Instapper — Instagram Scraper — MAHMETT

Instapper — Grab Thumbnails. Instantly.

Instapper is a lightweight, privacy-first browser extension that lets you grab image thumbnails from Instagram hashtag and profile pages in seconds. No account required. No server involved. Everything runs locally in your browser.

What It Does
Instagram doesn't offer a built-in way to bulk-download thumbnails from hashtag feeds, profile grids, or explore pages. Instapper solves this by automatically scrolling through Instagram pages, detecting post thumbnails as they load, and collecting them for instant export — either as a CSV list of image URLs or as a ZIP archive of the actual image files.
Whether you're a content creator curating inspiration, a researcher analyzing visual trends, or a developer building datasets, Instapper makes thumbnail extraction effortless.

Key Features

Smart Auto-Scroll & Scrape
Instapper doesn't just jump to the bottom of the page. It uses smooth, natural scrolling combined with MutationObserver to detect new content as it loads. The scraper intelligently waits for Instagram's lazy-loading to finish before collecting images, ensuring you get every thumbnail without duplicates.

Precise Image Detection
Unlike crude scrapers that grab every image on the page (including avatars, icons, and UI elements), Instapper uses a multi-layered filtering system. It targets images specifically inside post links (/p/ and /reel/ paths), filters out profile photos by alt-text detection, excludes story tray images, and skips anything smaller than a valid thumbnail. The result: only the images you actually want.

Pop-Out to New Window
Inspired by Bitwarden's approach, Instapper lets you pop the extension into a standalone window that stays open while you browse. This means you can monitor scraping progress, check your thumbnail count, and manage exports without losing sight of the Instagram page you're working on.

Multi-Page Navigation
A clean bottom tab bar lets you switch between the Extract page, History, and About — all with smooth slide transitions. The last visited page is remembered, so your workflow picks up right where you left off.

Scraping History
Every scraping session is automatically saved with the source URL, thumbnail count, and the collected image links. Browse your history, view session details, and re-download CSV or ZIP exports anytime. History is capped at 50 sessions with automatic cleanup of the oldest entries.

Persistent Export
Start an export, switch tabs, even close the popup — the export continues in the background. Instapper uses Chrome's offscreen document API (and Firefox's background page) to ensure ZIP creation and downloads complete regardless of what you do with the popup.

CSV & ZIP Export
Export your collected thumbnails in two formats:
- CSV — a clean list of image URLs, perfect for scripts, spreadsheets, or further processing
- ZIP — the actual image files bundled into a single downloadable archive
Both exports run directly in the popup for maximum reliability, with progress tracking and cancel support.

Dark & Light Theme
A proper theme system with dark mode as default. Toggle between themes with a single click. The dark theme makes thumbnails pop while keeping the interface comfortable for extended use.

Animated Lucide Icons
Every icon in the interface uses Lucide's animated icon library with context-aware animations — hover effects on buttons, bounce on active states, rotation on theme toggle, and subtle transitions throughout.

Privacy & Security
Instapper is built with privacy as a core principle:
- No account required — everything works without signing in
- No server communication — no data leaves your browser, ever
- No telemetry — zero analytics, zero tracking
- No host_permissions abuse — only accesses Instagram and its CDN domains
- Local storage only — all data (thumbnails, history, settings) stays in your browser's local storage

The extension declares data_collection_permissions: none for Firefox's built-in consent system, confirming that no data is collected or transmitted.

Technical Details
- Cross-browser: Chrome MV3 and Firefox via WXT framework
- Modern stack: Svelte 5 (runes), TypeScript, Tailwind CSS v4, bits-ui
- Zero external dependencies at runtime: all logic runs locally
- Lightweight: ~700KB total bundle size
- Type-safe: full TypeScript coverage with strict mode
- Tested: Vitest unit tests for core logic functions
- Automated quality: Biome for linting/formatting, Lefthook for git hooks

How It Works
1. Open Instagram and navigate to a hashtag page (e.g., /explore/tags/photography/) or a profile page
2. Click the Instapper icon and hit Auto Scroll & Scrape
3. Watch the counter climb as thumbnails are collected
4. Stop when you have enough, then export as CSV or ZIP

The scraper uses a two-stage detection system: first targeting images directly inside post links (highest confidence), then falling back to broader article-based detection with strict filtering. Images are deduplicated automatically, and the collection persists across popup close/reopen cycles.