YouTube Downloader

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.

For a free trial of the YouTube Downloader, please reach out to our sales team.

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 3 hours in length.

• The download time is limited to 1 hour.

Input parameter values

Parameter	Description	Default value
source	Sets the scraper.	youtube_download
query	YouTube video ID.	-
storage_type	Storage type of the cloud service (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 - 480, 720, 1080, 1440, 2160(4K).	720

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}

Cloud storage

You can get your YouTube videos delivered to Amazon S3 or other S3-compatible cloud storage.

Content files will appear in your cloud storage location and will be named according to the following naming schema: {video_id}_{job_id}.mp4 (for video) or {video_id}_{job_id}.m4a (for audio).

Storage parameters

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

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 don't have one, create a new one) > Permissions > Bucket Policy

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.

S3-compatible storage setup

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

{
    "source": "youtube_transcript",
    "query": "jyOeeCtPu64",
    "storage_type": "s3_compatible",
    "storage_url": "https://ACCESS_KEY:[e-mail]/my-videos"
}