Command Line Options¶
Instaloader is invoked with:
$ instaloader [options] target [target ...]
where target
is a profile
, a "#hashtag"
, @profile
(all profiles
that profile is following), %location ID
, or if logged in :feed
(pictures from your
feed), :stories
(stories of your followees) or :saved
(collection of
posts marked as saved).
Here we explain the additional options that can be given to Instaloader to customize its behavior. For an introduction on how to use Instaloader, see Download Pictures from Instagram.
To get a list of all flags, their abbreviations and their descriptions, you may also run:
instaloader --help
Targets¶
Specify a list of targets. For each of these, Instaloader creates a folder and stores all posts along with the pictures’ captions there.
Instaloader supports the following targets:
profile
Public profile, or private profile with login.
If an already-downloaded profile has been renamed, Instaloader automatically finds it by its unique ID and renames the folder accordingly.
Besides the profile’s posts, its current profile picture is downloaded. For each profile you download,
--stories
instructs Instaloader to also download the user’s stories,
--highlights
to download the highlights of that profile,
--tagged
to download posts where the user is tagged, and
--igtv
to download IGTV videos.
"#hashtag"
Posts with a certain hashtag (the quotes are usually necessary).
%location id
Posts tagged with a given location; the location ID is the numerical ID Instagram labels a location with (e.g. https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/362629379/plymouth-naval-memorial/). Requires login.
Added in version 4.2.
:stories
The currently-visible stories of your followees (requires login).
:feed
Your feed (requires login).
:saved
Posts which are marked as saved (requires login).
@profile
All profiles that are followed by
profile
, i.e. the followees ofprofile
(requires login).
-post
Replace post with the post’s shortcode to download single post. Must be preceded by
--
in the argument list to not be mistaken as an option flag. For example, to download the post https://www.instagram.com/p/B_K4CykAOtf, run the command:instaloader -- -B_K4CykAOtf
Added in version 4.1.
filename.json[.xz]
Re-Download the given object
+args.txt
Read targets (and options) from given text file. See
+args.txt
.
What to Download of each Post¶
- --no-pictures¶
Do not download post pictures. Cannot be used together with
--fast-update
. Implies--no-video-thumbnails
, does not imply--no-videos
.Added in version 4.1.
- --no-videos, -V¶
Do not download videos.
- --no-video-thumbnails¶
Do not download thumbnails of videos.
- --geotags, -G¶
Download geotags when available. Geotags are stored as a text file with the location’s name and a Google Maps link. This requires an additional request to the Instagram server for each picture. Requires login.
- --comments, -C¶
Download and update comments for each post. This requires an additional request to the Instagram server for each post, which is why it is disabled by default. Requires login.
Do not create txt files.
- --post-metadata-txt¶
Template to write in txt file for each Post. See Metadata Text Files.
- --storyitem-metadata-txt¶
Template to write in txt file for each StoryItem. See Metadata Text Files.
- --slide¶
Download only selected images of a sidecar. You can select single images using their index in the sidecar starting with the leftmost or you can specify a range of images with the following syntax:
start_index-end_index
. Example:--slide 1
will select only the first image,--slide last
only the last one and--slide 1-3
will select only the first three images.Added in version 4.6.
- --no-metadata-json¶
Do not create a JSON file containing the metadata of each post.
- --no-compress-json¶
Do not xz compress JSON files, rather create pretty formatted JSONs.
What to Download of each Profile¶
- --no-posts¶
Do not download regular posts.
Added in version 4.1.
- --no-profile-pic¶
Do not download profile picture.
- --highlights¶
Also download highlights of each profile that is downloaded. Requires login.
Added in version 4.1.
- --tagged¶
Also download posts where each profile is tagged.
Added in version 4.1.
- --igtv¶
Also download IGTV videos.
Added in version 4.3.
Which Posts to Download¶
- --fast-update, -F¶
For each target, stop when encountering the first already-downloaded picture. This flag is recommended when you use Instaloader to update your personal Instagram archive.
- --latest-stamps [STAMPSFILE]¶
Works similarly to
--fast-update
, but instead of relying on already downloaded media, the time each profile was downloaded is stored, and only media newer than the last download is fetched. This allows updating your personal Instagram archive while emptying the target directories.Only works for media associated with a specific profile, and that is returned in chronological order: profile posts, profile stories, profile IGTV posts and profile tagged posts.
By default, the information is stored in
~/.config/instaloader/latest-stamps.ini
, but you can specify an alternative location.Added in version 4.8.
- --post-filter filter, --only-if filter¶
Expression that, if given, must evaluate to True for each post to be downloaded. Must be a syntactically valid Python expression. Variables are evaluated to
instaloader.Post
attributes. Example:--post-filter=viewer_has_liked
. See Filter Posts for more examples.
- --storyitem-filter filter¶
Expression that, if given, must evaluate to True for each storyitem to be downloaded. Must be a syntactically valid Python expression. Variables are evaluated to
instaloader.StoryItem
attributes. See Filter Posts for more examples.
- --count COUNT, -c¶
Do not attempt to download more than COUNT posts. Applies to
#hashtag
,%location_id
,:feed
, and:saved
.
Login (Download Private Profiles)¶
Instaloader can login to Instagram. This allows downloading private
profiles. To login, pass the --login
option. Your session cookie (not your
password!) will be saved to a local file to be reused next time you want
Instaloader to login.
Instead of --login
, it is possible to use
--load-cookies
to import a session from a browser.
- --login YOUR-USERNAME, -l YOUR-USERNAME¶
Login name (profile name) for your Instagram account.
- --load-cookies BROWSER-NAME, -b BROWSER-NAME¶
Use Instagram cookie in your browser to login. This feature requires the browser_cookie3 library. Compatible with
--cookiefile
if you want to load cookies from browser profiles. Incompatible with--login
due to potential username mismatch between user input and browser login. Supported browsers: Brave, Chrome, Chromium, Edge, Firefox, LibreWolf, Opera, Opera_GX, Safari and Vivaldi.In subsequent runs, you can just use
--login
to reuse the same session, which is saved by Instaloader.Added in version 4.11.
- --cookiefile COOKIE-FILE, -B COOKIE-FILE¶
Cookie file path of a browser profile to load cookies from.
Added in version 4.11.
- --sessionfile SESSIONFILE, -f SESSIONFILE¶
Path for loading and storing session key file. Defaults to
~/.config/instaloader/session-YOUR-USERNAME
.
- --password YOUR-PASSWORD, -p YOUR-PASSWORD¶
Password for your Instagram account. Without this option, you’ll be prompted for your password interactively if there is not yet a valid session file.
Warning
Using
--password
option is discouraged for security reasons. Enter your password interactively when asked, or use the sessionfile feature (--sessionfile
to customize path).
How to Download¶
- --dirname-pattern DIRNAME_PATTERN¶
Name of directory where to store posts.
{profile}
is replaced by the profile name,{target}
is replaced by the target you specified, i.e. either:feed
,#hashtag
or the profile name. Defaults to{target}
. See Filename Specification.
- --filename-pattern FILENAME_PATTERN¶
Prefix of filenames for posts and stories, relative to the directory given with
--dirname-pattern
.{profile}
is replaced by the profile name,{target}
is replaced by the target you specified, i.e. either:feed
,#hashtag
or the profile name. Defaults to{date_utc}_UTC
. See Filename Specification for a list of supported tokens.
- --title-pattern TITLE_PATTERN¶
Prefix of filenames for profile pics, hashtag profile pics, and highlight covers, relative to the directory given with
--dirname-pattern
. Defaults to{date_utc}_UTC_{typename}
if--dirname-pattern
contains{target}
or{profile}
, otherwise defaults to{target}_{date_utc}_UTC_{typename}
. See Filename Specification for a list of supported tokens.Added in version 4.8.
- --sanitize-paths¶
Force sanitization of paths so that the resulting file and directory names are valid on both Windows and Unix.
Added in version 4.9.
- --resume-prefix prefix¶
For many targets, Instaloader is capable of resuming a previously-aborted download loop. To do so, it creates a JSON file within the target directory when interrupted. This option controls the prefix for filenames that are used to save the information to resume an interrupted download. The default prefix is
iterator
.- Resuming an interrupted download is supported for the following targets:
This feature is enabled by default for targets where it is supported;
--resume-prefix
only changes the name of the iterator files.To turn this feature off, use
--no-resume
.JSON files with resume information are always compressed, regardless of
--no-compress-json
.Added in version 4.5.
- --no-resume¶
Do not resume a previously-aborted download iteration, and do not save such information when interrupted.
Added in version 4.5.
- --user-agent USER_AGENT¶
User Agent to use for HTTP requests. Per default, Instaloader pretends being Chrome/126 on Linux.
- --max-connection-attempts N¶
Maximum number of connection attempts until a request is aborted. Defaults to
3
. If a connection fails, it can be manually skipped by hitting Control-c. Set this to0
to retry infinitely.
- --request-timeout N¶
Seconds to wait before timing out a connection request. Defaults to 300.
Added in version 4.3.
Changed in version 4.6: Enabled this option by default with a timeout of 300 seconds.
- --abort-on STATUS_CODE_LIST¶
Comma-separated list of HTTP status codes that cause Instaloader to abort, bypassing all retry logic.
For example, with
--abort-on=302,400,429
, Instaloader will stop if a request is responded with a 302 redirect, a Bad Request error, or a Too Many Requests error.Added in version 4.7.
- --no-iphone¶
Do not attempt to download iPhone version of images and videos.
Added in version 4.8.
Miscellaneous Options¶
- --quiet, -q¶
Disable user interaction, i.e. do not print messages (except errors) and fail if login credentials are needed but not given. This is handy for running Instaloader as Cronjob.
- +args.txt¶
Read arguments from file args.txt, a shortcut to provide arguments from file rather than command-line. This provides a convenient way to hide login info from CLI, and can also be used to simplify management of long arguments. You can provide more than one file at once, e.g.:
+args1.txt +args2.txt
.Note
Text file should separate arguments with line breaks.
args.txt example:
--login=MYUSERNAME --password=MYPASSWORD --fast-update profile1 profile2
Added in version 4.1.