How to Download Twitter (X) Videos on Mac and Windows

Saving a video from X (formerly Twitter) on a computer is easier than on a phone: desktop browsers download files without asking you to install anything, and you get a normal MP4 that opens in QuickTime, VLC, or Windows Media Player. This guide covers the straightforward Twget flow in Safari, Chrome, Edge, and Firefox, explains where each browser puts the file, and then walks through two advanced options, browser developer tools and yt-dlp, for people who like doing things by hand.

The simple method: Twget in any desktop browser

Twget is a web page, so it works the same in every browser on macOS and Windows. There is no extension to add and no account to sign in to. The general process is the same as the one in our pillar guide, how to download Twitter videos, with a few desktop-specific details.

1. Open the post on x.com. Click the timestamp or the share icon and choose Copy link. You can also copy the address from the browser's URL bar; it looks like https://x.com/username/status/1234567890.
2. Go to Twget and paste the link into the input box. Press Enter or click the download button.
3. Twget lists the available renditions. Most posts offer several resolutions such as 360p, 720p, and 1080p, and the highest one is the largest file. If the post is an X "GIF", a single silent MP4 is offered; photos are listed too.
4. Click the resolution you want. Your browser saves the MP4 to its downloads location.

If the download opens in a new tab and plays instead of saving, right-click the video and choose Save Video As (Chrome, Edge, Firefox) or press Command-S in Safari. This behaviour depends on browser settings and is not an error.

Where the file goes

Every desktop browser has a default downloads folder and a shortcut to reveal it.

Apple's Safari guide explains that downloaded items appear in the Downloads list and that you can change the destination folder in Safari's General settings, see Download items from the web in Safari on Mac. Firefox's equivalent settings are described in Mozilla's article Where to find and manage downloaded files in Firefox.

Getting the file into Photos on a Mac

If you want the video in the Photos library rather than a folder, open Photos and choose File > Import, or drag the MP4 onto the Photos window. Apple documents the process in Import photos from your desktop into Photos on Mac. On Windows, the Photos app indexes the Videos and Pictures folders, so moving the file there is enough.

Renaming for sanity

Downloaded files often carry a long numeric name. Rename them immediately with a short description and the poster's handle, for example @nasa-launch-1080p.mp4, so you can find them later and remember where they came from. That habit also matters if you plan to convert a clip to an animated GIF later; see how to convert a Twitter video to GIF.

Advanced method 1: browser developer tools

Every modern browser can show the network requests a page makes, and the video file is one of them. This is a good fallback when a web downloader is down, and it teaches you what those tools do behind the scenes.

1. Open the post on x.com and press F12 (Windows) or Option-Command-I (Mac) to open developer tools. Switch to the Network panel. Google's Chrome DevTools Network reference describes the panel in detail; Firefox's is documented in the Network Monitor guide.
2. Play the video. In the filter row, click Media to hide everything except audio and video requests, or type video.twimg.com in the filter box.
3. You will see several requests. X delivers most videos as small segments over adaptive streaming, so you may see many .m4s chunks plus a playlist, rather than a single MP4. Look for an entry ending in .mp4 with a size of a few megabytes; if one exists, right-click it and choose Open in new tab, then save the file from that tab.
4. If only segments appear, this method will not give you a complete file. That is the main reason people use a downloader page or yt-dlp instead: those tools reassemble the stream for you.

Advanced method 2: yt-dlp

yt-dlp is a free, open-source command-line downloader that supports thousands of sites, including X. It is the tool most power users reach for, and it is fully local: nothing goes through a third-party server. The trade-off is that you work in a terminal and need to keep the tool updated because X changes its site frequently.

Install

The project's installation wiki, linked from the README, lists every method. The common ones:

• macOS: brew install yt-dlp with Homebrew, or pip install yt-dlp.
• Windows: winget install yt-dlp using the Windows Package Manager, or download yt-dlp.exe from the releases page.

yt-dlp needs ffmpeg to merge separate audio and video streams, so install that too if you use the pip route; the Homebrew and winget packages pull it in for you.

Download

Open a terminal and run:

yt-dlp "https://x.com/username/status/1234567890"

To see every rendition before choosing, list the formats:

yt-dlp -F "https://x.com/username/status/1234567890"

Then pick one by its ID, or ask for the best MP4 directly:

yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4]" "https://x.com/username/status/1234567890"

The -F and -f options are explained in the README's format selection section. If a post contains multiple videos, yt-dlp saves each one; add -o "%(uploader)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s" to control naming.

When yt-dlp fails

Update first: yt-dlp -U. Most breakage after an X site change is fixed within days. Age-restricted or protected posts need cookies from a logged-in session, which yt-dlp supports via --cookies-from-browser; that is beyond what Twget does, since Twget never asks you to log in.

Which method should you use?

• Twget: fastest, no install, works in any browser, good for occasional and frequent use alike.
• Developer tools: free and educational, but unreliable for segmented streams.
• yt-dlp: most powerful and fully local, best for batches or automation, requires a terminal.

For a broader comparison including browser extensions and X's own Premium download feature, read the best Twitter video downloaders in 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Does it matter whether I use Safari, Chrome, Edge, or Firefox?

No. Twget is a standard web page and the download is a standard file transfer. The only differences are where the browser stores the file and which shortcut opens the downloads list.

The file downloaded but has no sound. Why?

Two possibilities. If the post was an X "GIF", it is a silent MP4 by design. Otherwise, you may have grabbed a video-only segment via developer tools; use Twget or yt-dlp, which deliver the merged file with audio.

Can I download several videos at once?

Twget handles one post at a time. For bulk downloads, yt-dlp accepts a text file of links with -a links.txt.

On a Mac or Windows PC you have the full range of options, from a one-click web download to a scriptable command-line tool. For most people the first option is enough: copy the post link, paste it into Twget, pick a resolution, and the MP4 is in your Downloads folder a moment later.

Sources

• Download items from the web in Safari on Mac — Apple Support, accessed December 14, 2025
• Where to find and manage downloaded files in Firefox — Mozilla Support, accessed December 14, 2025
• Import photos from your desktop into Photos on Mac — Apple Support, accessed December 14, 2025
• Network features reference — Chrome for Developers, accessed December 14, 2025
• Network Monitor — Firefox Source Docs, accessed December 14, 2025
• yt-dlp — GitHub, accessed December 14, 2025