Shared cache with Facebook

Instagram has no separate cache. It shares Meta’s unified cache with Facebook and Threads. One facebookexternalhit crawl populates all three platforms. Clear the cache for one, you clear it for all.

Cache duration

About 30 days after the first scrape. Updated tags won’t show on Instagram until you actively invalidate or the cache expires.

Forcing a cache refresh

Use the Facebook Sharing Debugger – there’s no Instagram-specific tool:

1. Enter your URL
2. Click “Scrape Again”
3. Click “Scrape Again” two or three more times – Meta has intermediate cache layers that sometimes need multiple flushes

New Instagram shares will use the updated data.

Batch invalidation

The Batch Invalidator handles multiple URLs at once. Useful after site redesigns or bulk OG image updates.

Programmatic invalidation

curl -X POST \

  "https://graph.facebook.com/?id=https://example.com/page&scrape=true&access_token=YOUR_TOKEN"

Requires a Facebook access token. Clears the shared Meta cache for both Facebook and Instagram.

Caveats

• Instagram app caching – the mobile app caches locally. Even after clearing Meta’s cache, previously loaded previews may persist until the app refreshes or is force-closed.
• Image CDN caching – Meta caches images on its CDN separately from metadata. If you changed the image file but kept the same URL, use a new filename or query parameter to force a fresh fetch.
• Existing conversations – DM previews already rendered won’t update retroactively. Only new shares show the refreshed preview.