HasData Instagram

Instagram MCP Server

A hosted Instagram MCP server that gives Claude, Cursor, Windsurf and any other MCP client read-only Instagram tools. Look up a public profile by handle, walk its public post feed and read the comments on a public post or reel, as structured JSON.

It reads public data about accounts. It does not act as an account. There is nothing to connect and no account of yours involved anywhere in the flow.

1,000 free credits every month, no card required, which is 100 Instagram calls.

https://mcp.hasdata.com/mcp?apis=instagram

• Prompts and resources

Contents

• What you need
• Quick start
• Example prompts
• Tools
• Errors and failure paths
• Pricing, free tier and limits
• Tool selection
• How it compares
• FAQ
• HasData links
• Development
• Contributing
• License

What you need

An MCP client that speaks streamable HTTP with custom headers. A HasData API key from the dashboard, free to create with no card, and the free tier covers 100 calls a month. Nothing else. This is a remote server, so the simplest path is a URL and a header, with no container to run. A stdio-only client can use the @hasdata/instagram-mcp (npm) or hasdata-instagram-mcp (PyPI) launcher instead.

Quick start

The server URL is the same for every client. We run it hands-on in Claude Code and Claude Desktop. The other blocks follow each client's own documented format for a remote server.

Clients with OAuth support can add the same URL as a connector and sign in without putting a key in a config file.

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http instagram "https://mcp.hasdata.com/mcp?apis=instagram" \

--header "x-api-key: HASDATA_API_KEY"

Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop loads only local (stdio) servers from its config file, so it reaches a remote server through a stdio launcher. The @hasdata/instagram-mcp package is that launcher, and it reads the key from the environment.

claude_desktop_config.json:

{

"mcpServers": { "instagram": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "@hasdata/instagram-mcp"], "env": { "HASDATA_API_KEY": "YOUR_KEY" } } } }

Python instead of Node? Swap the launcher for the PyPI package, which uvx runs without a manual install:

{

"mcpServers": { "instagram": { "command": "uvx", "args": ["hasdata-instagram-mcp"], "env": { "HASDATA_API_KEY": "YOUR_KEY" } } } }

A client with OAuth support can instead add the URL as a custom connector and skip the launcher.

Cursor

.cursor/mcp.json:

{

"mcpServers": { "instagram": { "url": "https://mcp.hasdata.com/mcp?apis=instagram", "headers": { "x-api-key": "HASDATA_API_KEY" } } } }

Windsurf

~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json:

{

"mcpServers": { "instagram": { "serverUrl": "https://mcp.hasdata.com/mcp?apis=instagram", "headers": { "x-api-key": "HASDATA_API_KEY" } } } }

Cline

{

"mcpServers": { "instagram": { "url": "https://mcp.hasdata.com/mcp?apis=instagram", "type": "streamableHttp", "headers": { "x-api-key": "HASDATA_API_KEY" }, "disabled": false } } }

VS Code

.vscode/mcp.json:

{

"servers": { "instagram": { "type": "http", "url": "https://mcp.hasdata.com/mcp?apis=instagram", "headers": { "x-api-key": "HASDATA_API_KEY" } } } }

Gemini CLI

~/.gemini/settings.json:

{

"mcpServers": { "instagram": { "httpUrl": "https://mcp.hasdata.com/mcp?apis=instagram", "headers": { "x-api-key": "HASDATA_API_KEY" } } } }

Example prompts

Each of these is one tool call unless the count says otherwise.

Pull the profile for @nasa and tell me the follower count, whether it is verified, and every link in the bio.

*One call, 10 credits. For a public account the profile response already carries the twelve most recent posts, so a follow-up about recent activity needs no second call.*

Compare @nasa, @natgeo and @bbcearth on followers, accounts followed and whether each is verified.

*Three calls, 30 credits. One per handle.*

Walk the last fifty posts from @nasa and list every hashtag with how often it appears.

*Five calls, 50 credits. Twelve posts arrive per call, and fifty takes five pages.*

For the last twelve posts on @natgeo, list the accounts mentioned in each caption and the type of each post.

*One call, 10 credits. Mentions and hashtags arrive parsed out of the caption in the post objects.*

Two things make these work. Hashtags and mentions arrive as arrays parsed out of the caption, and an agent counts them instead of running a regex over prose. And a profile lookup returns the recent feed in the same response. That is why so many research questions land in a single call.

Tools

Three tools, all read-only. Two are keyed on a public account handle, the third on the URL of a single post. Samples below are trimmed from real calls, and the numbers in them move as accounts post. Read them as shapes. Each tool name links to its endpoint reference.

The samples are the payload, not the whole response. A tools/call result carries one text block, and that text is itself JSON holding url, status, text and json, with the scraped data under json. From a raw JSON-RPC response the path is result.content[0].text, parsed, then .json. A chat client unwraps that for you and code talking to the endpoint directly does not.

Get an Instagram profile

hasdata_instagram_profile_getInstagramProfile

One public profile by handle.

Returns id, username, fullName, biography, verified, the counters followersCount and followsCount, profilePicUrl, the internal fbid, the bioLinks array and latestPosts.

What is guaranteed and what is not, measured across twenty accounts: id, username, followersCount, followsCount, profilePicUrl and fbid came back every time. fullName, biography, verified, bioLinks and latestPosts came back for every public account and are the ones to read with a default.

A private account answers with private: true and little else. No bio, no counters beyond the follower numbers, no posts. Branch on that flag before you touch the rest of the payload.

bioLinks is an array of objects, not strings. Each entry carries url, title, Instagram's own redirectUrl wrapper and linkType. Read .url when you want the destination.

{

"id": "528817151", "username": "nasa", "fullName": "NASA", "biography": "Making the seemingly impossible, possible. ✨", "verified": true, "followersCount": 104345698, "followsCount": 91, "profilePicUrl": "https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-19/…", "fbid": "17841401474538262", "bioLinks": [ { "url": "https://www.nasa.gov", "title": "NASA.gov Homepage", "redirectUrl": "https://l.instagram.com/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nasa.gov%2F&e=…", "linkType": "external" } ], "latestPosts": [ "…the most recent posts, same shape as the posts tool…" ] }

Get Instagram posts

hasdata_instagram_posts_getInstagramPosts

The public post feed for one handle, page by page.

limit is a rough cap rather than an exact count. Twelve posts is one Instagram page and the hard ceiling for a single call, and limit: 50 returns twelve. Below the ceiling the count lands near the number you asked for without always matching it, and how near depends on the account. Measured on @nasa, a limit of 2 returned 4 posts, 6 returned 6, 11 returned 10 and 13 returned 12. Treat it as "no more than roughly this many" and read the array length rather than assuming it.

The response carries posts and pagination, and nothing else. Earlier versions repeated the account's identity fields alongside the feed, so code written against that shape needs a profile call for the name and avatar.

Each post carries id, shortcode, caption, type, productType, url, ownerUsername, ownerId, displayUrl and images, the pixel size as dimensionsWidth and dimensionsHeight, and hasdataLink, a ready-made link to the comments endpoint for that post. hashtags and mentions appear only when the captio