YouTube Video & Audio Downloader — up to 8K, pay per megabyte

Download any public YouTube video as MP4 — 360p all the way to 4320p (8K) — or extract audio as MP3, with metadata and optional subtitles. No login, no cookies, no API key. You pay per megabyte actually delivered — so a 30-second clip costs a fraction of a cent, and you are never charged for a download that fails.

Built on yt-dlp and run entirely on Apify's cloud. Point it at a URL, get a file.

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What you get

• Real quality selection, up to 8K — request 360p, 480p, 720p, 1080p, 1440p (2K), 2160p (4K) or 4320p (8K) and receive that quality.
• Audio-only mode — MP3 extraction for podcasts, transcription pipelines and music archives.
• Full metadata — title, channel, duration, view count, upload date, resolution, file size.
• Subtitles and transcripts — including auto-generated captions, converted to .srt.
• Batch input — pass many URLs in a single run.
• A direct download link for every file, plus the file in Apify storage.

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Quality and file size

Measured on a 10-minute 4K-source video, so you can predict cost before you run:

Quality	Typical size (10 min)	Approx. per minute
Audio (MP3)	10 MB	~1 MB
360p	46 MB	~4.6 MB
720p	102 MB	~10 MB
1080p (Full HD)	155 MB	~15 MB
1440p (2K)	344 MB	~34 MB
2160p (4K)	743 MB	~74 MB
4320p (8K)	344 MB	~34 MB

All figures are measured from real downloads, not estimated. Verified with ffprobe on the delivered files: a 4320p request returns a true 7680x4320 file, 1080p returns 1920x1080.

Sizes vary with the source video's bitrate — a static talking-head clip is far smaller than fast motion at the same resolution.

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Pricing

Two charges: a small fee when a run starts, plus a per-megabyte fee for what you download. Nothing is charged for a failed or blocked download.

Apify plan tier	Per MB downloaded
Free	$0.0050
Bronze	$0.0042
Silver	$0.0033
Gold	$0.0021
Platinum	$0.0012
Diamond	$0.00068

Actor start: $0.0005 per run.

What that costs in practice (Free tier)

Job	Size	You pay
Short clip / Shorts	2.5 MB	$0.013
3 min at 360p	13 MB	$0.066
10 min at 360p	46 MB	$0.231
3.5 min at 720p	21 MB	$0.106
10 min at 1080p	155 MB	$0.776

Why per megabyte

Flat "per video" pricing forces one of two bad outcomes: short clips subsidise long ones, or long downloads get refused. Charging per megabyte means you pay for exactly what you receive — a 30-second Short costs about a cent, and a long 1080p download is priced honestly rather than blocked. It also means no artificial duration caps.

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How to use

1. Open the Actor and paste one or more YouTube URLs.
2. Choose a quality (or audio for MP3).
3. Click Start. Download links appear in the dataset when the run finishes.

Input

{
  "urls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqz-KE-bpKQ"],
  "quality": "1080",
  "audioOnly": false,
  "subtitles": false,
  "subLangs": "en",
  "includeMetadata": true,
  "maxMegabytes": 1000
}

Field	Type	Description
urls	array	YouTube watch or Shorts links. Batch as many as you like.
videoUrl	string	A single URL, as an alternative to urls.
quality	string	audio, 360, 480, 720, 1080, 1440, 2160, 4320.
audioOnly	boolean	Extract MP3 audio instead of video.
subtitles	boolean	Also download subtitles as .srt.
subLangs	string	Subtitle languages, e.g. en or en,es.
includeMetadata	boolean	Include title, channel, views, upload date.
maxMegabytes	integer	Safety limit (default 1000). Videos estimated above this are skipped uncharged, so you never get a surprise bill. Raise it for 4K/8K.

Output

One dataset row per successful download:

{
  "ok": true,
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqz-KE-bpKQ",
  "title": "Big Buck Bunny 60fps 4K - Official Blender Foundation Short Film",
  "channel": "Blender Foundation",
  "durationSeconds": 635,
  "requestedQuality": "1080",
  "resolution": "3840x2160",
  "format": "mp4",
  "fileSizeBytes": 155340000,
  "billedMegabytes": 156,
  "mediaKey": "aqz-KE-bpKQ.mp4",
  "mediaUrl": "https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/.../records/aqz-KE-bpKQ.mp4"
}

Failed URLs are written to the ERRORS record in the key-value store, so you can inspect them without being charged.

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Frequently asked questions

Can it really download 8K? Yes. Request 4320p and you get a true 7680x4320 file — verified with ffprobe on the output, not just a label. On the same clip we measured 25 MB at 1080p, 166 MB at 4K and 344 MB at 8K.

Do I need a YouTube account, cookies, or an API key? No. Supply a URL and nothing else.

Am I charged if a download fails? No. Charges apply only to successfully delivered files. Blocked, unavailable and private videos cost you nothing.

How much does a typical download cost? About $0.013 for a short clip, $0.78 for a 10-minute 1080p video, and $1.72 for that same clip in 8K, on the Free tier - lower on higher Apify subscription tiers. You pay only for megabytes actually delivered.

Can I download audio only? Yes. Set quality to audio (or audioOnly: true) for an MP3 — roughly 1 MB per minute, so a one-hour podcast is about 60 MB.

Is there a length limit? No fixed duration limit. Use maxMegabytes to cap spend per run; anything above it is skipped without charge.

Can I download several videos at once? Yes — pass an array of URLs in urls.

Does it support subtitles? Yes, including auto-generated captions, saved as .srt alongside the media.

Where do the files go? Each file is stored in the run's key-value store with a direct mediaUrl link, and each dataset row records the size actually billed.

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Limits and honest notes

• Public videos only. Private, members-only, purchase-required and age-restricted videos that need a signed-in account are not supported.
• 4K and 8K files are large. Raise maxMegabytes (e.g. 5000) to allow them, and expect longer runs and proportionally higher per-megabyte cost.
• Large downloads take time. Use maxMegabytes to keep runs bounded.
• Respect copyright. Download only content you own or are permitted to use. You are responsible for how you use the files and for complying with YouTube's Terms of Service.

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Related Actors

• YouTube Channel Scraper — list every video on a channel
• YouTube Comments Scraper — comments with likes and replies
• YouTube Playlist Scraper — all videos in a playlist
• Video & Audio Transcriber — turn downloaded media into text