How to refresh access_token without a refresh_token with instagram api

Question

I am looking to refresh my access_token for my instagram client, so that my users won't need to login every time the access token expires. Is there a way to do this without a refresh_token (the instagram api response does not contain a refresh_token).

You can see the steps laid out by instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/developer/authentication/

Here is the response object for the instagram oauth api:

{ "access_token": "fb2e77d.47a0479900504cb3ab4a1f626d174d2d", "user": { "id": "1574083", "username": "snoopdogg", "full_name": "Snoop Dogg", "profile_picture": "..." } }

I would expect for there to be a "refresh_token" field in the response so that later we can request a new "access_token".

William Mai William Mai · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-12T21:37:09

First, you'll need to get a long-lived access token using the regular access token (which is only valid for one hour):

curl -i -X GET "https://graph.instagram.com/access_token
  ?grant_type=ig_exchange_token
  &client_secret={instagram-app-secret}
  &access_token={short-lived-access-token}"

Then, you can refresh the long-lived token by requesting the GET /refresh_access_token endpoint using the long-lived token it-self:

curl -i -X GET "https://graph.instagram.com/refresh_access_token
  ?grant_type=ig_refresh_token
  &access_token={long-lived-access-token}"

Refreshing a long-lived token makes it valid for 60 days again.

You can check the Instagram documentation for more details.

How to refresh access_token without a refresh_token with instagram api

2 Answers