Does this catch every mention of a brand?

No — only posts that tag the account. Captions that name the brand without a tag, and posts from private accounts, aren't returned.

Are the results newest first?

Not necessarily. They follow the account's tagged feed. Use the timestamp field to sort or filter.

Do I pay for lookups that come back empty?

No. You are charged per result, so a request that finds nothing costs nothing. Testing this against a messy list is free to get wrong.

5 points per returned post, which is $5 per 1,000, capped by max_items.

Social media

Instagram Mentions API and MCP — Posts That Tag an Account

Send an Instagram username or profile URL and this source returns posts by other accounts that tag it: who posted, caption, hashtags, mentions, likes, comments, location and date.

Run it in the app Read the API docs

You send: An Instagram username or profile URL
You get back: Posts from other accounts that tag it, with author, caption and engagement
Coverage: Public Instagram posts that tag the given account.
Price: 5 points per returned post, up to 1,000 per request — $5 per 1,000; Billed per post actually returned, capped by max_items. An account nobody tags costs nothing.

Comparison

Ways to get this data

Three approaches teams use today, and where each one runs into trouble.

Approach	What it takes	Cost	Trade-off
Checking the Tagged tab	Open the profile's tagged posts and scroll	Free, and slow	Not practical to track over time or across competitors
A UGC or listening platform	Connect accounts, buy seats	Monthly or annual contract	Built around your own brand accounts
NeuralVerge	One request per account	$5 per 1,000, misses not billed	Only public posts that tag the account — untagged mentions aren't included

Response

What you get back

Every field in the example response below.

Field	Type	Description
`total_items`	number	How many posts came back.
`items[].id`	string	Instagram's media ID.
`items[].short_code`	string	The code in the post's URL.
`items[].url`	string	Direct link to the post.
`items[].type`	string	Image, Video or Sidecar (a carousel).
`items[].caption`	string	Post caption.
`items[].hashtags`	array	Hashtags in the caption.
`items[].mentions`	array	Accounts mentioned in the caption.
`items[].timestamp`	string	When the post was published (ISO 8601).
`items[].likes_count`	number	Likes on the post.
`items[].comments_count`	number	Comments on the post.
`items[].video_play_count`	number \| null	Plays, for videos and reels.
`items[].video_duration`	number \| null	Video length in seconds.
`items[].display_url`	string	The main image or video cover.
`items[].video_url`	string \| null	The video file, for videos and reels.
`items[].owner_username`	string	The account that published the post.
`items[].location_name`	string \| null	The tagged location, if any.
`items[].tagged_users`	array	Accounts tagged in the media.
`items[].is_sponsored`	boolean	Whether the post is marked as sponsored.
`items[].music`	object \| null	Audio used: artist, song and whether it's original audio.

Response

Example response

A real response, as returned.

{
  "session_id": "9fced2f3-f7b5-4938-afdf-8bc8c84d9839",
  "kind": "instagram_mentions",
  "url": "https://www.instagram.com/natgeo/",
  "max_items": 2,
  "partial": false,
  "machine": {
    "total_items": 2,
    "items": [
      {
        "id": "1929261108986102451",
        "short_code": "BrGHMHIF8Kz",
        "url": "https://www.instagram.com/p/BrGHMHIF8Kz/",
        "type": "Image",
        "caption": "Vardzia is a cave monastery site located in southern Georgia. It is excavated from the slopes of the Erusheti Mountain on the left side of the Kura River. … #georgia #exploregeorgia #MavicPro …",
        "hashtags": ["georgia", "exploregeorgia", "MavicPro", "natgeo", "…"],
        "timestamp": "2018-12-07T18:04:27.000Z",
        "likes_count": 14040,
        "comments_count": 583,
        "owner_username": "hyn…",
        "owner_full_name": "Hynek",
        "location_name": "Vardzia, Aspindzis Raioni, Georgia",
        "tagged_users": ["natgeo", "natgeotravel", "wonderful_places", "djiglobal", "georgiatravel", "…"],
        "is_sponsored": false
      },
      {
        "id": "1929229904589027835",
        "short_code": "BrGAGBxFvn7",
        "url": "https://www.instagram.com/p/BrGAGBxFvn7/",
        "type": "Image",
        "caption": "No helmet needed once your on Cát Bà Island. . Cát Bà Island || Vietnam … Shot on EOS T3i and SIGMA 85mm F1.4 EX DG HSM …",
        "hashtags": ["vietnam", "vietnamtravel", "Canon", "canonphotography", "…"],
        "timestamp": "2018-12-07T17:02:28.000Z",
        "likes_count": 6179,
        "comments_count": 180,
        "owner_username": "sam…",
        "owner_full_name": "Samuel",
        "location_name": "Tàu Cát Bà Xanh",
        "tagged_users": ["natgeo", "natgeotv", "natgeotravel", "canonusa", "…"],
        "is_sponsored": false
      }
    ],
    "errors": []
  },
  "total_points": 10
}

Integration

How to run it

The same lookup works from the app, the API, or as a tool an agent can call mid-task.

This endpoint is synchronous: the call blocks until the lookup completes and returns the records directly. If a lookup hits its time budget before finishing, the response comes back with partial: true and whatever it collected so far — re-run with a smaller max_items for a complete result. url is required and accepts a username or profile URL. Optional: max_items (1-1,000, default 20).

curl -X POST https://api.neuralverge.ai/functions/v1/run-instagram-mentions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "url": "natgeo", "max_items": 20 }'

Use cases

What teams use it for

Where this field shows up in an actual workflow.

User-generated content

Find the customers and creators who post about a brand and tag it.

Unpaid advocacy

Spot accounts that already endorse a brand — candidates for a partnership.

Competitor reputation

See who tags a competitor and what they say about it.

Product usage research

Look at real photos of a product in use, with location and context.

Coverage & limits

Coverage, freshness and limits

What this source covers, how fresh it is, and where it stops.

Coverage

Public Instagram posts that tag the given account.

Freshness

Read at request time.

Handling

This source returns content an account published publicly, stamped with the URL it was read from and a session id you can trace. Accounts can belong to individuals as well as brands — use it for legitimate business purposes under your own lawful basis and check the acceptable use policy.

What it will not do

—Results follow the account's tagged feed, which isn't strictly newest first — in the sample above the posts are from 2018. Sort or filter by timestamp downstream.
—Posts that name the brand in a caption without tagging it are not included.
—Tagged posts on private accounts are not visible.

FAQ

Questions, answered

Yes — every Data Source endpoint, including this one, is synchronous: the lookup runs inside the request and the result comes back in the same response, no polling. If a lookup hits its time budget before finishing, the response comes back with partial: true and whatever records it collected so far — re-run with a smaller max_items to get a complete result instead of a partial one.

Related sources

Instagram posts

What the account itself publishes.

Instagram profile

Vet the accounts that tag the brand.

All social media sources

Profiles, posts, comments and videos across the major social platforms.

Try instagram mentions on your own data

One request format across every source in the catalog.

Get started