Analyze which Instagram Reels get views in your niche
Get Instagram Reels from any profile as JSON, with caption, views, likes, comments, video URL and date, to see which short videos perform in your niche.
Short video decides reach on Instagram now, but you cannot see how a rival's reels do beyond the numbers on the tile, one at a time. Finding the formats that win in your niche takes a dataset. Lovely Router reads the reels tab of any profile. Send profile URLs, get one JSON object per reel, pay per reel from a prepaid balance. Call it from a content report, a script or an AI agent with one API key.
Hand it to your AI agent
Copy this prompt into Claude Code, Cursor, Codex or any coding agent. It tells the agent where the docs are and how to use your API key.
Analyze which Instagram Reels get views in your niche. Use the Lovely Router data tools: each returns JSON and is billed per result.
- Docs (read first): https://lovelyrouter.com/docs/tools/find.md and https://lovelyrouter.com/docs/tools/run.md
- Plan first: POST https://lovelyrouter.com/v1/tools/suggest with `{"task": "<my task in plain words>"}` (free). It returns the tools to run in order, each with an example `input`, the `input_required` fields, an estimated cost and a ready-made `run` request. Replace the example values with my task's; if a field is unclear, read the tool with GET https://lovelyrouter.com/v1/tools/<id>. To browse instead, POST https://lovelyrouter.com/v1/tools/discover searches the catalog.
- Show me the plan and its estimated cost (`total_est_cost_usd`) before running anything large.
- Run: POST https://lovelyrouter.com/v1/tools/<id>/run with `{"input": {...}, "max_results": N}`. A 200 has the finished run with `items`; a 202 means it is still running, so poll the `poll` path until `status` is `succeeded`, `failed`, `timed_out` or `stopped`.
- Only delivered results are billed. Keep max_results small on the first run, check the output, then scale up.
- If you support MCP, connect https://lovelyrouter.com/mcp instead (Streamable HTTP, same key; https://lovelyrouter.com/docs/tools/mcp.md) and use suggest_tools, get_tool and run_tool.
- Auth: read my API key from the LOVELY_API_KEY environment variable and send it as `Authorization: Bearer $LOVELY_API_KEY`. Never print or commit the key. If it is not set, ask me to create one at https://lovelyrouter.com/app/keys.
- Billing is prepaid: every call is charged to my balance, so test with a small request before running anything large.
- Every docs page is plain Markdown; the full index is https://lovelyrouter.com/llms.txt.
My task: <the inputs (links, keywords or accounts) and how many results you need>How it works
Choose the accounts
The creators and brands whose reels your audience watches.
Run the tool with a cap
Send the reels tabs in
startUrlstoPOST /v1/tools/instagram-reels/run, withmaxItemsininputas the cap anduntilto keep recent reels.Find what repeats
Sort by views, read the captions and watch the top clips. Note the hooks, lengths and topics that show up more than once.
Get reels with one request
Get Instagram Reels takes the reels tab of a profile in startUrls, and usernames work too:
curl https://lovelyrouter.com/v1/tools/instagram-reels/run \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $LOVELY_API_KEY" \
-H "content-type: application/json" \
-d '{
"input": {
"startUrls": [
"https://www.instagram.com/natgeo/reels/"
],
"until": "2026-09-27",
"maxItems": 40
},
"max_results": 40
}'Each reel carries its caption, views, likes, comments, video URL and date. A run still going after 60 seconds returns 202; Run a tool shows how to poll.
What each reel holds
| Field group | What you get |
|---|---|
| Content | Caption and video URL |
| Reach | Views |
| Engagement | Likes and comments |
| Timing | Date |
Recipes
Pull 40 reels from five accounts in your niche, sort by views, and write down the opening lines of the top ten captions.
Join reels with instagram-profile and find accounts whose reels beat their follower count.
Group reels by weekday and compare average views.
Send the top reels' captions and video URLs to your editor as reference for the next batch.
Run one competitor every month with until set, and watch how views per reel change.
Prefer plain words? Connect the MCP server and tell Claude Code or Cursor: "Get the 30 latest reels from these five Instagram accounts, rank them by views and show caption, views, likes and date for the top ten. Set maxItems and max_results to 150."
Pair it with posts and tag research
Reels are the video side. Add the rest:
Reels from Instagram profiles: caption, views, likes, comments, video URL, date.
Recent posts from Instagram profiles: caption, likes, comments count, media, owner with follower counts, date.
Posts or reels for Instagram hashtags or keywords: caption, likes, comments, author, media.
Search Instagram for users, places or hashtags by keyword.
A TikTok account's videos with the author's follower and like counts.
instagram-postscovers the photo and carousel posts of the same accounts.instagram-hashtagfinds reels under a tag or popular reels for a keyword.instagram-searchfinds the accounts to watch by keyword.tiktok-profilecompares the same creators on TikTok.
See music videos for another short-video workflow.
What you pay
You pay per reel: starting a run holds its maximum cost, the per-call fee plus the per-reel fee times max_results, and the run settles to what it returned. The rest of the hold goes back to your balance. A run that fails or times out pays only for the reels it delivered, and a run refused at the start costs nothing.
Reading 40 reels from each of 5 accounts is billed as 200 reels. There is no subscription and no monthly minimum: top up from $5, and one balance pays for tools and models. The card above shows today's price; pricing lists every tool.
Frequently asked questions
Do I get view counts?+
Yes. Each reel includes its views, likes and comments.
Can I use usernames instead of URLs?+
Yes. startUrls takes the reels tab of a profile, and usernames work too.
How many reels can one run return?+
Up to 200, set with maxItems.
Can I download the video?+
Each result has the video URL. What you do with the file is your decision, and you should respect the creator's rights.
Do I need a subscription?+
No. You add credit to a prepaid balance and each run draws it down. Failed runs pay only for the results they delivered, and nothing renews automatically.
Researching short-form video more broadly? See social listening, influencer research and the tool catalog.