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Export your data

Export your data

instagram-stats works on the export Instagram gives you of your own data. Request it from the Instagram app or website, in Accounts Center → Your information and permissions → Download your information:

  1. Choose to download some of your information, and select Messages.
  2. Choose Download to device, and set the format to JSON (not HTML).
  3. Pick the date range you want statistics for.
  4. Wait for Instagram to tell you the export is ready, then download and extract the archive.
The names of these menus change from time to time on Instagram’s side. What matters is a JSON export that includes your messages.

Where the conversations are

Each conversation is a folder of the export, under a messages/inbox directory (its exact location in the archive depends on when the export was made). A conversation folder holds one or more message_<n>.json files, one per batch of messages:

messages/
  inbox/
    alice_123456789/
      message_1.json
      message_2.json
    friends_group_987654321/
      message_1.json

The folder of the conversation you want statistics for is the one you give to instagram-stats, or the inbox folder itself for statistics on all your conversations, see Usage.

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