YouTube in HD
Which row to take, and what it costs.
By using this site you confirm you have the right to download the file you request.
How it works
- 1
Paste the video link
The rows you see are the streams that upload actually has.
- 2
Pick a height
The table below is the usual trade.
- 3
Save
H.264 with AAC, re-encoded only when the source has nothing else.
What each row costs
Rough figures for ten minutes of ordinary footage. A static talking head comes in well under these; a fast-moving sports clip runs over them.
| Row | Pixels (landscape) | 10 minutes, roughly | Worth it for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1080p | 1920 × 1080 | 100–150 MB | A television or a monitor |
| 720p | 1280 × 720 | 50–80 MB | A phone or a tablet |
| 360p | 640 × 360 | 15–25 MB | Speech, or saving data |
| 240p | 426 × 240 | 8–12 MB | Audio you happen to want pictures with |
Why 4K is not on the list
YouTube does serve 2160p on uploads that have it, but almost always as VP9 or AV1 only — there is no H.264 stream at that size. Offering it would mean re-encoding a 4K video, which takes minutes rather than seconds and produces a file most devices still refuse.
The rows stop at 1080p because that is the largest size where the file is both genuinely available and genuinely playable everywhere. That is a deliberate limit, not a missing feature.
Nothing here upscales
If a video was uploaded at 480p, 480p is the largest row you will see. Sites that offer 1080p for every link are stretching the same pixels and guessing the gaps, which makes the file four times heavier and slightly softer.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my video only go up to 360p?
Because that is what was uploaded. Older videos were often capped at the limit of their day.
Is 1080p here the same as 1080p on YouTube?
It is the same stream, yes — unless the only 1080p available was AV1, in which case it was re-encoded to H.264 so it will play.