Downloader

Download YouTube audio and video content by video ID, with video quality configurable up to 8K, delivered directly to your cloud storage.

The youtube_download source delivers the audio/video content of a YouTube video of your choice. Please note that due to the potentially large data volume this source is only available via the asynchronous Push-Pull integration and the Cloud Storage feature.

How YouTube Downloader works

1. Submit via API:

   • One or more YouTube video IDs;
   • Cloud storage details.
2. Get the API response with the confirmation that your request to download a video has been successfully accepted.
3. Get the videos in the specified cloud storage location as soon as they're processed by our system.

Note:

• The downloader defaults to 720p video resolution. If 720p is not available, the downloader will pick the best available quality below 720p. You can override this behaviour by using the context: video_qualityparameter.
• You can download videos of up to 12 hours in length.
• The download time is limited to 1 hour.

Input parameter values

Parameter	Description	Default value
source	Sets the scraper. Use youtube_download.	–
query	YouTube video ID.	–
storage_type	Storage type of the cloud service (gcs, s3 or s3_compatible)	–
storage_url	The bucket name (for AWS S3) or the URL (for other S3-compatible storage) of the cloud storage location you would like the result uploaded to.	–
callback_url	Your callback endpoint URL. More info	–
context: download_type	Specifies whether to download audio, video, or both - audio_video.	audio_video
context: video_quality	Sets video quality: best, worst, or a resolution: 144, 360, 480, 720, 1080, 1440, 2160(4K), 4320(8K).	720
context: audio_language	Specifies which audio track to download. Accepts default or original (the video's original audio track).	default
context: start_at	Timestamp for partial video download (clip) to start in hh:mm:ss format. Learn more.	–
context: end_at	Timestamp for partial video download (clip) to end in hh:mm:ss format. Must be later than start_at. Learn more.	–

– mandatory parameter

Submitting a single job

Endpoint

POST https://data.oxylabs.io/v1/queries

Input

Provide the job parameters in a JSON payload as shown in the example below:

cURL

curl --user "user:pass1" \
'https://data.oxylabs.io/v1/queries' \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
    "source": "youtube_download",
    "query": "9cQBNYsCqQs",
    "storage_type": "s3",
    "storage_url": "s3://your-s3-bucket/your-folder/"
}'

Python

import requests
from pprint import pprint

payload = {
    "source": "youtube_download",
    "query": "9cQBNYsCqQs",
    "context": [
        {
            "key": "download_type",
            "value": "video"
        },
        {
            "key": "video_quality",
            "value": "1080"
        }
    ],
    "storage_type": "s3",
    "storage_url": "s3://your-s3-bucket/your-folder/"
}

response = requests.request(
    'POST',
    'https://data.oxylabs.io/v1/queries',
    auth=('user', 'pass1'),
    json=payload,
)

pprint(response.json())

PHP

<?php

$params = array(
    'source' => 'youtube_download',
    'query' => '9cQBNYsCqQs',
    "context" => [
        [
            "key" => "download_type",
            "value" => "video",
        ],
        [
            "key" => "video_quality",
            "value" => "1080",
        ]
    ],
    'storage_type' => 's3',
    'storage_url' => 's3://your-s3-bucket/your-folder/'
);

$ch = curl_init();

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "https://data.oxylabs.io/v1/queries");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, json_encode($params));
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERPWD, "YOUR_USERNAME" . ":" . "YOUR_PASSWORD");

$headers = array();
$headers[] = "Content-Type: application/json";
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);

$result = curl_exec($ch);
echo $result;

if (curl_errno($ch)) {
    echo 'Error:' . curl_error($ch);
}
curl_close ($ch);
?>

C#

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Net.Http.Json;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace OxyApi
{
    class Program
    {
        static async Task Main()
        {
            const string Username = "YOUR_USERNAME";
            const string Password = "YOUR_PASSWORD";
            var payload = new Dictionary<string, object>()
            {
                { "source", "youtube_download" },
                { "query", "9cQBNYsCqQs" },
                { "context", new[] {
                    new { key = "download_type", value = "video" },
                    new { key = "video_quality", value = "1080" }
                }},
                { "storage_type", "s3" },
                { "storage_url", "your-s3-bucket/your-folder/" }
            };
            
            var client = new HttpClient();
            var requestMessage = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Post, "https://data.oxylabs.io/v1/queries/batch");
            requestMessage.Content = JsonContent.Create(payload);
            
            var authenticationString = $"{Username}:{Password}";
            var base64EncodedAuthenticationString = Convert.ToBase64String(System.Text.ASCIIEncoding.UTF8.GetBytes(authenticationString));
            requestMessage.Headers.Add("Authorization", "Basic " + base64EncodedAuthenticationString);
            
            var response = await client.SendAsync(requestMessage);
            var contents = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
            Console.WriteLine(contents);
        }
    }
}

Golang

package main

import (
	"bytes"
	"encoding/json"
	"fmt"
	"io/ioutil"
	"net/http"
)

func main() {
	const Username = "YOUR_USERNAME"
	const Password = "YOUR_PASSWORD"

	// Define the context structure
	type ContextItem struct {
		Key   string `json:"key"`
		Value string `json:"value"`
	}

	// Create payload with the same structure as the C# example
	payload := map[string]interface{}{
		"source": "youtube_download",
		"query":  []string{"9cQBNYsCqQs", "KGOsWPF4Wfs"},
		"context": []ContextItem{
			{Key: "download_type", Value: "video"},
			{Key: "video_quality", Value: "1080"},
		},
		"storage_type": "s3",
		"storage_url":  "your-s3-bucket/your-folder/",
	}

	jsonValue, _ := json.Marshal(payload)
	client := &http.Client{}
	request, _ := http.NewRequest("POST",
		"https://data.oxylabs.io/v1/queries/batch",
		bytes.NewBuffer(jsonValue),
	)
	request.Header.Add("Content-type", "application/json")
	request.SetBasicAuth(Username, Password)
	response, _ := client.Do(request)
	responseText, _ := ioutil.ReadAll(response.Body)
	fmt.Println(string(responseText))
}

Java

package org.example;
import okhttp3.*;
import org.json.JSONArray;
import org.json.JSONObject;
public class Main implements Runnable {
    private static final String AUTHORIZATION_HEADER = "Authorization";
    public static final String USERNAME = "YOUR_USERNAME";
    public static final String PASSWORD = "YOUR_PASSWORD";
    public void run() {
        JSONObject jsonObject = new JSONObject();
        jsonObject.put("source", "youtube_download");
        jsonObject.put("query", "9cQBNYsCqQs");
        
        // Add context structure
        JSONArray contextArray = new JSONArray();
        
        JSONObject downloadTypeContext = new JSONObject();
        downloadTypeContext.put("key", "download_type");
        downloadTypeContext.put("value", "video");
        contextArray.put(downloadTypeContext);
        
        JSONObject videoQualityContext = new JSONObject();
        videoQualityContext.put("key", "video_quality");
        videoQualityContext.put("value", "1080");
        contextArray.put(videoQualityContext);
        
        jsonObject.put("context", contextArray);
        
        jsonObject.put("storage_type", "s3");
        jsonObject.put("storage_url", "your-s3-bucket/your-folder/");
        
        Authenticator authenticator = (route, response) -> {
            String credential = Credentials.basic(USERNAME, PASSWORD);
            return response
                    .request()
                    .newBuilder()
                    .header(AUTHORIZATION_HEADER, credential)
                    .build();
        };
        var client = new OkHttpClient.Builder()
                .authenticator(authenticator)
                .build();
        var mediaType = MediaType.parse("application/json; charset=utf-8");
        var body = RequestBody.create(jsonObject.toString(), mediaType);
        var request = new Request.Builder()
                .url("https://data.oxylabs.io/v1/queries/batch")
                .post(body)
                .build();
        try (var response = client.newCall(request).execute()) {
            assert response.body() != null;
            System.out.println(response.body().string());
        } catch (Exception exception) {
            System.out.println("Error: " + exception.getMessage());
        }
        System.exit(0);
    }
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        new Thread(new Main()).start();
    }
}

Node.js

import fetch from 'node-fetch';

const username = 'YOUR_USERNAME';
const password = 'YOUR_PASSWORD';
const body = {
  source: 'youtube_download',
  query: '9cQBNYsCqQs',
  context: [
    { key: "download_type", value: "video" },
    { key: "video_quality", value: "1080"},
  ],
  storage_type: 's3',
  storage_url: 's3://your-s3-bucket/your-folder/'
};
const response = await fetch('https://data.oxylabs.io/v1/queries', {
  method: 'post',
  body: JSON.stringify(body),
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'Authorization': 'Basic ' + Buffer.from(`${username}:${password}`).toString('base64'),
  }
});

console.log(await response.json());

Batch job

You can submit up to 5,000 video IDs within a single batch request.

Endpoint

POST https://data.oxylabs.io/v1/queries/batch

IMPORTANT: With /batch endpoint, you can only submit lists of queryparameter values. All other parameters should have singular values.

Input

cURL

curl --user "user:pass1" \
'https://data.oxylabs.io/v1/queries/batch' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{
    "source": "youtube_download",
    "query": ["9cQBNYsCqQs", "KGOsWPF4Wfs"],
        "context": [
        {
            "key": "download_type",
            "value": "video"
        },
        {
            "key": "video_quality",
            "value": "1080"
        }
    ],
    "storage_type": "s3",
    "storage_url": "your-s3-bucket/your-folder/"
}'

Python

import requests
import json
from pprint import pprint

payload = {
    "source": "youtube_download",
    "query": ["9cQBNYsCqQs", "KGOsWPF4Wfs"],
    "context": [
        {
            "key": "download_type",
            "value": "video"
        },
        {
            "key": "video_quality",
            "value": "1080"
        }
    ],
    "storage_type": "s3",
    "storage_url": "your-s3-bucket/your-folder/"
}

response = requests.request(
    'POST',
    'https://data.oxylabs.io/v1/queries/batch',
    auth=('user', 'pass1'),
    json=payload,
)

# Print prettified response.
pprint(response.json())

PHP

<?php

$payload = array(
    "source" => "youtube_download",
    "query" => array("9cQBNYsCqQs", "KGOsWPF4Wfs"),
    "context" => [
        [
            "key" => "download_type",
            "value" => "video",
        ],
        [
            "key" => "video_quality",
            "value" => "1080",
        ]
    ],
    "storage_type" => "s3",
    "storage_url" => "your-s3-bucket/your-folder/"
);

$ch = curl_init();

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "https://data.oxylabs.io/v1/queries/batch");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, json_encode($payload));
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERPWD, "user" . ":" . "pass1");

$headers = array();
$headers[] = "Content-Type: application/json";
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $headers);

$result = curl_exec($ch);
echo $result;

if (curl_errno($ch)) {
    echo 'Error:' . curl_error($ch);
}
curl_close ($ch);
?>

C#

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Net.Http.Json;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace OxyApi
{
    class Program
    {
        static async Task Main()
        {
            const string Username = "YOUR_USERNAME";
            const string Password = "YOUR_PASSWORD";
            var payload = new Dictionary<string, object>()
            {
                { "source", "youtube_download" },
                { "query", new[] { "9cQBNYsCqQs", "KGOsWPF4Wfs" } },
                { "context", new[] {
                    new { key = "download_type", value = "video" },
                    new { key = "video_quality", value = "1080" }
                }},
                { "storage_type", "s3" },
                { "storage_url", "your-s3-bucket/your-folder/" }
            };
            
            var client = new HttpClient();
            var requestMessage = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Post, "https://data.oxylabs.io/v1/queries/batch");
            requestMessage.Content = JsonContent.Create(payload);
            
            var authenticationString = $"{Username}:{Password}";
            var base64EncodedAuthenticationString = Convert.ToBase64String(System.Text.ASCIIEncoding.UTF8.GetBytes(authenticationString));
            requestMessage.Headers.Add("Authorization", "Basic " + base64EncodedAuthenticationString);
            
            var response = await client.SendAsync(requestMessage);
            var contents = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
            Console.WriteLine(contents);
        }
    }
}

Golang

package main

import (
	"bytes"
	"encoding/json"
	"fmt"
	"io/ioutil"
	"net/http"
)

func main() {
	const Username = "YOUR_USERNAME"
	const Password = "YOUR_PASSWORD"

	// Define the context structure
	type ContextItem struct {
		Key   string `json:"key"`
		Value string `json:"value"`
	}

	// Create payload with the same structure as the C# example
	payload := map[string]interface{}{
		"source": "youtube_download",
		"query":  "9cQBNYsCqQs",
		"context": []ContextItem{
			{Key: "download_type", Value: "video"},
			{Key: "video_quality", Value: "1080"},
		},
		"storage_type": "s3",
		"storage_url":  "your-s3-bucket/your-folder/",
	}

	jsonValue, _ := json.Marshal(payload)
	client := &http.Client{}
	request, _ := http.NewRequest("POST",
		"https://data.oxylabs.io/v1/queries/batch",
		bytes.NewBuffer(jsonValue),
	)
	request.Header.Add("Content-type", "application/json")
	request.SetBasicAuth(Username, Password)
	response, _ := client.Do(request)
	responseText, _ := ioutil.ReadAll(response.Body)
	fmt.Println(string(responseText))
}

Java

package org.example;
import okhttp3.*;
import org.json.JSONArray;
import org.json.JSONObject;
public class Main implements Runnable {
    private static final String AUTHORIZATION_HEADER = "Authorization";
    public static final String USERNAME = "YOUR_USERNAME";
    public static final String PASSWORD = "YOUR_PASSWORD";
    public void run() {
        JSONObject jsonObject = new JSONObject();
        jsonObject.put("source", "youtube_download");
        
        // Change query to array format like in C# example
        JSONArray queryArray = new JSONArray();
        queryArray.put("9cQBNYsCqQs");
        queryArray.put("KGOsWPF4Wfs");
        jsonObject.put("query", queryArray);
        
        // Add context structure
        JSONArray contextArray = new JSONArray();
        
        JSONObject downloadTypeContext = new JSONObject();
        downloadTypeContext.put("key", "download_type");
        downloadTypeContext.put("value", "video");
        contextArray.put(downloadTypeContext);
        
        JSONObject videoQualityContext = new JSONObject();
        videoQualityContext.put("key", "video_quality");
        videoQualityContext.put("value", "1080");
        contextArray.put(videoQualityContext);
        
        jsonObject.put("context", contextArray);
        
        jsonObject.put("storage_type", "s3");
        jsonObject.put("storage_url", "your-s3-bucket/your-folder/");
        
        Authenticator authenticator = (route, response) -> {
            String credential = Credentials.basic(USERNAME, PASSWORD);
            return response
                    .request()
                    .newBuilder()
                    .header(AUTHORIZATION_HEADER, credential)
                    .build();
        };
        var client = new OkHttpClient.Builder()
                .authenticator(authenticator)
                .build();
        var mediaType = MediaType.parse("application/json; charset=utf-8");
        var body = RequestBody.create(jsonObject.toString(), mediaType);
        var request = new Request.Builder()
                .url("https://data.oxylabs.io/v1/queries/batch")
                .post(body)
                .build();
        try (var response = client.newCall(request).execute()) {
            assert response.body() != null;
            System.out.println(response.body().string());
        } catch (Exception exception) {
            System.out.println("Error: " + exception.getMessage());
        }
        System.exit(0);
    }
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        new Thread(new Main()).start();
    }
}

Node.js

import fetch from 'node-fetch';

const username = 'YOUR_USERNAME';
const password = 'YOUR_PASSWORD';

const payload = {
    source: 'youtube_download',
    query: ['9cQBNYsCqQs', 'KGOsWPF4Wfs'],
      context: [
        { key: "download_type", value: "video" },
        { key: "video_quality", value: "1080"},
      ]
    storage_type: 's3',
    storage_url: 'your-s3-bucket/your-folder/'
};

const response = await fetch('https://data.oxylabs.io/v1/queries/batch', {
    method: 'post',
    body: JSON.stringify(payload),
    headers: {
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
        'Authorization': 'Basic ' + Buffer.from(`${username}:${password}`).toString('base64'),
    }
});

console.log(await response.json());

The API will respond with a JSON object, containing the job information for each job created. The job status will be pending until the download is completed.

Checking job status

If you provided a valid callback URL when submitting your job, we will notify you upon completion by sending a JSON payload to the specified callback URL.

However, if you submitted a job without using callback service, you can check the job status manually. Retrieve the URL from the href field in the rel:self section of the response message received after job submission. The URL for checking the job status will resemble the following: http://data.oxylabs.io/v1/queries/12345678900987654321. Querying this URL will return the job information, including its current status.

Endpoint

GET https://data.oxylabs.io/v1/queries/{id}

Partial download (trimming)

To download a specific segment or clip instead of the full video, add 2 additional parameters to your context array:

• start_at – start timestamp of the trimmed clip in hh:mm:ss format.
• end_at – end timestamp of the trimmed clip in hh:mm:ss format.

end_at timestamp value must be later than start_at. Only hh:mm:ss format is supported.

{
    "source": "youtube_download",
    "query": "0xFXmJgVgzc",
    "context": [
        {
            "key": "start_at",
            "value": "00:01:30"
        },
        {
            "key": "end_at",
            "value": "00:05:45"
        }
    ],
    "storage_type": "s3",
    "storage_url": "s3://your-s3-bucket/your-folder/"
}

If both parameters are omitted, the request behaves as a standard full-video download.

If start_at or end_at fail validation, the HTTP 400 error is returned with a message field.

Condition	Error message
start_at is not in hh:mm:ss format	Invalid start_at value in context. Supported format: hh:mm:ss.
end_at is not in hh:mm:ss format	Invalid end_at value in context. Supported format: hh:mm:ss.
end_at is not later than start_at	Invalid end_at value in context. Must be later than start_at.

Cloud storage

You can get your YouTube videos delivered to Google Cloud Storage, Amazon S3, Alibaba OSS, or other S3-compatible cloud storage.

Content files will appear in your cloud storage location and will be named according to one of the following naming schemas:

• {video_id}_{job_id}.mp4 – for video
• {video_id}_{job_id}.m4a – for audio

Storage parameters

Parameter	Description	Valid values
storage_type	Your cloud storage type.	gcs (Google Cloud Storage); s3 (AWS S3); s3_compatible (other S3-compatible storage solutions).
storage_url	Your cloud storage URL	Any s3 or gcs bucket name; Any s3-compatible storage URL.

Google Cloud Storage setup

To get your job results uploaded to your Google Cloud Storage bucket, please set up special permissions for our service as shown in our Google Cloud Storage documentation.

{
    "source": "youtube_download",
    "query": "9cQBNYsCqQs",
    "storage_type": "gcs",
    "storage_url": "bucket_name/path"
}

Amazon S3 setup

To get your job results uploaded to your Amazon S3 bucket, please set up access permissions for our service. To do that, go to https://s3.console.aws.amazon.com/ → S3 → Storage → Bucket Name ``(if you don't have one, create a new one) → Permissions → Bucket Policy. You can find all required steps in our Amazon S3 cloud documentation.

Use the bucket policy below (don't forget to change the bucket name under YOUR_BUCKET_NAME):

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Id": "Policy1577442634787",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "Stmt1577442633719",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Principal": {
                "AWS": "arn:aws:iam::324311890426:user/oxylabs.s3.uploader"
            },
            "Action": "s3:GetBucketLocation",
            "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::YOUR_BUCKET_NAME"
        },
        {
            "Sid": "Stmt1577442633719",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Principal": {
                "AWS": "arn:aws:iam::324311890426:user/oxylabs.s3.uploader"
            },
            "Action": [
                "s3:PutObject",
                "s3:PutObjectAcl"
            ],
            "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::YOUR_BUCKET_NAME/*"
        }
    ]
}

This policy allows us to write to your bucket, give access to uploaded files to you, and know the location of the bucket.

Alibaba Cloud OSS setup

In order to save results to your Alibaba Cloud Object Storage Service (OSS), you must create the ACCESS_KEY_ID and ACCESS_KEY_SECRET and use them to form the storage URL. Follow the instructions outlined in our Alibaba Cloud OSS documentation .

{
    "source": "youtube_download",
    "query": "9cQBNYsCqQs",
    "storage_type": "s3_compatible",
    "storage_url": "https://ACCESS_KEY_ID:ACCESS_KEY_SECRET@BUCKET_NAME.oss-REGION.aliyuncs.com/FOLDER_NAME"
}

S3-compatible storage setup

If you'd like to get your results delivered to other S3-compatible storage location, you'll have to include your bucket's ACCESS_KEY:SECRET auth string in the storage_url value in the payload:

{
    "source": "youtube_download",
    "query": "9cQBNYsCqQs",
    "storage_type": "s3_compatible",
    "storage_url": "https://ACCESS_KEY:[e-mail]/my-videos"
}

Error codes

Code	Status	Description
11201	VIDEO_DELETED	Video is deleted.
11202	VIDEO_UNAVAILABLE	Video is unavailable.
11203	VIDEO_PRIVATE	Video is set to private by uploader and only they and explicitly invited people can see it.
11204	VIDEO_GEO_RESTRICTED	Video is geo-restricted.
11205	VIDEO_LIVE	Video is live now.
11206	VIDEO_AGE_RESTRICTED	Video is age restricted.
11207	VIDEO_MEMBER_ONLY	Video is for channel members only, and viewers have to pay the monthly subscription fee.
11208	VIDEO_PREMIUM_ONLY	Video requires the YouTube Premium subscription.
11209	VIDEO_LIVE_OR_TOO_LONG	Video is either live or too long to download.
11210	VIDEO_TOO_LONG	Video is too long to download.
11211	VIDEO_SIGN_IN_REQUIRED	Sign in is required.