How to download YouTube videos on iPhone (Safari, no app)

To download a YouTube video on an iPhone, copy the video's link, paste it into a browser-based downloader such as vidstill in Safari, and save the MP4 it hands back. The file lands in the Files app, and one more tap moves it into Photos. There is no app to install, because Apple does not allow YouTube downloaders on the App Store, and the Shortcuts recipes that circulate online stop working every few months. This guide walks through the Safari route in detail, then covers Chrome, YouTube Premium's offline mode and what to do with the file once you have it.

Before you start: where Safari puts downloads

Safari on iOS has had a real download manager since iOS 13. Files go to a Downloads folder that you can see in the Files app. By default that folder lives in iCloud Drive, which means a large video also counts against your iCloud storage and, on a slow connection, may sync before it is fully usable. If you would rather keep downloads on the phone itself, open Settings, then Safari, then Downloads, and choose On My iPhone. It is optional, but it avoids the common case of a video that has downloaded and is nowhere to be found.

Step by step in Safari

Copy the link. In the YouTube app, tap Share under the video and choose Copy link. In Safari on youtube.com, tap the address bar and copy it. Shorts links and youtu.be links both work.
Open the downloader in Safari and paste the link. Press Go. A card appears with the video's title, channel and length.
Pick a quality. 360p saves immediately, straight from YouTube to your phone. 720p and 1080p are prepared first, which takes a few seconds, because YouTube stores HD video and its audio as separate streams and they have to be merged into one file. For a phone screen 720p is usually the right choice; there is more on sizes below.
Confirm the download. Safari asks whether you want to download the file. Tap Download. An arrow icon appears at the top of the screen, in the address bar (at the bottom if you have moved the bar there). Tap it to watch progress.
Find the file. Tap the arrow, then the magnifier next to the finished file, or open the Files app and go to Downloads. The video plays right there in Files if you tap it.
Move it into Photos. In Files, open the video, tap the Share button, and choose Save Video. It now shows in Photos under Recents and Videos, and you can AirDrop it, add it to an album or trim it like any clip you shot yourself. You can then delete the copy in Downloads; the two are independent files.

Step 6 is what people mean by "save a YouTube video to camera roll". It cannot be skipped: Safari can only write to Files, and Photos only accepts a video through the Share sheet. That is a rule of iOS, not of any particular downloader, and any site that claims to save straight into your camera roll from Safari is describing this same two-step route.

Chrome and other browsers on iPhone

Chrome, Firefox and Edge on iOS all use Apple's WebKit engine underneath, and they all end up in the same place. In Chrome, the download prompt looks different and the file is listed in Chrome's own Downloads screen, but it is stored in the Files app, in a Chrome folder under On My iPhone, and the Share, then Save Video step to get it into Photos is identical. There is no advantage to switching browsers for this.

Why the Shortcuts tricks keep breaking

Search for "download YouTube iPhone shortcut" and you will find dozens of Shortcuts-app recipes. They all work the same way: the shortcut fetches the YouTube page, digs the video stream address out of the page's code, and saves what it finds. YouTube changes that code regularly, partly to stop exactly this, and each change breaks every shortcut that depends on it until someone publishes a fixed version. A shortcut that worked in spring is dead by autumn, and the comments under any of them are a list of "not working anymore".

There is a second problem. Because YouTube serves HD video and audio as separate streams, a shortcut that grabs one stream gives you either silent video or audio alone. The only combined stream YouTube still hands out is 360p, which is why every working shortcut tops out there. A server-side downloader merges the two streams for you, which is not something the Shortcuts app can do.

If you enjoy tinkering, a shortcut is a fine toy. If you want the video, use a browser.

Why there is no downloader app on the App Store

Apple's App Store guidelines do not allow apps that download video from YouTube, and Apple removes them when they surface. The ones that survive for a while are disguised as "file managers" or "video players" with a hidden browser, and they get removed too, taking your purchase with them. A website in Safari cannot install anything on your phone, cannot read your other apps, and does not survive you closing the tab, which is the main reason to prefer it.

YouTube Premium's offline mode

If you subscribe to YouTube Premium, the YouTube app shows a Download button under most videos and keeps the copy inside the app for offline viewing. It is the official method, and for watching on a flight it is convenient. Its limits are worth knowing:

The video exists only inside the YouTube app. You cannot open it in Files, Photos or any other player, cannot AirDrop it, and cannot move it to a Mac.
Downloads expire. The app has to reconnect to the internet at least every 30 days to keep them, and they go away if your subscription lapses.
Some videos cannot be downloaded at all, and the feature is not available in every country.

Premium gives you a way to watch offline. It does not give you a file.

What cannot be downloaded

The Safari route only sees what a signed-out visitor sees, so the following do not work regardless of which site you use:

Private videos and unlisted videos that require sign-in.
Age-restricted videos, which require a signed-in adult account to play.
Live streams while they are live. The replay YouTube publishes afterwards downloads normally.
Playlists and channels as a whole. Paste each video's link on its own.

Choosing a size for a phone

An iPhone screen does not show much difference between 720p and 1080p at normal viewing distance, and the 1080p file is around twice the size. For a ten-minute video, expect very roughly 40 MB at 360p, 100 to 150 MB at 720p and 200 to 300 MB at 1080p, depending on how much motion there is. Take 1080p if the video is going to a TV or into an edit, 720p for the phone, and 360p on mobile data. For music, talks and podcasts, the MP3 option gives you the audio alone at a fraction of the size; it plays in Files and in any music app that can open files.

The transcript instead of the file

If you are saving a lecture, a talk or a tutorial to study from, the transcript may be the more useful thing to keep, and it is a small text file rather than a hundred megabytes of video. The same card that offers the download has a Transcript tab that gives you the words with timestamps, and a Summary tab that condenses them. See how to get a YouTube transcript.

A note on copyright

Downloading a video for your own offline viewing is generally accepted for content you are allowed to watch, and it is always fine for your own uploads or for videos released under a Creative Commons licence. Re-uploading, selling or redistributing someone else's video is not, and the rules vary by country. Download what you have the right to keep. For judging which downloader sites to trust, see Is it safe to download YouTube videos?; for Mac, Windows and Android, see the cross-device guide. The tool itself is at vidstill.

FAQ

Can I save a YouTube video directly to my camera roll? Not in one step. Safari saves to the Files app; open the video there, tap Share and choose Save Video, and it appears in Photos.

Does this work on an iPad? Yes, identically. iPadOS has the same Safari download manager and Files app, and Save Video works the same way.

Why did the video download without sound? The tool gave you a video-only stream. YouTube separates HD video from audio, and a proper downloader merges them. Every quality from vidstill includes the audio.

Do I need to sign up? No. Guests can download a few videos a day; a free account raises the allowance.

Can I download YouTube Shorts on iPhone? Yes. Copy the Shorts link from the Share sheet and paste it; it is handled like any other video.