Download an Instagram video

A Reel, a feed post, and a carousel are three different pastes

Instagram publishes video in three containers, and the container decides what comes back. A Reel is one vertical clip. A feed post is a single item shown in the grid, which may be a photo or a video. A carousel is one post holding several items behind swipe arrows.

The address tells you which one you are holding before you paste it. A Reel address contains the word reel followed by a short code. A feed post address contains the letter p followed by a code. A carousel uses the same feed-post shape, so the way to identify one is to open it and look for the dots underneath the picture.

Which item of a carousel you get back

A carousel can hold up to ten items in a fixed order, and they can be mixed: three photos, then a clip, then two more photos. Analyze reads the post you pasted and reports the video files that post is serving, so a carousel with one clip in it returns rows for that clip.

When a carousel holds more than one video, read the results list before you press anything. The rows are grouped by the item they belong to, and the sizes differ, which is usually the clearest way to tell two clips apart. Photos in the carousel are not video and do not appear as video rows.

Addresses that carry a slide number on the end

Swiping through a carousel on a computer sometimes adds a small parameter to the address that records which slide you were looking at. It appears after a question mark and holds a number.

Leave it on. It does no harm, and it does not narrow the results to that one slide, because the post identifier in front of it is what names the post. If you would rather have a clean address, delete everything from the question mark onwards and paste the rest.

Private accounts stop at the door

An account set to private serves its posts only to approved followers who are signed in. Vidzilla reads every page as a signed-out visitor, so a private post returns nothing here, and that empty result is accurate rather than a fault.

Being logged in yourself changes nothing, because the reading happens on our servers rather than in your browser. Two other addresses fail for a related reason: an account address with nothing after the user name stands for the whole profile, and the explore section is a list of suggestions. Neither has a single file behind it.

Why Stories are not part of this page

A Story is published for a short window and then removed by the platform. Once that window closes, the file is no longer served to anybody, and there is nothing left for a downloader to read. A Story is also visible only to the audience the poster chose, which is often a smaller group than the account's followers.

That combination makes Stories a different job from Reels and feed posts, and it has its own page on this site. Use the Story page while the Story is still up.

Sizes on Instagram video and what free use allows

Instagram video is short and shot for a phone screen, so the rows are usually well under 100 MB. A free account covers 3 downloads a day with a 150 MB ceiling on any single file, which most Reels and feed clips fit inside comfortably. On Pro there is no daily count, no ceiling on a single file, and no advertising.

Choose your row and press Download file. The tab needs to stay open for the whole transfer. The prepared copy expires on a short timer, so start it while the page is in front of you, and the saved file then lives on your own device.

The clip belongs to the person who posted it

Your own posts are yours to keep. For anyone else's, the creator decides what may be done with their work, and saving a copy does not transfer any rights to you. Vidzilla is not connected to Instagram and cannot give permission on a creator's behalf.

Related pages

• Reels on their own
• Posts that hold several items
• Stories while they are still up
• Keeping just the sound from a Reel
• Picking the higher resolution row