YouTube Video Downloader

Download YouTube videos and audio. Paste one or more links, pick quality and format, get the files.

What it does

Give it one or more YouTube video links, and it will:

1. Download the videos or audio in your chosen quality and format
2. Save them to your Apify storage with permanent links
3. Grab video details like the channel name, description, view count, and more
4. Save the thumbnails with permanent links
5. Download subtitles (optional) in SRT format

Works with any public YouTube video, Shorts, and playlists. Just copy the link from the YouTube app or website.

How to use it

Step 1: Paste your links and choose options

Add your YouTube video URLs and select quality/format in the input. You can add up to 1,000 URLs at a time.

{
    "videoUrls": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
        "https://youtu.be/9bZkp7q19f0"
    ],
    "quality": "720p",
    "format": "mp4",
    "includeSubtitles": false,
    "maxConcurrency": 3
}

Quality options: best (up to 4K if available), 1080p, 720p, 480p, 360p

Format options:

• mp4 — Standard video format, works everywhere
• webm — Open video format, smaller file sizes
• mp3 — Audio only, great for music
• m4a — Audio only, higher quality than mp3

Selecting mp3 or m4a will download audio only (quality setting is ignored).

Supported URL types:

• Full links: youtube.com/watch?v=...
• Short links: youtu.be/...
• Shorts: youtube.com/shorts/...
• Playlists: youtube.com/playlist?list=... (auto-expanded into individual videos)

Set includeSubtitles to true to download available captions (SRT format). You can adjust maxConcurrency (1 to 5) to process more videos in parallel.

Proxy settings

By default, the Actor uses Apify's datacenter proxies.

• Automatic (default): Apify selects the best proxy.
• Datacenter: Fast and cheap. Works for popular videos, but YouTube may block some requests.
• Residential: Use if you get frequent "sign-in challenge" blocks. Most reliable for all videos.
• Own proxies: Provide your own proxy URLs.
• No proxy: Disable proxies. Not recommended for YouTube.

Step 2: Run it

Click Start and wait for it to finish. Download time depends on video length, quality, and number of videos.

Step 3: Get your file

Once it's done, check the Output tab. You'll get:

• status: "Success" or an error message explaining what went wrong.
• videoFileUrl: Permanent link to the downloaded file, stored in your Apify storage.
• thumbnailFileUrl: Permanent link to the thumbnail image.
• subtitleFileUrls: Map of language codes to subtitle file URLs (when includeSubtitles is enabled).
• videoYoutubeUrl: Original YouTube URL.
• channel: Channel name.
• title: Video title.
• duration: Video length in seconds.
• stats: Views, likes, and comments.

Example output

{
    "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Music Video)",
    "channel": "Rick Astley",
    "channelId": "UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw",
    "duration": 212,
    "uploadDate": "2009-10-25",
    "videoFileUrl": "https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/.../records/video-dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "videoYoutubeUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "thumbnailFileUrl": "https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/.../records/thumbnail-dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "thumbnailYoutubeUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/maxresdefault.jpg",
    "format": "mp4",
    "quality": "720p",
    "fileSize": 15728640,
    "stats": {
        "views": 1500000000,
        "likes": 16000000,
        "comments": 3000000
    },
    "status": "Success",
    "error": null
}

Good to know

• Proxy recommended: YouTube blocks most requests from datacenter IPs. If you see "YouTube is blocking this request", switch to Residential proxy in the Proxy configuration input.
• Age-restricted videos cannot be downloaded — they require a logged-in YouTube account, which this actor does not have. You'll get a clear error message explaining this.
• Private videos cannot be downloaded. They'll show an error in the output.
• Playlists are automatically expanded into individual videos.
• Shorts work just like regular videos.
• Short links (youtu.be/...) are resolved automatically.
• Duplicate URLs are automatically removed.
• You can add up to 1,000 URLs per run.
• Very long videos (>2 GB file size) are not supported.
• Live streams cannot be downloaded.
• Always use videoFileUrl and thumbnailFileUrl for permanent access.