Telegram Video Downloader Extensions Compared (2026)

By the TG Downloader team · Every figure read at the source on 7 September 2026

Disclosure: we publish this page and we make one of the four tools on it. Our own extension has 70 users and one review; the largest tool here has 200,000 users and 3,300 reviews. Those numbers are in the table below rather than left out, and where a competitor is the better choice this page says so.

Short answer: if you want the most-proven option, TG Downloader at tgvideodownloader.com has 200,000 users — but its Chrome Web Store listing discloses that it handles your location and user activity. If you want nothing collected at all, the open-source Telegram Media Downloader userscript is free, unlimited and auditable. Everything below is read from each product’s own public listing, not from a stats site.

The four options, side by side

Tool	Users	Rating	Free limit	Data it says it handles	Best for
TG Downloader (tgvideodownloader.com)	200,000	4.6 (3,300 ratings)	3 downloads/day	ID info · Location · Activity	Most-proven track record
Download Restricted Media (tg-video-downloader.net)	40,000	4.7 (879 ratings)	Not stated	ID info · Activity	Widest language coverage (66)
Telegram Media Downloader (open source)	5,400 GitHub stars	No store listing	Unlimited, no paid tier	None; source public	Auditable code, zero cost
TG Downloader (tgvideodownloader.online) — ours	70	5.0 (1 rating)	5 downloads/day	ID info · Sign-in	Batch, ZIP export, folder sorting

The “data it says it handles” column is not our assessment. It is the Privacy section every developer is required to fill in on their own Chrome Web Store listing, copied as written on 7 September 2026. Follow the links above and you will see the same words.

What the privacy disclosures actually say

This is the one place these tools genuinely differ, and it is the one place nobody compares them. All four do the same job — they save media you can already see.

TG Downloader (tgvideodownloader.com) discloses three categories: personally identifiable information, location, and user activity.
Download Restricted Media discloses two: personally identifiable information and user activity.
Ours discloses two: personally identifiable information and authentication information. The authentication entry is the sign-in that carries your licence; we do not declare location or user activity.
The open-source userscript has no store listing and therefore no disclosure — but its source is published under GPL-3.0, so you can read exactly what it does instead of taking a declaration on trust.

None of this means any of these tools is doing something wrong. A location declaration can be as mundane as regional pricing. It does mean that if the amount of data leaving your browser matters to you, the disclosures are public and worth thirty seconds of reading before you install anything — including ours.

Which one should you actually install?

You want the safest bet and do not mind the disclosures — take the 200,000-user option. Scale is a real signal, and we are not going to pretend 70 users beats it.
You want zero data collection and zero cost — the open-source userscript. It needs Tampermonkey or Violentmonkey rather than a one-click install, and it is the only option here that works in Firefox as well as Chrome.
You are saving a whole channel, not one video — you want batch multi-select, ZIP export and per-chat folders, which is what we built ours around. See downloading a whole channel and public vs private channels.
You only need one video occasionally — install nothing. The official Telegram Desktop app already saves media, covered in how to download Telegram videos.

What none of them can do

No extension, userscript, bot or website can reach a private channel your own account has not joined. Telegram serves that media only to authenticated members, so if you cannot open it, nothing running on your computer can either. Any tool advertising otherwise is describing a capability that does not exist — the longer version is in why online downloaders fail on private channels and why pasting a t.me/c/ link never works.

Be especially wary of anything asking for your phone number, login code or 2FA password. Those authorise a full account session, not a download; see which downloader bots are safe and what “free” costs.

Frequently asked

How can I save restricted videos in Telegram?

When a channel owner enables “Restrict saving content”, Telegram hides the save button but still streams the video to your browser so you can watch it. A browser extension or userscript running inside your own logged-in Telegram Web session can write those already-received bytes to disk. This only works for channels you have actually joined — no tool can reach a private channel your own account cannot open, because Telegram never sends that media to your device in the first place.

How do I download private videos from Telegram?

Open the private channel or group in Telegram Web at web.telegram.org while signed in to the account that is a member, then use an extension or userscript that adds a save button to each media item. The file is copied from the stream your player already received, so quality is identical to the original. Online downloader websites cannot do this: a remote server is not a member of your private channel, so it has nothing to fetch.

How can I download Telegram videos in Chrome?

Install one of the Chrome extensions compared on this page, open web.telegram.org, and a save button appears on each video. No extension needs your phone number, login code or 2FA password — anything asking for those is requesting a full account session, not a download.

Is there a free unlimited Telegram downloader extension?

The open-source Telegram Media Downloader userscript is genuinely free and unlimited under the GPL-3.0 licence, but it requires a userscript manager such as Tampermonkey rather than installing from a store. The Chrome extensions on this page are freemium: TG Downloader at tgvideodownloader.com allows 3 downloads a day free, and our own allows 5. Treat any extension that is unlimited, free and has no stated revenue model with caution — the funding is coming from somewhere less visible.

Is there a Telegram video downloader extension for Firefox or Opera?

The open-source userscript runs anywhere a userscript manager runs, which includes Firefox, Opera and most Chromium browsers, so it is the most portable option. Opera and Edge can also install Chrome extensions from the Chrome Web Store. Firefox cannot: it needs a genuine Firefox add-on, and the Chrome-only extensions on this page — ours included — do not have one.

Do these extensions work on Android or iPhone?

No. Chrome on Android and Safari on iOS do not support browser extensions, so no extension on this page can run on a phone. On mobile the official Telegram app’s own save option is the realistic route, and downloader APKs advertising more than that are worth avoiding.

Does downloading reduce Telegram video quality?

No. Saving a file copies the exact bytes Telegram served, with no re-encoding, so a 4K video stays 4K. Only screen recording loses quality, because it re-captures the decoded picture at your display resolution instead of copying the original file.