# Instagram Influencers by Country With One Reels Search (https://www.socialcrawl.dev/blog/instagram-reels-search-by-country)
> Find Instagram influencers by country in one Reels search with region, country and include=creator. Our country=ES call kept 27 reels, all by creators in Spain.
One GET to `/v1/instagram/search/reels` finds Instagram influencers by country. `region` localises the Reels search to a market, `include=creator` attaches each creator's profile card to every reel, and `country` keeps only the creators whose About this account country matches.
We ran six calls on 2 October 2026. `query=restaurantes&country=ES` returned 27 reels, and all 27 came from creators who show Spain on their About this account panel (51 credits). A plain `query=fitness` search returned 30 reels, and none of them carried a creator country.
The calls below go through the SocialCrawl API with one API key. Every response is trimmed from the real one, and the six calls cost 166 credits in total.
## Why does a plain Instagram Reels search ignore the market?
Instagram does not list country as a search signal. Its own description of search says "the text you enter in the search bar is by far the most important signal", followed by your activity and popularity ([Instagram, "Breaking Down How Instagram Search Works"](https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/break-down-how-instagram-search-works)). Its ranking explainer lists your activity, your history with the poster, and information about the reel and the poster for Reels, with no country or language among them ([Instagram Ranking Explained](https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/instagram-ranking-explained)). Those are Instagram's published descriptions, not something we tested.
The official Graph API has no way around it. Hashtag search allows a maximum of 30 unique hashtags in a 7 day period ([reference](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/instagram-platform/instagram-graph-api/reference/ig-hashtag-search)). Recent media only returns posts from the last 24 hours and refuses the `username` field ([reference](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/instagram-platform/instagram-graph-api/reference/ig-hashtag/recent-media)). Business Discovery needs the target `username` up front and returns follower and media counts with no country field ([reference](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/instagram-platform/instagram-graph-api/reference/ig-user/business_discovery)). If you are weighing providers, [Instagram data API options](/blog/best-instagram-data-apis-2026) compares them, and the older route is covered in [scraping Instagram](/blog/how-to-scrape-instagram-2026).
Here is the baseline, a plain Reels search with nothing added.
```bash
curl -s -H "x-api-key: $SOCIALCRAWL_API_KEY" \
"https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/instagram/search/reels?query=fitness"
```
It returned 30 reels from 30 distinct creators for 1 credit. `post.ext.author_country` was empty on all 30, and `data` held no `region`, `country` or `hydration` block. You get reels, and no way to tell which market any of them belongs to.
## How does Instagram Reels search by region work?
Add `region` with an ISO-2 code and the query gets localised.
```bash
curl -s -H "x-api-key: $SOCIALCRAWL_API_KEY" \
"https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/instagram/search/reels?query=fitness®ion=ES"
```
The response says what it ran:
```json
"region": { "requested": "ES", "method": "localised_query", "query_sent": "fitness españa" }
```
`query_sent` shows the exact string that ran. Here the API appended the market's own term to your keyword, and a query that already names the market is sent as it is. The page cost 1 credit, the same as the baseline, and returned 30 reels from 24 distinct creators. Creator fields were still null on all 30, because no creator card was requested.
So `region` changes which reels you get and nothing else. To see who made them, you ask for the card.
## How do you get each creator's profile card in the same call?
Add `include=creator`.
```bash
curl -s -H "x-api-key: $SOCIALCRAWL_API_KEY" \
"https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/instagram/search/reels?query=fitness®ion=ES&include=creator"
```
The response gained a `hydration` block (trimmed):
```json
"region": { "requested": "ES", "method": "localised_query", "query_sent": "fitness españa" },
"hydration": { "include": "creator", "rows": 27, "looked_up": 27, "filled": 27, "cached": 0, "unfilled": 0, "extra_credits": 34 }
```
All 27 rows were filled. They came from 17 distinct creators, and the extra credits were 34, which is 2 per distinct creator. The page cost 35 credits, which is 1 + 2 × 17. Each item in `data.items` wraps the reel in a `post` object. The first one looks like this (trimmed, with the email replaced by a marker):
```json
{
"post": {
"url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUatxBdkj4d/",
"author": { "username": "lapizarraexplica" },
"engagement": { "views": 78154, "likes": 5196, "comments": 38 },
"ext": {
"author_followers": 488746,
"author_country": "Spain",
"author_following": 0,
"author_posts_count": 292,
"author_public_email": "[present, redacted]"
}
}
}
```
Followers, following, post count, country and a public email arrive on the reel row, so you do not open 17 profiles to get them. For what the public email and About this account fields look like on their own, see [public email and About this account fields](/blog/instagram-email-finder).
Counts from this one response:
| Measure | Count |
| --- | ---: |
| Reels whose creator shows Spain | 20 of 27 |
| Reels whose creator shows Mexico | 1 of 27 |
| `author_country` null | 6 of 27 |
| `author_followers` filled | 27 of 27 |
| Creator publishes an email (presence only) | 16 of 27 |
| Creator publishes a phone | 0 of 27 |
| Distinct creators | 17 |
That is 20 of 27 reels (74%) from Instagram creators in Spain on a Spanish-localised query. The plain call carries no country, so there is no plain-call share to compare it with.
### What does author_country mean?
`post.ext.author_country` is the country Instagram shows on the creator's About this account panel. Instagram introduced that panel in 2018 for accounts that reach large audiences, listing "the country where the account is located" among its fields ([Instagram announcement](https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/instagram-verification-and-authentication-tool-updates)). Metricool's help centre says Instagram derives the country from the IP address most often used to access the account, the regional settings of the device and app, and frequent activity from a region, and that owners cannot change it by hand ([Metricool](https://help.metricool.com/why-does-instagram-show-a-different-location-on-my-account-rmi58)).
A null means Instagram does not publish a country for that creator. Nothing is guessed. It was 6 of 27 here.
Three different countries get mixed up in influencer search, and `country` matches only the first.
| Signal | What it is | Where it comes from |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Creator country | Where the account is based | About this account, Instagram's estimate |
| Reel location | Where the post says it was made | An optional geotag picked at upload ([How-To Geek](https://www.howtogeek.com/340566/are-location-tagged-photos-really-a-privacy-concern/)) |
| Audience location | Where followers and engagers are | Owner-only Insights, or third-party estimates |
## How do you keep only Instagram influencers in one country?
Send `country` instead of `region`. You do not need to send both, because the localised query is applied automatically.
```bash
curl -s -H "x-api-key: $SOCIALCRAWL_API_KEY" \
"https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/instagram/search/reels?query=restaurantes&country=ES"
```
Captured blocks (trimmed):
```json
"region": { "requested": "ES", "method": "localised_query", "query_sent": "restaurantes españa" },
"country": { "requested": "ES", "kept": 27, "dropped_other": 0, "dropped_unknown": 0 },
"hydration": { "rows": 27, "looked_up": 27, "filled": 27, "extra_credits": 50 }
```
All 27 kept rows showed `author_country: "Spain"`. The page cost 51 credits (1 + 2 × 25 distinct creators). Of the 27 reels, 22 came from creators who publish an email and 5 from creators who publish a phone number. We only count them here, since those are the creators' own contact details and none of them belong in a blog post.
### What do the dropped counts look like?
The Korean market gave a mixed page. `query=skincare&country=KR` came back with:
```json
"region": { "requested": "KR", "method": "localised_query", "query_sent": "skincare 한국" },
"country": { "requested": "KR", "kept": 9, "dropped_other": 2, "dropped_unknown": 1 },
"hydration": { "rows": 12, "looked_up": 12, "filled": 12, "extra_credits": 24 }
```
The API looked up 12 reels' creators and kept 9 rows. Two rows showed another country, and one had no country at all. The page cost 25 credits (1 + 2 × 12), so the 3 dropped rows were billed along with the 9 you received. All 9 kept rows showed `South Korea`, all 9 had followers, 7 of 9 came from creators who publish an email, and none publish a phone. One of them was `dr.g_official`, verified, with 65,107 followers.
The query was in Latin script, so `region=KR` appended `한국` to it. If no creator matches at all, the documented answer is a 200 with empty `items` and a `country_no_match` warning, and the lookups are still charged. We did not trigger that case in this run, so there is no response to show.
### Does it work outside Spain?
We ran Mexico with `region` and `include=creator`, not `country`:
```bash
curl -s -H "x-api-key: $SOCIALCRAWL_API_KEY" \
"https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/instagram/search/reels?query=restaurantes®ion=MX&include=creator"
```
`query_sent` was `restaurantes méxico`. It returned 27 reels for 53 credits (1 + 2 × 26 distinct creators). The creator cards showed Mexico on 26 of 27 rows and the United States on 1. Since this call had no `country` parameter, nothing filtered that row out, and the one US row is the reason `country` exists. In the same 27 rows, 16 came from creators who publish an email and 7 from creators who publish a phone.
Local-interest topics, such as restaurants and skincare, localised well in these calls. Our launch measurements found that topics often made by visitors, such as travel, return fewer local creators, and `country` keeps only the market's creators whatever the query returns. These are single queries on a single page per market, so do not read 20 of 27, 27 of 27, 26 of 27 or 9 of 9 as market shares. Handles and reels rotate, and a rerun will differ.
## Which markets are supported, and what does a call cost?
Six markets are supported, using ISO-2 codes: ES, MX, DE, BR, KR and FR. This run exercised ES, MX and KR. Anything else, including `country=US`, returns a free 400.
Credits across the six calls, as observed:
| Call | Request shape | Rows | Credits |
| --- | --- | ---: | ---: |
| 1 | `query=fitness` | 30 | 1 |
| 2 | `region=ES` | 30 | 1 |
| 3 | `region=ES&include=creator` | 27 | 35 (1 + 2 × 17) |
| 4 | `country=ES` | 27 | 51 (1 + 2 × 25) |
| 5 | `country=KR` | 9 | 25 (1 + 2 × 12) |
| 6 | `region=MX&include=creator` | 27 | 53 (1 + 2 × 26) |
A plain page and a `region` page cost 1 credit. With `include=creator` or `country`, each of these calls cost 1 credit plus 2 for each distinct creator looked up, which is the documented price. Two reels by one creator are one lookup, a creator that cannot be found is refunded, and a creator looked up in the last 15 minutes is free, so a rerun can cost less. Each extra page you request is billed on top.
## How is this different from an Instagram creator marketplace?
Instagram influencer marketing platforms and creator databases filter on their own index of creators. Modash has separate location filters for where the creator is based and where the audience is ([Modash](https://www.modash.io/blog/how-to-find-local-influencers)), and builds the audience figure from location tags, languages, captions, bios and other signals from followers ([Modash help](https://help.modash.io/en/articles/13715083-understanding-audience-demographics-and-insights)). HypeAuditor estimates audience location from the engaged audience, mainly people who comment, because many Instagram users do not disclose a location ([HypeAuditor](https://help.hypeauditor.com/en/articles/3433448-how-do-you-detect-instagram-audience-location)). Those tools estimate where a creator's audience is, which this call does not.
This call starts from current Reels on a topic and returns the creator card on each row. Other Reels-by-country scrapers exist too, and one Apify actor says its country is request context that "does not prove where a Reel was created" ([Apify actor page](https://apify.com/datascraperes/instagram-reels-discovery-scraper)). Here the country comes from each creator's About this account panel, and the `country` block reports what was kept and dropped.
## Is country search the same on Instagram and TikTok?
`region` and `country` are ISO-2 codes and mean the same things on both platforms, but Instagram accepts only the six markets above, while TikTok user search also takes codes such as `US`. The mechanism differs too. On Instagram, `region` localises the query, and `data.region.method` tells you so. TikTok searches from the market. The pricing differs as well, since Instagram bills 1 plus 2 per creator looked up.
For TikTok, [TikTok user search by country](/blog/find-tiktok-creators-by-country) covers `country` on user search, and [region on TikTok video search](/blog/tiktok-video-search-api) covers the video side. Both use the same API key, so one integration reaches both platforms.
## How do you run this yourself?
A SocialCrawl account comes with 100 free credits on signup and no card ([pricing](/pricing)). Send the key in `x-api-key`, and add `Cache-Control: no-cache` so you get a fresh page instead of a cached one.
```bash
curl -s -H "x-api-key: $SOCIALCRAWL_API_KEY" \
-H "Cache-Control: no-cache" \
"https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/instagram/search/reels?query=fitness®ion=ES&include=creator" \
| jq '[.data.items[].post.ext.author_country] | map(select(. == "Spain")) | length'
```
The `jq` filter counts the reels whose creator shows Spain. Expect a different number than 20, because handles rotate. To see the payload before writing a single line, open the [explorer](/explorer). The parameter table is in [the Instagram docs](/docs/instagram), and [Reels stats for the reels you found](/blog/instagram-reels-stats-api) covers the next step once you have a list.
## Frequently asked questions
### Can I search Instagram Reels by country?
Yes, for six markets. `region` localises the Reels search to a market by adding its own term to your query, and `country` goes further and keeps only reels whose creator shows that country on About this account.
### Which countries does Instagram Reels search by country support?
Six, as ISO-2 codes: ES, MX, DE, BR, KR and FR. Any other code, including `US`, returns a 400 that costs 0 credits and lists the valid values.
### How do I find Instagram influencers in a specific country?
Call `/v1/instagram/search/reels` with a topic and `country`. In our `query=restaurantes&country=ES` call, all 27 kept reels came from creators showing Spain, follower counts were filled on all 27 rows, and 22 rows came from creators who publish an email. Handles rotate, so a rerun returns different creators.
### How do I get an Instagram creator's country and follower count without opening each profile?
Add `include=creator` to the Reels search. Each row gets `post.ext.author_country` and `post.ext.author_followers` from the creator lookup. In our `query=fitness®ion=ES&include=creator` call, followers came back on 27 of 27 rows from 17 creators, for 35 credits in one call.
### Does the Instagram Graph API let me search Reels by country?
The reference pages for hashtag search, hashtag recent media and Business Discovery list no country parameter. Hashtag search is capped at 30 unique hashtags in 7 days, recent media covers the last 24 hours and cannot return `username`, and Business Discovery needs a known username.
### How many credits does a Reels search with creator cards cost?
A plain or `region` search cost 1 credit in our calls. With `include=creator` or `country`, the calls cost 1 credit plus 2 per distinct creator looked up, which came to 25 to 53 credits across the four calls that used them. Lookups are billed whether or not a row is kept.
### Is the creator's country where the reel was filmed?
No. `author_country` is the country Instagram shows on the creator's About this account panel. It says nothing about where a reel was filmed or where the audience lives. A null means Instagram does not publish a country for that creator, and nothing is guessed.
### Can I get an Instagram creator's public email from a Reels search?
Where the creator publishes one, yes. Presence counts across the four calls that returned creator cards were 16 of 27, 22 of 27, 7 of 9 and 16 of 27 rows. These are the creators' own published details, so handle them under your own data-protection rules.
### Does Reels search by country work the same as TikTok search?
The `region` and `country` parameters are ISO-2 codes on both, but Instagram accepts six markets. The mechanism and the pricing differ. Instagram localises the query and bills 1 plus 2 per creator looked up, while TikTok searches from the market. See [TikTok user search by country](/blog/find-tiktok-creators-by-country) for that side.