Instagram follower count without the API — free profile metrics from any URL

How-to

Instagram follower count from any public profile — no Graph API, no business account

Instagram's official Graph API only returns follower counts for accounts you own, and only after you convert to a business/creator account, create a Meta app, and get an access token. For the simple question — "how many followers does this public account have?" — Pulse gives you one free GET request and the live number. No app, no token, no login.

One call, live numbers

curl "https://pulse.walls.sh/profile?url=https://www.instagram.com/nasa/"

{
  "platform": "instagram",
  "handle": "nasa",
  "name": "NASA",
  "followers": 104000000,
  "following": 95,
  "posts": 4827,
  "fetchedAt": "2026-06-26T06:21:49.721Z"
}

name, followers, following, and posts come from Instagram's own public profile page — the same numbers anyone sees without logging in.

Track followers over time

Every /profile call saves a snapshot, so a scheduled request builds the growth curve automatically — no database, no cron infrastructure:

curl "https://pulse.walls.sh/history?url=https://www.instagram.com/nasa/"

The response includes velocity (followers per hour) so you can answer "is this account still growing?" without computing the slope yourself.

Batch: many accounts at once

curl "https://pulse.walls.sh/profile/batch?urls=https://www.instagram.com/nasa/,https://www.instagram.com/natgeo/&format=csv"

Up to 50 profiles in one request. Add &format=csv for a spreadsheet (one row per account: handle, followers, following, posts) — drop it straight into Sheets.

In Python

import requests
r = requests.get("https://pulse.walls.sh/profile", params={"url": "https://www.instagram.com/nasa/"})
p = r.json()
print(f"@{p['handle']}: {p['followers']:,} followers, {p['posts']:,} posts")

Use in an AI agent (MCP)

The pulse-mcp server adds a profile tool to Claude Desktop or Cursor:

npx -y pulse-mcp

Then ask: "How many followers does @nasa have on Instagram?" — no Meta developer account needed.

Why this works without the Graph API

Pulse reads Instagram's public profile page from a residential IP — the follower, following, and post counts are in the page's og:description meta tag, visible to anyone without authentication. Pulse normalizes it into clean JSON. Results are cached so repeated lookups stay gentle on Instagram (its counts only move over hours anyway).

Caveats

Public accounts only — a private account returns content_unavailable.
Verified badge / avatar URL — these come only from Instagram's logged-in API, so on the no-login path they're null; name, followers, following, and posts are always there.
Post metrics — for likes and comments on a specific post (not a profile), see Instagram post metrics.

Rate limits and pricing

Free: 120 calls/minute, no account or signup. For commercial use or higher volume, the $19/mo Pro plan raises the ceiling to 1,200 calls/minute with commercial terms — see pricing or sign up at /account.

More: full API docs · OpenAPI spec · Instagram post metrics · X/Twitter follower count · all supported platforms.