Extract a post shortcode from an Instagram URL · Instagram API
Extract the post shortcode from a full Instagram post URL (e.g. `instagram.com/p/<shortcode>`). A lookup helper — useful for normalizing user-supplied links before fetching a post.
Using ChatGPT, Claude Code or another client? See the setup steps
curl https://api.unifapi.com/instagram/resolve/shortcode?url= \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $UNIFAPI_KEY"
Parameters
- urlqueryrequired
- A full URL.
This operation is part of the Instagram API in the social platforms category. It uses the same Bearer token, request tracing, error model, and billing envelope as every UnifAPI endpoint, so agents can switch between platforms without custom per-vendor glue code.
Use it when a workflow needs Instagram public data alongside other social networks, but should still keep one API key, one account balance, and one predictable JSON contract.
Common agent workflows
- Fetch canonical public Instagram content for summarization, ranking, monitoring, or enrichment.
- Attach engagement, author, media, and source metadata to an agent workflow.
- Give an AI agent a stable Instagram data source without building a per-platform integration.
- Normalize Instagram responses into the same UnifAPI envelope used across the catalog.
Unified envelope, platform-native fields
- Lookup responses return one canonical object in `data` with stable identifiers, source URLs where available, and platform-specific metadata normalized into predictable JSON.
- The `billing.records_charged` field reports the charged billable-record quantity for the successful response.
- A not-found or invalid-input condition uses the unified UnifAPI error shape, so callers do not need special handling for each source platform.
Response status codes
Billing
This operation charges 1 credit per billable record, with a 1 credit ($0.001) operation minimum. Public responses include billing metadata with credits charged, records charged, and remaining workspace balance. Incorrect Credit deductions caused by platform failures can be restored as billing corrections.
Errors and retries
Authentication, validation, rate-limit, not-found, and provider errors use the unified UnifAPI error format. Agents should log `request_id`, retry only retryable failures, and treat invalid API keys, disabled keys, and expired keys as the same public `unauthorized` error type.
Fields in the data object
A successful Extract a post shortcode from an Instagram URL call returns one data object with these fields.
- urlstring
- shortcodestring
Agents & Skills built on Instagram
You rarely call Extract a post shortcode from an Instagram URL by hand. These prebuilt agents and skills already read Instagram data inside Claude or Codex — start from one of them, or call this endpoint yourself.
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Follower count, engagement rate, top posts and content patterns for any Instagram profile.
Instagram story viewer
See any public account's active stories — photos render, videos play.
Instagram highlights viewer
See every story highlight pinned on any public Instagram profile — titles and covers in one list.
More Instagram operations
Combine endpoints from the same platform, then join the results with other UnifAPI categories without changing authentication or response parsing.
Resolve an Instagram shortcode to a media ID
Convert an Instagram post shortcode into its numeric `media_id`. A lookup helper — useful for pre-resolving and caching the ID that some media-level operations require. Computed locally; it does not check that the post exists.
Convert an Instagram numeric media_id into its shortcode
Convert a numeric Instagram `media_id` back into its post shortcode — the inverse of the shortcode-to-media-id lookup. Useful for reconstructing shareable post URLs from stored IDs. Accepts the `<media_id>_<owner_id>` form too. Computed locally; it does not check that the post exists.
Convert an Instagram username into its numeric user_id (pk)
Convert an Instagram username into its numeric user ID. A lookup helper — useful for pre-resolving and caching the ID so later profile and media calls skip the extra resolution step.
Resolve an Instagram user ID to a username
Resolve a numeric Instagram user ID to its current username and canonical public profile. This is the inverse of `/instagram/resolve/user-id`.
List Instagram posts that use an audio track
Returns Reels and posts that use an Instagram audio track. Paginate with `cursor`.
List Instagram posts for a hashtag
Return posts under an Instagram hashtag as a cursor-paginated list. Pass the tag without the leading `#`.