How to download YouTube videos (on any device)

Step 1: Copy the video's link

Open the video you want to save. On a computer, the address bar is the easiest source: click it, press Ctrl+A then Ctrl+C (Cmd on a Mac), and the link's on your clipboard. Right-clicking the video and choosing "Copy video URL" gives you the same thing.

On a phone, the address bar is hidden inside the YouTube app, so use the Share button under the video instead. Tap Share, then Copy link. A proper video link looks like youtube.com/watch?v= followed by an 11-character code, or the short youtu.be/ form — both work here.

Step 2: Paste it into the box

Head to ytvideodown.online and you'll see one input field — there's nothing else to hunt for. Tap the Paste button beside it and the link drops straight in from your clipboard, no long-press required. The first time you use it, your browser will ask whether the site may read your clipboard. Approve it once; the prompt doesn't come back.

Prefer keyboards? Click the field and press Ctrl+V (Cmd+V on a Mac). Then hit Download.

Step 3: Choose your format

After a few seconds, a result card appears: the video's thumbnail, its title, its duration, and a row of format options — each showing its file size whenever YouTube reports one. That size figure is the whole reason the card exists: you see what you're committing to before you tap anything.

If you'd rather not think about it, use this rule: 720p for a phone screen, 1080p for a TV or monitor, MP3 when you only need the sound. Each choice is one click.

One caveat: you can only download what the uploader provided. If a video went up at 720p, no 1080p row will appear — no downloader can invent resolution that was never there.

Step 4: Find your file

On a computer, the video lands in your Downloads folder, named after its title — check the browser's download bar, or press Ctrl+J to open the full list. On Android, a notification tracks the progress; tap it when it finishes and the video opens. On an iPhone the file goes to the Files app, which is different enough that it gets its own section below.

That's it. Four steps, and the middle two are a single tap each.

Windows & Mac

Your file goes to the Downloads folder: C:\Users\<you>\Downloads on Windows, ~/Downloads on a Mac. If you'd rather pick a location each time, flip one setting — in Chrome it's Settings → Downloads → "Ask where to save each file", and Edge, Firefox, and Safari all have the same switch under a similar name.

For playback, MP4 opens natively: Windows' Media Player and the Mac's QuickTime both handle it without extra codecs. If you ever meet a file that stutters or refuses to open, VLC — free, no ads — plays essentially everything ever encoded. And once the download finishes, it's an ordinary file: rename it, move it to an external drive, drop it into an editor. Nothing ties it to your browser. For the long version — every browser's save-location setting, and what to try when a file won't open — see our full Windows and Mac guide.

Android

Chrome posts a notification with a progress bar the moment the download starts, and you can leave the page — it keeps going in the background. When it finishes, tap the notification to play the video, or find it later in the Files app under Downloads (Samsung's My Files uses the same folder). The video usually appears in your gallery app within a minute, too. If internal storage is tight, Chrome's settings let you point downloads at an SD card instead. If you get stuck, our full Android guide walks through the notification, the Files app, and changing the download location in more detail.

iPhone & iPad

iOS handles downloads differently, and this is the number-one place people assume something broke when it didn't. When you tap a download link, Safari shows a small blue arrow at the top of the screen — that's your progress indicator. Tap it to watch the transfer.

And it doesn't matter which browser you started in — on an iPhone, Chrome, Edge, and Firefox all run on Safari's engine, so the blue arrow and the Files-app destination are identical in every one. The YouTube app can't save video here, which is why the whole thing happens in a browser.

Finished downloads live in the Files app: open Files, then Browse → Downloads. Depending on your settings, that folder sits in iCloud Drive or under "On My iPhone" — either way, the video plays right there. Want it in your camera roll instead? Long-press the file, tap Share, then Save Video, and it appears in Photos alongside your own clips. iOS is fiddly enough that we gave it its own iPhone and iPad guide.

When you see "That link didn't work"

Nine times out of ten, the link you pasted points at a channel or a playlist rather than a video — an easy mistake, since YouTube puts a Share button on all three. Check the address: a video link contains watch?v= plus an 11-character code, or uses the short youtu.be/ form. A link with playlist?list= or an @name in it won't fetch anything. Open the specific video, copy again, and you're back in business.

The download starts, then fails

A download that dies partway through is nearly always a connection hiccup, not a broken file — just start it again. If it fails twice at 1080p, try the 720p row; a 130 MB transfer survives a shaky connection far better than a 250 MB one. One more quirk: download links expire after a few hours, so if you fetched a video this morning and clicked its link tonight, re-paste the URL and grab a fresh one.

When you see "This one's off-limits"

Some videos can't be downloaded, and we'd rather say so than waste your evening: live streams while they're still airing, private videos, and members-only content are all off the table. There's no workaround — here or anywhere — and a site claiming it can reach private videos is either lying or fishing for your YouTube password. Live streams do become downloadable once the creator publishes the recording, so a day's patience often solves that one. If you're unsure why one particular video won't save, our rundown of videos that won't download walks through every cause in one place.