Which Video Downloads Actually Work? Real Success Rates by Site (October 2026)
We counted 4,482 links people pasted into LinksConverter in 30 days. TikTok worked 94% of the time, Instagram 87%, Facebook 75%. Here is why the rest failed.
We looked at every video link people pasted into LinksConverter over 30 days, 4,482 of them, and counted how many became a file. The short version: TikTok and Medal almost always work, Instagram and Pinterest work nearly nine times in ten, and Facebook and Vimeo are where links fail most, mostly because the post itself isn't public.
No downloader publishes numbers like these, so here are ours, with the rules we used and the raw data to check them.
The numbers, by site #
Period: 5 September to 4 October 2026 (UTC). "Last 7 days" is 28 September to 4 October.
| Site | Links | Became a file | Last 7 days | Typical wait | Most common reason it failed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medal | 139 | 95.7% | 94.0% | 13 s | Clip was private or removed |
| TikTok | 788 | 94.0% | 96.1% | 7 s | Video was private or deleted |
| 133 | 87.2% | 89.5% | 9 s | Pin was removed or private | |
| 510 | 86.7% | 93.8% | 13 s | Post was private, deleted or login-only | |
| X (Twitter) | 195 | 81.5% | 86.4% | 7 s | Post was private, deleted, or had no video |
| Internet Archive | 242 | 76.0% | 62.1% | 53 s | No saved copy, or a page instead of a file |
| 1,393 | 75.4% | 69.2% | 16 s | Post was private, deleted or login-only | |
| Google Drive | 144 | 71.5% | 87.7% | 62 s | Our side: non-video files (fixed 4 October) |
| Vimeo | 663 | 65.6% | 83.1% | 41 s | Our side: Vimeo's browser check (fixed 28 September) |
"Typical wait" is the median time from pasting the link to the file being ready, including any time spent in the queue.
Smaller samples #
These sites had fewer than 100 links in the month, so treat the percentages as rough.
| Site | Links | Became a file | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Streamable | 12 | 91.7% | |
| Dailymotion | 18 | 83.3% | |
| 45 | 80.0% | 14 of 14 in the last week | |
| Tenor | 39 | 79.5% | 1 in 5 ended at a "pick a file" screen |
| Twitch | 27 | 70.4% | 5 were over the size limit |
| Dropbox | 11 | 63.6% | 3 links didn't point at a single file |
| Discord | 56 | 60.7% | Copied attachment links stop working after a while |
| OK.ru | 67 | 23.9% | Broken on our side until 4 October |
How we counted #
- Real visitors only. Our own test jobs, which run around the clock to catch breakage, are left out.
- One link, one job. If someone pasted the same link twice, it counts twice.
- Success means a file was ready to download. Whether the visitor then pressed Download isn't part of this number.
- Refused links aren't counted. Links we turn away the moment they are pasted (DRM streaming services, for example) never become jobs.
- YouTube and music services aren't in this report.
- The failure reason is what our error message said. It is our best reading of what the site answered. A few "private or deleted" answers may really have been a site blocking our server.
Why links failed #
Splitting the failures by whose side they were on changes the picture. Facebook looks worst, but most of its failures are links no tool could open.
| Site | The link's side | Our side, or the site blocked us | Over the size limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16.2% | 7.8% | 0.7% | |
| X (Twitter) | 18.4% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 12.7% | 0.0% | 0.6% | |
| Vimeo | 11.0% | 22.6% | 0.8% |
| Internet Archive | 14.0% | 2.1% | 2.5% |
| 6.8% | 6.0% | 0.0% | |
| TikTok | 3.9% | 1.6% | 0.5% |
| Google Drive | 3.5% | 23.6% | 1.4% |
"The link's side" covers posts that were private, deleted or visible only to logged-in people, links to a profile or feed instead of one post, posts with no video in them, and Vimeo videos whose owner limited where they can play.
Facebook: most failures are posts you can't see without logging in #
About one Facebook link in seven pointed at something Facebook doesn't show to logged-out visitors: a group post, a friends-only post, or a post that had been deleted. Another 3% were links to a profile or a feed rather than to one video. A quick test: open the link in a private (incognito) window. If the video doesn't play there, no downloader can fetch it.
Facebook also had a rough patch from 30 September to 2 October, which is why the last week is lower. On 2 October we changed how Facebook and Instagram links are fetched, and we're watching it.
Instagram: the right link matters #
Instagram failures were mostly private accounts and deleted posts, plus links to a whole profile. Open the reel or post itself, tap Share, then Copy link, and paste that.
X (Twitter): check the post has a video #
Almost one X link in five failed on the link's side. Many were private or deleted posts, and some posts simply had no video in them, only text or photos.
Vimeo: a fix on 28 September #
Until 27 September, Vimeo put a browser check in front of its videos that our servers couldn't pass, so many public videos failed. We updated our download tools on 28 September; since then Vimeo links have worked 83% of the time. Of the rest, the most common case is a video whose owner allowed it to play only on their own website. If that happens, see our note on Vimeo errors.
Google Drive and OK.ru: our fault, now fixed #
Google Drive links to files that aren't videos (PDFs, ZIP files, slides) used to fail on our side. Since 4 October they download through Drive's own download link, with their real file name. In the first day after the fix, 8 of 10 Drive links became a file. OK.ru videos were broken by a change on the site until we fixed our side on 4 October.
What changed this month #
- 28 September: Vimeo's browser check stopped blocking our servers.
- 2 October: a new way of fetching Facebook and Instagram links, with sharper video for short reels.
- 4 October: Google Drive files that aren't videos, OK.ru, and pages where the video sits inside the site's own player.
If your link failed #
- Open the link in a private (incognito) window. If it doesn't play there, it isn't public.
- Copy the link of the post itself, not the profile, feed or search page.
- Try again a little later if the site may have been blocking servers for a while.
- If none of that helps, use the feedback button on the result page, which tells us about it.
Guides for specific sites: Facebook download failures, with data, TikTok downloader not working, Instagram downloader not working and saving a video embedded in a web page.
Download the data #
The table above is available as a CSV file: success-rates-2026-10.csv. You may reuse it under CC BY 4.0; please link back to this page.
We'll update these numbers every month with the same rules. To try a link yourself, paste it into LinksConverter →.
Frequently asked questions
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