YT Downloader
Paste a YouTube link once and take what you need: the MP4 video, the MP3 audio, a timestamped transcript, or a summary. No app, no extension, no account for the daily free allowance.
How to use the YT downloader
- Copy the YouTube link. Full links,
youtu.beshare links and Shorts all work. - Paste it above and press Go. The video card appears with title, channel and duration.
- Choose what you want. The Download tab offers MP4 in 360p, 720p, 1080p or best, plus MP3. The Transcript tab gives you the words with timestamps. The Summary tab gives you a TL;DR, key points or chapters.
- Save, copy or export. MP4 and MP3 download as files. Transcripts can be copied or exported; summaries can be copied.
Four things from one link
Most "yt downloader" sites give you the video and stop. That is fine when you want the video, but a lot of the time the reason to download is to get at what is inside it: the audio of a talk, the words of a tutorial, or just an answer to "what does this 45-minute video actually say". vidstill treats the link as the starting point and lets you pick the output.
- MP4 video. 360p saves instantly from YouTube. 720p, 1080p and best are assembled from YouTube's separate video and audio streams in a few seconds, with no re-encoding and the sound always included. Prepared files stay downloadable for about an hour.
- MP3 audio. The soundtrack converted to a 192 kbps MP3. The right pick for talks, interviews and music you are allowed to keep, at roughly a tenth of the video's size.
- Transcript. Taken from the video's captions, whether the creator wrote them or YouTube generated them, with a timestamps toggle and a copy button. For videos without captions we run speech-to-text on the audio instead; that takes up to a minute and covers videos up to 30 minutes. TXT export is free; SRT, VTT and Markdown exports are Pro.
- Summary. Written from the transcript in one of three styles: a short TL;DR, a list of key points, or chapters with timestamps. Captioned videos of any length summarise fine; uncaptioned ones follow the 30-minute speech-to-text limit.
When to use which
You want to watch offline. Pick 720p for a phone, 1080p for a laptop or TV. 360p when data or storage is tight.
You want to listen, not watch. A lecture, podcast episode or interview: MP3. It plays in any music app and takes little space. See YouTube to MP3.
You need the words. Quoting a talk, following a recipe, or studying from a lecture: open the Transcript tab, use the timestamps to jump back to a moment, and copy what you need. See YouTube transcript.
You are deciding whether to watch at all. Long video, unclear title: read the Summary first. The chapter style gives you a table of contents with times; the key-points style tells you what the argument is. See YouTube summarizer.
You want the video and the notes. Do both. Downloading and summarising are counted separately, so getting a summary does not use up a download.
Daily limits and Pro
The free allowance is per day and resets at midnight UTC.
| Guest | Free account | Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Downloads (MP4 or MP3) per day | 3 | 10 | Unlimited |
| Transcripts and summaries per day | 5 | 15 | Unlimited |
| Longest video for transcript or summary | 30 min | 30 min | 4 h with captions |
| SRT, VTT, Markdown export | – | – | Yes |
Repeat actions on the same video are not counted again while the result is cached. Pro is $6.90 a month, $49 a year, or $99 once for lifetime access; details on the pricing page. If you only ever need a couple of downloads, a free account is enough.
What it will not do
- Private, unlisted-behind-login and age-restricted videos. We fetch what YouTube shows a signed-out visitor, nothing more.
- Live streams while they are live. Once a stream ends and YouTube publishes the recording, the recording works.
- Playlists and channels in one go. Paste one video at a time.
- Speech-to-text beyond 30 minutes. Captioned videos are not limited this way; Pro raises the caption-based limit to four hours.
On phones and computers
There is nothing to install on any device. On an iPhone or iPad use Safari so downloads go to the Files app; transcripts and summaries can be copied from the page and pasted into Notes. On Android, Chrome saves files to Downloads. On Windows and Mac, files go to the Downloads folder and the transcript exports open in any text editor or subtitle tool.
If something fails
- Unsupported link. Make sure it contains a video id, not just
youtube.comor a channel name. - "This video is unavailable." Removed, private, restricted or region-locked.
- "YouTube is rate-limiting us." A temporary throttle on our requests; retry in a minute.
- The transcript says the video is too long. It has no captions and runs past 30 minutes. Try the summary of a captioned video, or download the MP3 instead.
- Daily limit reached. Sign up, or upgrade to Pro.
A note on copyright
vidstill fetches public videos on your behalf and hosts no copies; prepared files are deleted after about an hour. Every video you run also gets a public page with its transcript and summary; sign in to make yours private. Download only what you are allowed to keep for personal use, your own videos, or Creative Commons content, and do not re-upload or sell other people's work. Rights holders can use the DMCA page.
FAQ
- What can the YT downloader save?
- Four things from one link. The video as an MP4 in 360p, 720p, 1080p or up to 4K; the audio as a 192 kbps MP3; the transcript with timestamps as text; and an AI summary in one of three styles. You switch between them with the tabs above.
- Is it free?
- Yes, with a daily allowance. Without an account you get three downloads and five transcripts or summaries a day. A free account raises that to ten and fifteen. Pro has no daily cap.
- What does Pro add?
- Unlimited downloads, transcripts and summaries, transcripts and summaries for videos up to four hours long, and SRT, VTT and Markdown exports. It costs $6.90 a month, $49 a year or $99 once for lifetime access.
- Do I need to download the video to get the transcript?
- No. The transcript and summary tabs work on their own and never touch the video file. If the video has captions, the transcript is ready in a second or two; if not, we transcribe the audio, which takes up to a minute.
- Does it work on iPhone and Android?
- Yes. Everything runs in the browser. Files save to Files on iPhone (use Safari) and to Downloads on Android; transcripts and summaries can be copied straight from the page.
- Can it download private or age-restricted videos, or live streams?
- No. Only public videos that play for a signed-out visitor. Live streams are not supported while they are live.
- Is using a YT downloader legal?
- Downloading for personal, offline use of content you are allowed to watch is generally fine, and your own videos or Creative Commons content are always fine. Re-uploading or selling someone else's work is not. Check the rules in your country.