How to download YouTube videos for offline playback

Learn how to save videos from the YouTube app and website to watch offline for times when you have no Wi-Fi or cellular data connection on your phone or computer.

Download video quality prompt in the YouTube app

YouTube offers two main ways to download videos:

  • Download in up to full HD (1080p) quality if you have a YouTube Premium subscription.
  • Download in up to 480p (360p for mobile) if you do not have YouTube Premium and live in one of the several supported countries and regions.

The steps for both are similar, but we will walk you through each of them, explaining important details.

Download YouTube videos if you have a Premium subscription

Regardless of the country you live in, if you have a YouTube Premium subscription, you can save most videos for offline playback.

These videos will stay saved for 29 days even if you never connect that device to the Internet. However, if it connects regularly to the Internet, these videos seem to stay saved offline until manually deleted or removed by the uploader. Note that this 29-day condition may just be 48 hours in some places or for some videos.

YouTube app

  1. Open the YouTube app on your iPhone, iPad, or Android phone and find the video you want to save offline.
  2. Tap the three dots icon for a video and choose Download video. Or, play the video and tap the Download button.
  3. Choose a download quality and hit the Download button.
Downloading a YouTube video with Premium subscription

YouTube website

  1. Visit youtube.com in Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, or Opera browser. Safari is not supported yet.
  2. Click the three dots icon for a video and hit Download. Or, play a video and use the Download button.
  3. Select a video quality and confirm.
Download YouTube video in computer browser

Note: Hit Allow if you see an alert saying, “Allow www.youtube.com to store data in persistent storage?” Secondly, keep the browser tab open for the download to happen without interruptions.

Download YouTube videos if you do not have a Premium subscription

If you do not pay Google a monthly subscription fee, it won’t let you save videos for offline playback unless you are in one of the countries listed here. Unfortunately, places like the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Germany, and more are not supported.

Secondly, your download quality is limited to 144p or 360p on mobile and 144p or 480p on desktop. No HD downloads.

The process is similar to what we have explained in the previous section. But to recap:

  1. Find the video you want to download in the YouTube app or website.
  2. Tap the Download option, choose a quality, and hit Download.
Downloading a YouTube video without Premium subscription

Note: Some videos can only be downloaded using YouTube Premium. For instance, Indian users can download music produced by T-Series only if they have a premium subscription, even though they can download other videos without a paid subscription.

Locate and watch downloaded videos

YouTube app

  1. Open the app and tap You from the bottom right.
  2. Tap Downloads.
  3. Select a video to watch offline.
Access downloaded videos in YouTube app

YouTube website

  1. Visit youtube.com in the browser where you saved the video.
  2. Click Downloads from the left side to access all your downloads. Now, click a video to watch it. If Downloads is not visible, click the hamburger menu icon from the top left.
Downloads option on YouTube website on computer

Remove offline videos

You can free up space on your phone or computer by deleting offline videos.

When watching an offline video, tap the Downloaded button under the video player and hit Delete/Remove. If you’re on a computer, hit the three dots icon and choose Remove from downloads.

Alternatively, you can go to the Downloads section to manage these videos, as explained in the steps below.

YouTube app

  1. Open the app on your phone and tap You.
  2. Tap Downloads.
  3. To remove a saved video, tap the three dots icon for it and choose Delete from downloads.
  4. To remove all your offline videos, tap the three dots icon from the top and choose Settings. Now, tap Delete downloads and confirm.
Delete all downloads from YouTube app

YouTube website

  1. Click the menu icon from the top left and choose Downloads.
  2. Hit the three dots icon for a video and choose Remove from downloads.
  3. Or, hit Download settings and follow it up by clicking Delete all downloads to remove all of them.
Remove from downloads on YouTube website on computer

Fix YouTube videos not downloading over cellular data

If you’re on a large or unlimited data plan, you can choose to save videos for offline playback even when your device is not on Wi-Fi.

  1. Open the YouTube app on your iPhone, iPad, or Android phone and tap You > Downloads.
  2. Tap the three dots icon from the top and choose Settings.
  3. Turn off the switch for Download over Wi-Fi only.
Turn off Download over Wi-Fi only in YouTube app

On a related note: