Free converter websites are the riskiest way to save a YouTube video as an MP4. In March 2025, the FBI’s Denver field office warned that criminals were setting up free file converters and downloaders, including tools that claim to grab MP3 or MP4 files, which hand over a working file with malware hidden inside, as BleepingComputer reported. The better options in 2026 are maintained apps from developers you can identify, plus YouTube’s own download features where they fit.
Below are eight of them, from 4K Video Downloader Plus and the open-source command-line tool yt-dlp to YouTube Premium and YouTube Studio, with pricing, free-plan limits and the catch for each, all checked against official pages. The guide also covers what YouTube’s rules and copyright law say about downloading, because picking the tool is the easy part. If you only need the audio track, the separate roundup of the best YouTube to MP3 converters covers that.
Updated, September 14, 2026: The list was rebuilt around tools with 2026 releases. Viddly, aTube Catcher and Converto.io were removed; yt-dlp, three free yt-dlp apps, NewPipe and YouTube’s official download options were added, along with a comparison table and new sections on legality and converter safety.
Best YouTube to MP4 converters at a glance
Prices and limits come from each developer’s own site or repository as of September 2026. “Max quality” assumes the original upload is available at that resolution; no tool can add detail that YouTube never received.
| Tool | Platform | Free or paid limits | Max quality | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4K Video Downloader Plus | Windows 11, macOS 12+, Ubuntu 22.04+; separate Android app | Free Starter plan with download caps; Lite $15/year, Personal $25 lifetime, Pro $45 lifetime | 8K | Most people who want a point-and-click app |
| yt-dlp | Windows, macOS, Linux (command line) | Free, open source (Unlicense) | Best stream YouTube offers (needs ffmpeg to merge) | Maximum control and fast fixes |
| Open Video Downloader | Windows, macOS, Linux | Free, open source (AGPL-3.0) | Whatever yt-dlp can fetch, saved as MP4 or MKV | yt-dlp without the terminal |
| Parabolic | Linux (Flatpak), Windows, macOS | Free, open source (MIT) | Whatever yt-dlp can fetch | Linux desktops |
| ytDownloader | Windows, macOS, Linux | Free, open source (GPL-3.0), no ads | Whatever yt-dlp can fetch | Saving part of a video or shrinking files |
| NewPipe | Android (F-Droid or GitHub APK) | Free, open source (GPL-3.0) | Up to 4K playback; download options vary by video | Android downloads without a Google account |
| YouTube Studio download | Web, on a computer | Free, your own uploads only, 5 downloads per video per day | 720p MP4 | Creators backing up their own videos |
| YouTube Premium downloads | YouTube apps; Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera | Paid subscription; no MP4 file, playback only inside YouTube | Set by the download quality setting | Offline viewing with no third-party software |
Quick verdict: 4K Video Downloader Plus is the easiest choice if you want a polished app and don’t mind a cap on the free plan. If you want something free with no upsell, install Open Video Downloader, which puts a normal interface on top of yt-dlp. Creators who only need copies of their own uploads should skip third-party tools and use YouTube Studio.
How these YouTube to MP4 tools were checked
Each pick had to meet four conditions in September 2026: an official website or source repository that loads, a release or version update during 2026, an installer without ad-supported bundles, and pricing or licensing published by the developer. Hands-on speed claims were left out, since download speed depends mostly on your connection and on YouTube’s servers. Tools that failed one of these checks are listed further down with the reason.
The 8 best YouTube to MP4 converters and download options in 2026
1. 4K Video Downloader Plus
4K Video Downloader Plus is the current app from 4K Download (InterPromo GmbH), replacing the older 4K Video Downloader that earlier versions of this list recommended. According to the official product page, it runs on Windows 11, macOS 12 or newer and Ubuntu 22.04 or newer (GNOME only), saves YouTube videos, playlists, channels and Shorts, and supports resolutions from 720p up to 8K. Video is saved as MP4 or MKV, and the developer recommends MKV for long, high-quality videos. It also handles sites such as Vimeo, TikTok, Facebook and SoundCloud.
The app is actively maintained: the downloads page lists version 26.3.2.0392, released August 31, 2026, for Windows, macOS and Ubuntu.
Pricing and limits. The free Starter plan is permanent but limits how much you can download, and the developer doesn’t publish the exact cap on its product page. New users get a 7-day trial of paid features. The license comparison page lists three tiers:
- Lite: $15 per year, one device, unlimited videos per playlist and per channel.
- Personal: $25 one-time, for personal use on up to three computers.
- Pro: $45 one-time (listed as a discount from $60), commercial use permitted, up to 7 simultaneous downloads.
Downloading private YouTube content you have access to, such as Watch Later and Liked videos, is a premium feature. There is also 4K Video Downloader for Android, which needs Android 10 or newer, saves MP4 or MKV at up to 8K, and sells a $10 lifetime Personal license.
Caveat: it is closed-source, so you are trusting the vendor. The app also advertises a built-in proxy for getting around region blocks, which sits uneasily with YouTube’s Terms of Service (covered below). The developer says to get the genuine app only from its official website, so skip download portals.
Best for: Windows and Mac users who want playlists, subtitles and 4K or 8K downloads in a familiar interface.
2. yt-dlp
yt-dlp is a free, open-source command-line downloader that supports thousands of sites. It descends from youtube-dl and powers many free downloaders, including three of the apps below. The project ships standalone binaries for Windows, macOS and Linux, and can also be installed with pip. Its most recent release, version 2026.08.19, was published on August 19, 2026.
Two extras matter for YouTube. The README calls ffmpeg required for merging the separate video and audio streams YouTube serves at higher resolutions, and full YouTube support now also needs a JavaScript runtime, with Deno recommended. Without them, yt-dlp may be limited to fewer, lower-quality formats or fail on some videos.
Once those are installed, a single command saves a video as MP4:
yt-dlp -t mp4 VIDEO_URLThe -t mp4 preset merges the result into an MP4 container and ranks H.264 video and AAC audio first, which makes the file play almost anywhere. The trade-off is that it can pass over a higher-resolution stream that uses a different codec. If top resolution matters more than MP4 compatibility, -t mkv is the matching preset. Run yt-dlp -U to update the standalone build, which is the first fix to try whenever downloads fail.
Caveat: there is no graphical interface, and error messages assume some technical comfort. It is also easy to confuse with the original youtube-dl, whose last tagged release on GitHub is still version 2021.12.17, so check which one a tutorial is talking about.
Best for: anyone comfortable in a terminal. Because the GUI apps below depend on it, fixes for YouTube changes land in yt-dlp first.
3. Open Video Downloader
Open Video Downloader, formerly called youtube-dl-gui, wraps yt-dlp in a desktop app for Windows, macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon) and Linux. You pick resolution, frame rate and an output format such as MP4 or MKV, queue whole playlists, and save subtitles and metadata alongside the video. It updates both itself and yt-dlp automatically, which matters because an outdated yt-dlp is a frequent cause of failed downloads. It is free under the AGPL-3.0 license and can be installed from GitHub, Homebrew or WinGet.
The 3.2 update line, most recently version 3.2.1 on July 5, 2026, brought filters for playlist items by date or size, importing links from TXT or CSV files, and a clipboard watcher that queues copied links.
Caveat: the developer recommends the GitHub download over the Microsoft Store listing, because Store updates arrive later and the Store build can’t auto-update yt-dlp.
Best for: the best free YouTube to MP4 converter for people who want yt-dlp’s reliability without typing commands.
4. Parabolic
Parabolic is another yt-dlp front end, with a native GNOME interface on Linux and a WinUI interface on Windows, plus macOS builds. It downloads to MP4, WebM, MP3, Opus, FLAC or WAV, runs several downloads at once, and grabs subtitles and metadata. Linux users can install it from Flathub, and optional Firefox and Chrome extensions send links straight to the app. The MIT-licensed project’s latest release, 2026.5.0 from May 24, 2026, switched time-range clip downloads to cutting with ffmpeg and fixed a playlist format error among other bugs.
Caveat: its last release is older than the other open-source picks here, so if YouTube downloads start failing, check the releases page before assuming the problem is on your end.
Best for: Linux desktop users who want an app that looks and behaves like the rest of their system.
5. ytDownloader
ytDownloader is a GPL-3.0 app for Windows, macOS and Linux that also runs on yt-dlp. Its useful extras are range selection, so you can save only part of a video, and a video compressor with hardware acceleration for shrinking large MP4 files. The developer states it carries no ads or trackers, and it is available through WinGet, Chocolatey, Scoop, Flathub and Snap. The 4.0 releases in late August 2026 redesigned the interface around a sidebar and added batch downloads.
Caveat: the macOS build isn’t signed, so you have to clear the quarantine flag in Terminal and install yt-dlp separately through Homebrew, and Windows Defender may warn during installation. That is common for small open-source projects, but it means you should download it only from the GitHub releases page or a package manager.
Best for: saving a short section of a long video, or making downloaded files small enough to share.
6. NewPipe (Android)
NewPipe is a free, open-source YouTube client for Android that works without a Google account or Google Play Services. Besides playing videos at up to 4K, it downloads video, audio and subtitles directly to the phone. The team published version 0.29.1 on August 15, 2026.
Installation is the part to get right. The NewPipe repository recommends adding the project’s own F-Droid repository or installing the APK from GitHub, and it states that putting NewPipe or any fork into the Google Play Store violates Google’s terms. Treat any “NewPipe” you find on Google Play as unofficial. The README also publishes the signing key fingerprint so you can confirm an APK is genuine, and a reputable mobile security app can scan anything you sideload.
Caveat: the developers still label the app beta, and there is no iPhone version. On iOS, YouTube Premium is the realistic option.
Best for: Android users who want offline copies without handing over account data.
7. YouTube Studio download (for your own videos)
If the video is yours, YouTube will give you an MP4 directly. Sign in to YouTube Studio, open Content, choose the video’s menu and select Download. Google’s help page on downloading your own videos says the file comes as an MP4 at 720p or 360p depending on the video’s size, and each video can be downloaded up to five times in 24 hours. The option is unavailable for videos that were removed, have copyright or Community Guidelines strikes, or use preapproved audio tracks. To pull everything at once, Google Takeout exports all of your uploads.
Caveat: 720p is a backup, not a master. Keep your original export files if you plan to crop or re-edit the video later.
Best for: creators who lost the original file or need a quick copy of a published upload.
8. YouTube Premium downloads
YouTube Premium includes an official download button in the YouTube and YouTube Music apps, and on a computer in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Opera. According to YouTube Help, downloads play offline for up to 29 days before the device has to reconnect, or 48 hours in some countries and regions.
What Premium does not give you is an MP4. YouTube’s offline FAQ says downloaded videos are stored encrypted on the device and can only be watched in YouTube. You can’t move them to a USB drive, open them in VLC or drop them into an editor.
Best for: flights, commutes and anyone who wants offline viewing without installing third-party software or bending YouTube’s rules.
Tools dropped from this list, and why
- Viddly: the Viddly site is still online, but its free version is capped at 1080p, while 4K, 8K and playlist downloads sit behind a Viddly Plus plan whose price isn’t shown on the homepage, which also lists no version history. Tools with published pricing and changelogs made the cut instead.
- aTube Catcher: still updated (the official site points to version 10.84.0 from April 2026), but it is Windows-only, its requirements list stops at Windows 10, and its all-versions Windows download is labeled as an ad-supported web installer. The earlier version of this guide already warned about adware in that installer.
- Converto.io: the previous version of this article flagged heavy pop-up ads on this online converter. Ad-funded converter sites are the category covered in the safety section below, so it no longer qualifies.
- VLC’s “Open Network Stream” trick: VLC could once play a YouTube link and save it through Convert/Save. VideoLAN developers have since removed the YouTube script from the VLC 3.0 branch, noting that it no longer works and can’t be made to work again, so the method is out.
- youtube-dl: still widely referenced, but without a tagged release since 2021. yt-dlp is the maintained successor.
How to convert a YouTube video to MP4 with 4K Video Downloader Plus
Menu labels can change between versions, so treat these as general steps:
- Download the installer from 4kdownload.com and install it. Skip download portals and “cracked” copies.
- Open the YouTube video in your browser and copy the link from the address bar, or use Share and then Copy link.
- Open the app and paste the link into it.
- Choose to download the video (not audio only), set the format to MP4 and pick a resolution. For long 4K or 8K videos, MKV is the developer’s recommended format.
- Choose a folder and start the download.
- Before opening the result, confirm the file ends in .mp4. A “video” that arrives as an .exe, .js or .zip file is not a video.
With yt-dlp, the whole process is the one-line command shown in its section above.
Is it legal to download YouTube videos?
Two separate sets of rules apply: YouTube’s contract with you, and copyright law.
The YouTube Terms of Service say you may not access, reproduce or download any content except where the service expressly authorizes it, or with prior written permission from YouTube and, where relevant, the rights holders. The Terms also bar getting around features that prevent or restrict copying. In practice, YouTube’s own download buttons (Premium and Studio) are authorized, while third-party downloaders generally fall outside that permission. The remedy spelled out in the Terms is contractual: YouTube can suspend or terminate accounts that materially or repeatedly breach the agreement.
Copyright basics
A video being public doesn’t mean it is free to copy. The creator or their licensors usually own the copyright, and whether a personal download is lawful depends on where you live and what you do with the file. In the United States, fair use is decided case by case: the U.S. Copyright Office lists four factors, including the purpose of the use and its effect on the market for the original. Other countries use different exceptions. Re-uploading, selling or putting someone else’s footage in a monetized video carries far more risk than watching a copy offline, and uploads are screened too, as YouTube’s pre-publish copyright checks show.
Creative Commons videos
Creators can mark uploads with a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which lets others reuse the work as long as they credit it with the title, author, source URL and license. You can find these videos with YouTube’s Creative Commons search filter. The license answers the copyright question, but YouTube’s Terms still govern how you pull a file off the site, so a download link from the creator or the original source file is the cleanest route.
Your own uploads
Downloading your own videos is the simplest case: use YouTube Studio or Google Takeout, described above. The same logic applies to videos a creator explicitly lets you download, and to public-domain footage.
This section is general information, not legal advice. If a download matters for work, a school project with distribution, or anything commercial, get permission from the rights holder or advice from a lawyer in your country.
Are YouTube to MP4 converter sites safe?
Many are not, and the FBI warning at the top of this page is only part of the picture. Malwarebytes said it had also seen converter sites install browser hijackers, adware and potentially unwanted programs, sometimes by recommending a browser extension that turns out to be a hijacker or adware. Its list of blocked converter domains included 9convert.com and convertitoremp3.it, both classed as riskware.
Fake download buttons and pop-ups
Ad-funded converters earn money from clicks, so watch for ads styled as “Download” buttons next to the real one. Close the tab if a site does any of the following:
- asks you to allow browser notifications before converting
- opens new tabs or redirects when you click the input box
- tells you to install a “player”, “codec” or extension to finish the download
- delivers anything other than an .mp4 file
A desktop ad blocker removes many of these traps, and the usual safe browsing habits (updated browser, real-time antivirus, no unknown downloads) cover much of the rest.
Browser extensions that promise YouTube downloads
Google’s Chrome Web Store violation guide lists an extension facilitating download of YouTube videos as a prohibited product (reference “Blue Zinc”). A YouTube downloader extension in the store is therefore either at risk of removal or not doing what its listing implies, and one installed from outside the store gets the same broad access to your browsing without Google’s review. Desktop apps are the safer route.
Is any online YouTube to MP4 converter trustworthy?
The best-known exception is cobalt, an open-source web downloader whose developers say it has no ads, trackers or paywalls. Its YouTube support is the problem. In the project’s open issue on YouTube downloads, maintainers said in June 2025 that YouTube’s network limits were blocking the main cobalt.tools instance, and an August 2025 update said the limits were still in place at their scale; self-hosted instances were not affected. The issue was still open in September 2026. Treat it as unreliable for YouTube, and assume any other free converter site is ad-funded unless it proves otherwise.
Why YouTube to MP4 converters stop working
YouTube regularly changes how its player delivers streams, and every downloader has to catch up. yt-dlp now needs a separate JavaScript runtime for full YouTube support, VLC gave up on its YouTube script, and shared web services like cobalt get their requests blocked. Tools that release often keep working; tools that go quiet for months usually don’t.
When a download fails, update first: yt-dlp -U for yt-dlp, the built-in updater in Open Video Downloader, or the latest installer from the developer’s site for everything else. If that doesn’t help, check the project’s GitHub issues, where YouTube breakages usually get reported quickly.
YouTube to MP4 converter FAQs
What is the safest YouTube to MP4 converter?
Open-source desktop apps downloaded from their official GitHub pages, such as yt-dlp and Open Video Downloader, carry the least risk because there are no ads, bundled offers or converter-site pop-ups. 4K Video Downloader Plus is a reasonable closed-source option if you install it from 4kdownload.com. Ad-funded converter websites are the risky choice: in March 2025 the FBI Denver field office warned that fake converters and MP3 or MP4 downloaders were being used to spread malware.
Is it legal to download YouTube videos as MP4 files?
YouTube’s Terms of Service prohibit downloading content unless YouTube provides a download feature or you have prior written permission from YouTube and the rights holder. Copyright law is a separate question that depends on the video, what you do with the file and the country you live in. Your own uploads, public-domain videos and videos the owner lets you download are the safest cases. This is general information, not legal advice.
Can you download YouTube videos in 4K or 8K?
Yes, if the video was uploaded at that resolution. 4K Video Downloader Plus supports downloads up to 8K, and yt-dlp can fetch the best stream YouTube offers when ffmpeg is installed to merge video and audio. For the highest resolutions, MKV is often the better container: 4K Download recommends it for long, high-quality videos, and the yt-dlp MP4 preset favors H.264, which can mean a lower resolution.
Does YouTube Premium let you download MP4 files?
No. YouTube says Premium downloads are stored encrypted on your device and can only be watched inside YouTube, and they need to reconnect to the internet at least every 29 days, or every 48 hours in some countries. The only official way to get an MP4 file is the YouTube Studio download for your own uploads, which saves at 720p or 360p.
Why do YouTube to MP4 converters stop working?
YouTube keeps changing how its player delivers video, and downloaders have to be updated to match. yt-dlp now needs a JavaScript runtime such as Deno for full YouTube support, VLC developers removed the broken YouTube script from the player, and the public cobalt web service has had its YouTube requests blocked. Updating the app is the first fix to try.
Is 4K Video Downloader Plus free?
It has a permanent free Starter plan, but downloads are capped. Paid licenses listed on the developer’s site in September 2026 are Lite at $15 per year, Personal at $25 one-time and Pro at $45 one-time, and new users get a 7-day trial of the paid features.
Can you download YouTube videos on an iPhone?
None of the third-party tools in this guide runs on iOS. On an iPhone or iPad, the practical official route is a YouTube Premium subscription, which lets you save videos for offline viewing inside the YouTube app, though not as MP4 files.
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