YouTube Video & MP3 Downloader — Direct Download Links

Turn any YouTube watch link, Short, or playlist into a ready-to-use download URL — MP4 video or MP3/M4A audio — in one Apify run.

Perfect for automation, media pipelines, archival, n8n / Make / Zapier, and research workflows where you need a clean link, not a browser download. Fully self-contained on Apify — files land in Apify Key-Value storage with fetchable download_url links.

What you get

• Direct download_url from Apify storage for each item (plus title, status, format, file size)
• MP4 or audio — pick format or flip audio-only
• Quality control — cap resolution (360p to 4K / best)
• Playlists — expand and process up to max_items (never dumps an entire huge catalog)
• Optional subtitle and thumbnail URLs (also stored on Apify)
• Bulk-ready — paste many start URLs in one run
• Optional Apify Proxy — improve YouTube reliability when needed

How to use

1. Open this Actor on Apify and click Try for free / Start.
2. Paste one or more YouTube URLs into Start URLs (watch, youtu.be, Shorts, or playlist).
3. Choose Format (mp4, mp3, m4a, …) and optionally Audio only / Max resolution.
4. Set Max items (default 100 — ideal for free-tier runs).
5. Run. Open the Dataset tab and copy download_url for each completed row.

Use the Example Tasks on the Store page for one-click demos (single video or a couple of Shorts).

Example input

{
  "start_urls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw",
    "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/SXHMnicI6Pg"
  ],
  "format": "mp4",
  "audio_only": false,
  "max_resolution": "720",
  "max_items": 2
}

Example output row

{
  "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw",
  "title": "Me at the zoo",
  "status": "completed",
  "download_url": "https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/…/records/media-jNQXAC9IVRw.mp4",
  "format": "mp4",
  "file_size": 524288,
  "error": null
}

status can be completed, failed, skipped, or cancelled. Failed/skipped rows keep download_url empty and explain why in error.

Tips for best results

• For playlists, only up to max_items are downloaded (default 100) — the Actor will not explode huge catalogs.
• Download links come from Apify Key-Value storage (run-scoped). Retention follows your Apify plan — save files promptly if you need a long-term copy.
• Prefer public videos. Private, members-only, or age-restricted content may fail.
• For audio extraction set "format": "mp3" or "audio_only": true.
• Keep max_items at 100 or below on free Apify plans for smoother runs.
• Apify Proxy is used on the Apify platform for YouTube reliability (residential first when available; configure via proxyConfiguration).

Usage Limits

• Free tier: max items per run ≤ 100. Upgrade to continue with larger batches.
• Paid plans: higher run volume per Apify limits.

See Apify Pricing.

Optional extras (PPE)

• Subtitle download and thumbnail download are optional flags. When enabled and successfully stored, they incur a small extra pay-per-event charge (on top of the main download).

Free plan

On Apify's free plan, this Actor allows 3 runs total. Paying Apify users have unlimited runs. Upgrade anytime.

Disclaimer

Use only for content you have the right to download. Respect YouTube Terms of Service and copyright law. You are responsible for how you use the output.

Keywords

YouTube downloader, YouTube to MP4, YouTube to MP3, Shorts download, playlist download links, YouTube video download API, TicTech vanzi, Apify storage download

Also from TicTech

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