Guide
How to download an Instagram carousel
Published · Updated
- HD MP4
- Original source quality
- No login required
- 100% free
The short answer
To download an Instagram carousel, copy the post link — any slide gives the same URL — and paste it into IGDownPro. Every slide in the album is detected and listed separately, so you can save one slide, several, or the whole set with a single Download all press.
One post, up to twenty files
A carousel looks like a single post and behaves like an album. Instagram allows up to 20 items in one, and they can be any mix of photos and videos in whatever order the creator arranged them.
That mix is what makes saving them by hand tedious. Screenshotting works for the photo slides and not at all for the video ones, and you have to swipe through the whole album to find out which is which. Twenty slides means twenty manual operations and no consistency in what you end up with.
Every slide shares one post URL, which is the useful part: copy the link once from any slide, and a downloader can enumerate the entire album from it, returning photos as JPGs and videos as MP4s in the creator’s original order.
Step-by-step: saving every slide
One link covers the whole album — you do not need to copy a link per slide.
Open the carousel post
Find the multi-slide post on a public account. The dots beneath the image indicate how many slides it contains.
Copy the post link
Use the ⋯ menu and choose 'Copy link'. It does not matter which slide is on screen — every slide in a carousel shares the same post URL.
Paste it into IGDownPro
Open the Instagram Carousel Downloader, paste the URL and press Download. Every slide appears as its own preview card, in order.
Save individually or all at once
Use a card's own button to take just that slide, or press 'Download all' to save the complete album in sequence.
Ready to try it? Open the Instagram Carousel Downloader and paste your link.
Device-specific notes
Where the file ends up differs by platform — this is the part that trips people up.
iPhone and iPad
- Paste the link into IGDownPro in Safari and press Download.
- Long-press the slide preview and choose “Add to Photos” to save it straight to your camera roll.
- Or use Safari's download arrow, then the share sheet, and choose “Save Image”.
Android
- Paste the link into IGDownPro in Chrome and press Download.
- Long-press the slide and choose “Download image”, or use the Download button on the card.
- The JPG appears in Downloads and, usually, in Google Photos.
Windows, macOS, Linux
- Paste the link into IGDownPro and click Download.
- The JPG saves to your Downloads folder at full stored resolution.
- Right-click the preview and choose “Save image as…” if you prefer to pick the folder.
What comes back from a carousel
Each slide is fetched at the resolution Instagram stores for it, exactly as if you had downloaded it as a standalone post.
| Slides per post | Up to 20, all detected. |
|---|---|
| Photo slides | JPG at up to 1080px on the long edge. |
| Video slides | MP4 at up to 1080p. |
| Order | Preserved — slides come back as the creator arranged them. |
Mixed albums are handled per slide rather than converted to a common format: photos stay JPGs and videos stay MP4s. Nothing is re-encoded, so each file matches what a single-slide download of the same item would give you.
How to avoid the dangerous downloaders
This is a category full of hostile sites. A few rules will keep you out of trouble.
- Never enter your Instagram login. Downloading a public post requires no authentication whatsoever. A site that asks for your username and password is harvesting accounts, full stop.
- Do not install a browser extension for this. Extensions with permission to read instagram.com can read your session too. A plain website cannot.
- Be wary of .exe or .apk downloads. Saving a file needs no installed software. An installer offer is malware more often than not.
- Ignore “you must allow notifications” gates. That is an ad-spam subscription, not a technical requirement.
- Check the file you got. IGDownPro returns .mp4 video or .jpg image files. If a download arrives as .zip, .exe, .apk or .scr, delete it without opening it.
For a deeper comparison, use our nine-point Instagram downloader safety checklist.
The legal picture
This is a summary for orientation, not legal advice — if the stakes are real, ask a lawyer in your jurisdiction.
Copyright in an Instagram post belongs to whoever created it, not to Instagram and not to you. Instagram’s terms grant the platform a licence to host and display the work; they grant other users nothing beyond viewing it in the app.
Whether a download is permitted depends on the content, purpose and jurisdiction. Public visibility is not permission to reuse a work. Re-uploading, compiling, advertising with or otherwise distributing someone else's post generally requires permission from the rights-holder.
Practical guidance: ask the creator, credit them visibly, and take it down promptly if they object. If you own content that has been downloaded and reposted, our DMCA policy explains how to file a notice.
Frequently asked questions
How many slides can an Instagram carousel have?
Instagram allows up to 20 items per carousel post. IGDownPro lists all of them regardless of the mix of photos and videos.
Do I need a separate link for each slide?
No. Every slide in a carousel shares one post URL, so copying the link once from any slide is enough for the downloader to enumerate the whole album.
Can I download only one slide?
Yes. Each slide has its own download button, so you can take just the one you want and ignore the rest.
What happens with a mixed photo-and-video carousel?
Both are handled in one result list. Photo slides come back as JPGs and video slides as MP4s, in the order the creator arranged them — nothing is converted or skipped.
Does 'Download all' produce a zip file?
No. It saves each slide in sequence as an individual file, so you get plain JPGs and MP4s in your Downloads folder rather than an archive to unpack.
Why did only some slides appear?
Almost always a link problem rather than a missing slide — check you copied the post's own link and not a link to a comment or a profile. If the post is genuinely a single image, there is only ever one card to show.
Try it now
Head to the Instagram Carousel Downloader and paste a link, or jump to a related tool: photos, videos or igtv.
Prefer to start from the beginning? The Instagram downloader accepts any public link — post, reel, story or profile — and works out which tool it needs.