Best Threads API for public profile data
A plain request to Threads does not fail. It returns a large page with no follower count in it — so the question is whether your vendor gets the other page.
What to require of any vendor here
- Ask what its client looks like on the wire. Threads serves the object carrying the counter only to a client whose TLS handshake resembles a browser's. Measured: a plain curl gets 268,028 bytes without the field; an impersonating client gets 960,862 with it. Same URL, different signature, different page.
- Ask how its health checks work. A monitor that asserts 200 stays green through this entire failure, because nothing errors — there is simply no number. A vendor whose own checks look at the status code will not notice it is serving you nothing.
- Ask which fields are absent, not zero. The public profile does not publish following count or post count at all, so both are correctly `null` here.
Where the number actually lives
We read follower_count from public page, logged out — one occurrence in 960 KB. Handle format: Threads username, same shape as Instagram: letters, digits, dot and underscore.
What you are handing over
Threads depends on a browser-like TLS handshake: a plain curl gets 268,028 bytes without the follower field, and the same URL from a client that impersonates Chrome gets 960,862 with it. Same address, different signature, different page.
What this does not return
- No following count and no post count — Threads does not publish either on the profile. They come back null, never 0.
- No view counts, anywhere on the public surface.
- Posts are a separate endpoint: /v1/threads/posts, 1 credit.
Our endpoints for this platform — 2
threads/profile— Public profile on threads, with the exact follower count.threads/posts— Recent posts from a public profile on threads.
Shape, parameters and the errors each one returns are in the endpoint reference, and this platform has its own page with the recorded response.
What the alternatives cost
We do not restate competitor prices here. The vendor pages carry them — 35 of them — each price read on that vendor's own page, with the date we read it. Readings run from 2026-09-05 to 2026-10-03.
A price copied into a second place is a price that will disagree with itself the first time a vendor changes one. Verify on their page before deciding — we are an interested party.
Reading Threads yourself is the part above. Reading it through one call is the part we sell.