Archive Instagram Stories to Google Sheets with n8n + Apify

Archive Instagram Stories to Google Sheets automatically—every 8 hours—using n8n + Apify

This n8n automation fetches the latest Instagram Stories from selected public profiles with Apify’s Instagram Stories Scraper, then appends story metadata and media URLs to Google Sheets while preventing duplicates across runs.

What this workflow does

• Runs on a schedule (every 8 hours) using a schedule trigger.
• Defines which Instagram profiles to track and sets a maximum number of stories per profile to pull.
• Calls Apify via HTTP to fetch the latest live stories for the configured accounts.
• Filters results to keep only successful story items.
• Deduplicates stories across executions by using the story ID, so previously archived stories aren’t re-added.
• Formats each story into Google Sheets columns, including timestamps, account, story ID, caption, location, and media links.
• Appends rows to your selected Google Sheets spreadsheet and worksheet.

Use cases

• Track brand and competitor Story activity by maintaining a continuously updated archive in Google Sheets.
• Operational monitoring for social media teams, where screenshots/links and metadata need to be stored for later review.
• Data collection for analysis (e.g., story frequency, captions, and locations) without manual saving.

Technical details

• n8n nodes / tools: Set, Sticky Note, HTTP Request, Filter, Google Sheets, Schedule Trigger.
• Apify integration: Uses your Apify API token as an Apify credential for the HTTP request to Apify’s Instagram Stories Scraper.
• Google Sheets integration: Connects to a chosen spreadsheet document and sheet tab, then appends deduplicated story rows.

Setup in minutes

Create an Apify account, add your Apify token as an n8n credential, connect Google Sheets, then update the Instagram profile list and maxStoriesPerProfile to match the public accounts you want to archive.