Save any YouTube Short as a clean MP4
Paste a Shorts link above and download the vertical video as an MP4 file. No account, no app, no watermark stamped across the frame.
Shorts are awkward to save compared to regular YouTube videos. The mobile app's share menu gives you a link, not a file. Screen recording works but captures the interface overlay — the like button, the channel handle, the title text — burned permanently into your footage. Downloading gets you the underlying video file as it was uploaded, with the interface stripped away.
The tool accepts youtube.com/shorts/VIDEO_ID links directly. It also handles Shorts that have been converted to standard watch URLs, so either form works. Six extraction methods run in sequence — yt-dlp, youtubei.js, ytdl-core, Piped, Invidious, and Cobalt — which is why this keeps working through YouTube updates that take single-backend downloaders offline.
Downloading a Short in three steps
Copy the link.
In the YouTube app, tap the arrow icon on the Short and choose Copy link. On desktop, copy the URL from the address bar while the Short is playing.
You'll get something like https://youtube.com/shorts/dQw4w9WgXcQ.
Paste it above and press Download.
Extraction usually takes three to six seconds — Shorts are small files, so they process faster than full-length videos. You'll see the thumbnail, title, and channel come back as confirmation.
Pick a resolution and save.
Available formats appear with file sizes. Click Save and the MP4 downloads directly to your device.
What quality can you actually get?
Here's something most downloader sites won't tell you: 1080p is the ceiling for Shorts. YouTube serves Shorts at a maximum of 1080 × 1920 regardless of what the creator uploaded. Someone can export their Short in 4K, upload it, and viewers still receive 1080p.
That means no downloader can give you a 4K Short. If a site claims 4K Shorts downloads, it's either upscaling — which invents pixels rather than recovering detail — or the claim is simply false. What you'll see here is 1080p when the source supports it, dropping to 720p or 480p for Shorts that were uploaded at lower resolution or shot on older phones.
A 30-second Short at 1080p typically lands between 4 MB and 12 MB. Fast-moving content with lots of cuts sits at the higher end; a static talking-head clip compresses much smaller.
YouTube Shorts specifications
| Spec | Value |
|---|---|
| Resolution | 1080 × 1920 (maximum served) |
| Aspect ratio | 9:16 vertical (1:1 square also qualifies) |
| Maximum length | 3 minutes, raised from 60 seconds in October 2024 |
| Frame rate | 30 fps typical, up to 60 fps |
| Container and codec | MP4, H.264 video, AAC audio |
| Minimum sensible resolution | 720 × 1280 |
Useful context if you're downloading Shorts as reference material for your own production: designing at 1080 × 1920 from the start always beats cropping a landscape video into portrait afterwards.
Why people download Shorts
Cross-posting your own content. You publish a Short, then want the same clip on TikTok, Instagram Reels, and Facebook. Downloading your own upload gives you a clean file rather than re-exporting from your editor or — worse — pulling a watermarked version off another platform. Cross-posted clips carrying a competitor's watermark get suppressed by most short-form algorithms.
Studying formats before you make your own. If you're building a Shorts channel, saving twenty examples of a format that works lets you scrub the first three seconds frame by frame and see exactly how the hook is constructed. Analysis is a legitimate reason to have the file locally; reuploading someone else's clip is not.
Archiving your back catalogue. Creators lose access to their own uploads more often than you'd think — account issues, channel strikes, accidental deletions. Keeping local copies of your published Shorts is basic insurance.
Offline viewing. A tutorial you'll follow while cooking, a workout demonstration in a gym with no signal, a clip you want to show someone on a plane.
Reference for editors. Client sends six Shorts links as examples of the style they want. You need the files in your timeline, not six browser tabs.
The audio problem nobody warns you about
This catches out a lot of people cross-posting their own Shorts, so it's worth understanding before you download.
If you built your Short using a track from YouTube's Shorts audio library, that music is licensed for use on YouTube. The licence does not travel with the file. Download that Short, upload it to Instagram or TikTok, and you've published commercially licensed music outside the terms it was licensed under. Depending on the track, that means a muted upload, a takedown, or a copyright strike on the receiving platform.
The same applies in reverse — this is why TikTok exports of sounds get flagged when reposted to Reels.
If you're cross-posting your own work, the safe approach is to keep a version with your own audio, or with royalty-free music you've licensed independently, and use that for other platforms rather than pulling the YouTube version. Alternatively, upload the video silent and add each platform's native audio in their own editor.
Where the file lands on your device
iPhone. Safari saves to the Files app under Downloads, not to Photos. To get the Short into your camera roll — which you'll need for uploading to Instagram or TikTok — open Files, long-press the MP4, and pick Save to Photos. If tapping Save opens a playback tab instead, long-press the button and choose Download Linked File.
Android. Chrome drops files into /Download. Your gallery normally indexes them within a minute; if the video doesn't appear, open it once from the Files app to trigger a rescan. From there it's available in the upload picker for any social app.
Desktop. Files go to your Downloads folder and open in anything. Note that a 9:16 vertical file will show with black bars either side in most desktop players — that's the player letterboxing it, not a problem with the file.
When a Short won't download
It's private or unlisted with restrictions. Access-controlled content can't be retrieved.
The Short was removed. Deleted uploads and copyright-removed content leave nothing behind.
Age-restricted content. Shorts behind an age gate aren't accessible through public extraction methods.
Rate limiting. Several rapid requests can get temporarily throttled. Wait 20–30 seconds and retry — a different extraction layer frequently succeeds on the second attempt.
Region blocks. If the video is unavailable in the extraction server's territory, the request fails regardless of your own location.
Everything fails at once. If all six layers report errors across multiple different Shorts, YouTube has likely shipped a change affecting several methods simultaneously. It typically resolves within hours.
What you can legally download
Downloading through third-party tools is against YouTube's Terms of Service — the sanctioned route is YouTube Premium or the app's offline feature. Beyond the terms, copying someone else's video without permission is copyright infringement in most jurisdictions.
The Shorts context makes this sharper than usual, because the most common reason people download Shorts is to repost them. Reuploading another creator's Short to your own account or another platform is straightforward infringement, and short-form platforms have become efficient at detecting it. Channels built on reposted clips get demonetised and terminated routinely.
What's safe:
- Your own Shorts — download and repost freely, subject to the audio licensing point above
- Creative Commons licensed content — check the description; attribution is normally required
- Content you have written permission to use — a creator agreeing to a collaboration, footage a client supplied
- Public domain material
- Local reference copies for genuine analysis — studying a format is different from republishing it
Criticism, commentary, news reporting, teaching, and research may qualify as fair use or fair dealing, but those are fact-specific tests that vary by country rather than blanket permissions.
This tool is provided for personal, lawful use. Not affiliated with YouTube or Google.
How this compares to other Shorts downloaders
Most Shorts downloaders are general YouTube tools with a Shorts label bolted on, running one extraction backend and going offline for days whenever YouTube changes something. Many add their own watermark to the output — which defeats the purpose entirely if you're cross-posting your own work — or route you through several interstitial pages and fake download buttons before delivering the file.
What's different here: six independent extraction layers, no watermark added to the output, and error reporting that names what failed rather than showing a blank message.
Honest limitations: private, age-restricted and removed Shorts are inaccessible, batch downloading isn't supported, and 1080p is the hard ceiling because that's all YouTube serves.
Frequently asked questions
Does the downloaded Short have a watermark?▼
Can I download Shorts in 4K?▼
Does it work on iPhone and Android?▼
Can I download just the audio from a Short?▼
Will the video keep its vertical 9:16 shape?▼
Can I download several Shorts at once?▼
Do I need to convert the Shorts URL to a watch URL first?▼
Is it free?▼
More free YouTube tools
- YouTube to MP4 — download full-length videos in HD and 4K
- YouTube to MP3 — extract audio only
- Thumbnail Downloader — max-resolution thumbnails
- Transcript Extractor — captions and subtitles as text