How to download imgur images and albums
Last updated: 7 October 2026
There are three situations, and the easy one is not the one people usually hit. Start by working out whether you have a direct image URL or a page URL.
1. You have the direct link (the easy case)
If the URL starts with an i. subdomain and ends in a file extension, you are looking at
the image file itself. Open it in a browser and:
- Desktop: right-click the image and choose "Save image as…", or use
Ctrl+S(Cmd+Son a Mac). - iPhone: long-press the image and choose "Add to Photos" or "Save to Files".
- Android: long-press the image and choose "Download image".
2. You only have a page URL
This is the common trap. On a viewer page there is often no save option that gives you the full-size original, because the page is framing the image with a header, vote buttons and comments. Do this instead:
- Right-click directly on the image and look for "Copy image address" or "Open image in new tab". That often reveals the real file URL, which you can then save normally.
- Compare it with the URL in the address bar. If they differ, you were on a viewer page and you now have the direct link.
If "save" is greyed out or the page blocks right-clicking, the browser's own developer tools will still show you the loaded image URL, and that URL will save normally in a new tab.
3. A whole album
Albums are sets of images on a single page, and behaviour varies by host and by how the album was created:
- Some album pages offer a download option that packages the whole set. Look for it near the top of the album, though it is not always present.
- Otherwise you save images one at a time. Where the album has a thumbnail grid, opening each image in a new tab and saving it is mechanical but reliable.
- If the album has a lot of images and you do this often, a browser extension that saves all images on a page is the practical answer. Check what it does before installing it.
One thing to expect: an album's images are usually stored individually, so bulk-saving tends to produce a folder of files with non-descriptive names. Renaming after the fact is normal.
Quality: what you save is what was uploaded
Downloading a direct link gives you the file exactly as it was stored, at full size. What you will not get back is the original if the host altered it on upload. Two cases matter:
- Animated GIFs may have been re-encoded. Imgur has converted uploaded GIFs to WebM and MP4 video since October 2014, using lossy compression. Downloading gives you the converted file, not the GIF you sent.
- Some hosts resize very large uploads. If an image comes back smaller than you sent it, that is why.
If exact fidelity matters, always keep your own original. An upload is a copy.
Why you might need to do this at all
Images hosted by someone else disappear. Imgur deleted a large amount of inactive, account-unattached content in 2023, and it is not the only service that has done so. If an image matters to you, saving your own copy is the only protection that does not depend on someone else's policy. See how long imgur images last.