Is a YouTube video actually stored as an MP4?

Partly. YouTube keeps every video in several encodings at once. For 360p to 1080p there is normally an H.264 version that fits in an MP4 container, which is what we give you. For 4K, YouTube often only provides VP9 or AV1, which are different codecs even when the file has an .mp4 extension.

Which option plays on a smart TV?

1080p. It is H.264 in most cases, which every TV, streaming stick and game console decodes in hardware. The best option can be AV1 or VP9 for 4K videos, and older TVs will not open it.

Why does my video player show a black screen or no picture?

The player does not have a decoder for the codec in the file, usually AV1 from a 4K download. Play it in VLC, which supports AV1, or download the 1080p version instead.

Does the MP4 include the audio?

Yes, every option. YouTube stores HD picture and sound separately; we merge them before you download. 360p is already a single file with sound.

Does it work on iPhone and Android?

Yes, in the browser. iPhone plays H.264 natively and, on recent models, AV1 too; the file lands in the Files app from Safari. Android saves to Downloads and most players open H.264 without trouble.

How large is a YouTube MP4?

It depends on resolution and how much motion the picture has. A ten-minute video is roughly 30 to 60 MB at 360p, 100 to 200 MB at 720p, 200 to 400 MB at 1080p and up to 2 GB at 4K.

Is it legal to save a YouTube MP4?

For personal, offline use of content you are allowed to watch, generally yes, and always for your own videos or Creative Commons content. Re-uploading, distributing or selling someone else's work is not. Check the rules where you live.

YouTube MP4

Get the MP4 file behind any public YouTube video, with the picture and sound in one file. This page explains what is inside that file, so you can pick the version that plays on your device.

How to get the MP4 file of a YouTube video

Copy the link from the YouTube address bar or the Share button. youtu.be and Shorts links work.
Paste it above and press Go. The card confirms the title and length.
Choose a quality. 360p · instant is a ready-made MP4 your browser saves straight from YouTube. 720p, 1080p and best are assembled from YouTube's separate video and audio streams, then offered as a Download button.
Save the file and open it in your player or editor.

What "MP4" means, and what YouTube stores

MP4 is a container: a wrapper that holds a video track, an audio track and some metadata in one file. What matters for playback is not the wrapper but the codecs inside it, the methods used to compress the picture and the sound. A player that can read MP4 files still cannot play the video if it lacks the decoder for the codec.

YouTube encodes every upload into several versions. Three video codecs are in use:

H.264, also called AVC. The oldest of the three and the most widely supported. Every phone, TV, browser, console and editing program decodes it in hardware. YouTube provides H.264 for 360p, 720p and 1080p on almost every video.
VP9. Google's successor to H.264, more efficient at the same quality. YouTube's main codec for 1440p and 4K, and used for many HD videos too. Widely supported in browsers and on Android; patchy in older TVs and in Apple's QuickTime.
AV1. The newest and most efficient. YouTube uses it for popular videos and high resolutions. Hardware decoding only arrived in recent phones, GPUs and TVs, so older devices either cannot play it or play it with stutter.

The audio is AAC or Opus. Above 360p, YouTube stores the audio separately from the picture and the player fetches both at once, which is why a YouTube MP4 has to be assembled rather than simply downloaded.

What you get from vidstill at each quality

360p. The single file YouTube still serves with H.264 picture and AAC sound already muxed together. It is the most compatible file possible and needs no preparation.
720p and 1080p. We fetch the H.264 video stream where YouTube provides one, which is nearly always, fetch the audio stream, and write both into one MP4 without re-encoding. The result plays anywhere H.264 plays, which is everywhere.
Best, up to 4K. The highest resolution the uploader gave YouTube. For 1440p and 4K, YouTube typically only encodes VP9 or AV1, so the file we assemble carries that codec inside the MP4 container. It is identical to what YouTube plays in a browser, but some standalone players do not handle it. If a file will not open, that is the reason.

We never re-encode video. Re-encoding would take minutes and add a second layer of compression loss on top of YouTube's; copying the existing streams takes seconds and changes nothing.

Why some players choke on the file

An MP4 with AV1 inside is still a valid MP4, but the program opening it needs an AV1 decoder. The usual symptoms are a black screen with sound, a "codec not supported" message, or heavy stutter as the device tries to decode in software.

Windows Media Player and Movies & TV need the free AV1 Video Extension from the Microsoft Store.
QuickTime on Mac generally will not play VP9 or AV1 inside an MP4; use IINA or VLC.
Smart TVs, streaming sticks and consoles from before roughly 2021 have no AV1 hardware and often skip VP9 in MP4.
Older Android and iPhone models play H.264 in hardware but decode AV1 in software, which drains the battery and drops frames.

Two fixes. Install VLC, which plays every codec YouTube uses on every platform. Or download the 1080p file, which is H.264 and plays without any of this.

Which option to pick

You want to	Pick	Why
Play on a TV, stick or console	1080p	H.264, hardware-decoded everywhere
Watch on a phone or tablet	720p	Same look on a small screen, half the file
Edit in Premiere, Final Cut, DaVinci or CapCut	1080p, or best if you need 4K	Editors handle H.264 natively; AV1 may need a proxy or transcode first
Send in a chat or email	360p	Small enough for message size limits
Archive at the highest quality	Best	Most pixels, but check your player supports the codec

File sizes

Resolution sets the ceiling, but the content sets the actual size. YouTube allocates more bits to fast motion and fine detail, so a lecture recorded on a static camera comes out much smaller than a football match at the same resolution. Typical ten-minute figures: 30–60 MB at 360p, 100–200 MB at 720p, 200–400 MB at 1080p, and 0.8–2 GB at 4K. AV1 and VP9 files are a little smaller than H.264 at the same resolution because they compress better.

The MP3 option is a different case: it is a real conversion to 192 kbps, about 1.4 MB per minute regardless of resolution. See YouTube to MP3.

If the file will not open

Black screen, sound plays. Codec problem; open in VLC or fetch 1080p.
The file is tiny and will not play at all. The download was interrupted. Prepared files stay on our side for about an hour, so return to the page and press Download again.
"This video is unavailable." Private, removed, age-restricted, region-locked, or a live stream. Only public videos can be fetched.
"YouTube is rate-limiting us." Wait a minute and try again.
Daily limit reached. Guests get three downloads a day, free accounts ten, Pro has no cap; see pricing.

The text behind the MP4

Every video you paste also gets a Transcript tab, built from the captions with timestamps, and a Summary tab written from that transcript. When you are downloading a long video to keep, the summary is a quick way to check it is the right one before the file lands on your disk.

A note on copyright

vidstill fetches public videos on request and hosts no copies; assembled HD files are deleted after about an hour. Keep MP4s only for personal, offline use of content you are allowed to watch, or for your own and Creative Commons videos. Do not re-upload or sell someone else's work. Rights holders can use the DMCA page to have a public video page removed.

FAQ

Is a YouTube video actually stored as an MP4?: Partly. YouTube keeps every video in several encodings at once. For 360p to 1080p there is normally an H.264 version that fits in an MP4 container, which is what we give you. For 4K, YouTube often only provides VP9 or AV1, which are different codecs even when the file has an .mp4 extension.
Which option plays on a smart TV?: 1080p. It is H.264 in most cases, which every TV, streaming stick and game console decodes in hardware. The best option can be AV1 or VP9 for 4K videos, and older TVs will not open it.
Why does my video player show a black screen or no picture?: The player does not have a decoder for the codec in the file, usually AV1 from a 4K download. Play it in VLC, which supports AV1, or download the 1080p version instead.
Does the MP4 include the audio?: Yes, every option. YouTube stores HD picture and sound separately; we merge them before you download. 360p is already a single file with sound.
Does it work on iPhone and Android?: Yes, in the browser. iPhone plays H.264 natively and, on recent models, AV1 too; the file lands in the Files app from Safari. Android saves to Downloads and most players open H.264 without trouble.
How large is a YouTube MP4?: It depends on resolution and how much motion the picture has. A ten-minute video is roughly 30 to 60 MB at 360p, 100 to 200 MB at 720p, 200 to 400 MB at 1080p and up to 2 GB at 4K.
Is it legal to save a YouTube MP4?: For personal, offline use of content you are allowed to watch, generally yes, and always for your own videos or Creative Commons content. Re-uploading, distributing or selling someone else's work is not. Check the rules where you live.

YouTube MP4

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