YouTube to MP4 Converter

Convert YouTube to MP4: the format that plays everywhere

MP4 with H.264 video is the most compatible video format on the planet: iPhones, Androids, Windows, Mac, smart TVs, game consoles and every editing app open it without extra codecs. Paste a YouTube link above, pick a resolution from 144p to 1080p Full HD, and get a clean MP4 with the audio already merged in, no separate soundtrack problems, no watermark.

Which resolution should you pick?

• 1080p, full quality for TVs, monitors and editing. Largest file.
• 720p, the sweet spot for phones and tablets; sharp picture at half the size.
• 480p, small files for messaging apps and limited storage.
• 144p-360p, minimal size when only the content matters, not the picture.

Real file sizes are shown for each option before you download, so there are no surprises.

Common uses

• Watching offline, flights, commutes and places with bad or expensive internet.
• Editing projects, pull your own footage back from your channel in an edit-friendly format.
• Presentations and classrooms, play clips reliably without depending on the venue's Wi-Fi.
• Archiving your own content, keep local backups of videos you created.

Only need the audio?

If you just want the soundtrack, an MP3 is around a tenth of the size, use the YouTube to MP3 converter instead. For Shorts use the Shorts downloader, and for several videos at once try the playlist downloader. New to this? Our blog covers how to download YouTube videos step by step, plus a fix for videos that download without sound.

Why a resolution you expected is sometimes missing

YouTube does not store one file per video, it stores a ladder of encodes, and not every rung exists in every codec. We deliberately prefer H.264 (the "avc1" encode) because that is what guarantees the file opens in Premiere, Resolve, iMovie, PowerPoint, older smart TVs and consoles without transcoding. YouTube increasingly serves its highest tiers in VP9 and AV1 instead, which are more efficient but far less compatible, so on some videos the H.264 ladder tops out below the resolution the YouTube player itself can show. When that happens we fall back to the best available encode rather than failing. Very short clips, older uploads and some Shorts were never encoded above 720p at all.

Editing versus watching

For simple playback any of these files is fine. If you are cutting the footage into a project, take the highest H. 264 option offered: editors re-encode on export anyway, and starting from the cleanest source avoids stacking compression twice. If you only need the sound, a lecture, an interview, a backing track, skip the video entirely and use the MP3 converter or the lossless WAV export, which produce far smaller files for audio-only work.

Please download only videos you own, have permission to use, or that are public domain / Creative Commons licensed. This educational tool is not affiliated with YouTube.