How-to

How do I save a recipe from TikTok?

Published October 10, 2026 Last checked October 10, 2026

Two different things people mean by “save”

When you save a TikTok recipe inside TikTok, you are saving the video: a bookmark that sends you back to the creator’s post. That’s fine for rewatching. It isn’t a recipe you can shop from or cook from, because the amounts are scattered across the caption, the voiceover, and text that flashes on screen for a second.

Saving the recipe means getting it out of the video and into a written list of ingredients and steps that you own. You can do it by hand, or with an app that reads the video for you. Most people want both: the bookmark for the technique, and the written recipe for the kitchen.

Option 1: Add it to your TikTok Favorites

In the current TikTok app, tap the bookmark icon on the right side of the video (or press and hold the video and choose Add to Favorites). You’ll find it later on your profile, under the bookmark tab. From there you can sort saved videos into collections, such as “Weeknight dinners” or “Baking.”

That’s the quickest option, and it costs nothing. The limits:

• It’s a link, not a copy. If the creator deletes the video or makes it private, it’s gone from your Favorites too. We cover that in what happens to saved TikTok recipes when a video is deleted.
• You can’t search inside the recipe. Finding “that chicken thing with the yogurt marinade” means scrolling through thumbnails.
• You still have to rewatch the video to cook from it, usually with greasy hands, pausing every few seconds.

Option 2: Import the TikTok link into Sous Chef

Sous Chef is an iPhone app that turns a public TikTok link into a written, editable recipe.

1. In TikTok, tap Share, then Copy link.
2. Open Sous Chef, tap + to add a recipe, choose From a link, and paste.
3. Sous Chef works on it in the background: Retrieving the video, Reading the recipe, Saving your recipes. You can leave the app while it runs.

If your share menu shows the iPhone share sheet, you can also share the link straight to Sous Chef and skip the copy-paste.

What Sous Chef reads: the caption, what’s said in the video, what’s written on screen, and what’s shown. It puts those together into one recipe, with the ingredients and numbered steps you’d expect. Where an amount was never stated and Sous Chef had to estimate it, the recipe labels it as an estimate instead of passing it off as the creator’s number. Where the caption and the video disagree (“2 cups” in the caption, “a cup and a half” in the voiceover), it keeps the uncertainty and adds a note rather than quietly picking one.

The saved recipe credits the creator and keeps a Watch original video link, so the bookmark and the written recipe stay together.

Limits worth knowing before you try it: the video has to be public and no longer than ten minutes. Instagram Reels aren’t supported yet, and you can’t upload a video file from your camera roll yet. If a link doesn’t import, see why a TikTok or YouTube recipe won’t import.

Option 3: Write it down yourself

No app needed: copy the caption into Notes, pause the video on each on-screen amount, and turn on TikTok’s captions to catch what’s said out loud. It takes ten minutes per recipe and works for anything. Our step-by-step guide on turning a TikTok recipe into a written recipe walks through it, including how to fill in missing amounts safely.

Which should you use?

• Rewatching for technique: TikTok Favorites is enough.
• Cooking it this week: import it, or write it down. A written list is far easier to shop and cook from than a 60-second video.
• Keeping it for years: don’t rely on Favorites alone. Get the recipe out of the video, whichever way you do it.

What a good saved recipe should have

However you save it, a TikTok recipe is ready to cook from when it has these five things. If one is missing, fill it before you shop, not halfway through cooking:

1. Servings. “Feeds 4” lets you scale it with confidence.
2. An amount for every ingredient. “Garlic” isn’t an amount. “4 cloves” is.
3. Steps in order, with anything that happens off-camera (like resting the dough overnight) written down.
4. Heat and time. An oven temperature, a pan size, and a rough time.
5. A doneness check. “Until the chicken reads 165°F” beats “about 20 minutes.”

Common questions

Do I need a TikTok account to save a TikTok recipe?

To use Favorites, yes. To import into Sous Chef, no: Sous Chef only needs the link to a public video, and it works without signing in to anything.

Does saving a TikTok to Favorites notify the creator?

TikTok doesn’t publish that it does, and saving is different from liking. If you want to support a creator, like, follow, or visit the site they link in their bio.

Can Sous Chef import a TikTok that has more than one recipe in it?

Yes. When a video clearly demonstrates more than one dish, each one is saved as its own recipe. Components of a single meal, like a bowl with a sauce and a grain, stay together in one recipe.

What if the TikTok says “recipe in bio”?

Import the creator’s written recipe instead. A tested recipe from the creator’s own site beats any version reconstructed from a video. Sous Chef imports recipe-site links the same way it imports TikTok links.

Can I change the recipe after I save it?

In Sous Chef, yes. Type or say “make it for 2” or “I don’t have heavy cream,” and the ingredients and the steps that mention them change together. See how to change a TikTok recipe.