YouTube Short Video Download
How to download video from YouTube Shorts on any device
A YouTube short video download takes about ten seconds: copy the link from the Share sheet, paste it in the box above, pick MP4 or MP3. The file lands in your Downloads folder at the original 9:16 shape, with nothing cropped and no watermark stamped over it. Shorts are cheap on data as well: a 30-second clip at 720p is usually 6 to 9 MB, and the audio-only version of the same clip is under 1 MB.
The process is the same as it is for any other YouTube video. Two things make Shorts slightly different: the link has a shape of its own, and the file is tiny because the clip runs under a minute.
Nothing installs, and there is no account to make. The page runs in whichever browser is already open on the device.
- The Short has a link of its own: tap Share, then Copy link, and you get
youtube.com/shorts/followed by an eleven-character video ID. - The box at the top of this page takes it as it is, tracking tail and all. Press the download button and the clip is read from the video ID in that link.
- MP4 and MP3 options are listed with the file size next to each one. Tap the one you want and it saves to your Downloads folder at the original vertical size.
A yt shorts downloader with nothing to install
A yt shorts downloader only has to do one thing: turn a link into a file. This one hands your link to an extraction service and lists back the renditions that come with that clip, each with its size.
- Keeps the original 9:16 vertical frame
- MP4 and MP3 options from one Shorts link
- File size shown next to every option
- Runs in the phone browser, with no app and no account
- No watermark added to the video
No app, no account, no watermark
No app, no browser extension, no account, and no watermark burned into the frame. You get the file the way YouTube serves it. That is also why we will not promise a particular MP3 bitrate: the audio renditions that come back for a clip are the ones you can pick from, and nothing is re-encoded to a number you chose.
File sizes before you tap
Every option shows its size next to it, so you can see that a fifteen-second clip is 8 MB at 1080p and 4 MB at 720p before you spend either.
Where the editing has to happen
It does not trim, crop, merge or edit. If you want a five-second piece of a 40-second Short, download the whole thing and cut it in your phone’s video editor. Same answer for a clip out of a long video: take the full MP4, trim afterwards.
YouTube video shorts download keeps the 9:16 frame
A YouTube video shorts download should come back looking exactly like it did in the app. Shorts are shot 9:16, tall rather than wide, and the file is passed through as it is, so nothing gets letterboxed, squashed or cropped square.
Why a short download is only a few megabytes
A short download is small because duration drives file size far more than resolution does. A full-length video runs at roughly 18 MB per minute at 720p and 33 MB at 1080p, so thirty seconds of 720p comes to about 9 MB, and the same clip as audio alone is under 1 MB.
What resolution means for a YouTube Shorts video download
On a vertical clip the resolution number describes the short side, so a YouTube Shorts video download listed at 1080p is 1080 pixels wide and 1920 tall. To watch it later, 720p is plenty. To re-post it or cut it into your own edit, take the highest resolution offered: vertical video re-uploaded from a small file looks soft at full screen.
Which links this short video downloader accepts
Open a Short in the YouTube app, tap Share, then Copy link, and you get youtube.com/shorts/ followed by an eleven-character video ID, usually with a ?si= tag on the end. Opening the same Short in a desktop browser leaves that same /shorts/ address in the address bar. Both work here.
The watch?v= form and the shortened youtu.be/ form are alternate addresses for the same clip, and both are accepted too. Links from m.youtube.com and music.youtube.com parse as well, and tracking tails such as ?si=, ?feature=share and &t=15 are ignored, since only the video ID is read.
What does not work is anything that is not a single video: a channel page, a /playlist?list= address, or a search results page. Paste one of those and the box says which it was.
YouTube reels download: the same clip under another name
Reels is Instagram’s name for the format; YouTube calls its own version Shorts. In India and Indonesia the words get used interchangeably, so a search for a YouTube reels download and a search for a Shorts download land in the same place, which is this box.
The wording shifts with habit rather than meaning. Some people type yt shorts download. Others write youtube reel download. Each describes one vertical clip of under a minute. An Instagram Reel is a different platform, though, so that link will be turned away: this page reads YouTube addresses only.
Saving Shorts to the gallery on Android, iPhone and PC
Getting the file into the gallery takes one more step on a phone.
Android
Open your file manager and look for the .mp4 in the Downloads folder, which is where the browser puts it and is not a folder the gallery scans. Move it to Movies or DCIM and it turns up with your other videos.
iPhone
Downloads on iOS live inside the Files app rather than in Photos. Open Files, go to Downloads, tap the clip, then use the share icon and choose Save Video.
Windows, Mac and Linux
On a computer there is nothing to move: the file goes straight to your Downloads folder and opens in any player. Desktop is also the quickest way to save several Shorts in a row.
When you cannot download short YouTube clips
The usual cause is the link. If you copied from the search bar or from a channel page, what you are holding is not a video address. Go back into the Short, tap Share, then Copy link, and paste that instead.
Some clips cannot be fetched by anyone. Deleted, private and age-restricted Shorts are closed to us exactly as they are closed to your own browser, because the video is fetched the same way your browser would fetch it. Music rights block some Shorts in some countries too, so if the clip will not play in the YouTube app in your region, it will not come through here either.
Twenty links a minute, then a pause
The limit is twenty requests a minute from one connection, so a fast run of pastes can stop you for a moment. Wait a minute and carry on. The extraction service upstream has quotas of its own and gets busy at peak times.
A YouTube short video download, your privacy, and the copyright line
Safe in the practical sense: a YouTube short video download here runs inside the browser tab, there is nothing to install, and nothing asks for permissions on your device.
What happens to the link you paste
There is no account, so there is no email to hand over and nothing on our side tied to you. The link is passed to the extraction service that resolves the video, and the file is streamed to you rather than stored here. Your browser keeps the last few links you pasted so you can reuse them; that list lives on your device only and you can clear it.
Whose Short it is after you save it
Downloading is for personal, offline use: watching without a connection, keeping a clip someone sent you, saving something you made yourself. Whoever uploaded the Short still owns it. Re-posting another person’s clip as your own, or using it commercially, needs their permission, and YouTube’s Terms of Service still apply to you as a viewer. Creators who find their work misused can send us a takedown notice.
Questions about Shorts
How to download YouTube Shorts?
Copy the link from the Short’s Share button, paste it into the box at the top of this page, then pick MP4 or MP3 from the list that appears. The file downloads at its original 9:16 size and goes to your Downloads folder. Nothing is installed and no account is needed. A 30-second clip is usually 6 to 9 MB.
How to download shorts from YouTube?
The same three steps work from any device: Share, Copy link, paste, choose a format. What changes is only where the file ends up. A phone browser saves it to a downloads folder rather than to the gallery, so there is one short move afterwards, set out per device in the gallery section above. On a computer there is nothing to move.
How to download YouTube Shorts in gallery?
Download the file first, then move it. No downloader can write straight into the gallery: the gallery indexes a fixed set of folders and a browser download does not land in any of them. The Android and iPhone moves are spelled out in the gallery section above and take about ten seconds each. After that the clip sits alongside your camera roll.
How to download a short video from YouTube?
Paste the Short’s URL into the box above. youtube.com/shorts/ links from the Share sheet or the desktop address bar work, and so do watch?v= and youtu.be links pointing at the same clip. Extra tails such as ?si= or ?feature=share are ignored. Channel pages, playlist links and search result URLs will not work, because none of them is a single video.
How to download short clips from a YouTube video?
If the clip is already published as a Short, paste its link and you are finished. If you want a section out of a longer video, download the full MP4 here first and trim it in your phone’s video editor or any desktop editor. This tool does not cut, crop or edit video; it saves what YouTube serves.
Where to download short video clips?
Here, as long as the clip is on YouTube. Paste the link and you get the MP4 and MP3 options that exist for it, with the file size next to each one. Clips from other platforms are rejected, since only YouTube addresses are read. A Short comes back in a second or two, because there is so little of it to fetch.
Related tools
Have the Shorts link ready?
Paste it in the box at the top of the page to start a YouTube short video download. MP4 or MP3, the file size shown next to each option, no sign-up and no app.
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