How to get other pages followers count number in Instagram?

Question

is there possibility to get other pages follower count number in Instagram? I can get only my profile followers count number, but I want to get other followers too? (for example in php)

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Yes, it's possible with ?__a=1 queries which return json.

$otherPage = 'nasa';
$response = file_get_contents("https://www.instagram.com/$otherPage/?__a=1");
if ($response !== false) {
    $data = json_decode($response, true);
    if ($data !== null) {
        $follows = $data['graphql']['user']['edge_follow']['count'];
        $followedBy = $data['graphql']['user']['edge_followed_by']['count'];
        echo $follows . ' and ' . $followedBy;
    }
}

Answer 2

Jumping through hoops to get an app approved for quickly checking follower counts seemed excessive so I had a look at network requests on Instagram's web search and saw that typing in the search box fires off requests to this URL:

https://www.instagram.com/web/search/topsearch/?query={searchquery}

That returns a JSON feed which has a bunch of info on the user including a value for follower_count. If you are logged in, the results are weighted by relevance to your account, but you don't have to be authenticated or even logged in to get a result:

{
"has_more": false, 
"status": "ok", 
"hashtags": [], 
"users": [
            {
            "position": 0, 
            "user": {
                "username": "thenativepaul", 
                "has_anonymous_profile_picture": false, 
                "byline": "457 followers", 
                "mutual_followers_count": 0.0, 
                "profile_pic_url": "https://scontent-lhr3-1.cdninstagram.com/t51.2885-19/11373838_482400848607323_1803683048_a.jpg", 
                "full_name": "Paul Almeida-Seele", 
                "follower_count": 457, 
                "pk": 21072296, 
                "is_verified": false, 
                "is_private": false
                }
            }, 
            {
            "position": 1, 
            "user": {
                "username": "the_native_warrior", 
                "has_anonymous_profile_picture": false, 
                "byline": "251 followers", 
                "mutual_followers_count": 0.0, 
                "profile_pic_url": "https://scontent-lhr3-1.cdninstagram.com/t51.2885-19/s150x150/14473927_312669442422199_4605888521247391744_a.jpg", 
                "profile_pic_id": "1352745514521408299_1824600282", 
                "full_name": "Paul Carpenter", 
                "follower_count": 251, 
                "pk": 1824600282, 
                "is_verified": false, 
                "is_private": true
                }
            }
        ], 
"places": [ ]
}