Skip to main content

Instagram

Availability
Available CoreAvailable StandardAvailable PlusAvailable ProAvailable Enterprise FlexAvailable Self-Managed EnterpriseAvailable PyAirbyte
Support Level
Airbyte
Connector Version
4.2.28 (last updated 5 days ago)
Definition ID
6acf6b55-4f1e-4fca-944e-1a3caef8aba8

This page contains the setup guide and reference information for the Instagram source connector.

Prerequisites​

  • A Facebook app with the Instagram Graph API enabled
  • An access token with these permissions: instagram_basic, instagram_manage_insights, pages_show_list, pages_read_engagement

Setup guide​

Set up Instagram​

For Airbyte Cloud:​

  1. Log into your Airbyte Cloud account.
  2. Click Sources and then click + New source.
  3. On the Set up the source page, select Instagram from the Source type dropdown.
  4. Enter a name for the Instagram connector.
  5. Click Authenticate your Instagram account.
  6. Log in and authorize the Instagram account.
  7. (Optional) Enter the Start Date in YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ssZ format. This date applies to the User Insights stream only. All data generated after this date will be replicated. If left blank, the start date will be set to 2 years before the present date.
  8. Click Set up source.

For Airbyte Open Source:​

  1. Navigate to the Airbyte Open Source dashboard.
  2. Click Sources and then click + New source.
  3. On the Set up the source page, select Instagram from the Source type dropdown.
  4. Enter a name for your source.
  5. Enter the Access Token generated using the Graph API Explorer or a Facebook app with the required permissions: instagram_basic, instagram_manage_insights, pages_show_list, pages_read_engagement.
  6. (Optional) Enter the Start Date in YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ssZ format. This date applies to the User Insights stream only. All data generated after this date will be replicated. If left blank, the start date will be set to 2 years before the present date.
  7. Click Set up source.

Supported sync modes​

The Instagram source connector supports the following sync modes:

note

Incremental sync modes are only available for the User Insights stream.

Supported streams​

This connector uses the Instagram Graph API (v23.0) to sync data from Instagram Business and Creator accounts. For performance data related to Instagram Ads, use the Facebook Marketing source.

The following streams are available:

  • Users—Profile information for each connected Instagram Business or Creator account.
  • User Insights—Daily account-level metrics such as follower_count, reach, and online_followers. This is the only incremental stream; it uses the date field as its cursor.
  • User Lifetime Insights—Demographic breakdowns of followers by city, country, and age/gender.
  • Media—All media objects (photos, videos, reels, carousel albums) published by each account. For carousel albums, the connector fetches detailed information for each child media item.
  • Media Insights—Per-media engagement metrics. The specific metrics requested vary by media type (Reels, Video, Carousel Album, or Image).
  • Stories—Currently published stories. The Instagram API only returns stories that are live at the time of the sync; expired stories are not available.
  • Story Insights—Engagement metrics for currently published stories.

Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD)​

Limitations and troubleshooting​

Rate limiting​

Instagram limits the number of API requests per hour. The connector retries automatically with exponential backoff when rate limits are hit. See Facebook's documentation on rate limiting for more information.

Instagram API limitations​

  • Data delay: Metrics data from the Instagram API may be delayed by up to 48 hours.
  • Minimum follower count: The follower_count and online_followers metrics require at least 100 followers on the Instagram Business or Creator account.
  • Data retention: The online_followers metric is only available for the last 30 days. User Insights data is available for up to 30 days in the past.
  • Demographic metrics: Demographic metric calculations only include the top 45 entries and only count viewers for whom Instagram has demographic data.
  • Stories availability: The Instagram API only returns stories that are currently live (not yet expired). Stories typically expire 24 hours after posting.
  • Carousel children errors: If a child media item within a carousel album is unavailable (for example, deleted or restricted), the connector skips that child and continues syncing the remaining children. A warning is logged for each skipped child.

User Insights and UTC+ timezones​

For accounts in UTC+ timezones, the Instagram API returns end_time values at the account's day boundary expressed in UTC. This can result in timestamps that are slightly ahead of the current UTC time. The connector handles this by applying a one-day lookback window and gracefully skipping any time slices with future since dates. These skipped slices are picked up on the next sync.

Troubleshooting​

  • Check out common troubleshooting issues for the Instagram source connector on our Airbyte Forum.

Reference​

Config fields reference

Field
Type
Property name
string
access_token
string
client_id
string
client_secret
integer
num_workers
string
start_date

Changelog​

Expand to review
VersionDatePull RequestSubject
4.2.282026-04-2877272Update dependencies
4.2.272026-04-2176627Update dependencies
4.2.262026-04-1376276Rename "concurrent workers" to "concurrent threads" in connector spec
4.2.252026-04-0274721Handle errors when fetching carousel children media to prevent sync failures
4.2.242026-04-0276027Improved error handling for Instagram rate limit responses with descriptive error messages
4.2.232026-03-2475344Update dependencies
4.2.222026-03-1975206Handle Instagram API 'since param is not valid' error gracefully for user_insights stream
4.2.212026-03-1274800Add lookback window and filter future-dated records in user_insights to prevent cursor from advancing past current UTC
4.2.202026-03-1074502Update dependencies
4.2.192026-03-0373045Update dependencies
4.2.182026-02-2474006Fix user_insights end_datetime to cover current day for UTC+ accounts
4.2.172026-02-2472266Add views metric and timestamp to media_insights stream
4.2.162026-01-2071966Update dependencies
4.2.152026-01-1471406Update dependencies
4.2.142025-12-1870530Update dependencies
4.2.132025-11-2570157Update dependencies
4.2.122025-11-1869536Update dependencies
4.2.112025-10-2968761Update dependencies
4.2.102025-10-2168506Update dependencies
4.2.92025-10-1467975Update dependencies
4.2.82025-10-0767366Update dependencies
4.2.72025-09-3066800Update dependencies
4.2.62025-09-0966045Update dependencies
4.2.52025-08-2565119Migrate to API v23
4.2.42025-08-2365316Update dependencies
4.2.32025-08-0964640Update dependencies
4.2.22025-08-0264281Update dependencies
4.2.12025-07-1960614Update dependencies
4.2.02025-07-1763358Promoting release candidate 4.2.0-rc.1 to a main version.
4.2.0-rc.12025-07-1662954Migrate to manifest-only format.
4.1.02025-07-1463289Promoting release candidate 4.1.0-rc.3 to a main version.
4.1.0-rc.32025-07-1062902Revert add views metric to StoryInsights and MediaInsights streams.
4.1.0-rc.22025-07-0962844Migrate UserInsights stream to low-code
4.1.0-rc.12025-05-2760848Add views metric to StoryInsights and MediaInsights streams.
4.0.52025-05-1059798Update dependencies
4.0.42025-05-0359243Update dependencies
4.0.32025-04-2658773Update dependencies
4.0.22025-04-1958167Update dependencies
4.0.12025-04-1257704Update dependencies
4.0.02025-04-0755860Remove deprecated metrics from StoryInsights, UserInsights and MediaInsights streams.
3.2.52025-04-0557069Update dependencies
3.2.42025-03-2956666Update dependencies
3.2.32025-03-2256020Update dependencies
3.2.22025-03-1055685Disable cache for InstagramMediaChildrenTransformation
3.2.12025-03-0855463Update dependencies
3.2.02025-02-2854364Update to CDK v6
3.1.92025-03-0154789Update dependencies
3.1.82025-02-2254364Update dependencies
3.1.72025-02-1553846Update dependencies
3.1.62025-02-0853291Update dependencies
3.1.52025-02-0653171Fix missing OAuth fields
3.1.42025-02-0152260Update dependencies
3.1.32025-01-2052035Upgrade to API v21.0
3.1.22025-01-1144223Starting with this version, the Docker image is now rootless. Please note that this and future versions will not be compatible with Airbyte versions earlier than 0.64
3.1.12025-01-0951018Remove deprecated metrics from StoryInsights and MediaInsights streams.
3.1.02024-07-1341937New metrics added for StoryInsights and MediaInsights streams.
3.0.222024-07-2742721Update dependencies
3.0.212024-07-2042346Update dependencies
3.0.202024-07-1341784Update dependencies
3.0.192024-07-1041586Update dependencies
3.0.182024-07-0941109Update dependencies
3.0.172024-07-0841046Use latest CDK version possible
3.0.162024-07-0640903Update dependencies
3.0.152024-07-0240569Migrate MediaInsights and StoryInsights to low-code
3.0.142024-06-2640524Fix Api stream when the results contain not business accounts
3.0.132024-06-2540456Update dependencies
3.0.122024-06-2439504Migrate Media, Users, UserLifeTimeInsights and Stories to low-code
3.0.112024-06-2240127Update dependencies
3.0.102024-06-0639303[autopull] Upgrade base image to v1.2.2
3.0.92024-05-2138554Upgrade to API v19.0
3.0.82024-05-2038268Replace AirbyteLogger with logging.Logger
3.0.72024-04-1936643Updating to 0.80.0 CDK
3.0.62024-04-1236643Schema descriptions
3.0.52024-03-2036314Unpin CDK version
3.0.42024-03-0735875Remove total_interactions from the MediaInsights queries.
3.0.32024-02-1235177Manage dependencies with Poetry
3.0.22024-01-1534254Prepare for airbyte-lib
3.0.12024-01-0833989Remove metrics from video feed
3.0.02024-01-0533930Upgrade to API v18.0
2.0.12024-01-0333889Change requested metrics for stream media_insights
2.0.02023-11-1732500Add primary keys for UserLifetimeInsights and UserInsights; add airbyte_type to timestamp fields
1.0.162023-11-1732627Fix start_date type; fix docs
1.0.152023-11-1432494Marked start_date as optional; set max retry time to 10 minutes; add suggested streams
1.0.142023-11-1332423Capture media_product_type column in media and stories stream
1.0.132023-11-1032245Add skipping reading MediaInsights stream if an error code 10 is received
1.0.122023-11-0732200The backoff strategy has been updated to make some errors retriable
1.0.112023-08-0329031Reverted advancedAuth spec changes
1.0.102023-08-0128910Updated advancedAuth broken references
1.0.92023-07-0127908Fix bug when user_lifetime_insights stream returns Key Error (end_time), refactored state to use IncrementalMixin
1.0.82023-05-2626767Handle permission error for insights
1.0.72023-05-2626656Remove authSpecification from connector specification in favour of advancedAuth
1.0.62023-03-2826599Handle error for Media posted before business account conversion
1.0.52023-03-2824634Add user-friendly message for no instagram_business_accounts case
1.0.42023-03-1523671Add info about main permissions in spec and doc links in error message to navigate user
1.0.32023-03-1424043Do not emit incomplete records for user_insights stream
1.0.22023-03-1424042Test publish flow
1.0.12023-01-1921602Handle abnormally large state values
1.0.02022-09-2317110Remove custom read function and migrate to per-stream state
0.1.112022-09-0816428Fix requests metrics for Reels media product type
0.1.102022-09-0516340Update to latest version of the CDK (v0.1.81)
0.1.92021-09-306438Annotate Oauth2 flow initialization parameters in connector specification
0.1.82021-08-115354Added check for empty state and fixed tests
0.1.72021-07-194805Add support for previous STATE format
0.1.62021-07-074210Refactor connector to use CDK: - improve error handling - fix sync fail with HTTP status 400 - integrate SAT
Was this page helpful?