Grabfy
Not all Instagram content is created equal. Stories expire after 24 hours. Highlights live forever. And whether Grabfy can fetch them depends entirely on whether the account is public — not on which content type it is.
Quick comparison
| Feature | Stories | Highlights |
|---|---|---|
| How long it lasts | 24 hours | Permanently (until deleted) |
| Where it appears | Story ring at top of profile | Circles below bio |
| Public account | ✓ Grabfy can fetch | ✓ Grabfy can fetch |
| Private account | ✗ Not accessible | ✗ Not accessible |
| Close Friends story | ✗ Not accessible | ✗ Not accessible |
How Instagram Stories work
When you post a Story, Instagram stores it temporarily. Public accounts make stories visible to anyone — logged in or not — for 24 hours. After that, they disappear unless the creator saves them as a Highlight.
Grabfy fetches stories by requesting the account's story feed server-side. Because your browser identity is never sent to Instagram, you don't appear in the viewer list.
How Instagram Highlights work
Highlights are curated Story collections that live permanently on a profile. The creator chooses which Stories to add and organises them into named circles (e.g. "Travel", "Recipes").
For public accounts, Highlights are visible without logging in — meaning Grabfy can retrieve them the same way it does regular Stories.
What Grabfy will never fetch
- Private account content — any account that requires a follow request to view is off-limits.
- Close Friends stories — these are private by design. Even if you follow the account, Grabfy has no access to your follower session.
- Expired stories — once 24 hours pass and the creator hasn't saved the story as a Highlight, it's gone from Instagram's servers entirely.
✓ Grabfy's rule is simple: if a logged-out browser can see it, Grabfy can fetch it. If it can't, neither can we.