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Turn your Instagram DMs into a PDF

Instagram's JSON export has a habit of writing emoji and accented names as broken characters. Upload the zip and get a transcript where names read properly and the messages are in date order.

The finished PDF, made from an invented example

This is the real output of this tool, made from an invented example by the same code that makes yours. The people and details in it are fictional.

Messages 30People 2From 13 Jan 2026To 26 Jan 2026Pages ~2Price $7
Page 1 of the sample PDFPage 2 of the sample PDFPage 3 of the sample PDF
Open the whole sample PDF (3 pages)
From $7 · one payment, no account
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How it works.

There is one specific defect in Instagram's JSON export that everything else follows from: the text is written as UTF-8 bytes escaped as if they were Latin-1. So emoji and accented names arrive as nonsense like José. A lot of converters pass that straight through. Undoing it is most of the work here.

Step 1

Ask Instagram for your data

In Instagram, go to Settings, then Accounts Center or Meta Account, Your information and permissions, Export your information, Create export, Export to device. When it asks for a format, choose JSON rather than HTML. Meta says it can take up to 30 days, and once it is ready you have 4 days to download it.

Step 2

Upload the zip

Drop the whole zip here without unpacking it. Each conversation has its own folder of message files, so the longest one is picked and you are told how many others were in there.

Step 3

Check the names read properly, then download

The preview is where you confirm the accented names and emoji came out right. The PDF has the conversation with dates and senders, and photos if you add them.

Four ways to print it.

Every sample below is page one of a real PDF, made from the same sample as the one above by the same code that makes your file. Pick a style when you preview, and change it as often as you like.

A page of the sample transcript in the Instagram look style
Instagram lookRound bubbles, purple to blue for one side and grey for the other, like Instagram direct messages.
A page of the sample transcript in the Clean document style
Clean documentPlain and readable, made for paper. The safe choice if you are not sure.
A page of the sample transcript in the Formal / legal style
Formal / legalNumbered entries and full timestamps, for a hearing or a claim. No colour, so it photocopies.
A page of the sample transcript in the Book style
BookSet like a printed book, for binding or keeping. Warm paper, wide margins.

People also use this for

Print Instagram messages

Guides on this

Save your Instagram DMs before you delete your accountHow to get your messages out before you lose access

Trust, with receipts.

No invented review scores, no badges, no “trusted by thousands”. Here is what is actually true, and you can check every line of it.

  • You see the result before you payUpload, look at your own parsed file, then decide. No account, no card, no email required to get that far.
  • Files are deleted within 7 daysYour upload, anything extracted from it, and the finished download. Automatically, on a schedule.
  • A person answers the emailOne Time Tool is a small independent studio in Johannesburg, South Africa. Questions go to hello@onetimetool.com and a person replies, not a bot.
  • Your card never touches this siteCheckout is hosted by Dodo Payments. We never see your card number.
  • One payment, for this one jobThere is no subscription, no plan and nothing to cancel. Depending on where you are, checkout may show the price in your currency and add local VAT or sales tax.
  • 7-day money backIf the output is not what you needed, email us and we refund it. No form to fill in.

Questions, answered.

Why do the names in my export look like José?
Because the export writes every character above plain ASCII in a way that double-encodes it. The information is not lost, it is just written wrongly, and it can be decoded back. That is what this does before anything else.
My conversation is split across message_1.json and message_2.json.
That happens on long threads. Upload the whole zip and every part is read, merged and sorted by timestamp, so the order comes out right whichever part holds which dates.
Do photos come through?
Yes, when you upload the full zip and choose to include them on the preview, which is an optional extra priced before you pay. Photos stored beside the messages get placed with the message they belong to. A single photo over 2 MB is listed by filename instead.
What about unsent messages and calls?
If the export marks a message as unsent, it is shown as unsent, and if it records a call's length, the call shows with its length in minutes. Tools that only read the text drop both, because neither has any.
What happens to my file?
It is deleted within 7 days, along with the finished PDF. It is used to make your file and nothing else. Nobody reads it.
Do I need an account?
No. There is no signup, no subscription and no password. You upload, you see the result, you pay once if you want it.

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