# Instagram Fake Follower Checker & Audience Audit (`seemuapps/instagram-fake-follower-auditor`) Actor

Check any Instagram account for fake followers - bot score, audience quality grade, and follower authenticity report from a real follower sample.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/seemuapps/instagram-fake-follower-auditor.md
- **Developed by:** [Andrew](https://apify.com/seemuapps) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, Lead generation, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 6 total users, 6 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $990.00 / 1,000 audit reports

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Instagram Fake Follower Checker & Audience Audit

Audit any public Instagram account for fake followers and bots. The actor samples the account's real follower list, scores every sampled follower on proven bot signals, and returns a fake-follower percentage, an audience quality grade, and the full per-follower evidence — the same audit influencer-marketing platforms charge hundreds per month for.

### What you get

**One audit summary:**

- **Fake follower %** and **suspicious %** from a real follower sample (not an estimate)
- **Audience quality grade** (A–D)
- **Signal breakdown** — how many sampled followers had no profile picture, zero posts, suspicious follow ratios, spammy handles, or empty bios
- **Sample statistics** — private %, verified count, average follower/following counts across the sample

**Plus one record per sampled follower:**

- Bot score (0–100) with a `likely_fake` / `suspicious` / `likely_real` verdict
- The exact flags that fired, follower/following/post counts, and profile URL
- Optional **deep check**: each follower's account creation date — brand-new accounts are the strongest bot signal

Export everything to JSON, CSV, Excel, or Google Sheets from the Apify console.

### Use cases

- **Influencer vetting** — check an influencer's audience authenticity before signing a sponsorship deal
- **Agency audits** — screen creator rosters and report audience quality to clients
- **Brand safety** — verify partner accounts aren't inflated with purchased followers
- **Competitor benchmarking** — compare audience quality across accounts in your niche
- **Account purchase due diligence** — know how much of an audience is real before buying

### How it works

The actor samples up to 1,000 real followers of the target account and scores each one on bot signals: missing profile picture, zero posts, follow-ratio anomalies, machine-generated handle patterns, empty bios, and (with deep check) account age under 6 months. The fake-follower percentage is the share of sampled followers scoring as likely fake.

### How to use

1. Enter the Instagram **username** to audit (with or without @)
2. Choose a **sample size** (200 is a good default; 500+ for large accounts)
3. Optionally enable **Deep check** for account-age verification
4. Run the actor — the summary is the first record in the **Dataset** tab, follower evidence follows

### Output format

Summary record:

```json
{
  "recordType": "summary",
  "auditedUsername": "example",
  "followerCount": 152340,
  "sampleSize": 200,
  "fakeFollowerPct": 18.5,
  "suspiciousPct": 12.0,
  "qualityGrade": "B",
  "signalBreakdown": { "no_profile_picture": 31, "zero_posts": 44, "suspicious_follow_ratio": 19 },
  "sampleStats": { "privatePct": 41.5, "verifiedCount": 2, "noPostsPct": 22.0, "anonymousAvatarPct": 15.5, "avgFollowers": 412, "avgFollowing": 890 }
}
```

Follower record:

```json
{
  "recordType": "follower",
  "auditedUsername": "example",
  "followerUsername": "user12345678",
  "botScore": 65,
  "verdict": "likely_fake",
  "flags": ["no_profile_picture", "zero_posts", "spammy_handle"],
  "followers": 3,
  "following": 1840,
  "posts": 0,
  "profileUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/user12345678/"
}
```

### Free tier limits

Runs on a free Apify plan are limited to:

- **20 followers sampled per run** (the sample size input is capped automatically)
- **3 runs per day**
- **10 minutes between runs**

Upgrade to any paid Apify plan to remove all three limits and audit with full sample sizes.

### FAQ

**Do I need to log in or provide cookies?** No. No login, no cookies, no risk to your own account.

**How accurate is it?** The sample is drawn from the account's live follower list. At 200 followers the fake percentage is typically within a few points of a full audit; increase the sample size for tighter confidence.

# Actor input Schema

## `username` (type: `string`):

The public Instagram account to audit (with or without @).

## `sampleSize` (type: `integer`):

How many followers to sample and score. Larger samples give more accurate fake-follower percentages. Max 1000.

## `deepCheck` (type: `boolean`):

Also check each sampled follower's account creation date - brand-new accounts are a strong bot signal. Slower and billed as an extra event per follower.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "username": "natgeo",
  "sampleSize": 200,
  "deepCheck": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

One summary record (recordType 'summary': fakeFollowerPct, suspiciousPct, qualityGrade, signalBreakdown, sampleStats) followed by one record per sampled follower (recordType 'follower': followerUsername, botScore, verdict, flags, followers, following, posts, accountCreated).

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "username": "natgeo"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("seemuapps/instagram-fake-follower-auditor").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "username": "natgeo" }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("seemuapps/instagram-fake-follower-auditor").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "username": "natgeo"
}' |
apify call seemuapps/instagram-fake-follower-auditor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=seemuapps/instagram-fake-follower-auditor",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/8h2Qk0xXvmmMNOC18/builds/7JDeLwyfLH0rjX81l/openapi.json