The Instagram Basic Display API is gone. What now?
Meta switched off the Instagram Basic Display API on December 4, 2024, and every request to it has failed since. Its replacements only work with professional accounts that log in to your app. Here's what Meta offers now, who it suits, and how to get public Instagram data when it doesn't fit.
Updated 2026-11-02
In their own words
Real comments from Reddit, quoted as written. Usernames are left out.
“Spent a few weeks on this earlier this year and yeah, the docs lie more than they help. The part that killed us was the app review for one of the standard permissions, ~6 weeks to get approved and the reviewer's reply didn't match the first rejection email we'd gotten.”
“…Meta's app review for Instagram/Facebook posting and TikTok's Content Posting API audit (about 3 weeks, usually at least one rejection) are the two that eat time.”
“If you're monitoring your own account or public hashtags, the official Instagram Graph API is the route that won't keep breaking on you.”
What happened
The Basic Display API let any app read a person's own Instagram profile and photos, personal accounts included. Meta gave developers 90 days' notice.
- September 4, 2024: Meta announces the end of the Basic Display API and says there will no longer be a set of Instagram APIs for consumer apps.
- December 4, 2024: The Basic Display API stops. Every request to it fails from that day on.
What Meta offers instead
Both replacements are for Business and Creator accounts that log in to your app. They're built for managing those accounts, not for reading anyone else's.
- Instagram API with Instagram Login: manage a Business or Creator account without a Facebook Page. Publishing, comments, mentions, messages and insights.
- Instagram API with Facebook Login: manage a Business or Creator account linked to a Facebook Page. It adds hashtag search, limited to 30 hashtags a week and the last 24 hours.
If you showed your own posts on a website
For just displaying public posts on a page, Instagram's own embeds still work and need no API.
If you need your own posts as data, switch the account to a professional one (Creator or Business) in the Instagram app, then use the Instagram API with Instagram Login. Expect Meta's app review before you can go live.
If you need public data from accounts you don't manage
This is what most people used to stretch Basic Display for, and Meta's APIs don't cover it well: competitors' posts, creators you're thinking of working with, what people say under a brand's reels.
SocialHz reads public Instagram for you. You send a profile or post link, or a search, with one API key. No Instagram account logs in, no Facebook Page, no app review. You get profiles with follower counts and engagement rate, posts and reels, every comment with its sentiment, and reels by keyword or hashtag. Each profile, post or page of results costs 1 credit, and a page of 15 comments costs 5.
Instagram profile from a link
POST /api/v1/quick-run
{
"links": ["https://www.instagram.com/natgeo/"]
}Search Instagram
GET /api/v1/search?platform=instagram&query=%23evcarQuestions people ask
When was the Instagram Basic Display API deprecated?
Meta announced it on September 4, 2024, and switched it off on December 4, 2024.
Does the Basic Display API still work?
No. Every request to it has failed since December 4, 2024.
What replaced the Instagram Basic Display API?
The Instagram API with Instagram Login and the Instagram API with Facebook Login. Both work only with Business and Creator accounts that log in to your app.
Can a personal Instagram account use the API?
Not any more. Meta's current Instagram APIs are for Business and Creator accounts. Switching an account to a professional one is done in the Instagram app.
How do I get data from someone else's public Instagram account?
Meta's APIs are built for accounts that log in to your app. SocialHz reads public profiles, posts, reels and comments from their links, with no Instagram login and no app review.