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’s 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.

    New 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 of profile (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:

    instaloader -- -B_K4CykAOtf

    New 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.

New 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.

--no-captions

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.

New 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.

New in version 4.1.

--no-profile-pic

Do not download profile picture.

--stories, -s

Also download stories of each profile that is downloaded. Requires --login.

--highlights

Also download highlights of each profile that is downloaded. Requires --login.

New in version 4.1.

--tagged

Also download posts where each profile is tagged.

New in version 4.1.

--igtv

Also download IGTV videos.

New 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.

New 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.

--login YOUR-USERNAME, -l YOUR-USERNAME

Login name (profile name) for your Instagram account.

--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.

New 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.

New 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:

  • Profile posts,

  • Profile IGTV posts (--igtv),

  • Profile tagged posts (--tagged),

  • Saved posts (:saved),

  • Hashtags.

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.

New in version 4.5.

--no-resume

Do not resume a previously-aborted download iteration, and do not save such information when interrupted.

New in version 4.5.

--user-agent USER_AGENT

User Agent to use for HTTP requests. Per default, Instaloader pretends being Chrome/92 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 to 0 to retry infinitely.

--request-timeout N

Seconds to wait before timing out a connection request. Defaults to 300.

New 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.

New in version 4.7.

--no-iphone

Do not attempt to download iPhone version of images and videos.

New 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.

Note

Text file should separate arguments with line breaks.

args.txt example:

--login=MYUSERNAME
--password=MYPASSWORD
--fast-update
profile1
profile2

New in version 4.1.

Next Section

Python Module instaloader