After an entire day searching the web (to no use) and reading Facebook/Instagram API docs (which is sometime misleading) I still could not successfully get the Instagram Business Account ID to make requests that use it, like the ig_hashtag_search request.

That’s when I decided to ignore everything on the web, trust God, and start using Graph API Explorer‘s auto complete to try and make some sense of the whole thing!

It finally worked!

Before getting to the actual steps, make sure both Facebook and Instagram accounts are properly configured as business accounts! I don’t know if it is a bug in the Brazilian version of Instagram’s website, but the process to convert a regular Instagram account to a business account could only be completed using the native Instagram Android app. Specially the part where you link your Instagram account to a Facebook page that should already exist, and that should already have been created using Meta Business Suite.

Again, for me, as of today, the Public Business Information section was missing from the Brazilian version of Instagram’s website!

After having configured and properly linked the accounts, it is possible to make the calls using Graph API v12.0.

Step 1

Access the Graph API Explorer.

Step 2

Add the following permissions:

• ads_management
• business_management
• instagram_basic
• public_profile

Step 3

Generate the Access Token using the button on the screen (in the popup, be sure to log in using a Facebook account that has both Facebook Business and Instagram Business accounts properly linked and configured).

Step 4

After obtaining the Access Token, get all Businesses IDs:

GET https://graph.facebook.com/v12.0/me/businesses?access_token=xxx

In the Graph API Explorer, you must type only this:

me/businesses

The response should be something like this:

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "BUSINESS_ID",
      "name": "Business Name"
    }
  ],
  ...
}

Step 5

Use the BUSINESS_ID to finally get the Instagram Business Account ID:

GET https://graph.facebook.com/v12.0/BUSINESS_ID/instagram_business_accounts?access_token=xxx

In the Graph API Explorer, you must type only this:

BUSINESS_ID/instagram_business_accounts

The response should be something like this:

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "INSTAGRAM_BUSINESS_ACCOUNT_ID"
    }
  ],
  ...
}

And that’s it!

If everything worked as expected, you can use this INSTAGRAM_BUSINESS_ACCOUNT_ID to make the desired requests, such as ig_hashtag_search or recent_media requests:

GET https://graph.facebook.com/v12.0/ig_hashtag_search?user_id=INSTAGRAM_BUSINESS_ACCOUNT_ID&q=DESIRED_HASHTAG&access_token=xxx

In the Graph API Explorer, you must type only this:

ig_hashtag_search?user_id=INSTAGRAM_BUSINESS_ACCOUNT_ID&q=DESIRED_HASHTAG

The response should be something like this:

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "HASHTAG_ID"
    }
  ]
}

Hope to have helped! 🙏