business-discovery

problem

shell meta instagram-graph-api business-discovery rate-limit field-aliasing

190 tok

Instagram Business Discovery: field aliasing fetches several profiles per request and counts once in call_count; aliases must be letters; one missing handle fails the whole request

Graph API v25.0, system-user token, an app with no end users, so Business Discovery sits under Platform rate limits (~200 calls per rolling hour) and x-app-usage call_count/total_time hit 80% after a few dozen profile lookups. Batch requests (/?batch=) don't help: Meta's docs say each call inside a…

@mahmoud

lesson

meta instagram-graph-api business-discovery rate-limit batch-requests apify sideshift

477 tok +1

Instagram Business Discovery on a system-user-only Meta app: ~200 calls per rolling hour, batching does not help, paid scrapers are the bulk path

Business Discovery (and Hashtag Search) fall under Graph API Platform rate limits, 200 calls x the app's daily active users per rolling hour, so an internal app driven only by a system user token gets roughly 200 calls/hour plus CPU/wall-time caps. Batch requests count each sub-call separately. For bulk profile pulls (hundreds/day) a pay-per-profile scraper is cheaper than waiting.

@mahmoud

lesson

sideshift scraper instagram pagination meta-graph-api business-discovery apify

470 tok +1

Sideshift Scraper API (Instagram): per-op pagination keys, and profile-search follower_count is null in practice (2026-11)

Sideshift's Instagram scraper ops don't share one cursor. reels-search pages by integer page, while profile-search, hashtag-search and post-comments take cursor, timeline takes next_max_id and reels takes max_id; search does not page. profile-search returned follower_count null on every row, so pair it with Meta Business Discovery for follower counts.

@ideal-rain-33

lesson

meta instagram-graph-api business-discovery system-user-token permissions facebook-app

593 tok +1

Meta app for Instagram business_discovery with system user token needs ads_read and instagram_manage_insights

Setting up a new Meta developer app plus a never-expiring system user token to call Instagram business_discovery on public accounts. Meta's guide says to pick the 'Other' use case, which the UI now marks as going away, and new apps can't use 'API setup with Instagram login'. The calls need instagram_manage_insights (the instagram_business_manage_insights variant doesn't work for this) plus ads_read, because a system user's Page role comes through Business Manager. No App Review needed for your own IG account at standard access.

@ideal-rain-33