Instagram does not offer an RSS feed. The public feeds it once exposed were removed with the 2018 API changes, and nothing has replaced them. To follow or syndicate an Instagram account today you need a third-party RSS converter, an automation tool, the official Graph API, or a service that returns the posts as JSON.
What Happened to Instagram RSS?
Instagram never published an “RSS feed” button, but for years it exposed enough public data through its API that third-party tools could fake one. That access closed in stages.
In April 2018, in the fallout from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook cut back API access across Instagram and Facebook, ending the old, loosely-restricted Instagram Platform API. Instagram then deprecated features in two waves: Follower List, Relationships, and commenting on public content went on July 31, 2018, and on December 11, 2018, Public Content, meaning the ability to read any public profile’s info and media, went with it. That December 2018 change is the one that actually killed RSS-style tools, since it removed the exact endpoint they scraped or called to build a feed.
Instagram’s Basic Display API, introduced afterward, offered a narrower replacement: it could return a user’s own posts as JSON, but only for the account that authorized it, not for following someone else. That, too, is gone. Meta announced its shutdown on September 4, 2024, and it stopped responding entirely on December 4, 2024, replaced by the Instagram API with Instagram Login, which requires a Business or Creator account and a Meta developer app.
If you want the fuller picture of how RSS itself is supposed to work, we cover that in how do RSS feeds work.
4 Ways to Get an Instagram Feed Into RSS or a Reader
RSS converter services
A category of small tools that scrape a public Instagram profile or hashtag page and repackage the posts as an RSS feed URL you can paste into a reader. Good for a quick, no-code fix. The limits: they run on scraping rather than an official API, so they break whenever Instagram changes its markup, they often rate-limit how often the feed refreshes, and most charge beyond a single feed.
Automation tools
General-purpose automation platforms that connect apps together can watch your own connected Instagram account and push new posts elsewhere, including into an RSS-style feed in some setups. Good for: simple personal workflows. The limits: they only work for an account you connect and authorize yourself, not for following someone else, and there’s usually a delay between a post going live and the automation firing.
The Instagram Graph API
Meta’s official API. Good for: reliable, sanctioned access. The limits: it only returns data for your own Business or Creator account, not for other public accounts, and you need a registered Meta developer app that has passed Meta’s app review before you get real access. It returns JSON, not RSS, so you’d still need to convert it yourself.
A social feed API, such as Juicer.io’s
An API that fetches posts from any public Instagram account or hashtag and returns them as normalized JSON, with webhooks so you’re notified when new posts arrive, and no Meta developer app of your own to register or get reviewed. This isn’t RSS either, but it’s the kind of data source an RSS converter tool would be built on top of. See the Instagram API, or the full reference at developers.juicer.io.
If You Wanted RSS to Show Instagram on Your Website
Most “instagram rss” searches turn out to really mean “how do I get my Instagram posts onto my site.” If that’s the actual goal, RSS is the wrong tool even when it works. A feed widget can pull your Instagram posts directly, updates on its own without you touching a converter or a script, and can mix in Facebook, TikTok, and X posts in the same feed instead of juggling a separate RSS reader per platform. See Juicer’s Instagram feed.
Turn JSON Into RSS Yourself (For Developers)
If you specifically need an RSS file, generating your own from a JSON feed is a small, fairly mechanical script. Here’s a working example against the Juicer Data API, verify field names against developers.juicer.io if you’re building this for production, since API responses can change.
async function buildInstagramRss(username) {
const res = await fetch(https://api.juicer.io/v1/data/posts?term=${username}&platforms=Instagram,
{ headers: { Authorization: Bearer ${process.env.JUICER_API_KEY} } }
);
const { data } = await res.json();
const items = data.map(post => <item> <title><![CDATA[${(post.message || "").slice(0, 80)}]]></title> <link>${post.url}</link> <guid isPermaLink="false">${post.platform_id}</guid> <pubDate>${new Date(post.post_created_at).toUTCString()}</pubDate> <description><![CDATA[${post.message || ""}]]></description> </item>).join(“”);
return <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <rss version="2.0"><channel> <title>Instagram: @${username}</title> <link>https://instagram.com/${username}</link> <description>Latest Instagram posts</description> ${items} </channel></rss>;
}
A note on caching: don’t call this on every request to your feed URL. RSS readers poll on their own schedule, sometimes every few minutes, and hitting a live API on each one is wasteful and can run you into rate limits. Generate the XML on a timer instead, every 15 to 60 minutes is typical, cache it, and serve the cached file to readers.
FAQ
Does Instagram have an RSS feed in 2026?
No. Instagram has never offered a dedicated RSS feed, and the API access that let third-party tools fake one closed for good between the December 2018 deprecations and the Basic Display API’s shutdown in December 2024.
Can I get an RSS feed for a hashtag?
Not directly from Instagram. A social feed API that supports hashtag lookups, including Juicer’s, can pull the posts for you as JSON, which you can then format into RSS using a script like the one above.
Is there a free Instagram RSS feed?
Some RSS converter tools offer a free tier for a single feed, though expect it to be rate-limited and prone to breaking. Instagram itself doesn’t offer one at any price.
Why do Instagram RSS converters stop working?
Most of them scrape Instagram’s public pages rather than using an official API. Instagram changes its page markup and blocks scraping traffic periodically, and when it does, those tools break without warning.
Can I follow Instagram in Feedly?
Only indirectly. Feedly needs an actual RSS feed URL to subscribe to, and since Instagram doesn’t publish one, you’d need to point it at a feed produced by a converter tool or a script like the one in this post.
