YouTube Downloader — MP4 Video & MP3 Audio Links

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
• Reliable by default — connectivity to YouTube is handled for you

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.
• Each file is limited to 150 MB. If your max_resolution would exceed it, the highest resolution that fits is used (default 720). For long videos use audio_only.
• You are only charged for files that were actually delivered — failed or skipped items are free.

Usage Limits

• Free tier: max items per run ≤ 100. Upgrade to continue with larger batches.
• Paid plans: higher run volume per Apify limits.
• Subtitles: returned only when the video has captions — no captions, no subtitle charge.
• Thumbnails: delivered as .webp images.
• Audio formats: m4a is the original audio track; mp3 is re-encoded from it.

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

There is no Actor-side run-count cap. Free Apify accounts use this Actor within monthly platform credit (typically $5), metered by PPE. Tip: free tier max items per run ≤ 100. Need more capacity?

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

Need speech-to-text for Reels / TikTok / Shorts / Facebook? Try our proven multi-platform Transcriber used by 2,000+ Apify users:

TikTok · Instagram · Facebook · YouTube Shorts Transcriber — timestamps, multi-language, bulk URLs, PPE pricing.

Full catalog: apify.com/tictechid

For more details, contact the maintainer or email us at contact@tictech.id