How do you post a TikTok on Instagram?

Step by step: a TikTok to an Instagram Reel

From TikTok’s help and Instagram’s help, read on 10 October 2026.

1. Save your video from TikTok. Open it, tap Share on the side, then Save video. Press and hold works too. Before you post, More options on the Post screen has a Save to device switch. A draft can be saved without posting: Profile, Drafts, open it, More, Save to device.
2. Create the Reel. In Instagram, tap Create, then REEL, then the camera roll at the bottom left to add your video.
3. Finish and share. Tap Next, edit if you like, tap Next again to set a cover and a caption, and tap Share.

Before you upload, check the file against Instagram’s numbers: a shape between 1.91:1 and 9:16, at least 720 pixels and 30 frames a second (Instagram Help), and a length of up to 20 minutes, though Reels over 3 minutes aren’t recommended to new audiences. The free video checker tests a file against each network’s limits, and how long can an Instagram Reel be has the rest.

The watermark

TikTok’s page on saving says a video saved from a draft has no watermark by default, and that you can turn the watermark on in the draft settings first. It also says saved videos may include the TikTok watermark and the creator’s username, depending on the creator’s settings.

Instagram’s help says it aims to show fewer Reels that contain borders, logos or watermarks, and fewer that aren’t original videos (Instagram Help). Reels from people who follow you still show on your profile and in their feed. In April 2024 Instagram wrote that content must have no visible watermarks to be recommended and that, when two identical pieces are found, only the original is recommended (Instagram for Creators).

So the practical rule is to upload the copy that never had the other app’s mark on it: the draft-saved export, or the file you edited in the first place.

Someone else’s TikTok

You can only save another person’s video if its creator allows downloads (TikTok Help). If there is no Save video option, the creator has turned it off, and an account that is private, or belongs to someone under 16, has downloads off by default and can’t turn them on (TikTok Help).

Being able to save it doesn’t make it yours to post. Instagram’s April 2026 post says re-uploading someone’s work without meaningful creative input fails its test for original content, and that adding a border, a watermark, subtitles or a credit in the caption doesn’t change that. It points people to its story sharing and reposts, which credit the original creator (Instagram for Creators).

The other way: Instagram to TikTok

Instagram lets people download your Reels, unless your account is private or you turn the setting off, either for one Reel as you share it (Allow people to download your reels under More options) or in your privacy settings. A downloaded Reel includes an Instagram watermark, your username and audio attribution, and Instagram says downloaded Reels aren’t allowed for commercial use (Instagram Help).

TikTok’s help describes saving from TikTok, not posting from Instagram, and its Community Guidelines page didn’t load when we tried, so we make no claim about how TikTok treats a clip carrying Instagram’s mark. Our answer on posting to many networks has what we read on 25 September. The route that avoids a watermark is again the file you made, not a download of the Instagram copy.

Posting to both at once with Mellow Hub

If the clean file is on your computer or phone, Hub can send it to Instagram and TikTok in one post, each with its own caption: Hub checks up to 2,200 characters for Instagram and 2,200 for TikTok. For Instagram it publishes the video as a Reel; for TikTok it can publish directly or send the video to your TikTok inbox as a draft, which is the route for adding a sound from TikTok’s library on your phone. Hub checks each network’s rules before sending and names the network when something is wrong.

Hub doesn’t fetch a video from TikTok or Instagram. You give it the file, which is also what TikTok’s developer guidelines ask of an app: its Direct Post API is for creators posting original content, and an app that copies arbitrary content from other platforms to TikTok is listed as not acceptable.

1. Create a Hub account.
2. Connect your accounts in Channels. Each network’s own sign-in screen opens, so Hub never sees a password. Bluesky is the exception: Hub connects it with your handle and an app password, which you can revoke in Bluesky’s settings.
3. Write the post in Compose, choose the channels and add the media. Where one network’s limit is shorter, give that network its own caption. The composer can shorten it for you.
4. Hub checks every network’s rules before anything is sent: caption length, media count and type, a required title or board. It lists every problem at once, naming the network.
5. Publish now or pick a time. Each network succeeds or fails on its own and returns its own link.

Hub is paid: plans start at $19 a month (Solo), after a 7-day trial with a card on file that costs nothing if you cancel before it ends, and a monthly plan's first month is 20% off. Publishing is unlimited on every plan, under a fair-use ceiling that stops automated floods (900 publications a month on Solo). One publication is one post on one account, so a post sent to five networks counts as five. There are no automatic overage charges.