Video Downloader

An Apify Actor that downloads videos and extracts audio from over 1,000 supported websites including YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter/X, Reddit, Vimeo, and Twitch.

Powered by yt-dlp and ffmpeg.

What it does

• Download videos as MP4 or extract audio as MP3
• Automatically fetch the best available quality, or specify a maximum resolution (e.g., 1080p, 720p)
• Process single URLs or bulk process a list of links
• Files are saved directly to the Apify Key-Value store with direct download links provided in the output
• Serves download requests dynamically via Apify Standby Mode

Supported Sites

Anything yt-dlp supports, including:

YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter/X, Reddit, Facebook, Vimeo, Twitch, Dailymotion, SoundCloud, Loom, Streamable, Pinterest, Tumblr, Threads, LinkedIn, and many more.

Input

{
  "url": "https://www.tiktok.com/@vmmystery/video/7624238786251148576",
  "format": "video",
  "quality": "best"
}

Input Fields

YouTube note: For YouTube downloads, you will typically need to provide the Cookies.txt field and enable Apify Proxy.

Field	Type	Required	Description
url	string	Yes (or urls)	Single video URL to download
urls	array	Yes (or url)	Array of video URLs to download
format	string	No	"video" (MP4) or "audio" (MP3). Default: "video"
quality	string	No	"best", "1080p", "720p", "480p", "360p". Default: "best"
cookies	string	No	Paste your cookies.txt file contents here (Netscape format) for authentication, especially for YouTube
useApifyProxy	boolean	No	Enable Apify Proxy. For YouTube, this should typically be turned on together with cookies

YouTube Bot Protection

If you encounter the error:

Sign in to confirm you're not a bot

You need to provide your YouTube cookies.

How to export cookies correctly

Step 1: Install browser extension

• Chrome: Get cookies.txt CLEAN
• Firefox: cookies.txt

Step 2: Export YouTube cookies

1. Visit youtube.com while logged in
2. Click the extension icon
3. Export cookies for youtube.com (make sure it says youtube.com, not a specific video URL)
4. Open the downloaded cookies.txt file in a plain text editor (Notepad, TextEdit, VS Code—NOT Word or Google Docs)
5. Copy the entire contents exactly as-is

Step 3: Paste into the Cookies field

In the Actor input form, paste the entire contents into the Cookies (Netscape format) textarea field.

Important:

• The file must start with # Netscape HTTP Cookie File or # HTTP Cookie File
• Each cookie line should be tab-separated (not spaces)
• Make sure you're logged into YouTube when you export the cookies
• Fresh cookies work best—if your cookies are old, export new ones

Example:

{
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPCu4jL3oPI",
  "format": "video",
  "quality": "480p",
  "cookies": "# Netscape HTTP Cookie File\n.youtube.com\tTRUE\t/\tFALSE\t1234567890\tCONSENT\tYES+...\n.youtube.com\tTRUE\t/\tTRUE\t1234567890\t__Secure-3PSID\t...\n..."
}

Example Output

{
  "requestedUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw",
  "title": "Me at the zoo",
  "duration": 19,
  "uploader": "jawed",
  "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jNQXAC9IVRw/maxresdefault.jpg",
  "platform": "youtube",
  "format": "video",
  "media": {
    "key": "media-youtube-com-1716163200000-ab12cd34.mp4",
    "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/STORE_ID/records/media-youtube-com-1716163200000-ab12cd34.mp4",
    "contentType": "video/mp4"
  },
  "downloadedAt": "2026-05-20T02:00:00.000Z"
}

The media.url field provides a direct download link to the file stored in Apify's Key-Value store.

Bulk Downloads

{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw",
    "https://vimeo.com/22439234",
    "https://www.tiktok.com/@username/video/123456"
  ],
  "format": "video",
  "quality": "720p"
}

Extract Audio Only

{
  "url": "https://www.tiktok.com/@vmmystery/video/7624238786251148576",
  "format": "audio"
}

Returns an MP3 file instead of MP3.

Standby Mode

The actor supports Apify Standby Mode for real-time requests:

curl -X POST https://YOUR_ACTOR_STANDBY_URL/download \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...","format":"video"}'

Or via GET:

https://YOUR_ACTOR_STANDBY_URL/download?url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...&format=audio

Disclaimer

This tool is intended for personal use only. Please respect copyright laws and the terms of service of the platforms you download from. The developers are not responsible for any misuse of this tool.

License

MIT