There are billions of hours of video on YouTube. Literally. And that's hardly the nearly phenomenal statistic about the site, which has been the go-to destination for uploading and watching video since 2005. That said, sometimes, you really want or need to take one of those videos on your ain computer or phone. But when the topic of downloading YouTube videos comes upward, there's a side subject that must be broached: Is it legal?
On the copyright forepart, as long every bit you're downloading a video for your own personal offline utilize, you're probably okay. Information technology's more black and white when you consider Google's terms of service for YouTube, which read: "Yous are not allowed to...access, reproduce, download, distribute, transmit, broadcast, display, sell, license, modify, change or otherwise use any role of the Service or any Content except: (a) as expressly authorized by the Service; or (b) with prior written permission from YouTube and, if applicable, the respective rights holders."
Watching YouTube videos offline through unofficial channels takes coin from Google and video creators. In that location's a reason YouTube runs ads: People make a living this way.
Obviously, stealing videos from YouTube is a big no-no. If yous want to share a video, YouTube and most other video sites make it piece of cake, from embedding to emailing to sharing via social networks. You but do non need to download a video near of the fourth dimension.
However, you have your reasons. If you must download a YouTube video—admittedly demand to, simply for yourself, and not for dissemination, and not to be a total douche-nozzle—hither's how.
Notation: This story is updated often equally the tools involved change regularly. Some of those changes are not always pleasant, such as software so full of "extras," it gets flagged as malware by antivirus tools. The same goes for the helper websites—a change in a site'south advertising network can likewise create issues with malware.
To prevent this from becoming a laundry list of programs and sites that can download YouTube videos, we came up with a few rules for inclusion. Services must:
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Back up 4K downloads fifty-fifty in the costless version.
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Piece of work with top three video sites:YouTube, Facebook, and Vimeo.
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Download unabridged playlists or channels in a batch (on YouTube), at least with a paid version.
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Output to MP3 for audio (or offering companion software that does then).
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Take an interface thatdoesn't suck.
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Non collect your personal data beyond your email address.
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Non contain malware. If in that location'south fifty-fifty a whiff of it in the air, even a PUP, it's out.
The programs, services, and sites in this story are all costless of spam/virus/problems as of this writing, but caveat emptor. Big time. Especially if you're not really emptor-ing.
YouTube Premium Downloads
Now available for subscribers of YouTube Premium—the paid version of YouTube that allows you lot to watch without ads—are video downloads. Kind of. There's i caveat with quality: All the video you download is limited to 1080p quality max, or lower. No 4K.
The biggest event is, this characteristic doesn't actually download a video to save on your computer forever. Information technology is more than akin to the download feature plant on mobile apps for Netflix and Hulu, which makes a streaming video available to sentinel later using your local storage and views it using the app'due south interface only. This is not a method that allows you to, say, picket a video using different software such as the VLC Media Player.
Yous access the download by going to the YouTube hamburger menu and selecting Downloads to view the listing of what y'all've grabbed. The folio says "Downloads remain available as long every bit your device has an agile cyberspace connexion at to the lowest degree in one case every 30 days." This probably isn't exactly what y'all are looking for in a download. But the tools below deliver exactly that.
Desktop Software
Third-party software is where you will go the all-time command over downloading online videos. Typically, you paste the URL for the YouTube video you want into the program, and it downloads the highest quality version it can find. For videos in 1080p High Definition (HD) format, that's unremarkably an MP4 file. For annihilation higher in quality—4K or 8K—the file format is typically MKV.
In the past, YouTube videos were Flash-based, so your download was an FLV file, but those tend to be harder to play back. MP4 (short for MPEG-4 Office 14 multimedia format) plays everywhere
Note that the MKV file, as well chosen a Matroska, is a container—the file could contain video utilizing any number of codecs inside. The fool-proof way to play them all is to use the VLC Media Player for Windows, which plays everything. (Read more about information technology below.) Every bit for the downloaders, here are the best options.
VLC Media Thespian
Gratuitous; Windows, macOS, Linux
We mention VLC Media Thespian above because it's a fantastic tool for Windows, Mac, and Linux users that plays back just about any media ever created. It also has the power to download YouTube videos, albeit in a convoluted way. (If y'all run into any problems, endeavour a total re-install of VLC and clear your cache to make information technology piece of work.)
Copy a URL from a YouTube video, and then open VLC. From the Media bill of fare, select Open up Network Stream (Ctrl+North) and paste in the URL. Click Play. When the video is playing, go to Tools > Codec Data. In that location is a box at the bottom called "Source"—re-create the URL you find in that box.
Go back to your browser and paste the URL—it's a temporary web address and will elapse somewhen—in the address bar and start playing the video. When you're viewing the video in the browser, click the 3-dot menu at the lower right for the download option to keep it locally.
Even so, it appears that VLC is but going to save your file every bit 1080p and not any college, fifty-fifty if the original YouTube stream was available in 1440p or 2160p (aka 4K). It also won't convert video to other formats. To go those options, y'all need the desktop software beneath.
4K Video Downloader
Gratuitous or $fifteen for lifetime license on iii computers; Windows, macOS, Ubuntu Linux, Android
Multi-lingual 4K Video Downloader (4KVD) is oft updated and features clear download links on the programme'southward website; no ad traps here. The software does what it advertises in a simple interface. Information technology grabs videos up to 8K in quality and downloads to plenty of formats. Simply re-create a YouTube URL and click the Paste Link push button to go started. 4KVD will even grab subtitles, entire playlists, and all the videos in a aqueduct to which you subscribe. The sites supported are limited to the big names like YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, and a few others, but that covers most of what you need. It does display a large banner advertisement to keep the lights on and you're express to thirty downloads a day on the complimentary version.
I had to make a switch from MP4 to MKV format to get my exam video to download in 4K. 4KVD snagged the 3-minute, 229.7MB file for the movie trailer in about 1 minute and 20 seconds. 4KVD defaults back to 1080p HD, so I made the aforementioned switch when downloading an Ultra High Definition (8K) playlist.
If you enable the Smart Mode and its presets, 4KVD can perform ane-click downloads to your favorite format. If you want to download more than than 25 videos at a time or subscribe to YouTube channels to instantly download the latest, that requires the paid version. Playback of the resulting MKV files via VLC Media Player was flawless.
The program itself has an choice to extract sound to MP3 format, and then you don't even need the 4K YouTube to MP3 companion software.
VideoProc Converter
$59.90 for i year, $78.ninety lifetime, $119.90 family (2-5 PCs); Windows, macOS
The powerful VideoProc from Digiarty comes in an editor edition and this converter, which likewise provides editing and effects. The downloading aspect is great, a version similar to Digiarty's WinX YouTube Downloader, which you lot can still observe but is not promoted by the visitor these days. This makes sense, as VideoProc Converter handles a lot of downloading, supposedly supporting 4K from over 1,000 websites. With hardware acceleration, it promises some speed. Thankfully, it ofttimes offers price discounts.
To employ it, yous open the software, let it find your hardware to see what you have to assistance with acceleration (if annihilation). Click the Downloader button, click Add together video to place equally many URLs as you want to batch, and then Download Now. Or you can go a whole YouTube playlist or alive stream. Information technology grabbed our 697MB test 4K video to WEBM format in about 2 minutes and 15 seconds, which isn't bad. All-time of all, the trial version of VideoProc Converter, which limits conversions to 5 minutes, doesn't appear to limit downloads.
FlixGrab
1-year license $44.99 plus tax (or $9.99 for Gratuitous YouTube Download); Windows
Like some others, FlixGrab has several different programs available, many with overlapping features. For case, it has FlixGrabMS (a version y'all get from the Microsoft Store to run on Windows ten/11)—but it wouldn't let me grab video from YouTube. The direct download of the FlixGrab plan from the flixgrabapp.com site did piece of work with YouTube and several other sites,. Plus it offers a Free YouTube Download that is specific to YouTube, yet uses the same piece of cake-to-use interface. The downside, as with others, is the loftier subscription cost, but it's the only way to become high-quality downloads. The YouTube-merely version is substantially cheaper at $9.99 per year, nonetheless. Neither comes with a trial period.
5KPlayer
Free; Windows and macOS
The free 5KPlayer is a lot more than than a downloader, but it'south got a heck of an integrated downloader. Promising no viruses, ads, or plug-in requirements is a adept start. It is, sadly, one of the few tested that asks for a registration of your proper noun and electronic mail—you take to exercise that to go the full download function across 300+ sites. Still, you can still nab 4K vids from YouTube without registering.
When downloading, the program does try to hide some things. Paste in the URL for a YouTube video and the analysis engine runs and shows only a few download options. Click the gear icon, then the Show All push button, and ringlet to see more—similar a 4K 3,840-past-two,160 file in WebM format. The 227MB WebM test download took an agonizing 6.5 minutes. Grabbing playlists was possible, merely you must adjust download settings 1 video at a fourth dimension. The confusing interface makes it hard to go back to the other videos in the playlist.
5K Actor too features DLNA server playback so videos y'all grab can be watched on any devices that support DLNA, plus it supports AirPlay for quick playback to Apple devices. Pick a video in the library for quick conversion to MP4, MP3, or even ACC (the sound format preferred by iOS). The thespian didn't similar playing back the overly large 4K file, though, and experienced buffering issues (VLC didn't take any trouble with the same file).
Ultimately, there's a lot to like nearly 5K Player, from the toll to the features, especially if you look at them as extras on a downloader. Merely the bad interface, slow download speeds, and playback bug may have you looking elsewhere.
Helper Websites
Exercise yous want to avoid installing software? Video download helper sites are supposed to do the download work for you. All of them do one basic thing: Y'all give them a YouTube URL (or another video site, if supported), they parse it, give yous a choice of what size download you want, and provide a link to said download. They work on any platform, sometimes even on mobile devices. Yous don't have to install anything on your PC. It tin can take a lot longer, depending on the size and quality of the video you want, but you can't vanquish the convenience.
The trouble is, you can't always trust them. At that place are hundreds of these types of sites out there—it seems anyone with a modicum of coding ability has set one upward. Such sites easily go from useful to suspicious, specially if they become pop and the proprietor sells out to make greenbacks off your visits.
Recommended by Our Editors
Since this story was kickoff published, all the helper sites we recommended accept been removed for reasons like calculation sexually explicit ads, no longer working, switching to pushing its download utility only, and one for going out of business to avoid getting sued.
For that reason, nosotros're not recommending whatever helper sites at the moment. Endeavor i if y'all find it, but if your browser, antivirus, or instincts throw up warnings, avoid and motion on.
Extensions
A browser extension can save you a step. Yet, you're going to come across some bug with downloading video from YouTube, specially if you're using Chrome as your main browser.
The Chrome Web Store—where you get Chrome browser extensions—is controlled past YouTube's owner Alphabet/Google. Fifty-fifty an extension ostensibly for this purpose isn't going to allow YouTube direct downloads, considering of Chrome Store restrictions. In general, with Chrome extensions, the download of whatever RTMP protocol video (protected videos) or streaming video isn't possible. You can use them on other sites with video, of course. But not YouTube.
Want to get around it? Go an extension that does not come from the Google Web Shop. Some of the programs and helper sites offer an extension component and will spell out how to do the install without the assistance the Chrome Web Shop usually provides. Hither are a couple.
YouTube Video Downloader
Costless; Chrome, Opera, Edge, Vivaldi, UCBrowser
YouTube Video Downloader from Addoncrop is on multiple browsers but with fantabulous side-load capabilities. It puts a button beneath whatever video you're playing on YouTube, or even an embedded YouTube video, making it easy to grab. Supported video quality goes up to 8K. Y'all can likewise convert sound from the video to an MP3. It will fifty-fifty help you take video screenshots.
Video DownloadHelper
Free; Firefox, Chrome, Edge
Video DownloadHelper supports a huge number of sites—even those for adults. Y'all'll know a video is downloadable when the icon for the extension animates when you're on the spider web page. Video DownloadHelper for Chrome has stopped working with YouTube; that mode, it could get placement in the Chrome Web Store. Go around that by using the Video DownloadHelper extension on Firefox or Edge instead.
Mobile
Downloading from YouTube using an Android app from the Google Play Store is a challenge, given that Google has a tight grip on the site information technology owns, and offers the paid YouTube Premium service that supports offline viewing.
That said, with Android, itis possible to install apps without going through Google. For example, InsTube – Free Video and Music Downloader for Android can but be found at InsTube's site. Download the APK (Android awarding package) file to sideload on an Android device. Discover it in your device's downloads and click to install. (You may accept to become into your security settings and enable "Unknown sources.")
(Instube)
On iPhones and iPads, you'd recollect in that location would be no such restriction since Apple and Google aren't exactly the best of pals (or mayhap they are). However, on the iOS apps I have tried, not simply wouldn't they download from YouTube, only they're also typically not bachelor for long. One of those apps said in its clarification, "Downloading from YouTube is prohibited due to its Terms of Service." Apple is ensuring that app makers play by the rules—even Google'southward rules.
Chances are, the minute you lot find an iOS app that tin download YouTube videos, information technology volition go "fixed" or banned. The only existent option is to jailbreak your iPhone and use sideloaded apps that download what you want.
There are workarounds. 1 is to subscribe to YouTube Premium; it lets you download video on your iPhone or iPad to watch later, much every bit Netflix and Hulu exercise.
Another is using a costless iOS file managing director app like Documents by Readdle. Apply the Safari browser to visit a YouTube video, and utilize the Share option to find Re-create Link. Then go back to Documents, and use the congenital-in browser in the app to surf to a video download helper site. Paste the link into the form (agree your finger downwardly on it until you get the "Paste" card to popular upwardly). The site will give you the links to download, and you can save the file to Documents. Hold and drag the file upwards, until you're back on the main screen, then drag it to the Photos folder. You'll need to give Documents permission to access Photos the first fourth dimension. You can then access the video like you would any video taken on the phone or tablet—in the Photos app.
Some other workaround: Become dorsum to the desktop and endeavor AnyTrans ($39.99 for a single computer for one yr, Windows or macOS), a desktop file director for iOS devices that has an integrated downloader supporting 900 sites, including YouTube and Facebook. It'll transfer the videos to the iPhone for you over the USB cable. Even if y'all don't pay for AnyTrans, the download option remains and is free forever.
YT Scribe
Want a truly unique way to "download" a video? YT Scribe lets you catch the transcription so you can read them instead. It automobile-transcribes, punctuates, and paragraphs the text. The better the subtitles, the better the "article," of course. Best of all, it's totally costless.
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