target=natgeo" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $FASTFETCHZ_KEY"
# -> { "data": { "posts": [ ... ] }, "cursor": "QVFEZjE5NTc3" }

# Page 2 — pass the cursor straight back
curl "https://fastfetchz.com/v1/instagram/posts?target=natgeo&cursor=QVFEZjE5NTc3" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $FASTFETCHZ_KEY"

What it costs

Step 1 — the profile, one call

Start here because it is cheap and it tells you whether the rest of the job is worth running. instagram/profile returns the follower and following counts, the post total, the bio, whether the account is verified, whether it is a business or creator account, and the public contact email if the account exposes one — which is often how you reach them.

It is a single record and it does not paginate. If the account is private, this is where you find out, and nothing further in this workflow will return content.

curl "https://fastfetchz.com/v1/instagram/profile?target=natgeo" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $FASTFETCHZ_KEY"
# -> { "data": { "user": { "username": "natgeo", "follower_count": 279431882,
#      "media_count": 30412, "is_verified": true, "is_business": true,
#      "public_email": "natgeo@example.com" } } }

Step 2 — recent posts, 11 per call

instagram/posts gives you the feed: caption, media type, timestamp, like count, comment count and the post URL. Divide the like and comment counts by the follower count from step 1 and you have the engagement rate the creator's media kit is probably rounding up.

Fifty posts is four calls and enough to see a pattern: what they post, how often, and whether performance is trending down. Keep the url field from each post — step 4 needs it.

curl "https://fastfetchz.com/v1/instagram/posts?target=natgeo" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $FASTFETCHZ_KEY"
# -> 11 posts, each with "url", "like_count", "comment_count", plus a cursor

Step 3 — reels, 12 per call

Reels get their own endpoint because they behave nothing like feed posts. instagram/reels returns play and view counts alongside likes and comments, plus duration and the audio track. A creator whose feed posts are flat and whose reels are climbing is a different buy from one where it is the other way round.

Compare the two feeds rather than reading either alone. Reels reach non-followers, so a high play count with a low like-to-play ratio usually means distribution, not affinity.

curl "https://fastfetchz.com/v1/instagram/reels?target=natgeo" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $FASTFETCHZ_KEY"
# -> 12 reels with "play_count", "like_count", "comment_count", "duration"

Step 4 — comments on the posts that matter

This is where you find out whether the engagement is real. instagram/comments takes a post URL — the one you kept from step 2 — and returns 15 comments per call with the commenter's handle, the text, like counts and reply depth.

Read the top five posts, not all fifty. Bought engagement is obvious in the text: single emoji, generic praise, the same phrasing across unrelated posts, handles with no content of their own. Real comments reference the actual photo.

curl "https://fastfetchz.com/v1/instagram/comments?target=https://www.instagram.com/p/C8xKq1PuJ4a/" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $FASTFETCHZ_KEY"
# -> 15 comments with "username", "text", "like_count", "reply_count", plus a cursor

What you cannot get

Follower and following lists are not available for Instagram. There is no endpoint for it here and we would rather say so on this page than after you have signed up. If a follower export is the job, X does offer it — see the X followers guide — but for Instagram, engagement rate from steps 2 and 3 is the closest honest substitute.

There is also no history. Instagram publishes today's counts, not last quarter's, so a growth curve is something you build by running step 1 on a schedule and storing what came back. Private accounts return nothing at any step, and follower counts on very large accounts are rounded by Instagram itself.

Finding creators, versus evaluating one

This guide assumes you already have a handle. If you are still looking, instagram/search-hashtags is the discovery route: 10 results per call, capped at 11 pages, so roughly 110 accounts or posts per hashtag before the source stops paging. Search a niche hashtag, collect the handles, then run this workflow on the ones worth the credits.

curl "https://fastfetchz.com/v1/instagram/search-hashtags?target=wildlifephotography" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $FASTFETCHZ_KEY"

Endpoints you will probably want next