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Save Instagram Reels as structured Notion pages with Telegram, Apify, and OpenAI

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Created by: Paolo Ronco || paoloronco
Paolo Ronco

Last update

Last update 9 hours ago

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Quick overview

Turn useful Instagram Reels into searchable Notion knowledge. Send a public Reel link to Telegram; Apify extracts the transcript and available captions, OpenAI summarizes and organizes the information, and n8n saves a structured entry in your Notion Inbox with a link to the original source.

How it works

  1. Receive: A Telegram bot accepts a public Instagram Reel or compatible video-post URL. /start and /help commands are handled without invoking paid APIs.
  2. Validate: The workflow extracts the first supported Instagram URL and rejects invalid or unsupported inputs before starting transcription.
  3. Transcribe: An Apify Actor retrieves spoken content and available captions and creator metadata. The workflow checks the Actor execution and validates its output.
  4. Analyze: OpenAI generates a concise Italian summary, identifies relevant topics and technical references, and filters out promotional calls to action when appropriate.
  5. Organize: Structured output is converted into a knowledge note with key takeaways and, where present, tools, repositories, explicit links, practical steps, possible applications, follow-up actions, and uncertainties.
  6. Save: A native Notion node creates an Inbox page with a descriptive title, category, source URL, date, status, and structured note content.
  7. Confirm: Telegram replies with a link to the newly created Notion page.

Setup

  1. Import: Import the workflow JSON into your n8n instance.
  2. Telegram: Create a bot through BotFather, connect its credentials in n8n, and replace the template's allowed Telegram user ID with your own.
  3. Apify: Create a Header Auth credential with the header Authorization and value Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN. Apply it to every Apify HTTP Request node and confirm access to the configured Instagram transcript Actor.
  4. OpenAI: Add your API credential to the OpenAI Chat Model node and select a supported model capable of producing the expected structured output.
  5. Notion: Create an integration, grant it access to your Inbox database, and configure the database in 17B — Notion Create Inbox Page.
  6. Database properties: Configure Titolo (Title), Stato (Status), Tipo (Select), Categoria (Select), Fonte (URL), and Data (Date), or adapt the Notion node mappings to your own schema.
  7. Default values: The template expects Stato = Da smistare, Tipo = Instagram, and Categoria to use one of AI, Cyber, Tech, or Lifestyle. Ensure these options exist or change the mappings and parser accordingly.
  8. Activate and test: Ensure another active workflow is not using the same Telegram bot webhook. Activate this workflow, send a public Reel URL, and verify the Telegram response and resulting Notion page.
  9. Detailed guide: Follow the complete setup documentation for provider-specific configuration and testing.

Requirements

  • n8n: Cloud or self-hosted instance with a publicly reachable HTTPS webhook for Telegram.
  • Telegram: Bot token issued by BotFather and your Telegram user ID for access restriction.
  • Apify: Account, API token, and access to the third-party Instagram Video Transcript Scraper Actor.
  • OpenAI: API credentials and access to a compatible chat model.
  • Notion: Integration credential with access to a destination Inbox database.
  • Database schema: Compatible Notion property types and select/status options, or adjusted mappings.
  • Usage costs: Apify and OpenAI can charge separately based on usage. Review their current pricing and limits before activation.

Customization

  • Instagram URL validation: Change which Reel and compatible Instagram video-post URL formats are accepted.
  • Transcript extraction: Adjust the Apify Actor configuration, execution timeout, and maximum charge per run to suit your budget and expected workload.
  • AI summarization: Customize the prompt's summary length, language, treatment of captions, promotional filtering, and identification of people, brands, products, and technical terms.
  • AI model: Select another supported OpenAI model and configure the associated credentials.
  • Content categorization: Update the structured output schema and allowed categories to match your knowledge organization.
  • Notion page content: Modify note sections, text limits, and which extracted details are saved.
  • Notion database: Choose a different database, rename properties, and adapt their mappings and allowed values.
  • Telegram notifications: Adjust the confirmation wording and the information included in the response.
  • Node references: Some Code nodes refer to other nodes by name. If you rename nodes, update the corresponding expressions and references.

Additional info

  • Supported sources: This release accepts public Instagram Reels and compatible Instagram video posts. YouTube, websites, GitHub URLs, and screenshots are not supported.
  • No visual analysis: Information shown only in video frames, including on-screen text and links, is not extracted.
  • Source reliability: Summaries are based on the available transcript and captions. Technical claims, repository identities, URLs, and commands are not independently verified; missing references are not invented.
  • Availability: Private, inaccessible, unsupported, or speechless videos may fail transcription or validation.
  • Duplicate submissions: The workflow does not deduplicate URLs. Sending the same link again may create another Notion page and incur additional API usage.
  • Error handling: Provider failures and unsuccessful Notion writes are not guaranteed to recover automatically. Check n8n execution history when processing fails.
  • Telegram troubleshooting: If messages do not trigger the workflow, check the bot token, allowed user ID, HTTPS webhook, and whether another active workflow uses the same bot.
  • Apify troubleshooting: For authentication or missing transcript errors, check the Authorization: Bearer ... header, Actor identifier, execution results, and dataset output.
  • OpenAI and Notion troubleshooting: Check model access, structured output compatibility, Notion integration permissions, database ID, property types, and Expression mode for mapped fields.
  • Telegram formatting: If a reply fails to send, check HTML parse mode and escaping of reserved characters.
  • Security: Keep secrets in n8n credentials, restrict access by Telegram user ID, and replace personal identifiers, database IDs, and credential references before distributing the JSON.
  • Documentation: Full setup and troubleshooting guide.
  • Source code and creator: n8n templates repository and n8n Creator profile.
  • Attribution: Adapted from an existing n8n Creator template originally intended for creator-focused Reel analysis. The original template author and listing should be credited once confirmed; the imported foundation should not be presented as wholly original work.
  • Potential extensions: Deduplication, video-frame analysis, external link verification, and additional content sources are possible future improvements, not features of this release.
  • Implementation support: For n8n automation consulting, custom integrations, or troubleshooting, visit paoloronco.it or email [email protected].