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How to export your Instagram saved posts

Quick answer

Instagram has no export made for saved posts. Use Meta's general tool: Accounts Center, then Your information and permissions, then Export your information. Tick Saved posts, set the date range to all time, and choose HTML rather than JSON, because the JSON version drops the captions. Meta emails a link, and the file you want is saved_posts.html.

Instagram will give your saved posts back if you ask for them the right way. The request takes about five minutes of your attention, plus a wait while Meta builds the file. One setting in the middle decides whether the result is useful or nearly worthless, and it is easy to miss.

Last updated 23 August 2026

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What is actually in an Instagram saved posts export?

There is no button in Instagram that shows your saved posts as a list you can keep, and no export built just for them. What exists is Meta's general Export your information tool, listed in older versions of the app as Download your information. It packages up what is on your account and sends you a zip. Your saved posts are one file inside it.

That file holds the link to every post you ever saved, the account that posted it, the date you saved it, and, if you pick the right format, the caption. It does not contain the videos or photos themselves. Those stay on Instagram, and the links point back at them, which is why the file is small: a few hundred saves is usually well under a megabyte.

The steps to export your Instagram saved posts

  1. Open Accounts Center

    In the Instagram app, go to your profile, open the menu, then Settings and privacy. Near the top you will find Accounts Center, which is the shared Meta settings area rather than an Instagram screen.

  2. Find your information and permissions

    Open Your information and permissions, then Export your information, then Create export. On older builds these read Download your information and Download or transfer information.

  3. Choose the account

    If more than one profile is linked, pick the Instagram account whose saves you want. Meta will offer to export several at once, which only makes the file bigger and harder to work through.

  4. Select some of your information, not all of it

    Choose Some of your information. Scroll to the section covering your activity and tick Saved posts. Taking everything works too, but it produces a far larger download and a much longer wait.

  5. Choose to export to device

    When asked where the copy should go, pick Export to device rather than sending it to an external service.

  6. Set the date range to all time

    The default is often a recent window, which quietly leaves out the years of saves you most want back.

  7. Choose HTML, not JSON

    This is the setting that matters, and it is covered in full below.

  8. Start the export and wait

    Meta emails you when the file is ready. A saved posts only request is often back within the hour.

  9. Download it before the link expires

    Meta gives you four days to collect the file, and you may be asked to re-enter your password.

  10. Find the saved posts file

    Inside the unpacked folder the file sits at roughly your_instagram_activity/saved/saved_posts.html. That single file is the one worth keeping.

HTML or JSON: the one setting people get wrong

Choose HTML. The JSON export leaves the captions out.

Both formats contain the same links, so at a glance JSON looks like the cleaner, more technical choice. But Instagram's JSON version of saved posts records little more than the URL, the account handle and a timestamp. The caption, which is where the recipe, the address, the ingredient list and every useful word actually live, is missing.

Without captions, every save reads as nothing more than a post by an account name. Anything that later tries to sort, search or make sense of that archive has almost nothing to work with. If you have already requested JSON, it is worth requesting again as HTML. There is no limit on how often you can ask.

How long does Instagram take to send the export?

Meta does not promise a turnaround, and the honest answer is that it depends entirely on what you asked for. A saved posts only request usually arrives within the hour. A request covering an entire account, with photos and videos at full quality, can take days.

Meta's own help page sets the outside limit and the collection window plainly: "It may take up to 30 days for us to email you an export link", and once it is ready, "you'll have 4 days to export your information" from the Available downloads section in Accounts Center. So the wait is usually short, the deadline afterwards is not generous, and if you miss it you simply request the file again.

Source: Instagram Help Center, Review and export a copy of your Instagram information. Checked 23 August 2026.

Can I download the photos and videos of my saved posts?

Not through this route, and it is worth being clear about that before you wait for a file. The saved posts export gives you links, handles, dates and captions. It does not give you a copy of anyone else's photos or videos, because those posts belong to the accounts that published them, not to you. Meta will hand over the media you posted yourself, which is a different section of the same export.

Browser extensions and downloader tools that scrape the saved grid do fetch the media, and they are the honest answer if a folder full of image files is what you want. What they do not give you is the caption text in a structured file, they need your logged-in session, and they break whenever Instagram changes its markup. The Meta export needs no third party, no password handed over, and no extension.

How to export Instagram saved posts on a computer

The same tool exists on the web. Sign in at accountscenter.instagram.com and follow the same path: Your information and permissions, then Export your information. Everything up to the download is identical.

The difference is what happens afterwards. A desktop browser unpacks the zip in one double click and lets you open saved_posts.html straight away, while on a phone you have to route it through the Files app first. Requesting on the phone and collecting on a computer is a reasonable split, and so is doing the whole thing on the phone if you intend to import the file into an app on that phone anyway.

What is inside saved_posts.html?

Opened in a browser, it is a long, plain list in date order, newest first. Each entry is a heading with the account handle, the caption text if you chose HTML, the date you saved it, and a link back to the post on instagram.com. There is no styling to speak of and no images, because the file only points at them.

That is genuinely better than a tab that only exists inside an app, and it is yours. But it has no structure: nothing is grouped, nothing is titled beyond the account handle, and finding one recipe among nine hundred saves means using your browser's find command and hoping you remember the exact word.

Common questions

The email has not arrived

Check the inbox of the address on the Meta account rather than the one you use day to day, and look in spam. Meta allows itself up to 30 days, and requests covering an entire account genuinely can take days. Completed files are also listed under Available downloads inside Accounts Center whether or not the email reached you.

The download link has expired

Request it again. The collection window is four days, there is no limit on how often you can ask, and a saved posts only request is usually quick the second time.

There is no saved posts file in the zip

Usually this means the request did not include it. If you chose Some of your information, the Saved posts box has to be ticked explicitly.

Every entry says "Post by" and nothing else

That is the JSON export, which contains no captions. Request the archive again and choose HTML.

Does exporting delete anything or unsave my posts?

No. It only takes a copy. Your saved posts stay exactly where they are in Instagram, your collections are untouched, and nothing about your account changes.

Instagram changes the wording and position of these screens from time to time. If a menu name here does not match what you see, the path is still Accounts Center, then Your information and permissions, then the export tool.

Next, once the file has landed