How to scrape Instagram Transcript with Rust

Transcript of a reel (videos under 2 minutes). This tutorial gets it with a short Rust program and the Instagram Transcript API. Each successful call costs 2 credits; errors and not-found answers are free.

1. Get an API key

Sign in to get a key and 100 free credits, no card. Then put the key in an environment variable so it stays out of your code:

export SCRAPEIO_API_KEY="your_key_here"

2. Set up Rust

cargo new scrape && cd scrape && cargo add reqwest --features blocking,json && cargo add serde_json

3. Write the code

Save this as src/main.rs. Replace PASTE_URL_HERE with a real url.

use serde_json::Value;

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let key = std::env::var("SCRAPEIO_API_KEY")?;
    let client = reqwest::blocking::Client::new();
    let params: Vec<(&str, String)> = vec![("url", "PASTE_URL_HERE".to_string())];
    let body: Value = client.get("https://scrapeio.com/v2/instagram/media/transcript").query(&params).header("x-api-key", &key).send()?.error_for_status()?.json()?;
    println!("{}", serde_json::to_string_pretty(&body["data"])?);
    Ok(())
}

4. Run it

cargo run

The response has the same envelope on every endpoint: success, cached, credits_used, credits_remaining and data. Shared fields such as handle, followers, plays, likes and created_at have the same names on every platform.

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
`url` (required)	string	Instagram reel URL.

Errors and what you pay

Status	Meaning	Charged
`200`	Success	Yes, unless cached
`400`	A parameter is missing or wrong	No
`401`	The key is missing or invalid	No
`402`	Not enough credits	No
`403`	The account or post is private	No
`404`	Not found on the platform	No
`429`	More than 300 requests a minute	No
`502`	Every source is down; retry shortly	No

Same endpoint in other languages

Python · Node.js · JavaScript · TypeScript · Go · Java · C# · PHP · Ruby · Kotlin · Swift · R

Prefer no code?

Connect the MCP server to Claude Code, Cursor or Codex and ask in plain English. The agent uses the instagram_transcript tool for you.

100 free credits, no card. Credits never expire.

Get API key