Summary
In this article, we will explain the information and guidelines about downloading YouTube videos to computer, and provide the easiest way to help you download videos from YouTube and save in MP4 format on your PC.

There are billions of hours of video on YouTube. When watching interesting videos on YouTube, many users want to download or save YouTube videos to their computers so that they can watch them offline or edit them for their preference. However, YouTube only allows users to watch videos on its website online. Even if YouTube Premium subscribers can download videos, they can only download YouTube videos to their mobile devices. Unless they are the video uploader, they cannot download YouTube videos to the computer.

If you happen to be a YouTube lover and one of Windows users who is looking for a way to save YouTube videos to Windows PC, you can refer to this article. Even if you don’t have a YouTube Premium account, you can find the easiest way to download YouTube videos to your PC here. Before saving YouTube videos to PC, please understand some information and guidelines about downloading YouTube videos to your computer.

Part 1. Is It Legal to Download YouTube Videos to Computer?

In fact, Google, which owns YouTube, makes money mainly through advertising. We can browse “free” video content on YouTube. You should know that you need to watch a limited-time ad before the video starts playing. On the other hand, YouTube Premium subscribers need to pay a monthly subscription fee of $11.99, which is also part of Google’s revenue. YouTube Premium can skip annoying ads, but after the subscription expires, the downloaded YouTube content will be invalid. Obviously, it will reduce Google’s revenue if you download videos from YouTube and save them to your computer forever. As result, Google need to protect its potential profits and wants to prevent you from doing this.

In addition, it must protect content creators who upload videos to its website, some of whom may mainly make a living from creating content. Downloading YouTube videos for personal use is legal, but it is unethical. Please note that is 100% illegal to use downloaded YouTube contents for commercial purposes, such as sales or distribution.

Part 2. Best Tool to Download YouTube Videos to PC

When it comes to download YouTube videos to local drive, a powerful third-party video downloader is required. Online YouTube Downloader is one of the best desktop video downloaders designed by 4kFinder. It enables you to download videos and audios from YouTube, SoundCloud, Dailymotion, Vimeo, Facebook and 1000+ sites. With its help, you can easily download YouTube videos to computer in MP4 format or MP3 audio format. In this way, you can save your favourite YouTube videos on your PC forever, or transfer them to your own device for offline enjoying.

Highlights of Online YouTube Downloader:

  • Download videos and music from YouTube, Vevo, Veoh, Facebook, Niconico and 1000+ sites.
  • Download videos, playlists, TV shows, channels and subtitles from YouTube.
  • Download YouTube videos to PC and MAC without YouTube Premium.
  • Download YouTube videos to MP4/MP3 without quality loss.
  • Save YouTube HD 1080p, HD 720P, 2K, 4K, 8K videos on computer forever.
  • Supports English and Japanese, batch download, 6X download speed.
  • Enjoy YouTube contents offline on computer or transfer to other device.

Tips: If you want to download YouTube Movies and TV shows to computer for offline viewing, you can use the iMovieTool YouTube Movie Downloader, it can download YouTube movies and TV shows in 1080P with HDR 10 or Dolby vision and Atmos/EAC3 5.1 audio.

Part 3. Tutorial: How to Download YouTube Videos on PC

Online YouTube Downloader works perfectly on almost Windows and Mac OS, here we will take Windows as example. Check out how to download YouTube videos on your Windows PC in the following steps.

Step 1. Launch Online YouTube Downloader
Go to Online YouTube Downloader’s official page, download and install the app to your desktop, then launch it. You are also try its free version to know whether it fits your requirements before purchasing it.

Step 2. Copy & Paste the URL of YouTube Video
Navigate to the youtube.com on browser and open a YouTube video you want to save. Copy the URL of the YouTube video.

copy video link

Then paste the URL to the bar of the proftware, and click “Analyze” button.

paste youtube video link

Step 3. Pick Output Format and Resolution
It will pop up a window, you can pick your desired format(MP4 or MP3), resolution and bitrate for your YouTube video, to download YouTube video with subtitles, please pick the “Original Subtitles”.

select format

Step 4. Start to Download YouTube Videos to PC
If everything is ready, press on the “Download” button to get YouTube video to your PC.

download youtube video to mp4

When the downloading process finished, you can check the output videos under the “Finished” section, and click “Open Folder” to open it.

find downloaded youtube videos

Now all your favourite YouTube videos or music have been saved on your hard drive, you can move them to your Apple TV, HD TV, iPhone, Andorid, MP3 player, iPod nano, Sony Walkman, PSP, Xbox, PS4, etc.

Download YouTube Videos to PC