YouTube Shorts Downloader Pro

Save YouTube Shorts that you own or are allowed to download, in bulk and at the quality you choose.

What it does

• Process several Shorts URLs in one run (direct YouTube video URLs are also accepted for compatibility)
• Choose a maximum resolution from 144p to 1440p
• Return the title, channel, duration, thumbnail, views, and download result for every Short
• Save successful files in the run’s storage
• Use optional cookies for content you are authorized to access
• Use a proxy if a video is unavailable from your location or requests are rate-limited

Get started

Paste one or more Shorts URLs, pick a resolution, and choose how many should run at once.

{
  "urls": ["https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vVoMLnsbQqE"],
  "resolution": "720p",
  "max_concurrent": 3
}

Ready-to-run presets

Low-cost single Short:

{
  "urls": ["https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vVoMLnsbQqE"],
  "resolution": "480p",
  "max_concurrent": 1,
  "proxyConfiguration": {"useApifyProxy": false}
}

Small approved batch:

{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vVoMLnsbQqE",
    "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/G56v017spr0"
  ],
  "resolution": "720p",
  "max_concurrent": 3
}

Authorized recovery for a blocked or region-limited source:

{
  "urls": ["https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vVoMLnsbQqE"],
  "resolution": "720p",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}

Add authorized cookies only in the secret cookies input; never place them in a shared task or README.

Best for

• Saving Shorts that you own or are authorized to use for social, editorial, or archival workflows
• Processing a small batch with per-URL success and error records
• Retrying location- or rate-limit-related failures with an explicitly selected proxy

Results

Successful downloads appear in the default dataset with a saved-file link and video details. On pay-per-event runs, failed URLs and missing-file results go to the separate diagnostics dataset without a result-event charge. Open the DIAGNOSTICS key-value record for its link. Free/legacy runs retain failed rows in the default dataset. If every input fails, the run is marked FAILED after writing diagnostics. Each run writes a RUN_SUMMARY with successful, failed, saved and skipped counts, including whether it stopped at the spending limit. Saved media can be MP4 or WebM, depending on the formats YouTube supplies.

The Store test preset disables proxy traffic to control cost. Residential proxy traffic can materially increase cost; enable it explicitly when YouTube blocks the direct path.

Example output

{
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vVoMLnsbQqE",
  "video_id": "vVoMLnsbQqE",
  "title": "Example Short",
  "downloadSuccess": true,
  "duration": 28,
  "aspect_ratio": "9:16",
  "download_url": "https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/.../records/vVoMLnsbQqE",
  "error": null
}

Every input gets one dataset item. This makes partial batches easy to inspect: keep successful download_url values and use the corresponding error and error_type fields to retry only the failed URLs.

Malformed or non-YouTube URLs are retained as Invalid YouTube URL error rows and are not sent through yt-dlp retries. Cookies are a secret textarea input and are written only to a short-lived, permission-restricted temporary file during the run.

Only download content that you own or have permission to save. Availability, formats, and access rules are determined by YouTube and the video owner.

Troubleshooting

• YouTube JavaScript challenge: the Actor bundles yt-dlp's EJS challenge solver and enables the bundled Deno runtime automatically. If YouTube still asks for sign-in, use authorized cookies or retry with the Residential proxy path below.
• Invalid YouTube URL: use a complete /shorts/VIDEO_ID, /watch?v=VIDEO_ID, /embed/VIDEO_ID, or /live/VIDEO_ID URL. Invalid rows are recorded without spending extraction retries.
• Age-restricted or private video: provide authorized Netscape-format cookies in the secret cookies field. Cookies are removed after the run.
• Bot check, 403, or location failure: retry with proxyConfiguration.useApifyProxy: true and the Residential group. Proxy traffic can increase cost, so enable it only when needed.
• Only some URLs failed: inspect each failed dataset item and rerun those URLs; successful downloads do not need to be repeated.

Related Actors

• YouTube Video Downloader — download longer-form YouTube videos with the same per-URL result pattern.
• YouTube Transcript Scraper Pro — turn approved videos into searchable transcripts.

Pay-per-event results and diagnostics

Only successfully stored video files enter the paid default dataset. Failed and invalid-input rows are kept in a separate diagnostics dataset; the DIAGNOSTICS key-value-store record contains its ID and link. The run-start fee and applicable platform/proxy usage still apply. If no video can be downloaded, the run is marked failed after saving diagnostics.

RUN_SUMMARY reports saved videos, skipped inputs and whether the result spending limit stopped processing. Keep a maximum run charge and start with one short permitted video. A spending limit does not resolve YouTube access restrictions.