Docs / Examples / Capture an Instagram Embed | HTML to Image Docs

How to Capture an Instagram Embed as an Image

Render an Instagram post embed as a PNG. Useful for archiving posts, embedding in editorial content or printing.

Want it faster? Use the Instagram Square Post template and skip the embed widget. Send caption text, image and brand color as JSON.

HTML and CSS

<blockquote class="instagram-media"
            data-instgrm-captioned
            data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/POST_ID/"
            data-instgrm-version="14">
</blockquote>
<script async src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>

body { margin: 0; padding: 16px; background: white; }
.instagram-media {
    margin: 0 auto !important;
    min-width: 326px !important;
    max-width: 550px !important;
    width: calc(100% - 2px) !important;
}

ms_delay

Instagram’s embed.js loads asynchronously. Use ms_delay of 1500ms minimum so the post and image render before capture.

Code examples

cURL

curl -X POST https://app.html2img.com/api/html \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "html": "<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-permalink=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/POST_ID/\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\"></blockquote><script async src=\"//www.instagram.com/embed.js\"></script>",
    "css": "body { margin: 0; padding: 16px; background: white; } .instagram-media { margin: 0 auto !important; min-width: 326px !important; max-width: 550px !important; }",
    "width": 600,
    "height": 800,
    "ms_delay": 1500
  }'

PHP

$ch = curl_init('https://app.html2img.com/api/html');
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true, CURLOPT_POST => true,
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => ['X-API-Key: ' . getenv('HTML2IMG_API_KEY'), 'Content-Type: application/json'],
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode([
        'html' => '<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/POST_ID/" data-instgrm-version="14"></blockquote><script async src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>',
        'css' => 'body { margin: 0; padding: 16px; background: white; } .instagram-media { margin: 0 auto !important; min-width: 326px !important; max-width: 550px !important; }',
        'width' => 600, 'height' => 800, 'ms_delay' => 1500,
    ]),
]);
$url = json_decode(curl_exec($ch), true)['url'];

Node.js

const response = await fetch('https://app.html2img.com/api/html', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { 'X-API-Key': process.env.HTML2IMG_API_KEY, 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    html: '<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/POST_ID/" data-instgrm-version="14"></blockquote><script async src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>',
    css: 'body { margin: 0; padding: 16px; background: white; } .instagram-media { margin: 0 auto !important; min-width: 326px !important; max-width: 550px !important; }',
    width: 600, height: 800, ms_delay: 1500,
  }),
});
const { url } = await response.json();

Python

import os, requests
response = requests.post(
    'https://app.html2img.com/api/html',
    headers={'X-API-Key': os.environ['HTML2IMG_API_KEY']},
    json={
        'html': '<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/POST_ID/" data-instgrm-version="14"></blockquote><script async src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>',
        'css': 'body { margin: 0; padding: 16px; background: white; } .instagram-media { margin: 0 auto !important; min-width: 326px !important; max-width: 550px !important; }',
        'width': 600, 'height': 800, 'ms_delay': 1500,
    },
)
url = response.json()['url']

Common pitfalls

Embed widget never renders. Instagram throttles automated traffic. The widget can fail entirely on a busy day. Prefer the Instagram Square Post template for reliability.
Post is from a private account. The embed shows a placeholder. Confirm the account is public.
Image lazy-loads after capture. Increase ms_delay to 3000ms if the image is missing from the output.

Documentation