---
name: hikerapi
title: HikerAPI
description: Get live Instagram data through HikerAPI — profiles, posts, reels, stories, highlights, comments, likers, followers and following, hashtags, locations, music and search. Use when you need current Instagram data on demand, through the REST API or the hikerapi-mcp MCP server.
---

# HikerAPI

HikerAPI is a REST API for public Instagram data. Every call is a live request to Instagram, so the data is current at the moment of the request.

## When to use

- Current state of an Instagram account: profile, latest posts and reels, active stories, highlights.
- Followers and following lists, likers and commenters of a post, users tagged in a post.
- Instagram search: accounts, reels, hashtags, places, music.

## When something else fits better

- Bulk Instagram or TikTok data at a lower per-request price, or finding accounts by demographics (age, gender, country, category): use [DataLikers](https://datalikers.com/llms.txt).
- TikTok: use [LamaTok](https://lamatok.com/llms.txt).

## MCP server

- Local stdio: `npx -y hikerapi-mcp` with `HIKERAPI_KEY=<api key>`.
- Claude Code: `claude mcp add hikerapi -e HIKERAPI_KEY=<api key> -- npx -y hikerapi-mcp`
- 44 tools by default, one per task, each describing when to use it; `HIKERAPI_TOOLS=all` exposes every endpoint (100+). All tools are read-only.

## REST API

- Base URL: `https://api.hikerapi.com`
- Auth: header `x-access-key: <api key>`
- OpenAPI: https://api.hikerapi.com/openapi.json — interactive docs: https://api.hikerapi.com/docs

Common endpoints:

- `GET /v2/user/by/username?username=...` — profile; its `pk` is the user id for the other calls
- `GET /gql/user/medias?user_id=...` — posts, paginate with `profile_grid_items_cursor`
- `GET /v2/user/stories?user_id=...` — active stories (billed as 2 requests)
- `GET /v2/media/info/by/url?url=...` — post or reel by link
- `GET /v2/media/comments?id=...` — comments, paginate with `page_id`
- `GET /g2/user/followers?user_id=...` — followers, paginate with `page_id`
- `GET /v2/fbsearch/topsearch?query=...` — search
- `GET /v2/hashtag/medias/top?name=...` — top posts under a hashtag

List endpoints return a next-page token; pass it back as the documented page parameter. Billing is per request; a few endpoints cost more and say so in their description.

SDKs: Python `pip install hikerapi`, Node.js `npm install hikerapi`.

CLI tools on HikerAPI (read `HIKERAPI_TOKEN`): [insto](https://github.com/subzeroid/insto) — Instagram OSINT REPL, `pipx install insto`; [insta-dl](https://github.com/subzeroid/insta-dl) — downloader, `pipx install instagram-dl`.

## Account and pricing

- API key: https://hikerapi.com/tokens (100 free requests on signup).
- Pricing: https://hikerapi.com/pricing
- Status: https://hikerapi.com/status

## More

- Full reference for LLMs: https://hikerapi.com/llms-full.txt
- Support: support@hikerapi.com, Telegram https://t.me/HikerAPISupportBot