Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, completely free. There are no plans, no subscriptions, and no account required. Fetchr is a self-hosted tool with no advertising and no upsells. The only limitation is a file expiry of 30 minutes — make sure to download your file before then.

Private videos (set to "Private" or "Unlisted" on YouTube, or from a private Instagram account) cannot be downloaded — they require authentication that Fetchr doesn't have. Most age-restricted YouTube videos can be downloaded without issue. If you get an error on an age-restricted video, try copying the exact URL from the browser address bar rather than from a share link.

Fetchr offers 1080p, 720p, 480p, and 360p. The actual quality depends on what the source platform provides — if a video was only uploaded in 480p, selecting 1080p will download the best available quality (480p in that case). For audio, the MP3 option extracts the audio track at 192kbps, which is near-CD quality for spoken word and music.

This depends on your jurisdiction and how you use the downloaded content. In general, downloading videos for personal, offline viewing of content you have the right to access is widely considered acceptable. Redistributing, re-uploading, or monetizing downloaded content you don't own is a copyright violation. Always respect the content creator's rights. Fetchr is a tool — you are responsible for how you use it.

Most videos under 10 minutes are ready in 15–60 seconds depending on server load and the source platform's speed. Long-form videos (1+ hour) may take 2–5 minutes. The progress bar shows real-time status. MP3 extraction adds a few seconds for the audio conversion step.

No. Fetchr downloads the original video stream directly — it does not add any watermarks or overlays. For TikTok specifically, Fetchr fetches the unwatermarked version of the video (the version without the floating TikTok logo). This is the same file TikTok serves before adding the overlay.

Video downloads are saved as MP4 (H.264 video + AAC audio), which plays on every device without any additional software. Audio-only downloads are saved as MP3. Some platforms may produce WebM files if MP4 isn't available at the requested quality; these play in VLC and most modern browsers.

Single videos yes, full playlists no — Fetchr is designed for individual video downloads. If you need to download an entire playlist, you can install yt-dlp locally on your machine and run it from the command line: yt-dlp [playlist-url].

Instagram frequently changes how it serves content to third-party tools. Common causes of failures: (1) the account is private, (2) the post has been deleted, (3) Instagram is temporarily blocking the download. If it fails, try again in a few minutes. Instagram Stories disappear after 24 hours — once they're gone, they cannot be downloaded.

Fetchr stores the downloaded file on its server for 30 minutes so you can download it. After 30 minutes, the file is automatically and permanently deleted. We don't keep logs of which videos you download, and we don't require any personal information to use the tool.

Yes. Open fetchr.cc in Safari on your iPhone, paste the video URL, and tap Download. When the file download starts, Safari will ask where to save it — choose Downloads and then open the Files app to find it. You can also save it directly to your Photos app if it's a supported video format. For MP3 files, they'll appear in Downloads and can be imported into the Music app.

There is no strict file size limit for downloads — Fetchr will download whatever the source platform provides. However, very large files (multi-GB movie-length downloads) may time out depending on server conditions. Most videos under 2 hours at 1080p are under 3GB and download without issue.

Copy the link to the tweet containing the video (click Share → Copy Link to Tweet on Twitter/X), paste it into Fetchr, and download. Both twitter.com and x.com links work. GIF posts on Twitter are saved as MP4 videos since that's how Twitter stores them internally.

Long processing times usually mean one of two things: (1) the video is very long and the server is downloading and processing a large file, or (2) the source platform is slow to respond. The progress bar will update in real time. If the progress bar is stuck at 0% for more than 2 minutes without moving, try pasting the URL again and starting a new download.

The error message will tell you exactly what went wrong. Common fixes: (1) make sure the URL is the full video URL, not a search result page; (2) check that the video is public; (3) try a different quality setting; (4) wait a few minutes and try again if the platform is temporarily blocking downloads. If nothing works, the video may be DRM-protected or genuinely unavailable.

Fetchr currently offers up to 1080p resolution in its quality selector. If you need 4K, you can use yt-dlp directly on your machine with the -f bestvideo+bestaudio flag to select the highest available quality. Fetchr focuses on 1080p and below for fast, reliable server-side processing.

Select the MP3 Audio option in Fetchr's quality dropdown before clicking Download. Fetchr will extract the audio track from the video and deliver a 192kbps MP3 file. This works for YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter/X, and any other supported platform.

Fetchr processes one video at a time per browser session. For batch downloads of multiple videos or full playlists, use yt-dlp on your local machine: yt-dlp [url1] [url2] or yt-dlp --yes-playlist [playlist-url]. Fetchr is optimized for quick single-video downloads without installing any software.

Fetchr outputs MP4 (H.264/AAC) for video downloads and MP3 for audio-only downloads. These formats are universally compatible with Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and all major media players. Some platforms may produce WebM (VP9/Opus) if MP4 is unavailable at the selected quality — WebM plays in VLC, Chrome, and Firefox.

Fetchr downloads directly from the source platform's CDN at full speed, so processing is typically limited by the platform's delivery speed rather than Fetchr's servers. Most videos under 10 minutes complete in under 60 seconds. 1080p videos with separate audio tracks require an FFmpeg merge step which adds a few seconds compared to lower resolutions.