Start with one request

Create your API Key

Sign in to Developer settings, choose a name and expiry, and create a Key. Copy the secret when it appears; it is shown once. Reading existing data is enabled by default. Online queries are a separate permission.

Store the Key in your terminal environment or a secret manager. Never put it in a public frontend or a shared conversation.

Read the last follower snapshot

For an account whose followers you track, this request reads your latest available snapshot. It does not start another scan or spend new collection credits.

export INSTORYVIEW_API_KEY='YOUR_API_KEY'
curl 'https://instoryview.com/open-api/v1/accounts/alice/followers?limit=25' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $INSTORYVIEW_API_KEY"

Replace alice with the Instagram username. Accounts that you have never tracked may have reusable public query data; if no data is available, the API returns an explicit error.

Understand the response

{
  "data": {
    "accountId": "123456789",
    "username": "alice",
    "availableCount": 850,
    "returnedCount": 1,
    "items": [{ "id": "987654321", "username": "sample_member", "fullName": "Sample Member", "avatarUrl": null, "isPrivate": false, "isVerified": false }]
  },
  "meta": {
    "requestId": "req_example",
    "source": "tracking_snapshot",
    "asOf": "2026-10-11T09:00:00Z",
    "coverage": "partial",
    "creditsUsed": 0,
    "warnings": ["partial_list"],
    "hasMore": true,
    "nextCursor": "OPAQUE_CURSOR"
  }
}

These are made-up examples. Check source, asOf and coverage before describing the result. availableCount is the observed list size; it is not the profile's follower total. returnedCount is just this page.

Six operations

• GET /tracking — your tracked accounts, counts and snapshot times.
• GET /accounts/{username} — existing account details and totals.
• GET /accounts/{username}/followers — an available follower list.
• GET /accounts/{username}/following — an available following list.
• GET /accounts/{username}/changes — your detected tracking changes.
• POST /queries — an explicitly budgeted public account query.

All five GET operations read stored data. An empty wallet does not block an otherwise authorized stored read. Request limits and data permissions still apply. Download the full OpenAPI contract.

Request fresh public data

Enable online queries on your Key and set your daily API budget first. Each query needs an integer maxCredits from 1 to 1000 and an Idempotency-Key. This example requests one page; 2 is a spending cap, not a fixed price.

curl 'https://instoryview.com/open-api/v1/queries' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $INSTORYVIEW_API_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'Idempotency-Key: REPLACE_WITH_A_UNIQUE_REQUEST_ID' \
  --data '{"username":"bob","type":"followers","maxCredits":2}'

Online queries can inspect a public account you have never tracked. They do not start tracking. Read permissions, budgets and retries before automating paid queries.