Download YouTube videos in 1440p, 4K and 8K, at up to 60 fps, exactly as YouTube stores them. No re-encoding, no account.
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On YouTube, open the player's gear icon → Quality. If the menu offers 2160p (or 4320p), the uploader provided 4K (or 8K) and Y-Download can save it. If the highest option is 1080p, no downloader can produce genuine 4K from that video.
Copy the video URL and paste it into the box above. After about two seconds you will see every resolution with its codec – VP9 or AV1 for anything above 1080p – along with the frame rate and an estimated file size.
Click Download next to the resolution you want. A 4K file is large, so the estimate matters: a 10-minute 4K AV1 video can exceed 700 MB. Progress, speed and time remaining are shown while the video and audio streams are merged.
Open the MP4 in VLC, Chrome or your TV's media player. On a Mac, use VLC or IINA rather than QuickTime; on older Windows, install the free AV1 Video Extension from the Microsoft Store if the file does not play.
The resolution list is read from YouTube itself, so if a video has a 4K or 8K stream, it appears here – not an upscaled 1080p file with a bigger number on the label.
Gaming footage, sports and drone videos uploaded at 60 frames per second keep every frame. Look for the 60 suffix, such as 1440p60 or 2160p60, in the quality list.
Each row tells you whether the stream is VP9 or AV1 and roughly how large the file will be, so you know what your player needs and whether the download is worth the storage before you start.
Y-Download merges the video and audio streams with ffmpeg without a second compression pass. No quality loss, no watermark – just YouTube's own stream in a standard MP4 container.
Outputs up to 4 GB and videos up to 4 hours long are supported. Live progress shows percentage, speed and time remaining, so a large file never feels stuck.
There is no premium tier hiding the 4K option. Everything is free and unlimited, the site works in any modern browser on any device, and finished files are deleted from our servers after 30 minutes.
Plenty of tools call themselves a 4K YouTube downloader and then quietly cap you at 1080p or re-compress the picture. Y-Download does neither. Paste a link and you will see every resolution the uploader provided – 1440p, 2160p (4K) and, on the few videos that have it, 4320p (8K) – each with its codec, frame rate and an estimated file size. The stream you pick is downloaded as YouTube encoded it and placed into an MP4 with the best available audio track. No re-encoding happens at any point, so the file is pixel for pixel what YouTube's player shows at that setting.
There is one thing to understand before you download: YouTube only encodes resolutions above 1080p in the VP9 and AV1 codecs, never in the older H.264. That is why a 4K download from any honest service comes as VP9 or AV1 inside the MP4 container. These files play in Chrome, Edge and Firefox, in VLC and IINA, on modern Android and iOS devices, on Windows 11 and on most smart TVs sold since 2020. The notable exception is QuickTime on macOS, which does not decode VP9 or AV1 – use VLC or IINA instead. Older Windows machines may need Microsoft's free AV1 Video Extension.
Frame rate is preserved as well. If the upload is 60 fps, the 4K stream you download is 4K60, labeled 2160p60 in the list. What Y-Download deliberately skips is HDR. YouTube's HDR streams use a wider color range that only HDR displays reproduce; on an ordinary screen, or in a player without tone mapping, they look gray and washed out, so we pick the standard-range (SDR) version of each resolution for consistent playback everywhere. Be honest about your display, too. On a phone or a 15-inch laptop, 1080p H.264 is indistinguishable from 4K and a fraction of the size; the 4K file earns its place on a 4K TV or monitor, in an editing timeline, or when you plan to crop and zoom.
YouTube's 4K streams are 3840 pixels wide, or 2160 pixels on the short side for vertical videos. Plan for several hundred megabytes per 10 minutes – a 4K AV1 file can exceed 700 MB, and VP9 versions of the same video are usually larger. The estimate next to each row tells you before you commit.
A small number of uploads include an 8K stream at 7680×4320. When one exists, Y-Download lists it and you can download YouTube 8K like any other resolution. Expect multi-gigabyte files for longer videos; our output limit is 4 GB, so a long 8K video may need to be taken at 4K instead.
Videos uploaded at 60 fps are offered at 60 fps in every resolution from 720p up, and the label says so: 1080p60, 1440p60, 2160p60. Expect a larger file than the same video at 30 fps. Y-Download never drops or interpolates frames.
YouTube publishes HDR versions of some videos alongside the standard ones. Because HDR files look gray and flat on non-HDR screens and in most playback and editing software, Y-Download always selects the SDR stream. You get the same resolution and frame rate with colors that look right on every display.
Yes, whenever the video was uploaded in 4K. YouTube stores each resolution as a separate stream, and a YouTube 4K video download here is simply the 2160p stream fetched unchanged and merged with the audio. What no service can do is create 4K from a 1080p upload – if YouTube's own quality menu stops at 1080p, that is the most anyone can offer. Check the gear icon on the video before you download.
Because YouTube does not encode anything above 1080p in H.264. VP9 and AV1 compress far more efficiently, which is how YouTube can stream 4K at all. The MP4 you receive contains the original VP9 or AV1 video plus the best available audio track. It is a normal MP4 file; it just needs a player from the last few years. If you need H.264 specifically – for an old TV or an editing program that refuses the file – download the 1080p version instead.
Chrome, Edge and Firefox play them directly, as do VLC, IINA and MPV. Modern Android and iOS devices handle them, Windows 11 plays them, and older Windows machines can install Microsoft's free AV1 Video Extension. Most smart TVs from 2020 onward play them from a USB drive or a media server. The main holdout is QuickTime Player on macOS, which supports neither VP9 nor AV1 – Mac users should open the file in VLC or IINA.
Considerably bigger than 1080p. A 10-minute 1080p60 H.264 video is roughly 250–300 MB; the same video in 4K AV1 can pass 700 MB, and VP9 or 60 fps versions are larger still. The exact estimate appears next to each resolution before you click. Y-Download produces files up to 4 GB and handles videos up to 4 hours long, though a multi-hour 4K video may exceed 4 GB and need to be downloaded at 1440p or 1080p.
Yes. If the uploader provided 60 frames per second, every resolution from 720p up is offered at 60 fps and labeled accordingly – 1080p60, 1440p60, 2160p60. We never drop frames to make files smaller. For a YouTube 60fps download that is easy on storage, 1080p60 in H.264 is a good middle ground.
When the video has a 4320p stream, yes – it appears in the list like any other resolution and downloads as VP9 or AV1 in an MP4. Very few videos are uploaded in 8K, the files are enormous, and almost no consumer display can show the difference from 4K, so check the estimated size before you commit. Long 8K videos can exceed our 4 GB output limit.
On a 4K TV or monitor, in a video editor, or when you plan to crop, zoom or stabilize footage, 4K is worth the space. On a phone, tablet or ordinary laptop screen you will not see a difference, and the 1080p H.264 file is a fraction of the size and plays on everything. Y-Download works just as well as a YouTube 1080p downloader – choose the 1080p row and you get H.264 with AAC audio, the most compatible file there is.
The resolution does not change the rules. You may download videos you created, videos published under a permissive license such as Creative Commons, and videos whose owner has given you permission – for example, your own channel's uploads in full 4K for archiving. Downloading other people's copyrighted work without permission may violate YouTube's terms and copyright law. Use Y-Download responsibly.