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GrabVid - free video downloader

Download Instagram Videos and Reels

Save Reels, feed videos and carousel clips as clean MP4 files, at the resolution Instagram actually stored.

How to download from Instagram

  1. 1

    Copy the Reel or post link

    In the app, tap the paper plane icon and choose Copy link. On the web, open the post and copy the address. Either one gives you a link with /reel/ or /p/ in the middle.

  2. 2

    Paste it into the box

    Drop it in above. The share sheet adds a long igshid parameter on the end, and that's harmless. We ignore everything after the shortcode.

  3. 3

    Choose your file and save

    We show the available renditions with file sizes. Click one and the MP4 downloads. On iPhone it lands in Files, on Android in Downloads.

Instagram tools

Different kinds of Instagram content behave differently once you try to save them, so each one gets its own page.

Instagram Reels DownloaderThe vertical short-form format specifically, saved at the resolution Instagram stored, audio included.Save Instagram StoriesWhat actually works for saving stories, from your own archive to screen recording, and how to grab the reel a story shares.

What you can download from Instagram

Instagram has collected a lot of different video surfaces over the years, and each one stores its media a little differently. Here's what this downloader covers.

Reels
Vertical clips up to 90 seconds, stored at 1080x1920 when the uploader posted at that size. Reels are the most common thing people save here, and they come through with their audio track attached.
Feed videos
Regular in feed video posts, usually square at 1080x1080 or portrait at 1080x1350. These predate Reels and behave the same way, though older ones can top out at 640px wide.
Carousel posts
A swipeable post can mix photos and videos. We pull every video slide in the carousel and list them separately, so you can take just the one you wanted instead of all ten.
IGTV and long form video
Instagram folded IGTV into regular video, but old /tv/ links still resolve. Longer uploads are often served at a lower bitrate, so expect a softer picture than a short Reel of the same resolution.
What isn't covered
Stories and highlights are only served to logged-in viewers, so this tool cannot fetch them reliably, and private accounts and Close Friends posts stay off limits entirely. Our story page covers what does work.

A practical guide to Instagram video

Why Instagram quality varies so much

Instagram re-encodes every upload. That's not a flaw, it's how the platform keeps a billion videos streamable. The practical result is that the file you download is never the creator's original export, it's Instagram's compressed version of it. A Reel filmed on a recent iPhone and uploaded over wifi will look excellent. The same clip uploaded on one bar of mobile data can arrive noticeably soft.

Resolution isn't the whole story either. Bitrate matters just as much. Instagram targets a few megabits per second for Reels, which is plenty for a talking head and not really enough for fast motion like skating or drone footage. If a downloaded clip looks blocky during quick movement, that's compression, not the downloader.

Reels, feed video and the format differences

Reels are 9:16 vertical, 1080x1920 at best, and capped at 90 seconds. Feed video is more varied: square 1080x1080 posts from the older era, 4:5 portrait at 1080x1350, and the occasional 16:9 landscape upload that Instagram letterboxes. Knowing which you're dealing with matters if you plan to edit, because dropping a vertical Reel into a landscape timeline means black bars or a hard crop. If Reels are all you came for, the Instagram Reels downloader covers that format on its own page, and the Instagram Story downloader handles the 24 hour kind.

There's also a codec detail worth knowing. Instagram serves H.264 MP4 almost universally, which is the most compatible video format in existence. You won't need to convert anything. That's different from YouTube, where the best quality streams often come as VP9 or AV1 in a WebM container. Our format guide goes through the differences if you want the background.

Practical saving habits

Save the clip while you can. Reels get deleted, accounts go private, and songs get pulled for licensing reasons more often than people expect. If something's useful as a reference, grab it the day you find it. A 5 MB file costs you nothing to keep. Our step-by-step guide to downloading Instagram Reels goes through the whole routine if you are doing this for the first time.

Organise as you go. Instagram shortcodes like C8xK2pQsL4m are meaningless names. Rename to something like creator-topic-2026-03 and you'll actually find it again. If you save a lot of reference material, one folder per project beats one giant Downloads pile.

And be careful about re-uploading. Instagram's own systems are fairly good at spotting a Reel that's been downloaded and re-posted without credit, and accounts that do it repeatedly get their reach cut. If you want to share someone's work, the built in share and repost tools keep the attribution attached automatically.

Want the longer version? Our full Instagram Reels download guide walks through every method, the quality trade-offs and the errors worth knowing about before you start.

Instagram downloader questions

Usually 1080x1920 for a Reel shot and uploaded on a modern phone. Instagram re-encodes everything on upload, so if the creator posted a lower resolution file or uploaded over a weak connection, that smaller version is all that exists. We show you what's actually there rather than promising 4K that was never stored.

Instagram doesn't burn its own watermark into Reels the way TikTok does. If you see a username overlay it was baked in by the creator, often because the clip was exported from TikTok or CapCut first. That overlay is part of the video pixels and can't be removed by any downloader.

No. Private accounts approve their followers individually, and that decision deserves respect. This tool only reads publicly visible posts. If you follow a private account and want to keep a clip, ask the person who posted it. A screen recording without permission is still a copy they didn't agree to.

Yes, the MP4 includes the audio track as AAC. One thing to know: the music on a Reel is licensed to Instagram for playback inside the app. Re-uploading that audio elsewhere can trigger a copyright claim on YouTube or Facebook even though the file downloaded fine.

Paste the post link as normal. We scan every slide and list the videos we find, numbered in order. Pick the one you want. You don't need to work out which slide index it was or download the whole set to get one clip.

Usually the post was deleted, set to private after you saw it, or restricted in your region. Try opening the link in a browser window where you're logged out. If Instagram asks you to sign in to see it, the post isn't public and the download won't work.

Not reliably. Instagram only serves Stories to logged-in viewers, and this tool doesn't sign in. If a Story is sharing a reel or post, open the original and save that instead. For your own Stories, save them from the editor or your archive, and for anyone else's, screen recording is the dependable route.

There's no app to install and no login, so there are no credentials to leak. Everything runs in your browser over HTTPS. You never hand us an Instagram password, which also means nothing here can get your account flagged for suspicious third party access.

Legally, that depends on permission. The creator owns their footage, and reposting without credit is both rude and often a copyright problem. Short quoted clips with visible credit and a link back are the norm. For anything commercial, get written permission first.

Related guides

Longer write-ups on the questions people run into most here.

How to Download Instagram Reels, Step by StepReels get deleted, audio gets pulled, accounts go private. If a clip is useful to you, saving it takes fifteen seconds. Here's how, and w...How to Download Instagram Reels on iPhone and AndroidInstagram removed the download button for other people's Reels years ago. Here is the browser route on both phones, and the quality you s...Instagram Reels Download Not Working: A Troubleshooting GuideInstagram has four different link shapes and only two of them fetch a video. That accounts for more failed downloads than every other cau...How to Save an Instagram Story With Music (What Works)Save your story after posting and the song disappears. That is deliberate, and there are a few reliable ways around it for your own stories.

Also try our other downloaders

Download from TwitterDownload from YouTubeDownload from TikTokDownload from FacebookDownload from Bluesky

New to this? The how it works guide walks through the whole process step by step, and the blog goes deeper on formats and quality. Before you save anything, it is worth reading our disclaimer on copyright and fair use.