📹 YouTube Video Downloader

Fast, reliable YouTube video and audio downloader with instant direct download links.

🤨 How are we different

⚠️ Other YouTube Downloader Actors

• ‼️ Unusable links: Give you download links from Google servers ⚠️
• ‼️ Not for servers: These links won't work on backend services or datacenters❌
• ‼️ Google bans: Google detects and blocks your computer (after few downloads) 🚫
• ‼️ No sound: Only low quality version has audio + video 🔇
• ‼️ Limited quality: Unless you are fine with no sound, video only options ⚠️
• ‼️ Takes longer: Upto 15 seconds per request ⏳
• ‼️ Short videos only: Only work for short videos 🚫
• ‼️ Expensive data charges: $0.3 per MB!!
• ‼️ Heavy compute: Most of them use 8 GB RAM - that's $2.4 per hour!!

🚀 Our Actor

• ✅ Always working links: Our download links use our own proxy servers 🔥
• ✅ No extra costs: Bandwidth or data included 💰
• ✅ Multiple formats: 1080, 720, 480, 360, 240 or mp3 only 😎
• ✅ Audio on always: All formats include audio 🔊
• ✅ Async job model: Submit a job in sub-second, poll for the final URL ⚡
• ✅ No Google ban: Since google cannot see your server or computer 😎
• ✅ Lightweight compute: Only 128 MB RAM to run our actor 🫡
• ✅ Predictable pricing: Pay fixed price per video download 🤑

Download videos in multiple qualities from Full HD (1080p) to mobile-optimized (144p), or extract audio as MP3. The actor wraps our V2 download API: submit a job, poll for status, then fetch the file from the returned download URL. Built for content creators, businesses, educators, and developers with enterprise-grade reliability, pay-per-request pricing, and standby mode for low-latency job submission.

🏆 Key Features

📥 Multi-Format Downloads

• 🎬 Full HD (1080p) - High-quality video for professional use
• 📺 HD (720p) - Balanced quality and file size
• 📱 SD (480p) - Standard definition for web use
• 📲 Mobile (360p) - Optimized for mobile devices
• 🔽 Low (240p) - Compact file size
• ⚡ Minimal (144p) - Ultra-low bandwidth
• 🎵 Audio (MP3) - Extract audio only

⚡ Performance & Reliability

• 🚀 Standby Mode - Sub-second job submission with pre-warmed containers
• 💰 Pay-Per-Request - Simple pricing at $0.2 per download (FREE compute, FREE data use)
• 🔒 Secure Processing - Enterprise-grade API with secure credential handling
• 📊 Dataset Storage - Automatic result storage with rich metadata
• 🎯 Direct URLs - Final downloadUrl returned once the job completes

💻 Input Parameters

The actor exposes two operations selected via the operation field. Use download to create a job and status to poll for completion.

Create a download job:

{
    "operation": "download",
    "url": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "format": "1080"
}

Check job status:

{
    "operation": "status",
    "jobId": "8f3c2a8b-1c6e-4f6b-9c2a-1234567890ab"
}

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
operation	string	✅	"download" (create job) or "status" (poll job).
url	string	✅ when operation=download	YouTube video URL. Supports youtube.com/watch?v=ID, youtu.be/ID, youtube.com/live/ID.
format	string	⛔ optional (defaults mp3)	One of "1080", "720", "480", "360", "240", "144", "mp3".
jobId	string	✅ when operation=status	Job ID returned by a previous download call.

🎛️ Format Options

Format	Type	Resolution	Description	Use Case
1080	Video	1920x1080	Full HD quality	Professional content, presentations
720	Video	1280x720	HD quality	Web content, social media
480	Video	854x480	Standard definition	General web use
360	Video	640x360	Mobile optimized	Mobile apps, low bandwidth
240	Video	426x240	Low quality	Previews, thumbnails
144	Video	256x144	Minimal quality	Ultra-low bandwidth scenarios
mp3	Audio	N/A	Audio only	Podcasts, music, audio content

📤 Output Structure

Responses are passed through verbatim from our V2 API. There are four shapes you'll encounter.

1. download op — job enqueued (HTTP 200):

{
    "jobId": "8f3c2a8b-1c6e-4f6b-9c2a-1234567890ab",
    "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Video) (4K Remaster)",
    "duration": 213,
    "status": "IN_QUEUE",
    "message": "Download job enqueued. Poll GET /api/v2/download/{jobId} for status."
}

2. status op — in queue or in progress (HTTP 200):

{
    "jobId": "8f3c2a8b-1c6e-4f6b-9c2a-1234567890ab",
    "status": "IN_PROGRESS",
    "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Video) (4K Remaster)",
    "duration": 213,
    "url": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "format": "1080"
}

3. status op — completed (HTTP 200):

{
    "jobId": "8f3c2a8b-1c6e-4f6b-9c2a-1234567890ab",
    "status": "COMPLETED",
    "url": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "format": "1080",
    "actualFormat": "1080",
    "downloadUrl": "https://media.yt-data-proxy.org/.../video.mp4",
    "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Video) (4K Remaster)",
    "duration": 213,
    "fileSize": 23068672
}

4. status op — failed (HTTP 200):

{
    "jobId": "8f3c2a8b-1c6e-4f6b-9c2a-1234567890ab",
    "status": "FAILED",
    "errorCode": "video_unavailable",
    "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up (Official Video) (4K Remaster)",
    "duration": 213,
    "url": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "format": "1080"
}

📊 Output Fields Description

Field	Type	Description
jobId	string	Unique download job identifier. Pass this to the status op to poll for completion.
status	string	One of IN_QUEUE, IN_PROGRESS, COMPLETED, FAILED.
title	string	Video title.
duration	number	Video/audio duration in seconds.
url	string	The original YouTube URL that was submitted.
format	string	The format requested at submission time.
actualFormat	string	The format actually produced (may differ from format if a fallback was applied). Present on COMPLETED.
downloadUrl	string	Direct HTTPS download URL. Only present when status === "COMPLETED".
fileSize	number	File size in bytes. Present on COMPLETED.
errorCode	string	Machine-readable error identifier. Present on FAILED.
message	string	Human-readable hint returned with the initial enqueue response.

Error responses (HTTP 400/401/403/404 from V2) are also passed through unchanged and contain an error field.

🎯 Use Cases

🎬 Content Creators & Media Professionals

• Content Archival - Back up your YouTube content in multiple formats for safekeeping
• Cross-Platform Publishing - Download and repurpose videos for Instagram, TikTok, and other platforms
• Offline Presentations - Prepare video content for presentations without internet dependency
• Quality Comparison - Download videos in different resolutions to test compression and quality

📚 Education & Training

• Course Materials - Download educational videos for offline learning management systems
• Student Resources - Create offline video libraries for students in low-bandwidth areas
• Training Programs - Build comprehensive training video collections for corporate learning
• Language Learning - Extract audio (MP3) for pronunciation practice and listening exercises

💼 Business & Marketing

• Competitor Analysis - Download and analyze competitor video content for marketing insights
• Video Asset Management - Build organized libraries of promotional and instructional content
• Social Media Management - Repurpose video content across multiple social platforms
• Client Presentations - Prepare video demonstrations for client meetings and pitches

🔧 Developers & Automation

• API Integration - Integrate YouTube downloads into your applications and workflows
• Batch Processing - Automate bulk video downloads for content management systems
• Media Pipelines - Build automated workflows for video processing and distribution
• Content Monitoring - Track and archive specific YouTube channels for compliance or research

🚀 How to Use

The actor is a thin pass-through over our V2 API. The flow is always: submit → poll → download.

1. Call the actor with operation: "download" to enqueue a job. The response contains a jobId.
2. Call the actor with operation: "status" and that jobId until you see status: "COMPLETED".
3. Fetch the file from the downloadUrl field returned with the completed status.

Via Apify Console (Easiest)

1. Open the actor in Apify Console.
2. Pick Operation = Create download job, fill in the URL and format, click Start.
3. Copy the jobId from the run output.
4. Start a new run with Operation = Check job status and paste the jobId. Repeat until status is COMPLETED.

Via Apify API (Standard Mode)

Standard mode runs on-demand. Each call to the actor performs exactly one V2 request.

Submit a download job:

curl -X POST \
  https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/YOUR_ACTOR_ID/run-sync-get-dataset-items \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "operation": "download",
    "url": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "format": "1080"
  }'

Poll job status:

curl -X POST \
  https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/YOUR_ACTOR_ID/run-sync-get-dataset-items \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "operation": "status",
    "jobId": "8f3c2a8b-1c6e-4f6b-9c2a-1234567890ab"
  }'

Best for:

• Batch processing
• Scheduled jobs
• Cost-sensitive applications
• Infrequent downloads

Typical Response Time: 5-15 seconds per call (includes cold start).

Via Apify API (Standby Mode)

Standby mode keeps containers pre-warmed and exposes the two operations as two HTTP routes on the actor's standby server. This avoids cold starts on every poll.

Method	Path	Purpose
POST	/	Create a download job.
GET	/{jobId}	Check job status.

Submit:

curl -X POST \
  https://YOUR_ACTOR_ID.apify.actor/ \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "format": "1080"
  }'

Poll:

curl https://YOUR_ACTOR_ID.apify.actor/8f3c2a8b-1c6e-4f6b-9c2a-1234567890ab \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN"

The response status code and body match the upstream V2 API exactly (200 / 400 / 401 / 403 / 404).

Best for:

• Real-time applications
• User-facing APIs
• High-frequency requests
• Production environments

Typical Response Time: <1 second per call (no cold start).

Enable Standby Mode:

1. Go to Actor Settings → Standby in Apify Console
2. Toggle on "Use standby mode"
3. Configure number of standby containers (recommended: 1-2)
4. Set idle timeout (recommended: 5-10 minutes)

💰 Pricing

Simple, transparent pay-per-request pricing with no hidden fees.

Resource	Cost	Description
Download Request	$0.20 per request	Fixed cost per video download
Pricing Model	$200 per 1,000 requests	Simple pay-as-you-go pricing
Apify Compute	Minimal	~128MB memory, <15 seconds runtime per request

Cost Examples

• 10 videos = $2.00
• 100 videos = $20.00
• 1,000 videos = $200.00
• 10,000 videos = $2,000.00

Standby Mode Additional Costs:

• Small standby containers: ~$10-15/month per container
• Recommended for 1,000+ requests per day to offset with faster response times

Note: Apify platform compute units are charged separately based on actual runtime (~0.0001 CU per request).

❓ FAQ

Q: What video formats and qualities are supported?

A: We support 7 download options: 1080p, 720p, 480p, 360p, 240p, 144p (video), and MP3 (audio only).

Q: How long does it take to process a video?

A: Job submission returns in well under a second in standby mode. The actual download then runs server-side; total time depends on video length and format. Poll the status op until COMPLETED.

Q: How do I get the final download URL?

A: Submit a job with operation: "download" to get a jobId. Then call operation: "status" with that jobId until the response includes status: "COMPLETED" — at that point, use the downloadUrl field.

Q: How often should I poll for status?

A: Every 1-2 seconds is plenty. Most jobs complete within seconds; long videos at high resolutions can take longer.

Q: What does errorCode mean on a FAILED status?

A: It's a machine-readable identifier describing the failure (e.g., video_unavailable). The accompanying url, format, and title fields tell you which job failed.

Q: Can I download private or age-restricted videos?

A: No, only publicly accessible YouTube videos can be downloaded. Private, unlisted, or age-restricted content is not supported.

Q: What's the maximum video length supported?

A: There's no strict limit, but processing times increase with video length. Videos under 2 hours process most efficiently.

Q: Do I get a direct download link?

A: Yes — once status === "COMPLETED", the response includes a downloadUrl field pointing to the file on a secure CDN.

Q: Can I use this for commercial purposes?

A: Yes, the actor can be used commercially. However, ensure you comply with YouTube's Terms of Service and have appropriate rights to download the content.

Q: Is there a rate limit?

A: Rate limits depend on your API key. Standard limits apply, but can be increased for high-volume users.

Q: What happens if a download fails?

A: The status response will include status: "FAILED" along with an errorCode. The HTTP status from the actor is still 200 — inspect the body to detect failures.

📊 Output Dataset

Successful V2 responses are pushed to the actor's default dataset. The configured columns cover both submission and status responses:

• jobId, status, title, duration
• format, actualFormat, downloadUrl, fileSize
• url (original YouTube URL), errorCode, message
• error (when V2 returns a non-2xx error body)

Access your data via:

• Apify Console UI
• Dataset API endpoints
• Direct JSON/CSV/Excel exports

🔒 Security & Privacy

• Secure API Authentication - All API calls use encrypted bearer token authentication
• HTTPS Only - All download URLs use secure HTTPS protocol
• No Data Retention - Video content is processed and delivered, not stored permanently
• Private Environment Variables - API keys stored securely as Apify secrets

📚 Resources & Support

• Apify Platform Documentation
• Apify SDK for JavaScript
• Standby Mode Guide
• Apify Community Discord

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💼 Use Cases

content-archival multi-platform-publishing video-repurposing offline-presentations quality-testing educational-content-backup training-materials language-learning corporate-training competitor-analysis video-asset-management social-media-content client-presentations API-integration batch-video-processing automated-workflows media-pipeline-automation content-monitoring YouTube-backup channel-archiving video-library podcast-creation audio-extraction mobile-optimization web-content-optimization low-bandwidth-streaming thumbnail-generation video-preview-creation cross-platform-distribution enterprise-media-management