X / Twitter video downloader: video and images at original quality

Mostly no. X keeps tightening anonymous access, so when you are not signed in the content never loads, which leaves a tool nothing to read.

Once you are signed in, extensions such as Media Harvest for X have the highest success rate. Online tools (Cobalt.tools) usually manage public tweets, but fail as soon as rate limiting kicks in.

Use a tool rather than right-click Save As. Media Harvest for X swaps the spec parameter in the image URL for the original value, and for video it picks the highest of the available bitrate streams.

The difference is easy to see: the compressed copy is fine on screen, but it shows the moment you zoom in or reuse it.

Not with an extension - that is one click at a time.

Use yt-dlp on the account media tab URL handles it in bulk, and with --download-archive it resumes incrementally. Slow the request pace down so you do not trip rate limiting.

That is expected. A GIF on X has already been converted to a short silent video (MP4), and the platform only labels it GIF in the interface. So the MP4 you got is the original file.

If you need an actual GIF, you have to convert it yourself.

Saving it to look at yourself is usually fine; republishing, re-cutting or commercial use all need the creator's permission, otherwise it is infringement, and it breaks X's Terms of Service too.

Collecting reference for internal use is fairly low risk; the moment it goes public the nature of it changes. See Terms of use.