How to download all your own Instagram photos and videos.
There are two honest routes: Instagram's own data export, and a desktop downloader pointed at your own profile. They give you different things. This page says what each one is good for, including the one that costs nothing and isn't ours.
Route 1 — Instagram's own export, free
Instagram has to give you your data, and it does. In the app it lives under Settings → Your activity → Download your information; on the web it is in the same account centre. Ask for it, choose the higher-quality option when offered, and wait.
What you get: everything — posts, stories, messages, comments, the lot — as a zip. What that costs you: the wait, which can be hours or days, and the shape. The archive is a tree of folders with files named by internal id and the captions living separately in JSON. It is a complete record and a poor photo album.
If your goal is "I am deleting this account and I want to be sure nothing is lost", this is the correct route and you should use it. It is free, official, and exhaustive.
Route 2 — a downloader pointed at your own profile
The other route treats your profile like any other link: paste it, and every post on it is saved into a folder you chose, named with the account and the date it was posted. No queue on Instagram's side, no zip, no wait for an email — it starts when you press the button and you watch each file land.
What you get: a browsable folder of ordinary .jpg and .mp4 files, in chronological order, that Finder and Explorer can already preview and any backup you run will pick up. What you don't get: comments, message history, or the metadata that only appears in the official export.
Most people asking this question want the pictures, not the audit trail. If that's you, this is the shorter road — and running it every few months keeps the folder current, which one export never does.
Which one to use
| Instagram's export | Desktop downloader | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free. | Free for 3 a day; $29 once for unlimited. |
| Wait | Hours to days, by email when it's ready. | Starts immediately. |
| What it covers | Everything — posts, stories, DMs, comments, activity. | The media on the profile: photos, videos, reels, carousels. |
| How it arrives | A zip of folders, files named by internal id, captions in JSON. | A folder of dated .jpg / .mp4, sorted by account. |
| Repeating it | Request the whole export again from scratch. | Run it again; anything you already have is skipped. |
| Best for | Closing the account and keeping the complete record. | Keeping a photo archive you'd actually open. |
Doing both is reasonable, and costs one download request plus an afternoon.
Saving your own profile with the app
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Step 01
Connect your account
Settings → Accounts → Instagram, in a normal login window. Your own posts are private to a signed-out request, which is why this comes first.
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Step 02
Choose where it goes
Pick the destination folder before you start — an external drive, or wherever your backup already looks. Everything lands there, in a folder named for the account.
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Step 03
Paste your profile URL
The whole profile queues at once. Files appear one by one with name and size; stop and resume whenever, and re-run it in six months to pick up only what's new.
About quality, plainly
Neither route gives you back the original file from your camera roll. Instagram compresses on upload and stores the compressed version; that is the best copy that exists on their side, and it is what both routes retrieve. Anything advertising "original quality Instagram download" is describing Instagram's copy, not yours.
The practical consequence: if the photos still exist on the phone that took them, that is your archive, and this is a second copy. If they don't — the phone is gone, the account is all that's left — then Instagram's copy is the best there is, and getting it onto your own disk is the whole job.
FAQ
How do I download all my Instagram photos at once?
Either Instagram's Download your information export, which is free and complete but arrives as a zip after a wait, or a desktop downloader pointed at your own profile, which starts immediately and gives you a browsable folder. The comparison above lays out which fits.
Is Instagram's data download free?
Yes, and you should know it exists. It costs time rather than money, and it gives you a record rather than an album.
Will I get full-resolution originals?
No route can. Instagram compresses on upload, so their copy is the ceiling for both. Pick the higher-quality option in their export for that reason.
Does it get videos and reels as well?
Yes, both routes. The app saves them as .mp4 next to the photos, so the profile ends up as one chronological set instead of split by type.
Do I need to keep the account to keep the photos?
No — that's the point of doing it before you need to. Once the files are in a folder, they're ordinary photos and videos. Losing the account doesn't touch them.
Related pages
The account isn't the archive.
It's a place your photos are being kept for you, by someone else, on their terms. Start free — three downloads a day, no card, no account.