# Video Download Link Crawler (`gentle_cloud/video-download-link-crawler`) Actor

Extract direct download links and metadata from video URLs. Supports 1000+ sites including YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, Twitter/X, Dailymotion, and more.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/gentle\_cloud/video-download-link-crawler.md
- **Developed by:** [Monkey Coder](https://apify.com/gentle_cloud) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Videos
- **Stats:** 34 total users, 6 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 1 bookmarks
- **User rating**: 5.00 out of 5 stars

## Pricing

from $0.005 / actor start

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Video Download Link Crawler

Extract direct download links and metadata from video URLs across **1000+ websites** — including YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, Twitter/X, Dailymotion, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Twitch, and many more.

### 🎬 What It Does

Provide any video URL and this Actor will:

- Extract **all available download formats** (different resolutions, codecs, audio-only, video-only)
- Return **direct download URLs** for each format
- Provide video metadata: title, description, duration, uploader, view count, likes
- Identify the **best quality** combined video+audio format automatically
- Handle **playlists** — automatically extracts all videos in a playlist

### ⚙️ How It Works

1. **Input** one or more video URLs
2. The Actor uses [yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp) to extract video metadata and available formats
3. All formats with direct download URLs are collected and returned
4. Results are exported to the Apify dataset in JSON, CSV, Excel, or XML format

### 🚀 How to Use

1. Go to the **Input** tab
2. Add one or more video URLs (YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, etc.)
3. Click **Start**
4. View results in the **Dataset** tab — each result includes direct download links

### 📊 Output Example

```json
{
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up",
    "description": "The official video for...",
    "duration": 213,
    "upload_date": "2009-10-25",
    "uploader": "Rick Astley",
    "view_count": 1753774899,
    "like_count": 18866574,
    "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/maxresdefault.jpg",
    "best_download_url": "https://...",
    "best_quality": "1080p",
    "best_audio_url": "https://...",
    "format_count": 22,
    "formats": [
        {
            "format_id": "137",
            "ext": "mp4",
            "type": "video_only",
            "width": 1920,
            "height": 1080,
            "fps": 30,
            "vcodec": "avc1.640028",
            "acodec": "none",
            "filesize": 25000000,
            "filesize_human": "23.8 MB",
            "url": "https://..."
        }
    ],
    "fetched_at": "2026-03-23T12:00:00+00:00"
}
```

### 🌐 Supported Sites

This Actor supports **1000+** websites including:

| Category | Sites |
|----------|-------|
| **Video Platforms** | YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Bilibili, Rutube |
| **Social Media** | TikTok, Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit |
| **Streaming** | Twitch clips, Crunchyroll (free), Kick |
| **News & Media** | BBC, CNN, NBC, ABC News, CBS |
| **Education** | Khan Academy, Coursera (free), TED |
| **Other** | SoundCloud (audio), Bandcamp, Mixcloud |

See the [full list of supported sites](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/supportedsites.md).

### ⚠️ Notes

- **No login required** — only publicly accessible videos are supported
- **Download URLs are temporary** — they typically expire within hours. Use them immediately after extraction
- **Rate limits** — some sites may rate-limit requests from datacenter IPs. If extraction fails, try again later
- **Playlists** — if you provide a playlist URL, all videos in the playlist will be extracted
- **Memory** — default memory (256 MB) is sufficient for most use cases

# Actor input Schema

## `start_urls` (type: `array`):

List of video URLs to extract download links from. Supports 1000+ sites: YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, Twitter/X, Dailymotion, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Twitch, and many more.

## `request_timeout` (type: `integer`):

Maximum time in seconds to wait for each video extraction. Increase for slow or large videos.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "start_urls": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
    }
  ],
  "request_timeout": 30
}
```

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "start_urls": [
        {
            "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
        }
    ],
    "request_timeout": 30
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("gentle_cloud/video-download-link-crawler").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "start_urls": [{ "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" }],
    "request_timeout": 30,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("gentle_cloud/video-download-link-crawler").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "start_urls": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
    }
  ],
  "request_timeout": 30
}' |
apify call gentle_cloud/video-download-link-crawler --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=gentle_cloud/video-download-link-crawler",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/3u1IKFlqo2YguaaZV/builds/4BN42tPztCdC8RzP9/openapi.json