Is it legal to export Instagram comments?
Exporting the comments on a public post is common and, for ordinary purposes, generally low-risk — but “it’s public” doesn’t mean “anything goes”. Here is a plain-language look at the rules that apply and the habits that keep you on the right side of them.
Updated Oct 6, 2026 · 8 min read
First: this isn’t legal advice
This guide is general information written by the team behind a comment export tool, not a lawyer, and it isn’t legal advice. Laws differ between countries, and what is appropriate depends on what you do with the data, who you are (a hobbyist, a business, a university) and where you and the commenters are. If you are planning something at scale, something commercial involving personal data, or anything you feel unsure about, talk to a qualified lawyer or your organisation’s data protection officer.
With that said, the questions people ask us are usually simple ones: can I download the comments from my giveaway, my product launch, or a public post I am studying? For those everyday uses, a few principles go a long way.
Public doesn’t mean free of rules
Comments on a public Instagram post can be read by anyone, logged in or not. Collecting what you can already see is very different from breaking into private accounts or getting around a login, and that difference matters both legally and ethically.
But two separate sets of rules still apply to public comments:
- Instagram’s terms — the contract between Instagram and its users, which includes restrictions on automated collection.
- Data protection law — in many places, a username attached to what someone wrote counts as personal data, whether or not it was posted publicly.
Copyright can also come into it if you republish comments word for word in bulk; quoting a few in a report is normally a different matter from publishing thousands.
Instagram’s terms
Instagram’s Terms of Use say users may not collect information from the service in an automated way without Instagram’s permission. Meta has enforced this against large-scale scraping businesses, and courts in different countries have taken different views on how far such terms bind people who access only public pages.
What this means in practice:
- If you run a script or browser extension on your own logged-in account, you are the Instagram user bound by those terms, and the account at risk if Instagram objects to automated activity.
- With a service like IGComments, you don’t log in and nothing runs on your account; you paste a link and receive a file. The service does the fetching, and you are responsible for what you then do with the data.
- For posts on a business or creator account you manage, the official Instagram Graph API is the route Instagram itself provides for accessing your own comments.
We can’t tell you how a particular court would view a particular use, and we won’t pretend the question is settled everywhere. What we can say is that modest, purposeful use of public comments — your own post, your giveaway, a research sample — is a very different thing from harvesting profiles at scale to sell.
GDPR and data protection basics
If you are in the EU or UK, or the commenters are, the GDPR (or UK GDPR) is likely to apply to what you do with the comments, and many other countries have similar laws. You don’t need to be an expert to follow the core ideas:
- Have a reason. Know why you are exporting the comments — running a giveaway, answering customer questions, a research project. Businesses often rely on “legitimate interests” for this kind of processing, which means your interest has to be genuine and balanced against the commenters’ reasonable expectations.
- Purpose limitation. Use the data for that reason, not for something unrelated later. Comments collected to pick a giveaway winner aren’t a marketing list.
- Data minimisation. Keep only what you need. If you only need a count, you don’t need to store usernames. If you need usernames, you may not need the comment text. Delete columns you don’t use.
- Storage limitation. Don’t keep the file forever. Decide when you are done with it and delete it.
- Respect people’s rights. If someone asks you to delete their data or asks what you hold about them, you may have to respond. Keeping exports small and short-lived makes that easy.
- Security. Store files somewhere sensible and share them only with people who need them — not via a public link.
Researchers have extra considerations — ethics approval, anonymisation before publishing quotes, and your institution’s data policies — so check with your ethics board before collecting.
Reasonable uses — and things to avoid
| Generally reasonable | Avoid |
|---|---|
| Keeping a record of entries to your own giveaway | Adding commenters to an email or SMS list they never signed up for |
| Collecting questions and feedback from your own posts to answer them | Mass-messaging commenters, especially on a competitor’s post |
| Summarising reactions to a campaign in a report, with counts and a few quotes | Selling or sharing commenter lists with third parties |
| Academic research with an approved plan and anonymised outputs | Building profiles of individuals, or tracking specific people across posts |
| Moderation: reviewing abuse or spam on your own content | Republishing large volumes of comments as your own content |
A useful test: would a typical commenter be surprised or upset to learn what you did with their comment? Answering their question or announcing them as a giveaway winner — no. Receiving cold sales messages because they commented on someone else’s post — yes.
What IGComments collects and keeps
We try to make the low-risk path the default:
- Public posts only. We can’t read private accounts, and we never ask for your Instagram login.
- Only the comment data. Exports contain the username, user ID, comment text, time, likes, reply details, and the mentions and hashtags in the text. They do not include display names, follower counts, emails, phone numbers or other profile data.
- 30-day retention. Fetched comments and exports are kept for 30 days so you can download again, then deleted.
- Deletion requests. If you commented on a post and want your data removed from our systems sooner, or you exported a post and want it gone, ask through the contact page.
The details are in our privacy policy. IGComments is an independent tool and isn’t affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Instagram or Meta.
A short checklist before you export
- Is the post public, and do I have a clear reason to collect its comments?
- Do I need every column, or can I delete some straight away?
- Who will see the file, and is it stored somewhere sensible?
- When will I delete it?
- Would the commenters be surprised by what I’m doing with it?
- Is this commercial, large-scale or sensitive enough that I should get proper legal advice?
For giveaways specifically, many countries also have rules on prize promotions themselves (eligibility, official rules, sometimes registration), and Instagram has its own promotion guidelines. Picking the winner transparently helps: our sister tool Pickfetti publishes a proof page showing the rules and how the winner was drawn.
Ready to export? Start with how to export Instagram comments, or answer common questions on our FAQ.
FAQ
Is it legal to export comments from a public Instagram post?
For ordinary purposes such as a giveaway record, customer questions or research, it is generally low-risk, but Instagram’s terms and data protection law still apply to how you collect and use the data. This is general information, not legal advice.
Does GDPR apply to Instagram comments?
Often, yes. A username together with what someone wrote can be personal data even when it is public. Have a clear purpose, keep only what you need, and delete it when you are done.
Can I message or email everyone who commented?
Exporting comments doesn’t give you permission to market to commenters. The export contains no emails, and unsolicited bulk messages can break both Instagram’s rules and anti-spam laws.
Do I need permission from the post owner?
Not to read comments on a public post, but use the data with care, particularly if the post isn’t yours. Exporting your own post’s comments is the clearest case.
How long does IGComments keep exported comments?
Thirty days, then they are deleted. You can ask for earlier deletion through the contact page.
I commented on a post someone exported. Can I get my data removed?
From IGComments, yes — ask through the contact page. We can’t delete copies the person who exported the comments has already downloaded; contact them directly for that.