[Python] How can I extract the caption/description from a single Instagram post URL in Python?

I’m trying to write a simple program that can take one Instagram post link and extract the caption/description of that particular post.

For example, given a link like:

https://www.instagram.com/p/POST_ID/

I want to get the caption text (not images, not comments, just the post description).

My requirements:

I only need to do this one post at a time (not bulk scraping).

I don’t need comments, likes, or media — only the caption/description.

A simple solution in Python (preferred) is fine.

My questions:

Is there a straightforward way (API, library, or parsing method) to fetch the caption from a single Instagram post link?

Do I need to use the official Instagram Graph API, or is there a simpler approach for just reading captions one by one?

I tried fetching the page source and parsing it with BeautifulSoup:

url = "https://www.instagram.com/p/POST_ID/"
response = requests.get(url)
soup = BeautifulSoup(response.text, "html.parser")

print(soup.prettify()) # trying to find where the caption is


import requests from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

But I couldn’t locate the caption in the raw HTML. It looks like the data might be hidden inside JavaScript or requires an API.

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