In 2024, scraping social media data is becoming increasingly important, especially Instagram. Whether it is for market research, data analysis, or competitor research, obtaining Instagram data can provide valuable insights.

However, scraping Instagram data is not a simple task and requires careful strategies and the right tools. This article will provide you with detailed steps and tips for the best proxy to scrape Instagram data.

1. Understand Instagram's data scraping policy

Before you start scraping data, it is crucial to understand Instagram's usage policy and data scraping rules. Instagram has strict regulations on data scraping, and violating these regulations may result in account anomalies or legal issues. Make sure your operations comply with Instagram's terms and conditions.

2. Choose the right proxy service

When scraping Instagram data, using a proxy service can help you with high-quality residential IP proxy, efficient collection of public data IP network anomalies and account protection measures. It is crucial to choose a reliable proxy service provider.

IP pool size: The proxy service should provide a large number of IP addresses to reduce the risk of detection.

Privacy: The proxy should have high privacy to avoid being identified as a scraper. Speed and stability: Make sure the proxy service provides fast and stable connections.

Support and service: Choose a proxy that provides good technical support and customer service.

Pias5proxy is a well-known choice

IP pool size: 350 million residential proxies

Location: Supports more than 200 countries/regions

Allowed concurrency: Unlimited

Allowed bandwidth: Unlimited

Cost: Residential proxies start at $0.045/IP, static ISP proxies start at $3/IP

3. Prepare scraping tools

Choosing the right scraping tool is also the key to successfully scraping Instagram data. Here are some recommended tools:

 Python libraries (such as BeautifulSoup, Scrapy): These libraries can be used to write custom scraping scripts.

 Commercial scraping tools (such as Octoparse, DataMiner): These tools provide user-friendly interfaces and support Instagram data scraping.

 API tools (such as Instagram Graph API): If your needs can be achieved through API interfaces, using the official Instagram Graph API may be the most compliant way.

4. Configure proxy settings

Before using the scraping tool, you need to configure the proxy settings. Here are the specific steps:

Get proxy information: Get the proxy IP, port, username, and password (if necessary) from the selected proxy service provider.

Set up the proxy: Configure the proxy settings in the scraping tool. For example, when using the Python library, you can add the proxy settings in the request:

Types of Instagram proxies

1. Data center proxies

Features: Data center proxies are usually provided by large data centers and have high speed and stability.

Pros: Fast speed and low cost.

Cons: Easy to detect and block because their IP addresses are concentrated in a specific data center.

2. Residential proxies

Features: Residential proxies use real user IP addresses (i.e. home networks), so they are more difficult to detect.

Pros: More difficult to be blocked by Instagram because the IP address looks like a normal user.

Cons: Higher cost and may be slower.

3. Mobile proxies

Features: Mobile proxies use IP addresses provided by mobile networks.

Pros: Extremely difficult to detect and block because the IP address comes from a real mobile network.

Disadvantages: Usually costly.

4. High Anonymity Proxy

Features: High Anonymity Proxy completely hides the user's IP address, ensuring privacy and security.

Advantages: Provides high privacy protection and is difficult to track.

Disadvantages: May require additional configuration and management.