How to Export Instagram Comments

Trying to extract comments from an Instagram post can feel like an impossible task, especially when you're endlessly scrolling through hundreds of replies. Whether you're picking a giveaway winner, gathering customer feedback, or analyzing audience sentiment, getting that data out of the app and into a usable format is the goal. This guide will walk you through the different ways to export your Instagram comments, from the official manual method to the much simpler third-party tool approach.

Why Export Instagram Comments in the First Place?

Before we get into the "how," let's quickly cover the "why." While it might seem like a niche task, exporting comments is a superpower for savvy marketers and creators. It transforms a chaotic list of replies into organized, actionable data.

Here are the three most common reasons you'd want to pull this data:

• To Run a Fair Giveaway: This is the number one reason. If you've ever hosted a "tag two friends and follow us to enter" contest, you know the nightmare of trying to manually track every entry. Exporting all comments into a single list is the only way to ensure you can randomly and fairly select a winner without losing your mind.
• To Analyze Audience Feedback and Sentiment: Your comments section is a goldmine of unfiltered customer opinions. Are people loving your latest product? Do they have questions you keep seeing over and over? By exporting comments, you can easily scan for recurring keywords, identify common pain points, and get a real feel for what your community is thinking.
• To Find User-Generated Content (UGC): Great testimonials and content ideas are often hidden in your replies. People might describe how they use your product or rave about a specific feature. An export allows you to quickly spot these gems, so you can reach out for permission to repurpose their words into powerful social proof.

Method 1: The Official Instagram Data Download

Let's start with Instagram's built-in feature. Instagram provides a way for every user to download a complete copy of their data, which includes comments you've made and comments on your posts. Think of this as the "heavy-duty" option. It's free and official, but it has some significant downsides.

The Pros:

• It's completely free.
• It comes directly from Instagram, so it's secure.
• You get an exhaustive archive of all your data.

The Cons:

• It's very slow. The process can take anywhere from a few hours to several days.
• You get everything. You can't just request comments from one specific post. You'll receive a massive file containing all your photos, DMs, profile history, and more.
• The format is messy. The data comes in a machine-readable format called JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), not a simple spreadsheet. You'll need to use an online converter to turn it into something usable like a CSV file.

Because of these limitations, the official data download is not the best choice for time-sensitive tasks like picking a giveaway winner. It's better suited for a personal data backup. But if you want to go this route, here’s how to do it.

Step-by-Step: Requesting Your Data on the Instagram App (iOS and Android)

1. Open the Instagram app and go to your profile page.
2. Tap the hamburger menu (the three horizontal lines) in the top-right corner.
3. Go to Your activity.
4. Scroll all the way down and tap Download your information.
5. Tap Request a download.
6. Select the account you want to download data from.
7. You can choose to download a Complete copy or select Select types of information. If you only want comments, choose the second option.
8. From the list, select Comments. Tap Next.
9. On the final screen, you can set the format (make sure it's set to JSON), media quality, and date range. When you're ready, tap Submit request.

You'll receive an email with a link to your data once it's ready. Remember, this can take a while.

Step-by-Step: Requesting Your Data on a Desktop

1. Using your web browser, go to www.instagram.com and log in.
2. Click the hamburger menu (More) on the bottom left.
3. Go to Your activity.
4. Click Download your information.
5. Click the blue button that says Request a download and follow the on-screen instructions, similar to the mobile steps above.

Once you get the download link, you'll receive a `.zip` file. Inside, you'll find a folder structure that includes a `comments.json` file. You will then need to use a separate online tool (search for "JSON to CSV converter") to change that file into a spreadsheet.

Method 2: Using a Third-Party Tool

For most people, especially those running a contest, a third-party tool is a far better option. These are specialized apps and websites built specifically for exporting comments from a public Instagram post quickly and easily.

The Pros:

• Fast and simple. The entire process usually takes just a few minutes.
• Post-specific. You can target a single post - just copy and paste the URL.
• Clean formatting. The comments are exported directly into a clean, ready-to-use format like a CSV or Excel file.
• Extra features. Many of these tools are designed for giveaways and can automatically filter for duplicates, required tags, or specific hashtags.

The Cons:

• Cost. Most of these tools are not free. They usually operate on a one-time fee per export or a subscription model.
• Security. You must be careful about which tools you use. Make sure you choose a reputable service that doesn't ask for your Instagram password. Secure tools will only ever ask for the public URL of the post.

How These Tools Generally Work

While an endless number of these tools exist, the process is almost always the same:

1. Choose a reputable tool. Look for services with good reviews and a clear privacy policy. A quick search for "Instagram comment exporter" or "Instagram giveaway picker" will surface many options.
2. Copy the Instagram Post URL. Go to the post on Instagram, tap the three-dots menu, and select "Copy Link."
3. Paste the URL into the tool. The tool’s website will have a field for you to paste the link into.
4. Set your filters (optional). If you're running a contest, you can often set rules here. For example, you can filter out duplicate users (so someone can't enter hundreds of times) or specify the number of friends that needed to be tagged.
5. Start the export and download your file. The tool will scan the post and generate a spreadsheet. Once it's done, you can download the file.

This method saves an enormous amount of time and gives you the exact data you need in a format you can actually use, making it the go-to choice for almost every business or creator.

What to Do With Your Exported Comments

Once you have your spreadsheet full of comments, the real work begins. Here's how to turn that data into something useful.

How to Run a Giveaway Draw

You have your list of all the participants in a spreadsheet. Now it's time to pick a winner fairly.

1. Clean Your Data: First, scan through the document looking for any obvious spam entries or users who didn’t follow the rules. It's good practice to remove your own replies to other comments.
2. Filter for Duplicates: Most spreadsheet software, like Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel, has a "Remove Duplicates" feature. Use this to ensure each person only gets one entry (unless your rules allowed multiple entries).
3. Assign Numbers to Each Entry: Create a new column next to the usernames. In the first cell, type "1," in the second "2," and so on, until every row has a unique number.
4. Use a Random Number Generator: Open Google and search for "random number generator." Enter "1" as the minimum and the total number of entries as the maximum. Click "Generate."
5. Find Your Winner: The random number you get corresponds to the row number in your spreadsheet. Find that row, and you have your winner!Pro Tip: Use a simple formula in Google Sheets to pick a winner without leaving the app. If your usernames are in column A, from row 2 on, you can use this formula in any empty cell:=INDEX(A2:A, RANDBETWEEN(1, COUNTA(A2:A)))
6. This formula counts all your entries, picks a random number in that range, and returns the username from the corresponding row.
7. Verify the Winner: Before announcing, quickly check the winner's profile to make sure they followed all the rules, like following your account.

Analyzing Feedback and Finding UGC

If you're not running a giveaway, your goal is to find insights. A spreadsheet makes this much easier than scrolling in the app.

• Use 'Find and Replace' (Ctrl+F): Quickly search for keywords related to your products, services, or recent campaigns. Look for words like "love," "issue," "problem," "question," or specific product names.
• Sort and Categorize: You can create a new column to categorize comments. Label them as "Positive Feedback," "Negative Feedback," "Question," or "Testimonial/UGC." This helps you quantify the general sentiment.
• Identify Recurring Themes: Are five different people asking how to wash your product? That's a great sign that you need to create a post or Story Highlight about product care. Are people consistently praising your fast shipping? That's a key marketing message you should amplify.

Final Thoughts

Exporting your Instagram comments unlocks a layer of data that's impossible to access from within the app. While Instagram's official data download is an option for a full personal archive, third-party tools are the way to go for marketing tasks like running contests or analyzing audience feedback efficiently.

Managing comments feels overwhelming because native apps weren't built for at-scale community management. Instead of just exporting comments after the fact, we built Postbase to make managing them in real-time feel easy, pulling all your comments and DMs from across all platforms into one simple inbox. It helps turn the chaos of community management into a calm, organized workflow, so you can stop missing important messages and build a stronger brand connection.