How to disable autoplay videos on Twitter

Learn how to stop videos & GIFs from auto-playing when you browse through your X (or Twitter) timeline on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, and web browser.

Video on Twitter timeline on iPhone

Video auto-play is enabled by default on Twitter to make the experience more streamlined and increase user engagement. Having videos play automatically as you scroll through your Twitter timeline is cool unless the convenience comes at the expense of your mobile service bill. If you’re on a metered data plan, auto-playing videos can quickly eat into your data allowance and incur unwanted overage charges.

Thankfully, settings for video auto-play can be adjusted. Even better, you can choose video autoplay independently on twitter.com and Twitter’s mobile app. For instance, you can set videos to autoplay on your iPhone and not on the web.

Follow the steps outlined below to adjust video auto-play settings on Twitter if you don’t want videos (including video ads) to play automatically as you encounter them on your timeline.

Turn off Twitter video autoplay

This setting is device-specific. So, if you use the same Twitter account on multiple phones and computers, you will have to follow these steps on all of them where you want to disable video autoplay.

In the mobile app

  1. Open the X app on your iPhone.
  2. Tap your profile picture from the top left.
  3. Tap Settings and Support and go to Settings and privacy > Accessibility, display, and languages > Data usage.
  4. Tap Video autoplay.
  5. Choose autoplay “Only on Wi-Fi” or “Never.”
Twitter Video autoplay settings on iPhone

You can also follow the above steps in the X app on your iPad and the Twitter app on your Mac. Just tap the three dots icon from the left sidebar and go to Settings and Support > Settings and privacy > Accessibility, display, and languages > Data usage > Video autoplay and pick an option.

In a web browser

  1. Visit Twitter.com in a web browser on your Mac or PC.
  2. Click More from the left side.
  3. Now select Settings and Support > Settings and privacy > Accessibility, display, and languages > Data usage.
  4. From here, click Autoplay and select Never.
Twitter Autoplay Never Online

After you choose Never, videos and animated GIFs will no longer auto-play in this web browser when you scroll through your Twitter timeline.

If you want my advice, you should restrict video autoplay in the Twitter app to only when you are on a Wi-Fi network while leaving the feature enabled for Twitter’s web interface on your computer.

While we’re at it, we also have a tutorial explaining how you can stop videos from auto-playing in the Facebook app.

Check out this useful Twitter tip: How to upload and download images in full resolution on Twitter