Download YouTube videos as MP4 — free, no account, no software
Paste a YouTube link into the box above, choose a resolution, and save the file. That's the whole process. No signup, no browser extension, no desktop app, and no watermark burned into the corner of your video.
The converter accepts standard youtube.com/watch links, shortened youtu.be links, embed URLs, and Shorts links. It runs six independent extraction methods in sequence — yt-dlp, youtubei.js, ytdl-core, Piped, Invidious, and Cobalt — so when one method stops working after a YouTube update, the next one picks up automatically. Most converter sites depend on a single backend and go dark for days when that backend breaks. This one doesn't.
Below you'll find a short walkthrough, a guide to picking the right resolution, notes on saving files on each major platform, fixes for the most common failures, and a straight explanation of what you're actually allowed to download.
How to convert a YouTube video to MP4
1. Copy the video URL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_IDhttps://youtu.be/VIDEO_IDhttps://www.youtube.com/shorts/VIDEO_ID
Open the video on YouTube, tap Share → Copy link, or copy it straight from your browser's address bar. Any of these formats work: youtube.com/watch, youtu.be, and youtube.com/shorts links. You don't need to strip timestamps, playlist parameters, or tracking tags — those get cleaned automatically.
2. Paste it into the converter
Drop the link into the field at the top of this page and press Download. The extraction engine starts on layer one and moves down the chain until a method returns results. Expect three to eight seconds on a typical video; longer videos and 4K sources take a little more. You'll see the video thumbnail, title, channel name, and duration come back as confirmation you pasted the right link.
Check it before you continue — it takes a second and saves you from downloading the wrong thing.
3. Pick a quality and save
The results panel lists every stream YouTube exposes for that video: usually 360p, 720p, and 1080p, sometimes 1440p and 2160p when the uploader published in those resolutions. Each row shows the format and an estimated file size. Click Save on the one you want and your browser handles the rest. If a download fails, the page shows which layers were tried and why each one failed, rather than a generic error.
That tells you whether the video is genuinely unavailable or whether a retry is worth it.
Which quality should you download?
Higher isn't automatically better. The right resolution depends on the screen you'll watch it on and how much storage you're willing to spend.
| Resolution | Rough size (10 min) | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| 360p | 25–40 MB | Talking-head clips, podcasts, saving mobile data |
| 720p HD | 80–150 MB | Phones, tablets, most casual offline viewing |
| 1080p Full HD | 150–350 MB | Laptops, TVs, editing timelines, presentations |
| 1440p QHD | 350–700 MB | High-DPI monitors, detailed screen recordings |
| 2160p 4K | 700 MB–2 GB | 4K displays, footage you'll crop or zoom into |
Sizes vary a lot with content. A static lecture slide compresses to a fraction of a fast-moving sports clip at the same resolution, because there's less motion for the encoder to describe frame to frame.
Two practical rules. First, don't download above your display's native resolution — 4K on a 1080p laptop costs four times the storage for zero visible difference. Second, if you're going to edit the footage and crop into it, go one tier above your delivery resolution so you have room to reframe without softening the image.
A resolution only appears in the list if the uploader actually published it. If you don't see 4K, the source video doesn't have a 4K stream — no converter can create detail that was never uploaded.
MP4, WebM, and why the container matters
YouTube stores video in more than one format, and the difference occasionally matters.
MP4 is the container almost everything understands. Inside it, video is usually encoded with H.264, a codec supported by every phone, TV, editor, and browser made in the last fifteen years, including hardware decoders that keep battery drain low. If you want a file that just works — AirDrop it, drop it in Premiere or DaVinci Resolve, play it on a smart TV via USB — MP4 with H.264 is the answer, and it's what this converter prioritises.
WebM wraps VP9 or AV1. Both compress better than H.264, meaning a smaller file at the same visual quality, which is why YouTube serves them for high-resolution streams. The catch is compatibility: some older TVs, some phone galleries, and parts of the Adobe suite won't open WebM without a conversion step first.
There's one quirk worth knowing. YouTube delivers resolutions above 1080p as separate video-only and audio-only streams that get combined during playback. Getting a single 4K MP4 with sound means muxing those two streams back together. Where that's possible server-side you'll get a ready-to-play file; in some cases the highest resolutions are offered as video-only, and 1080p is your best option for a file that includes audio out of the box.
Saving files on iPhone, Android, Windows, and Mac
The download itself is identical everywhere. Where the file lands is not.
iPhone and iPad. Safari saves to the Files app under Downloads by default, not to Photos. To get a video into your camera roll, open Files, tap and hold the MP4, and choose Save to Photos. If the download opens in a playback tab instead of saving, long-press the Save button and pick Download Linked File.
Android. Chrome drops the file into /Downloads. Most gallery apps index that folder automatically within a minute or two; if yours doesn't show the video, open it once from the Files app and it'll usually appear. Samsung Internet and Firefox behave the same way.
Windows. Files go to your Downloads folder. Windows Media Player and the Films & TV app both open MP4/H.264 natively. For WebM files, VLC handles them without any extra codec install.
macOS. Downloads land in ~/Downloads and open in QuickTime. QuickTime won't play WebM — use VLC, or download the 1080p MP4 instead if you want to stay in Apple's tools.
Chromebook and Linux. Both save to the standard Downloads directory. VLC covers every format the converter can produce.
Why downloads fail — and how to fix them
The video is private, unlisted-and-restricted, or members-only. Access-controlled videos can't be retrieved. This isn't a bug and there's no workaround here.
It's a live stream. Streams that are still broadcasting have no finished file to download. Wait until the stream ends and YouTube publishes the archived version, then try again.
Rate limiting. Sending several requests in quick succession can get your IP temporarily throttled. Wait 20–30 seconds and retry — a different extraction layer often succeeds on the second attempt.
Region-locked content. Some videos are unavailable in certain countries. If the extraction server sits in a blocked region, the request fails regardless of where you are.
The download stalls partway. Usually a network interruption rather than a converter problem. Cancel, retry, and consider dropping one resolution tier if you're on a weak connection — a 150 MB 720p file completes far more reliably than a 900 MB 4K one on unstable Wi-Fi.
Nothing works at all. If all six layers report failure on multiple different videos, YouTube has likely pushed a change that broke several extraction methods at once. Give it a few hours.
What you're actually allowed to download
Worth being straight about this, because most converter sites aren't.
Downloading videos through third-party tools is against YouTube's Terms of Service. YouTube's own offline feature in the mobile app and YouTube Premium are the sanctioned routes. Separately from the terms, making a copy of a copyrighted video without permission is infringement in most countries — "it's just for personal use" is not a legal defence in the majority of jurisdictions, whatever the internet tells you.
What you can safely download:
- Your own uploads. Anything on your channel is yours.
- Creative Commons licensed videos. Check the description; CC-BY videos permit reuse with attribution.
- Public domain material. Government footage, expired-copyright works, explicitly dedicated works.
- Content you have written permission to use. Internal training videos, footage a client sent you, material licensed to you.
Fair use and fair dealing may cover narrow cases like criticism, commentary, news reporting, teaching, and research — but those are fact-specific tests, not blanket permissions, and they vary by country. If you're making commercial or public use of someone else's footage, get advice rather than assuming.
This tool is provided for personal, lawful use. Not affiliated with YouTube or Google.
How this compares to other YouTube downloaders
Y2mate, SaveFrom, and the many sites cloned from them have been around a long time and they generally work. Their weaknesses are consistent: a single extraction backend that breaks for days at a time, layers of interstitial ads and fake download buttons, and error messages that tell you nothing about what went wrong.
The differences here are the six-layer chain, which means one broken method doesn't take the site down, and transparent failure reporting, which tells you whether to retry or give up.
The honest limitations: private and members-only videos are out of reach, live streams fail until they're archived, and a simultaneous block across all six layers is possible even if it's uncommon.
Frequently asked questions
Is this converter really free?▼
Can I download in 4K?▼
Do I need to install anything?▼
Does it work with YouTube Shorts?▼
Can I download a whole playlist at once?▼
Will the file have a watermark?▼
Is my download history stored?▼
Can I extract just the audio?▼
More free YouTube tools
- YouTube to MP3 — pull audio only, ideal for music and podcasts
- Shorts Downloader — save vertical Shorts as MP4
- Thumbnail Downloader — grab max-resolution thumbnails
- Transcript Extractor — copy captions and subtitles as text