About IGDL
IGDL is a single-purpose web page: you paste a public Instagram link, and it gives you the MP4 behind it. There is no account, no app, no browser extension and no upsell.
Who it is for
People who want to keep a reel for themselves. A recipe worth cooking, a workout worth repeating, a clip to show someone on a plane with no signal, a reference for your own editing. Creators also use it to keep copies of their own uploads once the original file has gone missing from their camera roll.
What it actually does
When you paste a link, the server requests the same public page Instagram already serves to a visitor who is not signed in, reads the video address out of it, and hands that address to your browser. The download then runs directly from Instagram's delivery network to your device. In rare cases where that direct transfer fails, the file is relayed through our server without being written to disk.
The file is not re-encoded, resized or watermarked. What you get is what Instagram serves.
What it does not do
- It does not ask for, store or use an Instagram login. There is nothing to sign into.
- It does not reach anything private. Stories, highlights and private accounts are out of scope, permanently.
- It does not host videos. No copy is kept on our servers at any point.
- It does not keep your history. The pasted link sits in a short-lived server cache, roughly ten minutes, purely so that repeat requests do not hit Instagram twice, and it is not tied to you.
- It does not handle photos yet. This version is video only.
How it is funded
Advertising, and nothing else. There is no paid tier, no download limit and no data being sold. The ad slots are fixed-size boxes placed so they do not jump around while you read, and they pay for the servers and the bandwidth.
On copyright
The videos belong to the people who made them. Saving a public clip for your own offline viewing is ordinary personal use; re-posting it as your own is not. Ask the creator, or credit them clearly. If you own a video and want it addressed, the DMCA page explains the process, though there is nothing hosted here to take down.
Contact
Bugs, broken links and questions all go to the same place. See the contact page, or write directly to hello@igdl.app.
IGDL is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Instagram or Meta in any way.