How To Download Youtube Videos Onto Pc

In that location are billions of hours of video on YouTube. Literally. And that's inappreciably the most phenomenal statistic near the site, which has been the become-to destination for uploading and watching video since 2005. That said, sometimes, you lot really want or need to take one of those videos on your own computer or phone. But when the topic of downloading YouTube videos comes upward, there's a side field of study that must exist broached: Is information technology legal?

On the copyright front, as long as yous're downloading a video for your own personal offline use, y'all're probably okay. It's more black and white when you consider Google's terms of service for YouTube, which read: "Yous are not allowed to...admission, reproduce, download, distribute, transmit, broadcast, brandish, sell, license, modify, change or otherwise use whatsoever part of the Service or any Content except: (a) as expressly authorized past the Service; or (b) with prior written permission from YouTube and, if applicable, the respective rights holders."

Watching YouTube videos offline through unofficial channels takes coin from Google and video creators. There's a reason YouTube runs ads: People make a living this fashion.

Plainly, stealing videos from YouTube is a large no-no. If you want to share a video, YouTube and almost other video sites make it easy, from embedding to emailing to sharing via social networks. Yous simply do not need to download a video most of the fourth dimension.

All the same, you have your reasons. If you must download a YouTube video—admittedly need to, merely for yourself, and not for dissemination, and not to exist a total douche-nozzle—here'due south how.

Note: This story is updated frequently equally the tools involved change regularly. Some of those changes are not always pleasant, such as software so full of "extras," it gets flagged as malware by antivirus tools. The same goes for the helper websites—a alter in a site'south ad network can besides create issues with malware.

To forestall this from becoming a laundry list of programs and sites that can download YouTube videos, we came up with a few rules for inclusion. Services must:

Support 4K downloads even in the complimentary version.
Work with summit three video sites:YouTube, Facebook, and Vimeo.
Download entire playlists or channels in a batch (on YouTube), at least with a paid version.
Output to MP3 for audio (or offering companion software that does so).
Have an interface thatdoesn't suck.
Not collect your personal information beyond your email address.
Not contain malware. If there'southward even a whiff of it in the air, fifty-fifty a PUP, information technology's out.

The programs, services, and sites in this story are all free of spam/virus/problems as of this writing, merely caveat emptor. Big time. Especially if you're non really emptor-ing.

YouTube Premium Downloads

At present bachelor for subscribers of YouTube Premium—the paid version of YouTube that allows you to watch without ads—are video downloads. Kind of. At that place'due south 1 caveat with quality: All the video you download is limited to 1080p quality max, or lower. No 4K.

The biggest issue is, this characteristic doesn't really download a video to relieve on your computer forever. It is more alike to the download feature institute on mobile apps for Netflix and Hulu, which makes a streaming video available to sentinel later on using your local storage and views it using the app's interface simply. This is non a method that allows you to, say, lookout a video using different software such every bit the VLC Media Player.

You access the download by going to the YouTube hamburger card and selecting Downloads to view the list of what you've grabbed. The page says "Downloads remain available equally long as your device has an active net connection at to the lowest degree once every 30 days." This probably isn't exactly what you are looking for in a download. But the tools below deliver exactly that.

Desktop Software

Third-party software is where you will get the best control over downloading online videos. Typically, you paste the URL for the YouTube video you want into the program, and it downloads the highest quality version information technology tin can find. For videos in 1080p Loftier Definition (HD) format, that's unremarkably an MP4 file. For anything higher in quality—4K or 8K—the file format is typically MKV.

In the past, YouTube videos were Flash-based, and so your download was an FLV file, but those tend to exist harder to play back. MP4 (brusque for MPEG-four Part 14 multimedia format) plays everywhere

Notation that the MKV file, also called a Matroska, is a container—the file could contain video utilizing any number of codecs within. The fool-proof manner to play them all is to use the VLC Media Histrion for Windows, which plays everything. (Read more than nearly it beneath.) Every bit for the downloaders, hither are the best options.

VLC Media Player

Free; Windows, macOS, Linux

We mention VLC Media Thespian above because it'southward a fantastic tool for Windows, Mac, and Linux users that plays back merely about any media ever created. It also has the ability to download YouTube videos, admitting in a convoluted style. (If you run into whatever problems, endeavor a total re-install of VLC and clear your cache to make information technology work.)

Copy a URL from a YouTube video, and so open up VLC. From the Media menu, select Open Network Stream (Ctrl+N) and paste in the URL. Click Play. When the video is playing, go to Tools > Codec Data. At that place is a box at the bottom called "Source"—re-create the URL you lot detect in that box.

Go dorsum to your browser and paste the URL—information technology'due south a temporary spider web address and will expire eventually—in the address bar and start playing the video. When you're viewing the video in the browser, click the 3-dot menu at the lower correct for the download option to keep it locally.

Yet, information technology appears that VLC is merely going to salve your file as 1080p and not any higher, even if the original YouTube stream was available in 1440p or 2160p (aka 4K). It likewise won't catechumen video to other formats. To get those options, you need the desktop software below.

4K Video Downloader

Free or $15 for lifetime license on 3 computers; Windows, macOS, Ubuntu Linux, Android

Multi-lingual 4K Video Downloader (4KVD) is frequently updated and features clear download links on the program'due south website; no ad traps here. The software does what information technology advertises in a simple interface. It grabs videos up to 8K in quality and downloads to enough of formats. Simply copy a YouTube URL and click the Paste Link button to get started. 4KVD will fifty-fifty take hold of subtitles, entire playlists, and all the videos in a channel to which you lot subscribe. The sites supported are limited to the big names similar YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, and a few others, but that covers most of what you need. It does brandish a large banner advertising to go along the lights on and you're express to 30 downloads a twenty-four hours on the complimentary version.

I had to make a switch from MP4 to MKV format to get my exam video to download in 4K. 4KVD snagged the iii-minute, 229.7MB file for the moving-picture show trailer in about 1 infinitesimal and xx seconds. 4KVD defaults dorsum to 1080p HD, so I made the same switch when downloading an Ultra High Definition (8K) playlist.

If y'all enable the Smart Mode and its presets, 4KVD can perform 1-click downloads to your favorite format. If yous want to download more than 25 videos at a time or subscribe to YouTube channels to instantly download the latest, that requires the paid version. Playback of the resulting MKV files via VLC Media Player was flawless.

The plan itself has an option to extract audio to MP3 format, so you don't even need the 4K YouTube to MP3 companion software.

VideoProc Converter

$59.ninety for one year, $78.90 lifetime, $119.90 family unit (2-v PCs); Windows, macOS

The powerful VideoProc from Digiarty comes in an editor edition and this converter, which also provides editing and effects. The downloading aspect is bully, a version like to Digiarty's WinX YouTube Downloader, which you can notwithstanding find but is non promoted by the company these days. This makes sense, equally VideoProc Converter handles a lot of downloading, supposedly supporting 4K from over 1,000 websites. With hardware acceleration, information technology promises some speed. Thankfully, it oft offers price discounts.

To utilize information technology, you open the software, let it discover your hardware to see what you have to aid with acceleration (if annihilation). Click the Downloader push, click Add video to place as many URLs every bit yous want to batch, and so Download Now. Or y'all can get a whole YouTube playlist or live stream. Information technology grabbed our 697MB test 4K video to WEBM format in about ii minutes and xv seconds, which isn't bad. Best of all, the trial version of VideoProc Converter, which limits conversions to 5 minutes, doesn't appear to limit downloads.

FlixGrab

1-year license $44.99 plus tax (or $9.99 for Free YouTube Download); Windows

Like some others, FlixGrab has several different programs bachelor, many with overlapping features. For instance, it has FlixGrabMS (a version you get from the Microsoft Store to run on Windows 10/11)—only it wouldn't let me take hold of video from YouTube. The straight download of the FlixGrab program from the flixgrabapp.com site did work with YouTube and several other sites,. Plus information technology offers a Free YouTube Download that is specific to YouTube, yet uses the same easy-to-use interface. The downside, as with others, is the high subscription price, just it'due south the just way to go high-quality downloads. The YouTube-only version is substantially cheaper at $9.99 per year, notwithstanding. Neither comes with a trial period.

5KPlayer

Free; Windows and macOS

The costless 5KPlayer is a lot more than than a downloader, but it's got a heck of an integrated downloader. Promising no viruses, ads, or plug-in requirements is a good start. It is, sadly, one of the few tested that asks for a registration of your name and electronic mail—you accept to exercise that to get the full download function beyond 300+ sites. However, you can even so nab 4K vids from YouTube without registering.

When downloading, the program does attempt to hide some things. Paste in the URL for a YouTube video and the analysis engine runs and shows simply a few download options. Click the gear icon, then the Prove All button, and scroll to run into more than—similar a 4K 3,840-by-2,160 file in WebM format. The 227MB WebM test download took an agonizing 6.v minutes. Grabbing playlists was possible, just y'all must adjust download settings ane video at a time. The confusing interface makes information technology hard to go dorsum to the other videos in the playlist.

5K Thespian also features DLNA server playback then videos you lot grab tin be watched on whatsoever devices that support DLNA, plus information technology supports AirPlay for quick playback to Apple devices. Pick a video in the library for quick conversion to MP4, MP3, or fifty-fifty ACC (the audio format preferred past iOS). The player didn't like playing back the overly big 4K file, though, and experienced buffering issues (VLC didn't have whatever problem with the same file).

Ultimately, there's a lot to like about 5K Player, from the price to the features, particularly if y'all wait at them as extras on a downloader. But the bad interface, boring download speeds, and playback issues may have yous looking elsewhere.

Helper Websites

Do y'all want to avoid installing software? Video download helper sites are supposed to do the download work for you. All of them do one basic thing: You give them a YouTube URL (or some other video site, if supported), they parse information technology, give you a choice of what size download you want, and provide a link to said download. They piece of work on any platform, sometimes even on mobile devices. You lot don't accept to install annihilation on your PC. It can accept a lot longer, depending on the size and quality of the video you lot desire, just you tin can't beat the convenience.

The problem is, you can't ever trust them. There are hundreds of these types of sites out at that place—it seems anyone with a modicum of coding ability has set one up. Such sites easily go from useful to suspicious, specially if they get popular and the proprietor sells out to make cash off your visits.

Recommended by Our Editors

Since this story was first published, all the helper sites we recommended have been removed for reasons similar adding sexually explicit ads, no longer working, switching to pushing its download utility only, and one for going out of business to avoid getting sued.

For that reason, nosotros're not recommending any helper sites at the moment. Attempt one if y'all observe it, only if your browser, antivirus, or instincts throw upward warnings, avoid and movement on.

Extensions

A browser extension can save y'all a step. Yet, you're going to run into some issues with downloading video from YouTube, especially if you lot're using Chrome as your main browser.

The Chrome Spider web Store—where y'all get Chrome browser extensions—is controlled by YouTube's owner Alphabet/Google. Even an extension ostensibly for this purpose isn't going to let YouTube direct downloads, because of Chrome Store restrictions. In general, with Chrome extensions, the download of whatever RTMP protocol video (protected videos) or streaming video isn't possible. You can utilize them on other sites with video, of course. Just not YouTube.

Want to get around it? Get an extension that does not come from the Google Web Store. Some of the programs and helper sites offer an extension component and will spell out how to exercise the install without the assistance the Chrome Web Store usually provides. Here are a couple.

YouTube Video Downloader

Gratuitous; Chrome, Opera, Edge, Vivaldi, UCBrowser

YouTube Video Downloader from Addoncrop is on multiple browsers but with fantabulous side-load capabilities. It puts a push button below any video you're playing on YouTube, or fifty-fifty an embedded YouTube video, making it easy to grab. Supported video quality goes up to 8K. You tin also convert audio from the video to an MP3. It will fifty-fifty assistance y'all take video screenshots.

Video DownloadHelper

Costless; Firefox, Chrome, Edge

Video DownloadHelper supports a huge number of sites—even those for adults. Yous'll know a video is downloadable when the icon for the extension animates when you're on the web folio. Video DownloadHelper for Chrome has stopped working with YouTube; that way, it could go placement in the Chrome Web Shop. Become around that by using the Video DownloadHelper extension on Firefox or Border instead.

Mobile

Downloading from YouTube using an Android app from the Google Play Store is a challenge, given that Google has a tight grip on the site it owns, and offers the paid YouTube Premium service that supports offline viewing.

That said, with Android, information technologyis possible to install apps without going through Google. For example, InsTube – Free Video and Music Downloader for Android can just be found at InsTube's site. Download the APK (Android awarding package) file to sideload on an Android device. Find information technology in your device's downloads and click to install. (You may have to become into your security settings and enable "Unknown sources.")

On iPhones and iPads, you'd recall in that location would be no such restriction since Apple tree and Google aren't exactly the best of pals (or maybe they are). However, on the iOS apps I have tried, non just wouldn't they download from YouTube, simply they're likewise typically not available for long. One of those apps said in its description, "Downloading from YouTube is prohibited due to its Terms of Service." Apple is ensuring that app makers play by the rules—even Google'southward rules.

Chances are, the infinitesimal you detect an iOS app that can download YouTube videos, it will get "fixed" or banned. The simply existent option is to jailbreak your iPhone and use sideloaded apps that download what yous want.

There are workarounds. 1 is to subscribe to YouTube Premium; it lets you lot download video on your iPhone or iPad to lookout afterwards, much as Netflix and Hulu practise.

Another is using a gratis iOS file managing director app like Documents by Readdle. Apply the Safari browser to visit a YouTube video, and utilize the Share option to detect Copy Link. So get back to Documents, and use the built-in browser in the app to surf to a video download helper site. Paste the link into the form (hold your finger downward on information technology until you become the "Paste" menu to pop up). The site will give you the links to download, and y'all tin save the file to Documents. Agree and drag the file up, until you're back on the chief screen, then elevate information technology to the Photos folder. You'll need to requite Documents permission to admission Photos the first time. You lot can then access the video like you would any video taken on the phone or tablet—in the Photos app.

Another workaround: Get back to the desktop and try AnyTrans ($39.99 for a single computer for one twelvemonth, Windows or macOS; $59.99 lifetime plan), a desktop file director for iOS devices that has an integrated downloader supporting 900 sites, including YouTube and Facebook. It'll transfer the videos to the iPhone for yous over the USB cable. Even if you don't pay for AnyTrans, the download option remains and is free forever.

YT Scribe

Want a truly unique way to "download" a video? YT Scribe lets you grab the transcription then you can read them instead. Information technology auto-transcribes, punctuates, and paragraphs the text. The meliorate the subtitles, the better the "article," of course. All-time of all, it's totally gratuitous.

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