YouTube API Video/Short Downloader

YouTube API Video/Short Downloader

by codsec

Directly download YouTube videos and Shorts in HD, Full HD, or 4K quality. A reliable tool for archiving content, local playback, or extracting audio.

74 runs
6 users
Try This Actor

Opens on Apify.com

About YouTube API Video/Short Downloader

Need a reliable way to get YouTube videos or audio onto your own machine? This actor is my go-to for that. It taps directly into YouTube's data, letting you download videos and Shorts in the quality you need—whether that's clear 720p HD, sharp 1080p, or even 4K for the highest fidelity. I use it for a bunch of things: backing up my own content, grabbing reference clips for a project where I need stable local files, or pulling just the audio track from a lecture or podcast to listen offline. It handles both regular videos and the vertical Shorts format, which is super handy. You just feed it the video URLs and it takes care of the rest, delivering the files ready to use. It's straightforward, does exactly what it says, and saves me the hassle of dealing with sketchy websites or complicated software. If you need clean, high-quality downloads from YouTube for work or personal use, this is the tool I'd point you to first.

What does this actor do?

YouTube API Video/Short Downloader is a web scraping and automation tool available on the Apify platform. It's designed to help you extract data and automate tasks efficiently in the cloud.

Key Features

  • Cloud-based execution - no local setup required
  • Scalable infrastructure for large-scale operations
  • API access for integration with your applications
  • Built-in proxy rotation and anti-blocking measures
  • Scheduled runs and webhooks for automation

How to Use

  1. Click "Try This Actor" to open it on Apify
  2. Create a free Apify account if you don't have one
  3. Configure the input parameters as needed
  4. Run the actor and download your results

Documentation

YouTube API Video/Short Downloader

An Apify actor that downloads YouTube videos or Shorts as video files or audio-only formats. It works as a two-step API: you start a download job and then poll for the result.

Key Features

  • Downloads standard videos, YouTube Shorts, and live stream replays.
  • Supports multiple output formats: video resolutions (144p to 4K) and audio codecs (MP3, WAV, OGG, WEBM).
  • Simple two-step process: initiate a download and check its status.
  • Uses your standard Apify API token for authentication; no separate YouTube credentials needed.

How to Use

The actor operates via two actions, called through the Apify API.

  1. Start a Download (action: "download")
    Send a YouTube URL or ID along with your desired format. The actor returns a processingId.

  2. Check Status (action: "getVideo")
    Use the returned processingId to poll for the download status. When status is "completed", the download links will be available.

Input

Configure your actor run with the following input fields.

Field Type Required Description
action string Yes Set to "download" or "getVideo".
videoId string If action is "download" A YouTube ID or full URL. Accepts watch?v=..., youtu.be/..., or shorts/... formats.
format string If action is "download" The output format. Choose from: 144, 240, 360, 480, 720, 1080, 1440, 4k, mp3, wav, ogg, webm.
processingId string If action is "getVideo" The ID returned by the initial download action.

Example videoId values:
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZK9aQiAN1Y
* https://youtu.be/XZK9aQiAN1Y
* https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XZK9aQiAN1Y
* XZK9aQiAN1Y

Output

Success Response for download

{
  "success": true,
  "id": "cxbmlzn0zzU5s6pkBnK2asR",
  "title": "Video Title Here",
  "thumbnail": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/VIDEO_ID/hqdefault.jpg"
}

Success Response for getVideo (when processing is complete)

{
  "success": true,
  "status": "completed",
  "downloads": [
    {
      "url": "https://apify.com/download/...?fpr=python_automation",
      "format": "720"
    }
  ]
}

Status Response for getVideo (when still processing)

{
  "success": true,
  "status": "processing"
}

Error Response

{
  "success": false,
  "error": "Description of what went wrong."
}

Categories

SOCIAL_MEDIA VIDEOS INTEGRATIONS

Common Use Cases

Market Research

Gather competitive intelligence and market data

Lead Generation

Extract contact information for sales outreach

Price Monitoring

Track competitor pricing and product changes

Content Aggregation

Collect and organize content from multiple sources

Ready to Get Started?

Try YouTube API Video/Short Downloader now on Apify. Free tier available with no credit card required.

Start Free Trial

Actor Information

Developer
codsec
Pricing
Paid
Total Runs
74
Active Users
6

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