How to download YouTube videos on a laptop, phone or tablet
We explain how to download YouTube videos, including music and playlists on your laptop, PC, phone or tablet using free and paid apps.
CONTENTS
- > Download videos using YouTube Premium
- > How to download YouTube playlists
- > Download YouTube videos in Windows
- > How do I download music from YouTube?
- > Download YouTube videos in a web browser
- > Download YouTube videos to a phone or tablet
As the second-most visited site on the internet - after Google itself - YouTube has around 23 billion visitors per month. Most of them watch videos on the website or via one of the many YouTube apps.
Sometimes, though, you'll want to download a video. Maybe that's to watch it offline, or perhaps you want to save a useful video just in case it's ever taken down. Whatever your reason, we'll explain a few different ways that you can do this. It's possible - and easy - to download videos on a Windows laptop or PC, and on Android phones. It's not as easy on an iPhone, unless you pay for YouTube Premium, but it's possible if you're determined.
Download videos using YouTube Premium
If you're a YouTube Premium subscriber then downloading videos is easy. There is one big caveat though: you can only do it using the official YouTube or YouTube Gaming apps, which means you can't use Premium to download videos to your computer - only to a phone or tablet.
Download YouTube videos in Windows
As with websites, there are lots of options for downloading with a desktop app. Not all are free, but some are. A paid-for one we can recommend is ByClick Downloader.
Download YouTube videos in a web browser
If you want to save videos without installing an app, there are many websites where you can paste the URL of the YouTube video and then click on the resolution you want to download.
How to download YouTube playlists
Sometimes you have to pay for software if you want an easy life. Again, ByClick Downloader is what we'd recommend.
How do I download music from YouTube?
Sometimes you might want to download only the audio from a video on YouTube. The easiest way to do this is to use one of the methods above and choose MP3 (or whichever audio format is offered). This way you'll only download the audio track, with none of the video footage.
Download YouTube videos to a phone or tablet
There's the official YouTube Premium service which we've mentioned already but there are other apps which allow you to download videos directly on your Android phone (including for free), but it's trickier on the iPhone. We've written separate guides for both types of device:
- How to download YouTube videos on Android
- How to download YouTube videos on iPhone & iPad
