Most pages on this topic either claim downloading is entirely fine or refuse to discuss it. Neither is useful. The real answer depends on what you download, where you live, and what you do with it afterwards.
Two Separate Questions
People tend to collapse two distinct issues into one. The first is copyright law, which is set by your country's legislature and governs who may copy a work. The second is a platform's terms of service, which is a private contract between you and that company. Breaking a terms of service agreement is not the same thing as breaking the law — but it can still get your account suspended, and it is a real consideration.
What the Platforms Say
YouTube's Terms of Service prohibit downloading content except through features the platform itself provides, such as YouTube Premium's offline mode, or where a download button is explicitly shown. Instagram, TikTok and Facebook have comparable clauses. This is unambiguous and worth knowing: using any third-party downloader on those services is against their terms, whatever a given tool's marketing copy implies.
Where Copyright Law Lands
Copyright is territorial, so the answer genuinely changes depending on where you are. Several European countries have long-standing private copying provisions that permit personal, non-commercial copies. The United States has the fair use doctrine, which is a flexible multi-factor test decided case by case rather than a fixed permission. Other jurisdictions have no such exception at all. What is consistent nearly everywhere is that redistributing someone else's work — re-uploading it, selling it, or using it in monetised content — requires permission from the rights holder.
Content You Can Download Without Any Doubt
Some categories carry no ambiguity whatsoever:
- Videos you created and uploaded yourself.
- Content released under a Creative Commons licence — YouTube marks these in the video description, and the licence terms tell you exactly what is permitted.
- Public domain works, including most output of the United States federal government and material whose copyright term has expired.
- Content where the creator has explicitly granted permission, or has enabled a download option.
- Videos on platforms that provide their own download button, used through that button.
Practical Guidance
None of this is legal advice, and if something matters commercially you should ask a qualified lawyer in your jurisdiction. But a few principles hold up almost everywhere:
- Keep it personal. A copy for offline viewing sits in a very different position from a copy you publish.
- Never re-upload someone else's video as your own, on any platform, under any circumstances.
- Do not use downloaded footage in monetised or commercial work without a licence.
- Credit creators when you share, and link back to the original wherever you can.
- If you want to support a creator, watch on the platform — that is what pays them.
- When a legitimate offline feature exists, such as YouTube Premium, it is the cleanest option available.
Why We Are Telling You This
A tool that pretends there are no rules is not doing you a favour. The overwhelming majority of downloads are people saving a lecture for a commute, archiving their own uploads, or pulling reference footage into an edit — ordinary, reasonable uses. Knowing where the actual boundaries sit is what lets you stay comfortably inside them.
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