Instagram Comments Harvester

A Python tool for collecting comments from Instagram posts. This tool allows you to efficiently gather comments data and save it in CSV format for further analysis.

✨ Features • 📋 Installation • 📖 Usage • 🤝 Contributing

✨ Features

• 🔍 Collect comments from any public Instagram post
• 💾 Save comments data in CSV format
• ⚡ Fast and efficient data collection
• 🔄 Rate limit handling
• 📊 Progress tracking
• 🎯 Limit number of comments to collect
• 🔑 Session ID management via .env file

📋 Requirements

• Python 3.6+
• Required Python packages:

  requests
  python-dotenv
  

🚀 Installation

1. Clone this repository

   git clone https://github.com/Xractz/instagram-comments-harvester.git
   cd instagram-comments-harvester

2. Install required packages

   pip install -r requirements.txt

🔧 Configuration

Before using the tool, you need to configure your Instagram session ID. You can do this in two ways:

1. Using the command line flag:

   python harvest.py -s "your_session_id_here"

2. Manually creating a .env file:

   session_id=your_session_id_here
   

🔑 How to Get Your Session ID

1. Log in to Instagram in your web browser
2. Open the browser's Developer Tools (F12)
3. Go to Application/Storage > Cookies
4. Find the 'sessionid' cookie
5. Copy the value

📖 Usage

Basic Usage

# Collect comments from a post (default: 100 comments)
python harvest.py -u https://www.instagram.com/p/XXXX

# Collect specific number of comments
python harvest.py -u https://www.instagram.com/p/XXXX -l 500

# Set session ID and collect comments
python harvest.py -s "your_session_id" -u https://www.instagram.com/p/XXXX -l 500

Command Line Arguments

Flag	Description
-u, --url	Instagram post URL to scrape comments from
-l, --limit	Maximum number of comments to collect (default: 100)
-s, --sessionid	Instagram session ID (will be saved to .env file)

📁 Output Format

The tool saves comments in CSV format with the following naming convention:

results/[username]_[post_id]_comments_[timestamp].csv

CSV Columns

• comment_id: Unique identifier for the comment
• media_id: Instagram post identifier
• username: Commenter's username
• full_name: Commenter's full name
• comment_text: Content of the comment
• created_at: Comment timestamp
• likes_count: Number of likes on the comment

⚠️ Important Notes

• This tool is for educational purposes only
• Respect Instagram's rate limits and terms of service
• Be mindful of Instagram's usage policies
• Your session ID is sensitive information - keep it secure
• The tool includes built-in delays to avoid rate limiting

🤝 Contributing

This project is open for everyone! We welcome contributions of all kinds. Here's how you can help:

• 🐛 Report bugs and issues
• 💡 Suggest new features or improvements
• 📚 Improve documentation
• 🔧 Submit pull requests
• 👨‍💻 Review code changes
• ⭐ Star the project if you find it useful

For substantial changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.