Shorts Downloader
Download YouTube Shorts in full vertical quality
The whole 9:16 frame, exactly as uploaded — no letterboxing, no cropping, no watermark stamped in the corner.
No watermark · No sign-up · Free
9:16
Frame kept intact — never letterboxed, never cropped
1080 × 1920
Top resolution: full vertical HD, same pixels as landscape 1080p
3:00
Longest Short YouTube allows — every length works here
0
Watermarks added, at any resolution
The frame test
The quickest way to judge a Shorts downloader: what shape is the file it hands back?
Squeezed into a 16:9 file — your clip plays as a small box floating in black bars.
The native 9:16 upload, edge to edge. Nothing added, nothing cropped.
Field notes
Getting the link out of the Shorts player
The hard part of a YouTube Shorts video download isn't the download itself — it's that the Shorts feed hides the URL. Spot a Short by its address: youtube.com/shorts/<id> instead of watch?v=. Same file underneath; our input takes both.
On your phone — save Shorts to your gallery
The Share arrow sits in the icon stack on the right edge, under like and comment. Tap it, hit Copy link, come back here, tap Paste — and the finished Short saves straight to your phone's gallery or camera roll.
On desktop
Easier still: the address bar already shows the /shorts/ URL while it plays. Ctrl+L, Ctrl+C, paste it here.
Vertical HD, without the asterisks
1080p for a Short means 1080 wide by 1920 tall — the same 2,073,600 pixels as landscape full HD. The frame is rotated, not reduced. A 60-second clip at that quality lands between 20 and 35 MB; a talking head compresses far smaller than a skateboarding run.
One ceiling we can't raise: the upload itself. If 720 × 1280 is the best we list, that's what left the creator's phone — and private or deleted Shorts are out of reach entirely.
Downloading your own Shorts back from YouTube
Creators lose local copies of their own clips constantly. The phone gets upgraded, the editing app purges its drafts, the memory card dies — and suddenly the only surviving copy of your best-performing Short lives on YouTube. Downloading your own uploads back is the single most legitimate use of this tool, and it beats YouTube Studio's built-in export, which caps some downloads at 720p.
Other people's Shorts are a different conversation. Ripping someone's clip and reposting it to TikTok or Reels without asking isn't a gray area — it's their work, and most platforms will pull it the moment the owner complains. Get consent, give credit, or leave it on YouTube.
Get consent, give credit, or leave it on YouTube.
The rest of the toolbox
Shorts — or reels, as a lot of viewers still call them — are one corner of what we do. Regular landscape videos go through the YouTube to MP4 converter, which shows the same resolution-and-file-size breakdown before you commit to a download.
Plenty of Shorts are really music clips in disguise, and when the audio is the whole point, converting the Short to MP3 gets you a file a fraction of the size — the sound without the scrolling.
Cover images matter too, especially if you're rebuilding a channel archive; the thumbnail downloader saves them in every resolution YouTube keeps, straight from your browser.
And if you'd rather start from one input that handles everything, the main YouTube downloader takes any link — Short or not — and lists every format in one place. Stuck anywhere along the way? The step-by-step guide walks the whole flow, with device-specific notes for Android, iPhone, and Windows or Mac.
Frequently asked questions
How do I copy a Short's link on my phone?
Open the Short in the YouTube app and look at the icon stack on the right side of the screen — the Share arrow sits below the comments button. Tap Share, then Copy link. Come back here and hit the Paste button next to the input, and the link drops in without any long-pressing.
Will the downloaded Short have a watermark?
No. We never add anything to the file — no logo, no outro, no overlay at any resolution. The clip you save is identical to the video YouTube serves, which is exactly why creators use downloads like this to keep clean copies of their own work.
What resolution do Shorts download in?
Up to 1080 × 1920 — that's 1080 pixels wide and 1920 tall, the vertical equivalent of full HD with the same total pixel count as landscape 1080p. What you actually see listed depends on the upload: if the creator's file was 720 × 1280, that's the ceiling, because no downloader can invent resolution.
Can I download my own Shorts back from YouTube?
Yes, and it's the most legitimate use of this tool. Creators lose local copies to phone upgrades and deleted drafts all the time, and YouTube Studio's own download option caps some exports at 720p. Paste your Short's link here and you can save it at the full resolution you uploaded.
Can I repost a downloaded Short to TikTok or Instagram?
Only if it's your own video or the creator gave you permission. Reposting someone else's Short without consent is a copyright problem, not a gray area — and most platforms will take it down when the owner complains. Ask first, credit visibly, and keep everything else for private viewing.
Do Shorts longer than 60 seconds work?
Yes. YouTube raised the Shorts limit to 3 minutes, and length makes no difference to the download — a 3-minute Short simply fetches as a bigger file, typically 60 to 105 MB at full quality.
Why did my Shorts link open as a regular video?
Because it is one — a Short is a normal YouTube video that happens to be vertical, and youtube.com/shorts/<id> and the watch?v= address point to the same file. Our input accepts both forms, so paste whichever you've got and you'll get identical download options.