Instagram scraping without Meta API — am I crazy?

Hey guys

I've been going back and forth on this for weeks and I'm stuck.

I need to track Instagram data for my clients (and their competitors): views, comments, captions, and ideally reel transcripts. No Meta Graph API — I don't want to mess with the media buyer's setup and honestly it seems like a headache I don't need.

Right now I'm not tracking any of this and it's killing me because I can't improve what I don't measure.

I know Claude can use browser automation to click around and scrape stuff, but it's clunky and slow for this volume. I want something that just runs and feeds into a dashboard — even if it's niche-specific or just my own clients.

Anyone in the same boat? What tools are you using that don't cost an arm and a leg?

Would love real recommendations, not just "use the Meta API" 😅

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Instagram scraping without Meta API — am I crazy?