How to Use the Instagram Profile URL Finder

Before you start

• This Phantom uses URL finder credits to perform online lookups and find profile or company URLs.
  • Each lookup uses one credit, and your monthly limit depends on your plan.

Step 1: Provide the names you want to search

You can provide the names in three ways:

1. My Lists:
   Choose a saved LinkedIn Leads list you’ve already created in PhantomBuster.

2. A single full name or a list of full names:

   • Type the person's full name, plus add optional details like location to improve accuracy, e.g. John Smith London.
   • Provide a Google Sheet with one name per row, full name, optional location or other details (make sure it’s shared with “Anyone with the link”).
   • Upload a CSV file with one name per row, full name, optional location or other details (make sure it’s publicly accessible, and note that CSV upload is only available on paid plans).

   → If you’re using a spreadsheet, the Phantom defaults to the first column (A). To use a different column, enter the column’s header name in the field “Name of column containing names.”

3. My Phantoms:
   Use results from another Phantom as input.

Then, Choose region and language (optional):

• Select the market you want to search in, e.g. United States – English (en-US) or Canada – French (fr-CA).
• If your country isn’t listed, choose the closest match where you’re likely to find your targets.

Step 2: Configure extraction options

Fine-tune how much data to collect per launch:

• Number of spreadsheet rows to process per launch (optional):
  • This only applies if you are using a spreadsheet or CSV as input
  • Default = all names provided.
  • If left empty, the Phantom will attempt to process all your names in one launch.

Result file settings (dropdown in setup)

• Name your results file (optional)

  • You can customize the file name.

    If you rename the file between launches, the Phantom will create a new results file and start processing inputs from scratch.

Step 3: Select launch frequency

Choose how often the Phantom should run:

1. Launch manually: Start the Phantom yourself whenever you need.
2. Launch once at a specific time: schedule a one-time run at a set date and time.
3. Launch repeatedly: schedule regular runs (e.g. once per day, several times during working hours).
4. Launch after another Phantom: chain automations together so this Phantom starts right after another finishes.
5. Advanced scheduling: customize the exact minutes, hours, days, or months when the Phantom should run.

→ For a complete walkthrough of scheduling options, see our guide to scheduling Phantoms automatically.

Step 4 (Optional): Advanced settings

Advanced settings are available if you want to fine-tune how your Phantom runs, but by default they’re already optimized for most use cases.

We recommend leaving them as they are unless a guide specifically instructs you to change something.

→ For a detailed overview of all advanced options (like execution limits, retries, email notifications, proxies, webhooks, and file management), see our Advanced settings guide.

Launch and results

When you’re ready:

1. Click Launch to start your Phantom.
2. Once it finishes, open the Results tab in the Phantom console to see the data collected.
3. Download your results as a CSV or JSON file.

→ To learn how to export your data to Google Sheets, integrate with other tools, or reuse it in more automations, check our Access and Export your Phantom Results guide.

Export and input limits on the Free plan
If you’re on the Free plan or Free trial, some features are limited:
- CSV exports include only the first 10 rows of results.
- CSV download links (for dynamic viewing in Google Sheets or integrations) are not available.
- JSON exports are not available.
- CSV upload as an input method is not supported.
To unlock all features, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.

What you give (Input) and What you get (Output)

This section gives you a detailed breakdown of everything you need to provide to run this Phantom, and everything you’ll receive once it completes.

What you give (Input)

What you get (Output)

Tips and troubleshooting

Common pitfalls

• Using a private spreadsheet (make sure it’s set to “Anyone with the link”).
• Basic data only: This Phantom only provides profile URLs. To get richer data (emails, bios, follower counts, etc.), run the results through the Instagram Profile Scraper Phantom.

If you run into errors or account issues

• Check how to troubleshoot your phantom using Logs.
• Browse the Fix Issues & Troubleshoot Errors section for solutions to common problems.
• Review our Automation Rate Limits by Platform guide.
• Check our Best Practices for Social Media Automation guide.

Suggested automations

• Instagram Profile Scraper → Enrich the profiles you’ve just found with emails, bios, and follower counts.
• Instagram Follower Collector → Build lead lists by extracting followers of the profiles you identified.
• Instagram Auto Follow → Automatically follow the profiles to grow your network.