How to download TikTok videos on any device (2026)

There are two ways to download a TikTok video. The first is TikTok's own Save video button in the Share sheet, which puts a watermarked copy in your camera roll, but only when the creator has allowed downloads. The second is to copy the video's link and paste it into a browser-based downloader such as vidstill, which gives you the video as an MP4 in the cleanest version TikTok serves, or the sound as an MP3, on any phone or computer. This guide covers both, explains what the "no watermark" claims on downloader sites actually mean, and lists what cannot be downloaded from TikTok at all.

Option 1: TikTok's built-in Save video

Open the video in the TikTok app and tap the Share arrow on the right.
In the bottom row of the share sheet, tap Save video.
TikTok processes the clip for a moment and saves it to Photos on an iPhone or the gallery on Android.

That is the easiest route when it is available, and it is worth trying first. What you get is a copy with TikTok's watermark: the logo and the creator's @username, which moves around the frame during playback. The watermark is part of the picture; it cannot be cropped off cleanly and it stays if you re-post the clip anywhere else.

The bigger limitation is that Save video is often missing. Creators can turn off downloads for their whole account or for a single video, and many do. When they have, the option does not appear in the share sheet or is greyed out. Some videos with licensed music save without their sound. For a large share of the videos you will want to keep, the button is simply not there.

Option 2: copy the link and use a browser

Copy the link. Tap the Share arrow and choose Copy link. From the app this gives you a short address like https://vm.tiktok.com/… or https://vt.tiktok.com/…; from tiktok.com in a browser you get the full https://www.tiktok.com/@user/video/… address. Both work.
Paste it into the downloader and press Go. The video card appears with the creator's name, caption and length.
Choose MP4 or MP3. MP4 prepares the video at the best quality TikTok offers. MP3 gives you the audio track alone.
Save the file. A Download button appears after a few seconds and your browser saves it like any other file.

This works whether or not the creator has allowed downloads in the app, because the downloader fetches the same video file TikTok streams to anyone who opens the public page. It also works on a computer, where the TikTok app's Save video does not exist at all.

What "no watermark" actually means

Most TikTok downloader sites advertise "no watermark". Here is what is behind that.

TikTok keeps several encodings of each video and serves different ones to different clients. The version shown on the public website has the watermark burned in. The version TikTok serves to its own app has historically been cleaner, and that is the file a good downloader requests. vidstill fetches the source file TikTok serves its own app, at the highest resolution and bitrate available for that video, and passes it through as an MP4 without re-encoding it or adding anything.

Whether that file carries a visible TikTok overlay depends entirely on what TikTok decided to serve for that video on that day. TikTok controls what is baked into its files and has changed it before. So the honest description is "the cleanest version TikTok serves", not "no watermark", and a site that promises the latter unconditionally is promising something it does not control. When TikTok's clean version is available, you get it; when it is not, no downloader can invent one.

Where the file lands

iPhone and iPad. Use Safari. Tap Download when Safari asks, then the arrow at the top of the screen to see progress. The MP4 goes to the Downloads folder in the Files app; to put it in your camera roll, open it in Files, tap Share and choose Save Video. The iPhone guide walks through that route in detail, and the steps are the same for any video file.

Android. Chrome saves to Downloads and shows a notification. Your gallery app picks the video up on its own.

Mac and Windows. The file goes to your Downloads folder. If the browser starts playing the video in a tab instead of saving it, use the Download button on the card rather than the browser's player controls.

MP3: keeping only the sound

Choose MP3 instead of MP4 and you get the audio track as a 192 kbps MP3: the creator's voiceover, the sound they picked, or both together. It is the quickest way to keep a sound for your own edit or a spoken tip you want to replay without the video. A TikTok that is muted in the app, because its sound is not licensed in your region, is muted in the file too; the downloader cannot restore audio TikTok is not serving.

Getting the words as text

TikTok does not publish captions a tool can fetch, so the Transcript tab on the video card transcribes the audio with speech-to-text. For a clip under a minute it takes a few seconds, and you get the spoken words with timestamps to copy or export. That is often what you actually wanted from a recipe, a workout routine or a piece of advice: the text, not the video. The Summary tab condenses a longer TikTok into a TL;DR or key points.

What cannot be downloaded

A browser downloader sees exactly what a signed-out visitor to tiktok.com sees. The following are out of reach for any tool, however it is advertised:

Private accounts and friends-only videos. If the video needs a login to view, there is no public file to fetch.
Age-restricted videos. TikTok gates some content behind a signed-in adult account, and those come back as unavailable.
Deleted videos, including ones you added to Favorites in the app. Favorites is a bookmark, not a copy.
Region-blocked videos that TikTok hides in the country the downloader's servers use.
Live streams. TikTok LIVE is not supported.
Profiles, sounds and hashtags. Those pages are lists, not videos. Paste the link to one specific video.

Why not an app or an extension

TikTok downloader apps come and go from the app stores, and the ones with "no watermark" in their name tend to be the first pulled. Browser extensions that add a download button to tiktok.com read your logged-in session, which is more access than the job needs. A website in a browser cannot install anything, does not need your TikTok login, and is easy to walk away from when it stops being useful. vidstill also handles Instagram, X and YouTube links on the same page, so you do not need a different site per platform.

A note on copyright

TikTok creators own their videos. Saving a public video to watch offline is generally fine, and your own videos or anything under a Creative Commons licence are always fine. Re-posting someone else's TikTok as your own, with or without credit, or using it commercially, is not, and the rules vary by country. Download what you have the right to keep. vidstill does not host copies of videos, prepared files are deleted after about an hour, and rights holders can request removal of a public video page through the DMCA page. The tool is at vidstill's TikTok downloader.

FAQ

Is there a way to download a TikTok when Save video is missing? Yes. Copy the link from the Share sheet and paste it into a browser-based downloader. That route does not depend on the creator's download setting.

Does the downloaded TikTok have a watermark? You get the cleanest version TikTok serves its own app, with nothing added. Whether it carries TikTok's own overlay depends on what TikTok serves for that video, so nobody can promise a watermark-free file.

Can I download a TikTok from a private account I follow? No. Downloaders only see what a signed-out visitor sees. Your own login does not transfer to the tool, and it should not.

Do short vm.tiktok.com links work? Yes. That is the link the app copies, and it resolves to the full video address. Make sure you copied the whole link and not a truncated one.

Is it free? Yes, for a few downloads a day without an account. A free account raises the allowance; Pro removes it.