X video downloader: how to save videos from x.com

Twitter renamed itself X in 2023 and finished moving to the x.com address in 2024. Tweets are now posts and retweets are reposts, and a lot of people searching for a "Twitter video downloader" wonder whether the old tools still work. They do: the video files underneath did not change. What changed is mostly the links, and knowing how they work saves you a few failed attempts.

What changed when Twitter became X

• The address. Every page now lives on x.com. Old twitter.com links still work; they redirect to the same post on x.com.
• The names. Tweets are "posts", retweets are "reposts", TweetDeck is "X Pro". The media is the same.
• Signed-out access. For a while X hid almost everything from visitors without an account. Today it shows most public posts again, in a simpler version of the site, but still keeps some media behind a sign-in.

What did not change:

• Videos are still stored as MP4 files on X's media servers.
• Every video still comes in several versions of different sizes, and a good downloader still picks the largest one.
• Animated GIFs are still silent MP4 videos under the hood.

How an X video link is built

A post link has three parts that matter:

https://x.com/username/status/1834567890123456789

• x.com or twitter.com: interchangeable.
• username: the account that posted it. X actually ignores it and finds the post by ID alone.
• The long number: the post ID. This is the only part a downloader really needs.

You will also see a few variations, all of which point to the same post:

• …/status/1834567890123456789/video/1: the link to the media viewer. Downloaders accept it.
• …?s=20&t=AbCdEf…: tracking parameters added by the share menu. Harmless, and safe to delete.
• https://t.co/…: X's link shortener, used when a post links to another post. Open it once to get the real address.

Saving an X video on a computer

The quickest way skips links entirely. Twitter Video Downloader for Chrome puts a download button in the action row of every post on x.com:

1. Install the extension from the Chrome Web Store.
2. Open x.com and find the post.
3. Click the download icon next to the Share button.

If you would rather not install anything, copy the post link and paste it into a web-based downloader, or use the open-source command-line tool yt-dlp. Both are covered, with their trade-offs, in our guide to the four download methods.

Saving an X video on a phone

The X app does not download videos for most users, and mobile browsers do not run extensions. The reliable approach is to copy the link from the app, paste it into a download website in Safari or Chrome, and then move the file into your gallery. On iPhone that last step goes through the Files app. The full walkthrough is in downloading Twitter videos on iPhone and Android.

Saving X videos without an account

You do not need an X account to download most public videos. Open the post link in a browser while signed out and X shows the post, including its video. Twitter Video Downloader works on that signed-out version of x.com as well. The exceptions are posts from protected accounts and media X marks as sensitive or age-restricted: those need you to sign in. Details in how to download Twitter videos without an account.

Frequently asked questions

Do Twitter video downloaders work with x.com links?

Any downloader that is still maintained accepts both x.com and twitter.com links. If a tool rejects an x.com link, replacing x.com with twitter.com sometimes helps, but a tool that old is likely to fail for other reasons too.

Can I download X Spaces or live broadcasts?

Spaces are audio streams and live videos are streamed in segments rather than stored as one MP4, so most post downloaders do not handle them. Command-line tools such as yt-dlp support some recorded broadcasts and Spaces.

Is downloading videos from X allowed?

Saving a copy for yourself is a different matter from republishing it. We explain where the lines are in is it legal to download Twitter videos?