Twitter / X Media Downloader

Download videos, photos, and GIFs from any public Twitter / X post — no login required for direct post URLs. Paste a link, hit run, and get the file plus a direct download URL that works anywhere.

You can also pass usernames to automatically pull media from a user's recent posts (cookie-authenticated, with a built-in cookie pool fallback).

What you get

Each downloaded file produces one dataset record:

Field	Description
tweet_url	Original tweet URL
tweet_id	Tweet ID
scraped_from	Username whose profile this post was found on (null for direct URLs)
uploader	Twitter handle of whoever posted the media
is_retweet	true if the post is a retweet
is_quote_tweet	true if the post quotes another tweet
media_origin	"self" = media from the tweet itself, "quoted" = media from a quoted tweet
media_type	"video", "photo", or "gif"
media_url	Original Twitter CDN URL of the media
thumbnail_url	Preview thumbnail URL (when present)
filename	Saved file name
filesize_bytes	File size in bytes
storage_key	Key used to store the file in the Apify Key-Value Store
download_url	Signed direct download URL — works in any browser or curl
download_status	"finished" or "failed"
error	Error message (only when download_status="failed")
downloaded_at	ISO 8601 UTC timestamp
media_stats	Resolution, duration, codec, bitrate, aspect ratio (where applicable)

Empty fields are dropped from each record so the dataset stays clean.

media_stats fields

Stat	Applies to	Example
width / height	All media	1920 / 1080
fps	Videos / GIFs	30.0
duration	Videos / GIFs	45.23 (seconds)
video_codec	Videos / GIFs	"h264"
ext	All media	"mp4", "png", "jpg"
filesize_bytes	All media	28640256
total_bitrate_kbps	Videos	5064.12
aspect_ratio	All media	1.78

Input

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
postUrls	Array	[]	Tweet/post URLs to download media from.
usernames	Array	[]	Twitter handles to pull recent media from (without @).
maxPostsPerUser	Integer	10	Number of recent posts to check per username (1-100).
browserCookies	String	—	Optional Twitter/X session cookies (JSON). Improves reliability for username scraping; not needed for direct post URLs.

You can mix postUrls and usernames in the same run.

Example input — single post

{
  "postUrls": ["https://x.com/NASA/status/1234567890"]
}

Example input — username scrape

{
  "usernames": ["NASA", "SpaceX"],
  "maxPostsPerUser": 25
}

Example input — mixed

{
  "postUrls": ["https://x.com/elonmusk/status/9876543210"],
  "usernames": ["openai"],
  "maxPostsPerUser": 10
}

Example output

Video

{
  "tweet_url": "https://x.com/NASA/status/1234567890",
  "tweet_id": "1234567890",
  "scraped_from": null,
  "uploader": "NASA",
  "is_retweet": false,
  "is_quote_tweet": false,
  "media_origin": "self",
  "media_type": "video",
  "media_url": "https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/.../pu/vid/1280x720/video.mp4",
  "thumbnail_url": "https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/.../img/thumb.jpg",
  "filename": "1234567890_video_1.mp4",
  "filesize_bytes": 28640256,
  "storage_key": "1234567890_video_1.mp4",
  "download_url": "https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/{STORE_ID}/records/1234567890_video_1.mp4?signature=fDeGdoTU7pRBdtunucWD",
  "download_status": "finished",
  "downloaded_at": "2026-05-05T13:42:18Z",
  "media_stats": {
    "width": 1920,
    "height": 1080,
    "fps": 30.0,
    "duration": 45.23,
    "video_codec": "h264",
    "ext": "mp4",
    "filesize_bytes": 28640256,
    "total_bitrate_kbps": 5064.12,
    "aspect_ratio": 1.78
  }
}

Photo

{
  "tweet_url": "https://x.com/NASA/status/9876543210",
  "tweet_id": "9876543210",
  "uploader": "NASA",
  "media_type": "photo",
  "media_url": "https://pbs.twimg.com/media/AbCdEf123.png?name=orig",
  "filename": "9876543210_photo_1.png",
  "filesize_bytes": 29387,
  "download_url": "https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/{STORE_ID}/records/9876543210_photo_1.png?signature=...",
  "download_status": "finished",
  "downloaded_at": "2026-05-05T13:42:18Z",
  "media_stats": {
    "width": 1200,
    "height": 675,
    "ext": "png",
    "filesize_bytes": 29387,
    "aspect_ratio": 1.78
  }
}

Use cases

• Content archival — Backup tweets from accounts you care about (your own, journalists, NASA, etc.).
• Repurposing — Pull video/image assets for blog posts, presentations, or social repurposing.
• Compliance — Preserve evidence of public posts for legal or regulatory archives.
• Media research — Build labelled datasets of viral video/image content.
• Account audit — Pull every video a user has posted to review or migrate.

FAQ

Do I need a Twitter account? No. For direct post URLs, the actor downloads from public endpoints without authentication. Username scraping uses an internal cookie pool that works out of the box; supplying your own cookies via browserCookies improves reliability for heavy username workloads.

What media types are supported? Videos, photos, and GIFs. The actor detects the type automatically and downloads everything in the tweet — if a post has 3 photos and 1 video, you get all 4 files.

What about CMAF / fMP4 streaming videos? Twitter delivers some videos as fragmented MP4 streams (HLS/m3u8). The actor automatically detects this, picks the highest-quality variant, downloads all segments, and produces a single playable MP4.

What does media_origin mean?

• "self" — the media belongs to the tweet you linked.
• "quoted" — the tweet you linked quotes another tweet, and this media comes from that quoted tweet. uploader shows the original author.

What does scraped_from mean? For username scraping, it tells you which profile the post was found on — useful when the post is a retweet (uploader is the original author, scraped_from is the user whose timeline produced the URL). For direct postUrls, it's null.

Does it download the best quality available? Yes. Videos are downloaded at the highest variant Twitter exposes; photos at original (?name=orig) resolution.

Are there any file-size limits? No. Files are streamed to disk and uploaded to Apify Key-Value Store, so multi-gigabyte videos work without running out of memory.

Why is download_url signed? Apify Key-Value Store records require a signed URL for public access — the signature is appended automatically. You can paste the URL into any browser or curl and it will download the file directly.

Can I download from private / protected accounts? Only by supplying cookies from an account that follows the protected profile. The actor cannot bypass Twitter's privacy controls.

What happens if a download fails? Failed downloads still appear in the dataset with download_status: "failed" and a clear error (e.g. tweet deleted, media URL expired, rate limit). Successful downloads continue regardless.

How long are the download links valid? Apify Key-Value Store retention depends on your plan — typically 7 days on the free tier, longer on paid plans. Re-run the actor or copy the file to your own storage for permanent archival.

Can I use this on a schedule? Yes. Schedule the actor on the Apify platform to automatically pull new media from specific users at regular intervals (hourly, daily, etc.).

Limitations

• Private / protected accounts require cookies from a follower.
• Tweets that were deleted before the run started cannot be retrieved.
• Twitter rate-limits aggressive crawling; very large username scrapes (50+ users × 100 posts each) may slow down or pause for cool-off.
• Download URLs are valid as long as your Apify storage retention allows.