Instagram how to get my user id from username?

Question

Very late answer but I think this is the best answer of this topic. Hope this is useful.

You can get user info when a request is made with the url below:

https://www.instagram.com/{username}/?__a=1

E.g:

This url will get all information about a user whose username is therock

https://www.instagram.com/therock/?__a=1

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Update i June-20-2019, the API is public now. No authentication required.

Update in December-11-2018, I needed to confirm that this endpoint still work. You need to login before sending request to this site because it's not public endpoint anymore. The login step is easy also. This is my demo: https://youtu.be/ec5QhwM6fvc

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Update in Apr-17-2018, it's look like this endpoint still working (but its not public endpoint anymore), you must send a request with extra information to that endpoint. (Press F12 to open developer toolbar, then click to Network Tab and trace the request.)

Sorry because I'm too busy. Hope this information help you guys. Hmm, feel free to give me a down-vote if you want.

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Update in Apr-12-2018, cameronjonesweb said that this endpoint doesn't work anymore. When he/she trying to access this endpoint, 403 status code return.

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Enter this url in your browser with the users name you want to find and your access token

https://api.instagram.com/v1/users/search?q=[USERNAME]&access_token=[ACCESS TOKEN]

Easily Get USER ID and User Details

https://api.instagram.com/v1/users/search?q=[ USER NAME ]&client_id=[ YOU APP Client ID ]

For Example:

https://api.instagram.com/v1/users/search?q=zeeshanakhter2009&client_id=enter_your_id

Result:

{"meta":{"code":200},"data":[{"username":"zeeshanakhter2009","bio":"http://about.me/zeeshanakhter","website":"http://zeeshanakhter.com","profile_picture":"http://images.ak.instagram.com/profiles/profile_202090411_75sq_1377878261.jpg","full_name":"Zeeshan Akhter","id":"202090411"}]}

Most of the methods are obsolete since June, 1/2016 api changes

Below worked for me,

• access instagram on your browser say chrome, safari or firefox.
• Launch developer tools, go to console option.

• on command prompt enter below command and hit enter:

  window._sharedData.entry_data.ProfilePage[0].user.id
  

If you are lucky, you will get at first attempt, if not, be patient, refresh the page and try again. keep doing until you see user-id. Good luck!!

Instead of using the API, one can examine the Instagram userpage to get the id. Example code in PHP:

$html = file_get_contents("http://instagram.com/<username>");
$doc = new DOMDocument();
$doc->loadHTML($html);

$xpath = new DOMXPath($doc);
$js = $xpath->query('//body/script[@type="text/javascript"]')->item(1)->nodeValue;

$start = strpos($js, '{');
$end = strrpos($js, ';');
$json = substr($js, $start, $end - $start);

$data = json_decode($json, true);
$data = $data["entry_data"]["UserProfile"][0];
# The "userMedia" entry of $data now has the same structure as the "data" field
# in Instagram API responses to user endpoints queries

echo $data["user"]["id"];

Of course, this code has to be adapted if Instagram changes its page format.