Instagram lets you download a full archive of everything you've posted — feed posts, reels, stories, archived posts, captions, hashtags, and the original photos and videos at full quality. You request it once, Instagram emails you when it's ready (usually within a few hours, sometimes up to 48), then you download the .zip and upload it here.

Request your archive

You can do this in the Instagram app (recommended — slightly faster and the menu paths are easier to follow) or via instagram.com. Both end up in the same place: Meta's "Accounts Center", which is where Instagram, Facebook, and Threads all share their data-download screens.

In the Instagram app (iOS or Android)

1. Open Instagram and go to your profile (bottom-right tab).
2. Tap the three lines (☰) in the top right.
3. Tap Settings and privacy.
4. Scroll down and tap Accounts Center.
5. Tap Your information and permissions.
6. Tap Download your information.
7. Tap Download or transfer information.
8. Pick the Instagram account you want to export. (If you have more than one, do them separately.)
9. Choose Some of your information. (If you'd rather not think about it, All available information also works — it just makes the .zip bigger.)
10. If you picked "Some of your information", check the boxes under Your Instagram activity for:
    • Posts — your feed posts (may not be shown if you've never posted to feed; that's fine)
    • Reels — your reels
    • Stories — recent stories (older ones may not be included; that's an Instagram limit, not ours)
    • Story highlights — the ones pinned to your profile
    • Archived posts — anything you've archived but not deleted
    • Profile photos — your profile pictures over time
    You can skip everything else (followers, messages, shopping, ads, etc.) — we don't need them and leaving them out keeps your file smaller and your private stuff private.
11. Tap Next.
12. Choose Download to device (not "Transfer to another service").
13. Set the date range to All time (unless you have a specific reason to limit it).
14. Set Format. Both work, but they have tradeoffs:
    • JSON (recommended) — slightly richer metadata, parses fastest on our end.
    • HTML — works too; easier for you to open and browse yourself in a web browser.
    If you're not sure, pick JSON.
15. Set Media quality to High. (This is the important one — "Medium" downsamples your photos, which defeats the point.)
16. Tap Create files.

On instagram.com (web)

The web path lands in the same Accounts Center. Steps are slightly different depending on whether Instagram is showing you the old or new sidebar, but both end up at the same screen:

1. Go to accountscenter.instagram.com/info_and_permissions/dyi/ and log in. That's the fastest way to jump straight to "Download your information".
2. Or, from your profile: click the three lines (☰) in the bottom-left sidebar → More → Your activity → Download your information.
3. From there, the flow is identical to the app starting at step 7 above (Download or transfer information).

Wait for the email

Instagram emails you when the archive is ready. For most accounts this takes a few minutes; very active accounts can take up to 48 hours. The email comes from no-reply@mail.instagram.com with a subject like "Your Instagram information is ready to be downloaded".

Important: the download link expires after 4 days. Don't request your archive while you're about to leave for vacation — request it when you know you'll be near your computer in the next couple days.

Download the .zip

1. Open the email and tap Download information.
2. Instagram may ask you to log in again to confirm it's you.
3. The .zip downloads to your phone or computer. The file will be named something like instagram-yourusername-2026-04-19-abc123.zip.
4. Note the file size — for a typical small-business account this is 50 MB–1 GB. Very active accounts with years of history can be much larger.

If Instagram splits your archive into multiple .zip files

Very large archives sometimes come back as multiple parts (part-1-of-3.zip, part-2-of-3.zip, etc.). Upload all parts — we reassemble them on our end.

Upload to your intake

1. Come back to your intake page (the link we sent you in email).
2. Scroll down to Upload your platform exports.
3. Drag the .zip into the upload zone, OR click the zone and choose the file.
4. Wait for the progress bar to finish — large files take a few minutes on a typical home connection.
5. You'll see Uploaded ✓ next to the file when it's done. That's your confirmation that we have it.

That's it. We get notified, process the archive, and pull your best photos + your real captions to build the gallery and copy on your site.