Building a competitor set from one known account
Give it your own handle, or your closest rival's, and you get the accounts Instagram considers adjacent. That list is usually a better competitor map than the one marketing wrote from memory.
Instagram API / Similar accounts
Instagram Similar Accounts API — Find Lookalike Accounts From One Handle
Instagram already computes who resembles whom. This endpoint reads that suggestion list directly, so one seed handle becomes a shortlist without you building a similarity model.
1 credit per request · request metadata included · errors are never charged
GET /v1/instagram/similar-accounts1 creditcurl "https://api.socialscrape.dev/v1/instagram/similar-accounts?user_id=25025320" \
-H "x-api-key: $INSCRAPE_KEY"Parameters
user_idstringrequiredNumeric Instagram user ID
What you get
What the Instagram Similar Accounts API returns.
- Suggested account handles in the order Instagram ranks them
- Display name, profile picture and verification flag per suggestion
- Follower count where the suggestion payload exposes it
- Stable ordering, so position changes are a real signal
Use cases
Instagram Similar Accounts API use cases.
Expanding a creator shortlist
You have ten creators who performed. Run each through this endpoint and you have a candidate pool of a hundred that already resembles what worked, before any manual review.
Mapping a niche you do not know yet
Seed one account in an unfamiliar vertical, expand two levels deep, and the accounts that keep reappearing across branches are the ones that define the category.
FAQ
Instagram Similar Accounts API FAQ.
Where does the similarity come from?
Instagram's own suggestion system, not ours. We do not re-rank or filter it, so what you get is what the app would show — which is the point.
How many accounts come back?
Whatever the suggestion payload contains for that handle, typically a few dozen. It is not a paginated firehose, so treat it as a seed expander rather than a directory.
Why is the cache three days?
The suggestion set barely moves week to week. A short TTL would charge you repeatedly for the same answer.
Does it work on private accounts?
No. A confirmed private-account result returns 200 with available profile details and is charged at the endpoint rate. Private content is not returned.
Related endpoints
APIs commonly paired with similar accounts.
Instagram Profile Scraper
Get follower counts, bio, verification status and external links for any public Instagram profile. One REST call, no login, no Meta app review.
Instagram Search API
Search public Instagram accounts by keyword and get them ranked the way the app ranks them. One call, no login.
Instagram Followers Scraper
Paginate the real follower list of a public Instagram account, not just the count. Cursor based, 2 credits per page.
Back to the full Instagram API overview, or read the similar accounts endpoint documentation.