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Fragility & Terms of Service#

Read this before depending on the library

Instagram does not offer these endpoints as a stable, documented public API. They are the internal endpoints its own website calls, and they change, rate-limit, and lock without notice.

Instagram does not offer these endpoints as a stable, documented public API. They are the internal endpoints its own website calls, and they change, rate-limit, and lock without notice. The response shape can change at any time, which surfaces as decode errors.

What this means in practice#

  • Unauthenticated requests are frequently rejected; you will often need a valid logged-in sessionid cookie (WithSessionID).
  • Any request can start returning 401 / 403 / 429 at any time when Instagram decides to block you — the library surfaces those as clear errors that mention the status.
  • The Go API is deliberately small and stable so your code survives the churn; the transport underneath may break regardless.

Your responsibility#

Automated access to Instagram may violate its Terms of Service and/or applicable law. You are responsible for how you use this library — use it only for content and in ways you are authorised to access, and respect rate limits. The maintainers cannot promise the underlying transport keeps working.