Download YouTube Videos for Research
Save lectures, conference talks, recorded interviews and primary-source footage as MP4 or MP3 so you can analyze, transcribe and cite them offline. Free, server-side, no install.
Why Researchers use it
How it works
Paste the link
Copy any YouTube video URL and paste it above.
Pick a format
Choose MP4 video or MP3 audio, then hit Download.
Save your file
We process it on our servers and give you a clean download.
Fast & server-side
No browser extensions, no shady redirects — it runs on our infrastructure.
MP4 or MP3
Grab the full video or just the audio, in clean, standard formats.
No watermark
Your file, the way it should be — no overlays or branding added.
Free to start
5 downloads a day, no account needed. Sign up free for unlimited.
Do more than download
AudioPod turns any video into a transcript, a podcast, an instrumental, a dub and more — all in one workspace.
Explore all toolsFrequently asked questions
Is it legal to download YouTube videos for research?+
Only download videos you own or have permission to use, and always respect copyright and YouTube's Terms of Service. Many institutions treat saving a copy of a publicly available source for personal study, quotation or fair-dealing/fair-use analysis differently from redistributing it — but that's a judgment call for you and your institution, not us. We don't host or share anyone's content; the tool just gives you a clean file. When in doubt, cite the original URL, keep your use private and academic, and check your university's research and copyright policies.
How do I get a transcript of a downloaded lecture or interview?+
Download the MP3 audio here, then sign in to your free AudioPod account and run it through our transcription tool. You'll get a timestamped, speaker-aware transcript you can search, quote and import into qualitative coding software — far faster than transcribing a one-hour talk by hand.
Can I download just the audio from a long conference talk?+
Yes. Switch the format toggle to Audio (MP3) and you'll get only the audio track — ideal for interviews, panels, oral histories and seminars where the visuals don't matter. Choose Video (MP4) when you need to capture slides, demonstrations, charts or body language for analysis.
Will the downloaded file work in my analysis and reference tools?+
We give you standard MP4 video and MP3 audio with no watermark or overlay, so the files open directly in common media players, transcription and qualitative-analysis software, and slot into your reference manager as a stored source. For reproducibility, record the original video URL and the date you accessed it alongside your saved copy.
Is there a limit on how much I can download?+
You get up to 5 downloads a day with no account, for videos up to 10 minutes — handy for a quick clip. A free AudioPod account unlocks unlimited downloads, longer videos (full lectures and multi-hour talks) and priority processing, which matters when you're building a whole corpus for a thesis or review.
What else can I do with a video once I've downloaded it?+
Plenty, all in your free AudioPod account: transcribe it for coding and verbatim quotes, turn a set of talks or interviews into a podcast-style audio digest of the literature, or split the audio into separate stems to make muffled speech clearer before transcription.