How to get an Instagram Access Token

Question

I'm really struggling in how I'm meant to get my access token for Instagram,

I've registered a new client and then I used this URL

https://api.instagram.com/oauth/authorize/?client_id=CLIENT-ID&redirect_uri=REDIRECT-URI&response_type=code

to fill in the clients ID and redirect Url.

I then was redirected to a page where it displayed a code in the Url but from there I don't have a clue where id then get my access token.

Answer 1

Link to oficial API documentation is http://instagram.com/developer/authentication/

Longstory short - two steps:

Get CODE

Open https://api.instagram.com/oauth/authorize/?client_id=CLIENT-ID&redirect_uri=REDIRECT-URI&response_type=code with information from http://instagram.com/developer/clients/manage/

Get access token

curl \-F 'client_id=CLIENT-ID' \     -F 'client_secret=CLIENT-SECRET' \     -F 'grant_type=authorization_code' \     -F 'redirect_uri=YOUR-REDIRECT-URI' \     -F 'code=CODE' \     https://api.instagram.com/oauth/access_token 

Answer 2

Almost all of the replies that people have posted so far only cover how to handle access tokens on the front end, following Instagram's client-side "implicit authentication" procedure. This method is less secure and unrecommended according to Instagram's API docs.

Assuming you are using a server, the Instagram docs sort of fail in providing a clear answer about exchanging a code for a token, as they only give an example of a cURL request. Essentially you have to make a POST request to their server with the provided code and all of your app's information, and they will return a user object including user information and the token.

I don't know what language you are writing in, but I solved this in Node.js with the request npm module which you can find here.

I parsed through the url and used this information to send the post request

var code = req.url.split('code=')[1];  request.post(   { form: { client_id: configAuth.instagramAuth.clientID,             client_secret: configAuth.instagramAuth.clientSecret,             grant_type: 'authorization_code',             redirect_uri: configAuth.instagramAuth.callbackURL,             code: code           },     url: 'https://api.instagram.com/oauth/access_token'   },   function (err, response, body) {     if (err) {       console.log("error in Post", err)     }else{       console.log(JSON.parse(body))     }   } ); 

Of course replace the configAuth stuff with your own information. You probably aren't using Node.js, but hopefully this solution will help you translate your own solution into whatever language you are using it in.